152] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



all things human, this practice, how- 

 ever generally conducive to its end, 

 hath its inconveniences, I might 

 say, its mischiefs. 



" It is one great defect, that, by 

 the consent of the world, for the 

 thing stands upon no other ground, 

 the whole infamy is made to light 

 upon one party only in the crime of 

 the two ! and the man who is, for 

 the most part, the author, not the 

 mere accomplice, of the woman's 

 guilt, is left unpunished and un- 

 censured ! This mode of partial 

 punishment affords not to the weak- 

 er sex the protection which, in 

 justice and sound policy, is their 

 due, against the arts of the seducer. 

 The Jewish law set an example of 

 a better policy, and more equal jus- 

 tice, when, in the case of adultery, 

 it condemned both parties to an 

 equal punishment, which indeed 

 was nothing less than death ! 



" A worse evil, a mischief attend- 

 ing the severity, the salutary seve- 

 rity, upon the whole, of our deal- 

 ing with the lapsed female, is this, 

 that it proves an obstacle, almost 

 insurmountable, to her return into 

 thepathsofvirtueandsobriety.from 

 which she hath once deviated ! The 

 first thing that happens, upon the 

 detection of her shame, is, tliat she 

 is abandoned by her friends, in re- 

 sentment of the disgrace she hath 

 brought upon her family. She is 

 driven from the shelter of her fa- 

 ther's (or herhusband's) house ! She 

 finds no refuge even in the arms of 

 herseducer! His sated appetiteloaths 

 thecharms he has enjoyed! She gains 

 admittance to no hospitable door ! 

 She is cast a wanderer upon the 

 streets ! without muney, without 

 lodging, without food ! In this 

 hopeless situation, suicide or prosti- 

 tution is the alternative to which 



she is reduced ! Thus the very pos- 

 sibility of repentance is cut oiF, un- 

 less it be such repentance as may be 

 exercised by the terrified sinner in 

 her last agonies ! Perishing in the 

 open streets ! Under the merciless 

 pelting of the elements ! Of cold 

 and hunger, and a broken heart ! 

 And yet the youth, the inexpe- 

 rience, the gentle manners, once, 

 of many of these miserable victims 

 of man's seduction, plead hard for 

 mercy, if mercy might be consistent 

 with the safety of the treasure we 

 so sternly guard. We have high 

 authority to say, that these fallen 

 women are not, of all sinners, the 

 most incapable of penitence, nor 

 the most unlikely to be touched with 

 their sense of guilt ! nor the most 

 unsusceptible of religious improve- 

 ment. They are not, of all sinners, 

 the most without hope, if timely 

 opportunity of repentance were af- 

 forded them! Sinners, such as these, 

 upon John the Baptist first preach- 

 ing, found their way into the king- 

 dom of heaven before the Pharisees, 

 with all their outward shew of 

 sanctity and self denial." 



His royal highness afterwards 

 gave, from the bishop's sermon, the 

 following very fine portrait of the 

 seducer : 



" Happier far their lot than that 

 of their base seducers ! who, not 

 checked like these, in their career 

 of guilty pleasure, by any frowns or 

 censures of the world, have rejoiced 

 themselves in their youth without 

 restraint! have walked without fear 

 and without thought in the ways of 

 their heart, and in the sight of their 

 eyes ! and, at last, perhaps, solace 

 the wretched decrepitude of a vi- 

 cious old age, with a proud recol- 

 lection of the triumphs of their early 

 manhood over unsuspectingworaan's 



