A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis: Containing a Detail of the Various Crimes and Misdemeanors by which Public and Private Property and Security are, at Present, Injured and Endangered: and Suggesting Remedies for their PreventionColquhoun, Patrick
History
A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis: Containing a Detail of the Various Crimes and Misdemeanors by which Public and Private Property and Security are, at Present, Injured and Endangered: and Suggesting Remedies for their Prevention
Colquhoun, Patrick
Crime -- England -- London; Police -- England -- London
In contemplating their case, it is impossible to avoid dropping a tear
of pity.--Many of them perhaps originally seduced from a state of
innocence, while they were the joy and comfort of their unhappy
parents. Many of them born and educated to expect a better fate, until
deceived by falsehood and villainy, they see their error when it is
too late to recede. In this situation, abandoned by their relations
and friends; deserted by their seducers, and at large upon the world;
loathed and avoided by those who formerly held them in estimation,
what are they to do? In the present unhappy state of things they seem
to have no alternative, but to become the miserable instruments of
promoting and practising that species of seduction and immorality, of
which they themselves were the victims.[92] And what is the
result?--It is pitiable to relate.--They are compelled of necessity to
mingle with the abandoned herd, who have long been practised in the
walks of infamy, and they too become speedily polluted and
depraved.--Oaths, imprecations, and obscene language, by degrees,
become familiar to their ears, and necessity compels them to indure,
and at length to imitate, and practise in their turn, upon the unwary
youth, who too easily falls into the snare.
[Footnote 92: It is in the first stage of Seduction, before the female
mind becomes vitiated and depraved, that Asylums are most useful. If
persons in this unhappy situation had it in their power to resort to a
medium, whereby they might be reconciled to their relations, while
uncontaminated by the vices attached to _General Prostitution_,
numbers, who are now lost, might be saved to Society.]
Thus it is from the multitudes of those unhappy Females, that assemble
now in all parts of the Town, that the morals of the youth are
corrupted. That unnecessary expences are incurred; and undue, and too
often criminal, means are resorted to, for the purpose of gratifying
passions, which but for these temptations, which constantly assail
them in almost every street in the Metropolis, would not have been
thought of. Through this medium _Apprentices, Clerks and other persons
in trust_ are seduced from the paths of honesty--Masters are
plundered, and Parents are afflicted; while many a youth, who might
have become the pride of his family--a comfort to the declining years
of his Parents, and an ornament to Society, exchanges a life of Virtue
and Industry, for the pursuits of the Gambler, the Swindler, and the
Vagabond. Nor is the lot of these poor deluded females less
deplorable. Although some few of them may obtain settlements, while
others bask for a while in the temporary sun-shine of ease and
splendour, the major part end a short life in misery and wretchedness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account