Poor women in the subjected districts have said to me: “_Pretty_ girls get off far more easily than plain ones.” Footnote 76: _English Constitution_, p. 372. Footnote 77: _Ibid._ p. 374. Footnote 78: _Commentaries_, p. 373. Footnote 79: See Dr. Lyon Playfair’s speech in the House. See also Lane’s pamphlet, p. 15. See also the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons, from which we make the following extract:— “116. _Question_—Do you know of your own knowledge whether it is not the case that attempts to reform these women by approaching them with direct moral and religious advice, while they are pursuing their avocation, are generally unsuccessful? _Answer_—It is almost always inoperative. “117. I suppose it has been attempted at Devonport by clergymen and others?—Very constantly.” The effrontery of this statement is almost unparalleled when we consider the glorious but hitherto unappreciated achievements of the various Rescue Societies. Footnote 80: Lane’s answer to Duncan M‘Laren. Footnote 81: Preface to the _Areopagitica_. Footnote 82: “Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents.”—Burke’s _Works_, p. 140. Footnote 83: With these considerations in their mind, I can conceive how safe and comfortable the fathers of the Contagious Diseases Acts felt themselves—no visions of a future possible repeal of this Act to trouble them! Footnote 84: “I am very much afraid,” says a member of Parliament in a recent letter, “that one cause of our weakness in fighting this battle in the House is, that there are too many of its members who secretly like these Acts, as making, as they think, their own immoralities less personally dangerous to them; there are many most excellent men on both sides, but I am afraid there are also many on whom wealth and station have had an injurious effect, who spend their lives merely for pleasure, and care nothing for higher considerations. This may seem strong language, but it is, I fear, too true.” Footnote 85: _English Constitution._ Footnote 86: De Lolme. Footnote 87: Rousseau’s _Social Contract_, chap. viii. Footnote 88: