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houses,' which resemble, to some extent, the maisons à parties kept for a similar purpose by somewhat used-up lorettes of the first water in Paris, are worth notice as the leading centres of prostitution here. Unobtrusive, and dependent upon great exterior decency for a good connexion, they concern us little from a sanitary as from a police point of view, but are not without an influence upon the morals of the highest society. Their existence depends on the cooperation and discretion of various subordinate accomplices, and on the patronage of some of the many wealthy, indolent, sensual men of London, who will pay any premium for assurance against social discredit and sanitary damage. He usually obtains for his money security, comfort, and a superior class of prostitute, who is, according to his knowledge of the world, or desires, presented to him as a maid, wife, or widow-British, or imported direct from foreign parts. The female obtains fairly liberal terms, either directly from the paramour, or from the entrepreneuse, (who, of course, takes good care of herself ;) the company of gentlemen, and when this is an object with her, unquestionable privacy. A number of the first-class prostitutes have relations with these houses, and are sent for as occasion and demand may arise. I have heard of one establishment at which no female is welcome who has not some particular accomplishment, as music, singing, dancing, or languages, to a more than common extent."

Accommodation Houses.

“Accommodation houses for casual use only, the maisson de passe of London, wherein permanent lodgers are not received, are diffused throughout the capital; neither its wealth nor poverty exempting a district from their presence. I have not, and I believe that no other person has, any guide to their numbers or classification. I have seen various numerical estimates of these and other houses in print, some of them professing to be from public sources; but I attach in this respect little value to even those I have obtained from the police, as their framers seem neither to have settled for themselves or for the public the precise meanings of the terms they employ. In the restricted sense in which I have employed the words accommodation house,' I fancy their number is limited. Few persons I have spoken to are aware of more than fifteen or twenty within two or three large parishes, and as they almost invariably name the same, I am strengthed in my opinion that these lupanaria are few. It were more desirable, indeed, that they should multiply, than either class of the brothel proper above described; or that clandestine prostitution should be largely carried on in houses devoted to legitimate trades, and inhabited presumedly by modest females. The thorough elasticity of prostitution is shown in this as weil as other ways; that there being a demand for more numerous and dispersed places of transient accommodation than at present exists, within the last few years numerous coffeehouses and legitimate taverns, at which in former days no casual lodgers would have been admitted, without scrutiny, now, I understand, give accommodation of the kind, for the part openly, or when not exactly so, on exhibition of a slight apology for travelling baggage.

The few accommodation houses of London are generally thronged with custom, and their proprietors are of the same order, and perhaps make even more money, than those of the lodging-houses. Their tariffs and accommodation range between luxury and the squalor of those ambiguous dens, half brothel and half lodging-house, whose inhabitants pay their twopences nightly. I believe that disorder is rarely encountered or courted by any casual frequenters of such places, and that in all of them but the vilest of the vile, the proprietors would be, for their own sakes, the last to countenance it, and the first to call in the aid of the law."

Dancing Rooms, &c.-We must conclude our extracts with Mr. Acton's description of Laurent's casino:—

"In the course of some researches after concentrated prostitution, I was induced obviously enough to pay a visit to M. Laurent's pretended dancing VOL. IV. NO. 24.

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academy,' whereat to dance is rather mauvais genre, eschewed alike by the real gibus and toothpick school, who wander there to kill the dreary time between claret and lansquenet; their feeble imitators of the middle-classes, and the well-gloved Circes to whom perfect absence from the Argyll would be more tolerable than not to rattle up in hired brougham or well-appointed cab. The most striking thing to me about the place was an upper gallery, fringed with this sort of company. A sprinkling of each class seemed to be there by assignation, and with no idea of seeking acquaintances. A number of both sexes, again, were evidently visitors for distraction's sake alone; the rest were, to all intents and purposes, in quest of intrigues.

The utter indifference of the stylish loungers in these shambles contrasted painfully with the anxious countenances of the many unnoticed women, whom the improved manners of the time by no means permit to make advances. I noticed some very sad eyes, that gave the lie to laughing lips, as they wandered round in search of some familiar face, in hope of friendly greeting. There was the sly triumph of here and there a vixenish hoyden, with her leash of patrons about her, and the same envy, hatred, and malice of the neglected 'has been,' that some have thought they saw in every day society. The glory of the ascendant harlot was no plainer than the discomfiture of her sister out of luck, whom want of elbow-room and excitement threw back upon her vacant self. The affectation of reserve and gentility that pervaded the pens of that upper region, seemed to me but to lay more bare the skeleton; and I thought, as I circulated among the promiscuous herd of groundlings, that the sixpenny balcony would better serve to point a moral, than the somewhat more natural, and at all events far more hilarious, throng about me. As far as regarded public order, it seemed an admirable arrangement-to the proprietor of the rooms, profitable-of most of its cribbed and cabined occupants a voluntary martyrdom -in all of them, as making more plain their folly and misfortunes, a mistake.

