any extent consistent with our own expectations, even should Labuan not become at once a second Singapore, an estimated annual charge of some 60007. will not be much to set against the increase and security which will accrue to commerce. There seems, however, no reason to doubt that the island itself will develop internal sources of revenue which, after a time, will more than meet the charges of its civil establishment and of a garrison of some 200 men to be borrowed for the present from India. Meanwhile there is tabula rasa for Sir James, and his experienced coadjutor Mr. Bonham, to proceed upon. The good sense of Sir T. Cochrane prevented from the first any rash intrusion of adventurous settlers calculated to embarrass the local Government by the claims of premature establishments and disputable possessions. In our poor judgment all departments of the public service have done their duty; and no precaution which prudence and experience could suggest has been neglected to secure the advantages which nature and man have, in this fortunate instance, placed at our legitimate disposal.

We cannot venture on extracts from Mr. Low's work. We must, however, thank him for an acceptable supplement to that of Captain Mundy-but more especially for having given the fullest and best description we have yet met with of the natural productions, vegetable and mineral, of Borneo, and of the population of that island. Knowledge on the latter subject has hitherto been nearly confined to the Dutch, for, whether from policy or indifference, they have not favoured the world with the results of their observations. Much information will be found in Mr. Low's pages as to the distinguishing features of character and customs of the various tribes of the Dyak race. His descriptions must leave on the mind of every reader a predilection for the Hill Dyak of the interior, as contrasted with the Coast or Sea Dyak, whose morals have suffered from contact with Malay tyranny and corruption and the example of the Illanun.

To that Providence which shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may,' we consign the future. From all sinister speculations we refrain ; but even should Sir James Brooke's fabric sink with the builder, we believe that, even in that case, such fame as such men consider a reward will attach to his memory, that in many a Dyak village the rude songs and oral traditions of a grateful people will preserve the name of the Manco Capac who came from a distant land to rescue their fathers from oppression and ignorance.

We cannot conclude without remarking that, soon after the foregoing pages were written, we had in the London newspapers a brief

notice

notice of an evidently important and highly successful operation of the Spaniards against the Illanun pirates. We infer from the account a strong probability that the very nest described in our extract from Sir E. Belcher's Narrative has been stormed and destroyed. It is understood that the Spaniards landed a thousand men for the operation. We congratulate that nation on this sudden and creditable exhibition of vitality in the extremities of her system.

ART. III.—1. A short Account of the London Magdalene Hospital. London, 1846.

2. De la Prostitution dans la Ville de Paris. Par A. J. B. Parent-Duchâtelet. Deuxième Edition. Paris, 1837.

IT

T is time to burst through the veil of that artificial bashfulness which has injured the growth, while it has affected the features, of genuine purity. Society has suffered enough from that spurious modesty which lets fearful forms of vice swell to a rank luxuriance rather than hint at their existence-which coyly turns away its head from the 'wounds and putrefying sores' that are eating into our system, because it would have to blush at the exposure. We are all aware with what haste a treatise avowedly dealing with the peculiar sins of women would be burnt or buried, though its sole object were the promotion of virtue; while few drawing-room tables fail to exhibit novels and romances in which lubricity of sentiment and laxity of principle are easily discerned through the thin gauze of refined language. And yet ours is what Defoe would have called abroad-hearted' age: we are not sunk into our easy chairs in a drowsy apathy; there is blood and colour in the cheek of modern Charity; we are sifting the causes of many immoralities, stopping up the sewers from which poisonous exhalations spring, interesting ourselves with hard-working earnestness in the improvement and welfare of the humbler classes of our countrymen. Look at our ragged schools and model lodging-houses, our sailors' homes, our asylums for servants out of place, our houses of refuge for discharged convicts; these are among the thoughtful inventions of recent Philanthropy; whilst prison discipline is attracting a degree of care undreamt of by the most tender-hearted of our forefathers. And is it too much to say that the active sympathy shown in these, and such-like efforts, by the higher orders towards those beneath them, may be numbered among the causes of that

great

great internal quietness which is a marvel and a mystery to a convulsed and disjointed world?

