i8 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ditional powers." And now, for the first time, there came brief adverse 

 comments from two members. On April 9th there was appointed a 

 select committee, consisting mainly of the same members as the pre- 

 vious one predominantly state-officers, of one class or other. On 

 the 20th, the report of the committee was received. On the 26th, the 

 bill was recommitted, just before two o'clock in the morning ; and on 

 the report there came some short comments, which were, however, 

 protested against on the ground that the bill was not to be publicly 

 discussed. And then, to end this brief history, observe the reception 

 given to the only direct opposition raised. When, to qualify a clause 

 defining the powers of the police, it was proposed to add, " that the 

 justices before whom such information shall be made shall in all cases 

 require corroborative testimony and support thereof, other than that 

 of the members of the police force," this qualification was negatived 

 without a word. 



And now, what was this act, passed the first time absolutely with- 

 out comment, and passed in its so-called amended form with but the 

 briefest comments, made under protest that comments were inter- 

 dicted ? What was this measure, so conspicuously right that discus- 

 sion of it was thought superfluous ? It was a measure by which, in 

 certain localities, one-half of the people were brought under the sum- 

 mary jurisdiction of magistrates, in respect of certain acts charged 

 against them. Further, those by whom they were to be charged, and 

 by whose unsupported testimony charges were to be proved, were 

 agents of the law, looking for promotion as the reward of vigilance 

 agents placed under a permanent temptation to make and substantiate 

 charges. And yet more, the substantiation of charges was made 

 comparatively easy by only requiring a single local magistrate to be 

 convinced, by the testimony, on oath, of one of these agents of the law, 

 that a person charged Avas guilty of the alleged acts acts which, 

 held to be thus proved, were punished by periodic examinations of a 

 repulsive kind, and forced inclusion in a degraded class. A House of 

 Commons, elected by large constituencies, many of which are now 

 chiefly composed of working-men, showed the greatest alacrity in 

 making a law under which, in sundry districts, the liberty of a work- 

 ing-man's wife or daughter remains intact only so long as a detective 

 does not give evidence which leads a magistrate to believe her a pros- 

 titute ! And this bill, which, even had there been something like ad- 

 equate reasons (which we have seen there were not) for dispensing 

 with precautions against injustice, should, at any rate, have been passed 

 only after full debate and anxious criticism, was passed with every 

 effort to maintain secrecy ; and this on the pretext that decency for- 

 bade discussion of it all the while that Mordaunt-cases and the like 

 were being reported with a fulness proportionate to the amount of ob- 

 jectionable details they brought out ! Nor is this all. Not only do 

 the provisions of the act make easy the establishment of charges by 



