Josephine Butler 1828-1906

Autumn Lecture
St Stephen's Elswick
Monday 2nd December 2002



Introduction

Josephine Butler was a truly remarkable woman. She gave her adult life in the service of Christ to protect abused women and children.

Since she died her reputation has grown. She is lauded by feminists as one of the first women to support for women's education and women's suffrage. But feminism as we know it today had nothing whatever to do with her motivation. For that we must look to her faith in Christ.

Many have written about her, including most recently an excellent book by Jane Jordan, published just last year.

Josephine's life was a great adventure, but it was not a bed of roses.

Few experience the tragedy and sorrow that she knew. Yet these very experiences gave her an overwhelming sense of love for women caught up in prostitution. The experiences also have her huge determination, courage and strength to carry on in her campaigning work despite massive opposition.

Throughout her life she nearly died on several occasions either from serious illness or from the physical attacks of her opponents.

She traveled enormous distances in her campaigning work throughout the UK and Europe. She wrote many books in English, French and other languages.

She was to become a woman who changed the Western World. She put all her intelligence, astuteness, charm, and practical wisdom at the service of Christ.

Her work carried out overseas was truly astonishing, but tonight I am going to concentrate on her work in the UK.

She fought to repeal state regulated prostitution and she won. Today there are growing calls to bring it back again.

The protections for children which she fought long and hard for were put on the statute book. We still have the same laws today which she secured over 100 years ago.

Early life

Josephine Elizabeth Grey was born in 1828 at Milfield near Wooler in Northumberland. The house where she was born is no longer standing.

The Greys were a prominent border family. One branch of the family were the Earls Grey of Howick. The Second Earl Grey was the Whig Prime Minister (1831-1834).

Josephine was the seventh of ten children born to John and Hannah Grey. There were three sons and seven daughters. One sisters died in infancy and one brother died at sea.

Her mother was a descendent of an exiled Huguenot family which settled in Alnwick after having fled persecution in France following the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685.

John Grey's father died when he was eight years old. John was given responsibility when he was very young. His mother Mary depended on him and when he was 18 she handed over the entire control of the estate to him. John started reading the Bible when he was seriously ill. When he had recovered he resolved to have family prayers every evening. This was is unbroken practice throughout the rest of his life. No day ended without assembling his family and household for an act of worship (1).

John Grey was an active campaigner for the abolition of slavery and a personal friend of Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) who was closely involved with Wilberforce.

Josephine said of her father "What an education I had under my noble father - an anti-slavery man, a Liberal, a true lover of liberty, a free Churchman of wide sympathies and called to constant crusades against tyranny."(2)

She recalled how her father would tremble and his voice would break as he read out the distressing reports of the hideous wrongs inflicted on slaves, including the way in which women slaves were abused by their male masters.

John Grey spent a great deal of time studying scientific methods of agriculture. He put the ideas in to practice and the estate prospered. He became a leading agricultural expert in the North of England. He was a kindly landlord. His workers were paid more than many.

It was her father's interest in politics and his agricultural expertise which led to many visitors coming to stay. International visitors came from Sweden, Russia and France. There were constant discussions in the drawing room on a whole variety of topics. Josephine sat there silently listening to them, the only woman in the company.

In 1833, the same year that slavery was finally abolished, John was appointed manager of the Greenwich Hospital Estates in Northumberland. These covered large areas on both sides of the Tyne. Profits from the estates were used for the maintenance of disabled seaman from the Royal Navy.

The family had a new and much larger house built at Dilston near Corbridge and moved there in 1835.

Dilston House is still standing today. It is used as a care centre for the mentally handicapped.

Josephine was particularly close to her sister Harriet who was two years younger than her.

Josephine was seven when the family moved in to their new home. She and Harriet spent only a couple of years in a school in Newcastle. She had a Christian governess, but the children were also home-schooled by her parents. Her father read the Bible to his children and assembled them every day for family devotions. Everyday Josephine's mother would assemble the children for the reading aloud of some solid book. She would then question the children to make sure they had understood it. (3)

This is a picture of Josephine painted by her mother. Both her parents had a great love of reading. Her father read novels by Sir Walter Scott to the female servants whilst they sewed. Before the family left Milfield every tenant on the estate, every labourer and shepherd could read and write. He set up a winter school for children and a night school for the adults. (4)

The Grey family were well provided for. They had servants and the family mixed with Northumbrian gentry. They attended formal County Balls at Alnwick which in the 1840s were little different from the one set in 1811 and described by Jane Austen in her book Pride and Prejudice.

Despite all this John Grey led a simple lifestyle. He never shielded his children meeting those less fortunate than themselves. Injustice and suffering were routinely talked about in the family home. John talked to Josephine about the evils of slavery. He used to go for rides with Josephine and talk to her about the general conditions of agricultural workers.

Conversion

Josephine's parents had a firm Christian faith. As a young girl Josephine did not want to stake her soul on a faith received at second hand. She felt that she could not go to her parents to talk about her doubts.

Although from a Methodist background when the family moved to Dilston they seem to have attended St Andrew's Parish Church in Corbridge two miles from their home. Josephine felt that the minister, though an honest man, could not help her.

Josephine was deeply aware of the suffering in the world. In her late teens this was acutely on her mind. What is the meaning of life? Why does a loving God allow such suffering in the world?

