The Tell Mall Gazette and London Morality.

Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5176, 19 August 1885, Page 3

The Tell Mall Gazette and London Morality.

The Sydney Morning Herald has received the following communication by its special correspondent concerning the extraordinary statements recently published in the Pall Mall Gazette :— London, July 10.' ■ The sensation of the week has been the publication of the Pall Mall Gazette of a series of articles dealiDg with certain phases of the social evil, avowedly with the intention to influence the House of Commons to pass the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, sanctioned by the House of Lords, though, as a matter of fact, the Government exhibited its willingness to assist the passage of certain proportions of the measure not likely to provoke strong opposition. Heralding the crusade with tho preliminary announcement that the purists had better not peruse the next few numbers of the paper, the Pall Mall Gazette succeeded in exciting the curiosity of the public to an extra* ordinary degree ; but the realistic descrip t'ton given respecting the results of a special enquiry.into the most shocking features of ■metropolitan vice aroused on intense feeling of indignation, thoUßh a number of prominent philanthropists, including the Key. 0. H. «Purf°" n "? d several bishops and numbers of Parhamenfsupported the paper on the ground of the absolute necessity of arousing pubHo attention to the question. The paper had an enormous sale.jalthough it was prohibited at Smith an Willing s railway book stalls. Several clubs, including the Eeform and Athenseum, refused to admit the paper. The police arrested numerous newsvendors for selling obscene literature in the streets, and the city authorities threaten to prosecute the Pall Mall Gazette. Questions also were asked in Parliament, but tho Government have not at present indicated any disposition to interfere. The street leading to the office of the paper was thronged with applicants to purchase copies, and the police were compelled to interfere to prevent disorder. Men and women and cmldren of both sexes eagerly competed to obtain early copies, many being sold as high as a shilling a piece, the average price being at least double the ordinary rate. Ihe editor, before commencing the enquiry, Bought the countenance of Sir W. Vernon Hareourt, who deprecated interviewing the police ; but the Archbishop ot Canterbury; the Bishop of London, ; Cardinal Manning, and several other well-known philanthropists warmly approved of the scheme. General Booth appears to have afforded most valuable aid to the Commissioners, fhe editor of the Pall Mall Gazette alleges that the* ghastly details respecting the traffic in young children are unexaggerated, and courts the fullest enquiry. It threatens that disclosures may be made, which'will shake the very foundations of our social order. It will be necessary, the paper says, to subpoena Princes of the Blood, prominent public men, and Cabinet Ministers. The Pall Mali Gazette impugns the integrity of the police, alleging that numbers of them countenance the traffic.