a

And yet the evil we speak of is in the background still; in timid silence we permit it to sweep on; spellbound we let it pass; and it needs an emboldened mercy to break the spell. Woman falls, like Wolsey, never to rise again. It is a difficult question to deal with an exceedingly awkward subject-we must let it alone, we suppose-it is very dreadful, to be sure— but there will be always abandoned women, and they are class it really soils one's imagination to meddle with:'with such apologetic phrases the wandering soul is suffered to drift away. How different the treatment that a young thief receives! It is one of the very advantages of his kind of offence that his capture is desired. The best thing that can befal him is to be caught; for care follows him into his cell. He is thought worth reclaiming; no pains are spared-humane governors watch over him-zealous chaplains labour to improve his state; the Schoolmaster is at hand-he is supplied with books. The term of this costly and ungrudged discipline at an end, he is able to begin life afresh. At first, of course, he will have to struggle against suspicion and distrust; but if he has been brought to a better mind, though for a time he may have to put up with inferior places and inferior pay, he will soon work his way back into a character; the way of return is not closed against him. But it is closed for ever to the erring girl. She cannot claim the merciful correction of the law; there are none to catch her and drag her by legal force from her haunts; there is no penitential prison for her; her sin not being subject to legal punishment, she is denied the means of reformation which, for other offenders, are now mixed with punishment. Allowing the wisdom of the law in not classing hers among the punishable crimes, does private pity step in where the law fails to meet the ?-Let us take one of the opposite sex who yields to this identical sin. Even in the midst of his career he keeps his place at home; there he has a pure atmosphere around him; he breathes sweet air; he does not fall into one unbroken course of dissoluteness—he is not without the pale of amendment; even his deeds of darkness are oftentimes unknown; or perhaps there are rumours that he is somewhat wild-and by lips that no one dares to call impure the hope is expressed that he will soon have 'sown his wild oats.' And oftentimes this hope is fulfilled; he breaks off he can break off-from folly; his blood cools; he steadies down, wonders at his former self, and lives in usefulness and repute. We at once admit that, as the woman under any cir

case

cumstances

cumstances is the greater sufferer by the loss of purity, so on her is thrown the greater responsibility in resisting temptation. But the question is not, whether she is to suffer, and suffer most severely, but whether she is to suffer without hope, without a chance of repentance, without the means of escape; whether she is to lose all and for ever? Ought we to forget our Saviour's treatment of fallen women? By condemning the harshness of the Jewish Church towards this class of sinners, by his own personal tenderness towards more than one who had fallen from virtue's path, He seems in tones the most distinct to commend these erring members to the pity of the Christian Church: but who will venture to say that the Christian Church has in this followed the example of her Head? Several statisticians of authority agree in saying that three or four years of such a life end the scene; while the most liberal computation stretches the career, on an average, to the length of seven years. By this time, at the latest, their strength is run out, their constitution gone. Late hours, exposure to wet and cold, intoxication to drown thought, ill-usage, disease, inevitable misery of mind and body, are enough in this space to break down the frail tenement of flesh and blood. But after seven years of such a course-after this brief and bitter ticeship to the hardest of taskmasters-what follows? Is this a question that the Church can waive aside—as out of her department?

appren

We have not the pain to say that no efforts have been made to lessen the evil. Something has been done; a certain number of feeble institutions creep on from year to year, offering scanty accommodation, languishing under the shade of narrow means or a burden of debt, unable for want of room or funds to carry out any efficient system of discipline or classification, and conducted on most imperfect principles. Put the capabilities of all these institutions together, and the number of those for whom they are designed, and then we shall see what puny, starved, and dwarfish measures we have taken to meet the huge mischief. And of these institutions, disproportioned as they are to the need, the greater part would have long since pined away, if they had had to trust to public generosity and external support. The labour of the inmates has saved them from falling to the ground : -they have been in a great measure self-supporting institutions. For example, in 'The London Female Penitentiary,' (one of the largest,) the subscriptions and donations of last year amounted to 7247., while the work done by the women produced 11847. But take a list of the whole of our Metropolitan Penitentiaries, with the number of inmates according to the last

returns:

The

The Magdalene Hospital

London Female Penitentiary

London Society for the Protection of Young Females

Home for Penitent Females, Pentonville

Westminster Penitent Female Asylum

Lock Hospital Asylum, Harrow Road.

British Female Refuge

Guardian Society, Bethnal Green

Such is the total amount of provision in London. We have not, indeed, given the utmost accommodation which these houses might afford, but we have set down what is practically found available-for in various cases rooms are unwillingly closed from the sheer impossibility of maintaining the complement. As to the number of the class abroad in London it is difficult to reach an accurate statement; but the computations of the more moderate inquirers range from 8000 to 12,000 ;-and all that has been done by the concentrated efforts of humanity and religion to stem or drain off this restless tide of vice is to afford shelter to some 440. In the provinces we find the same disproportion. The Liverpool Penitentiary had last year 56 inmates, the Liverpool Benevolent Society 21, while the number of abandoned women, according to the police returns, was no less than 2290. The Birmingham Magdalene had 22 inmates; the police returns for 1847 make the houses of ill-fame 210; if we reckon three in every house, we place 22 opposite 630. The Bristol Penitentiary had 17 inmates; those on the streets, according to Mr. Talbot, were 1267. The Leeds Guardian Society had 11 inmates; Mr. Logan states the others at 700. The Newcastle Asylum had 26 inmates; the others were, according to Mr. Talbot, 451. The Manchester and Salford Asylum admitted 82; but the report fails to give the number who left the house. The Police Report of 1846 gives those out of doors as 738; and we must remember that the police only register the notorious.

It being allowed that the provision for reformation is utterly insignificant as compared with the amount of vice, it may, however, be asked whether the supply is not equal to the demand. Many are apt to think that the conscience of such sinners soon becomes seared; that in them we deal with hopeless subjects, and that out of the wretched 12,000 in London the number of those who would desire to forsake their evil ways is but small. We answer that there is, we are convinced, a great mass of material which may be worked upon with success, provided the right time be seized. We are speaking essentially of a passion: when the