Subject
Prostitutes -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Great Britain Books
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Josephine Elizabeth Grey Butler
The constitution violated : $b An essay
"The Constitution Violated" by Josephine Elizabeth Grey Butler is a political essay written in the late 19th century. It denounces the British Contagious Diseases Acts as a fundamental breach of constitutional liberties—especially Magna Carta, habeas corpus, and trial by jury—and warns that state regulation of prostitution endangers civil freedom and public morality. Addressed to working men and women, it portrays the Acts as an assault on national rights that especially imperils poor and unprotected women. The opening of the essay declares its aim to rouse the country by proving the Acts unconstitutional, setting aside medical arguments and focusing on core constitutional principles. It centers on Magna Carta’s protections—particularly the clauses safeguarding liberty, property, and trial by jury—arguing that forced bodily examinations amount to unlawful “destruction,” and it illustrates England’s historic jealousy of such violations. The author clarifies that the Acts apply to civilians (not the army or navy) while placing civil districts under the Admiralty and War Office; she outlines how a police superintendent’s oath and a magistrate’s order can subject a woman to repeated examinations, detention, hospital confinement, and effective outlawry without a jury, with a single policeman’s testimony often sufficing. She argues this is no “minor case,” since a woman’s honor, liberty, and livelihood are at stake, and she condemns coercive “voluntary submissions” and summary procedures that invert the Habeas Corpus spirit. Drawing on authorities like Coke, Blackstone, and Creasy—and paralleling a 1736 Lords debate on anti-smuggling powers—she warns against informers, punishment of mere “intent,” and executive overreach. The section closes by invoking Chatham’s moral appeal, contrasting past constitutional vigilance with recent parliamentary silence as the Acts elevate vice into a regulated system.
Josephine Elizabeth Grey Butler
The constitutional iniquity involved in all forms of the regulation of prostitution
"The constitutional iniquity involved in all forms of the regulation of…" by Mrs. Josephine E. Butler is a reformist political-legal pamphlet written in the late 19th century, during the Victorian era. The work argues that state systems for regulating prostitution are unconstitutional, unjust, and morally corrupting, targeting especially policies like the Contagious Diseases Acts. The pamphlet opens by stressing the moral stakes, then concentrates on constitutional law. Drawing on authorities such as Sheldon Amos, Mittermayer, Montesquieu, and Lieber, it outlines the essential safeguards of fair criminal justice—no intimidation or compelled self-incrimination, presumption of innocence, clear indictment, public accusatory procedure, right to counsel, evidence-based verdicts, proportional punishment, and accusations not initiated by the Executive—and shows how regulation regimes violate each one. Butler details coercive “voluntary submission,” secret tribunals, punishment on suspicion by police, executive accusations without reasons, repeated arbitrary imprisonment, and the near impossibility of redress. She identifies forced medical examinations of women as the system’s core abuse and cites Sir Hardinge Giffard’s legal opinion that such bodily searches for evidence are contrary to English law and the fundamental protection of the person. The book warns that these measures erode liberty and justice for all, and it calls citizens to resist and abolish such laws.
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