The great mass of the general company were on that occasion males-young, middle-aged, and old, married and single, of every shade of rank and respectability-and of these again, the majority seemed to have no other aim than to kill an hour or two in philosophizing, staring at one another and the women about them, and listening to good music, without a thought of dancing, or intention of ultimate dissipation. When I consider the floating population, to whom it were absurd to preach intellectual pastime whose alternatives after their day's pursuits are the inelegant dinner-reeking coffee-rooms of London inns, where unwholesome brandy and water is the inevitable penalty upon peace and quietness, a visit to some place of amusement, or positive street-walking, I cannot wonder at the flocks of passenger birds who resort to the overcrowded music-rooms at Evans' (where also grog prevails), and thence, I think, overflow into the casinos. Add to these the men in chambers, sick when night comes of their dull apologies for home; then the unnumbered waifs and strays of every mercantile and professional calling, with minds left fallow by indifferent education; then those of genuinely dissipated inclinations, and you will come, I think, at last to wonder as I do, that no more than two or three of these well-ventilated lounges are open and well filled. Among them, or I should say, among us, was of course an abundance of prostitutes of every degree, short of the balcony aristocracy, flaring and retiring, handsome and repulsive, well-dressed and tawdry. A few had come with companions of our sex to dance, and many had paid their shillings on speculation only. Some pretty grisettes had been brought by their lovers to be seen and to see, and once or twice I thought I saw a sunbeam that had lost its way,' where a modest young girl was being paraded by a foolish swain, or indoctrinated into the charms of town by a designing scamp. There were plenty of dancers, and the casual polka was often enough, by mutual consent, the beginning and end of the acquaintance. There was little appearance of refreshment or solicitation, and none whatever of ill-behaviour or drunkenness. It was clear that two rills of population had met in Windmill-street: one, idle or vicious by profession or inclination; the other, idle for a few hours on compulsion. Between them there was little amalgamation. A few dozen couples of the former, had there been

no casino, would have concocted their amours in the thoroughfares; the crowd who formed the other seemed to seek the place with no definite views beyond light, music, and shelter. Many whose thorough British gravity was proof against more than all the meretriciousness of the assembly would, I fancy, have been there had it been confined to males only. I am convinced they were open neither to flirtation nor temptation, and I know enough of my countrymen's general taste to affirm that they run little hazard of the latter."

We cannot conclude this article without a brief notice of the efforts of the Church Penitentiary Association to offer the means of reformation to the penitent. The following circular was issued by the Association in January, 1857.

Church Penitentiary Association. Statement, Jan. 1857.

The Church Penitentiary Association was formed in the year 1851. Its object was to "promote the establishment, and to assist in the maintenance, of Houses of Refuge and Penitentiaries, for the reception and reformation of fallen women, penitents." It was felt by those who were mainly instrumental in founding the Association, that, however valuable were the exertions that had hitherto been made with a view to reclaim sinners of this class, it was absolutely necessary to do much more in order to grapple at all effectually with a daily increasing evil. They knew that applicants for admission at existing Penitentiaries were not unfrequently rejected for want of room, and they were earnestly desirous to remedy this state of things. Further, they were strongly impressed with the belief that if they could persuade Christian ladies to superintend Penitentiaries from the love of Christ, "without money and without price," the work of reformation would be carried on more thoroughly than it could ordinarily be done under the direction of paid matrons; and also, that it was exceedingly important, that in every Penitentiary, the services of a Chaplain should be secured, who may study the individual character of the penitents, and to suit his ministrations to their individual need. They, therefore, required that "the discipline and internal management of each Penitentiary in connection with the Association," should be carried on through the agency of self-devoted women, under the guidance, as to spiritual matters, of a Clergyman of the Church of England."

