The seducer unpunished, (what do I say,) protected, encouraged! is not even prosecuted for the purchase of girls under age; for our code only recognises guilt where this traffic is made a _regular calling_. As to the seller bungling enough to fulfil all the required conditions, he renders himself liable to an imprisonment of from one month to five years, and to a fine of from 50 to 500 francs; but the full extent of the punishment being never imposed, the risk is small, the advantage certain from the time that the sale of a young girl can fetch, from 1,500 to 10,000 francs. No search for, no mention even is made in any case of these monsters with a human face, who have a constant right to the produce of this horrible traffic; no indemnification is granted to the wretched parents from whom the victims have been carried off by stratagem. I have already cited the solemn right which the spirit of our laws acknowledges for those who procure debauchery on their own account. Different decrees declare that Article 334 of the Penal Code, relating to the exciting to debauchery, is not applicable to this kind of crime. Even when there has been systematic persuasion, cleverly exercised by a man of ripe years upon a girl under age hurried away from a respectable way of life, our courts acknowledge that they have no means of bringing the guilty person to justice. To the privileges I have just enumerated, prostitution on the part of the man adds that of honour intact. Every time a punishment loses anything in its degree of publicity, or is no longer available for an act that is blameable and hurtful to society, the cry of public opinion is stifled; its isolated manifestations remain powerless, especially when they are looked upon as a crime. Then indignation, no longer finding a free course, a tacit acquiescence, which may be thought a voluntary one, gives daily, new force to the reign of vice, and a great confusion of principle exists between good and evil. It must be confessed, with sorrow, never did civilization in this matter protect evil with more effrontery than ours does. Respect for the man of dissolute morals is, among ourselves, imposed by a system of vicious laws which furnish him with an impenetrable breast-plate; he is able to brave, and he does brave, honour and duty, beneath the shield of the interdiction of investigation to discover the father of illegitimate children, and by the law which refuses to admit proof in cases of libel, and forbids the making known any act of private life. If he is in the service of the State or of his country, his irresponsibility will be still greater; his freedom from annoyance will follow him even in death, for society has further provided that his vices may sleep in the grave with him. Sullied by baseness, he will even receive distinctions that will enrol him in the list of those chosen for official rewards. Do not let us be any longer surprised, then, at the discredit into which these