In addition to this, they felt that the work in which they were engaged would not be effectually carried out only by the formation of additional Penitentiaries : but that it was important that there should be established also Asylums of another description, such as had not before been provided, namely, Houses of Refuge; into which fallen women might be received at any time on their own application, in which they might undergo a short probation, and from which such of them as should give evidence of genuine repentance might be sent for more lengthened training to a Penitentiary. It seems evident that very great benefit may be expected to result from the multiplication of these Houses of Refuge in our cities and towns. They offer a ready refuge to any poor conscience-stricken sinner, who impressed, suddenly it may be, with the sense of her exceeding sin, desires to flee from temptation; and who, it is much to be feared, will not long desire to do so, unless the refuge which she needs is to be attained at once. It is essential that more Penitentiaries and Houses of Refuge shall be founded without delay, if the great work of reclaiming fallen women is to be adequately carried out.

Since the Church Penitentiary Association was founded, the following Penitentiaries and Houses of Refuge have been received into connection with it; and an account of the work which has hitherto been done in each is added. The great object is to show how many of the inmates are known to have returned to their friends, or to have gone to service; and how many are known to have gone back to evil courses.

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26

* 23 known to have been admitted to other Penitentiaries. Many of these doubtful.

Three doubtful.

|| Some doubtful.

$ Sent to hospitals, 4; sent away, 5; insane, 1.

The New Lunatic Hospital at Nottingham. Laying the
Foundation Stone.

At noon on Friday last, his Grace the Duke of Newcastle laid the foundation stone of the new lunatic hospital, on Coppice Hill, under circumstances of the most interesting character; thereby dedicating the finest site around Nottingham to a building for the noblest of its charities.

The stone contained a glass cylinder, surmounted by a ducal coronet, gilt, and embossed with crimson velvet, underneath which ran the Duke of Newcastle's motto, "Loyautê n'a Honte." Visible inside the glass was a lithograph, giving a view of the intended building; and also arranged, so as to be seen outside, were all the silver and copper coins of the present reign, from a farthing to a crown-piece. At the bottom of the lithograph was the inscription, "Positus, Oct. 30, 1857," signed with the autograph of the Duke. Enclosed within the bottle was a parchment scroll, recording the following particulars :

"The foundation stone of this building, the lunatic hospital for the county and town of Nottingham, was laid by his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, on the 30th of Oct., 1857."

The proceedings were commenced by the blue coat children and

blind pupils of the Midland Institution singing a psalm; after which the Rev. J. W. Brooks, vicar of St. Mary's, read two collects and the Lord's Prayer. Mr. Hine, the architect, then presented the trowel to the Duke of Newcastle, and in doing so, said: I have the honour, on behalf of the committee and subscribers, to present your Grace with this trowel. As the architect and chief workman of this building, I have great pleasure in handing it to you, feeling confident that your Grace will acquit yourself in the task you are about to perform as a true and faithful mason.

Mr. HINE then read a copy of the parchment record within the glass jar, and having placed the bottle in the cavity underneath the stone, his Grace proceeded to spread the mortar, after which the stone was lowered into its resting-place. The noble mason tested it with the level, and finally adjusted it by a few taps of the mallet.

His GRACE then said, I now declare this stone, the first stone of the lunatic asylum for the town and county of Nottingham, to be laid; and may God Almighty prosper the undertaking. After a short pause, the noble Duke proceeded as follows: Ladies and gentlemen, the commencement has now been made of a work which is to add another to the charitable institutions of the town and county of Nottingham; and I have just officiated in this ceremony as your representative, and at the request and on behalf of those by whose zeal and industry this work has been commenced, and by whose continued energy and goodwill and exertions I hope the undertaking will be brought to a successful completion and, the future prosperity of the institution now commenced be insured. I rejoice to see so large an assemblage, both from the county and from the town, as have assembled upon this occasion; I confess larger than I anticipated under the circumstances, because I cannot forget that at this moment, throughout the length and breadth of this land, there is but one engrossing topic which seems to divert men's minds from every other subject, and that not without reason and justice; and I cannot, at the same time, forget that there are other circumstances unfortunately at this instant connected with this immediate locality, which might throw a damp upon some of our exertions-circumstances connected with the commercial failures in another country, and which are beginning to affect the prosperity of this locality, in which we are all so much concerned. These causes might doubtless have well prevented so large an assemblage as is now collected; but I rejoice to think and to observe, that even when our thoughts are most occupied with war, with civil strife, and with ensanguined fields of the most horrible description, we can yet find time for such works as this -for a work of peace, of humanity, and of charity. But, ladies. and gentlemen, I hope you will forgive me if, while expressing my gratification at seeing so many present, I regret for an instant the absence of two to whom this institution, when carried on in the

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