She suffered a major crisis of her soul. It became a 'matter of life and death' with her to know something with certainty of God. She began to pray.

"I spoke to Him in solitude, as a person who could answer. I sometimes gave whole nights to prayer, because the day was not sufficiently my own….It was the desire to know God and my relation to Him." (5)

Later in life she was to comment on her conversion:

"I look back to the years when my soul was in darkness on account of sin. I could see no God, or such as I could see appeared to me to be an immoral God. Does he look down from His eternal order of heaven an indifferent spectator". (6)

There were two events which appeared to have made a great impact on Josephine. The first was to see the dreadful potato famine of 1847 in Ireland when see went over there to visit her brother. The second was to see dead body of a man who had committed suicide in Dipton Wood.

"For one long year of darkness," she said, "the trouble of heart and brain urged me to lay all this at the door of the God, whose name I had learned was Love. I dreaded Him, I fled from Him, until grace was given me to arise and wrestle, as Jacob did, with the mysterious Presence, who must either slay or pronounce deliverance. And then the great questioning again went up from earth to heaven, 'God! Who are Thou? Where art Thou, Why is it thus with the creatures of Thy hand? I fought the battle alone, in deep recesses of the beautiful woods and pine forests around our home….For hours and days and weeks in these retreats I sought the answer to my soul's trouble and the solution of its dark questionings. Looking back, it seems to me that the end must have been defeat and death had not the Saviour imparted to the child-wrestler something of the virtue of His own midnight agony, when in Gesthsemane His sweat fell like great drops of blood to the ground." (7)

Marriage and family life

Josephine's brother Charles went to Durham University to study. His classics tutor was George Butler. Josephine met George when she visited her brother. Their relationship developed over a year. They had many common interests. George was very fond of horse ridding.

Like Josephine, George was extremely bright. He was made a fellow of Exeter College, Oxford before he had even graduated. George's father the Dean of Peterborough and had been the Headmaster of Harrow. George was soon to be a senior master in a public school. It was very common for such teachers to be ordained in the Church of England ministry. George himself later decided to be ordained.

Josephine and George became engaged in January 1851.

Josephine she wrote of her amazement that a fiancé who all of two and thirty could still be 'playful and merry'. She wrote "He has a great deal of quiet fun about him. I never knew anybody of his years so young in health and feelings…He is just like a boy, and confesses in such funny innocent ways how overhead and toes in love he is - but is not the least spooney…There is the most perfect affection and confidence between us." (8)

They married in 1852 at St Andrew's Church in Corbridge. When they married Josephine was 24 and George was 33.

When the Butlers returned from their honeymoon they set up house together in Oxford where George had been appointed a Public Examiner for Schools at Oxford University.

Josephine always saw herself as a Methodist, though out of loyalty to George she always attended Church of England services with him.

It seems that Josephine and George worked together on many joint academic projects in those early years. They studied Italian together. They worked on books together. She drew maps for George's Geography lectures. Some credit George Butler with introducing the study of Geography into Oxford University and into schools.

Their relationship throughout their marriage was extremely close.

The Butlers were to have four children: George, Stanley, Charles and Evangeline.

Living in Oxford the Butlers decided that they had to follow Christ rather than the world. In two incidents the couple took a step which marked them out and scandalised Oxford opinion. George's attitude to this was one of complete indifference. He felt that it was important to do what was right rather than what was popular.

The first incident concerned a case of an Oxford don who had seduced a very young girl and made her pregnant. Josephine wanted to bring a sense of his crime to the man who had wronged the girl. Josephine tackled the academic authorities. But they wanted the case all hushed up. The girl was stigmatised and deserted and was in severe financial straits, but the wealthy Don carried on as if nothing had happened.

The second incident in which the couple scandalised popular opinion concerned the case of a young mother in Newgate prison who was sentenced for the murder of her illegitimate child. George suggested that they write to the Chaplain of the prison about her. Josephine went to see the girl. George then suggested that when the girl was released she should come and live with them to help in the household. This she did and she served devotedly for many years.

The girl was the first of many to be welcomed into the Butler's home.

Cheltenham

In 1857 George accepted the post of Vice Principal of Cheltenham College for boys. George failed to become professor of Latin at Oxford. Even more seriously Josephine's health was suffering because of the damp Oxford air. A medical specialist advised that Josephine must be taken away from Oxford. So all in all the new post in Cheltenham suited them well.

Jane Jordan in her excellent biography of Josephine Butler notes that Josephine was utterly contented in her domestic role. She writes "Josephine's home life was merry, due largely to her husband's boyish sense of fun"(9). She also had a great deal of fun bringing up her boys.

Josephine's illness returned. She was to fight poor health at various stages throughout the rest of her life. Josephine said that when she was 18 "she broke a blood vessel" in her lungs.(10) Later in life she was to have problems with coughing up blood.

On one August evening in 1864 a terrible event was to happen which was to scar Josephine for the rest of her life. Her little daughter Eva had an accident. She fell from the banister at the top of the hall stairs down to the stone floor below. She remained unconscious for three hours and then died.

Josephine was later to tell her son Stanley when he was an adult that for twenty five years she woke up every day thinking about Eva's accident.

Josephine knew that her little girl had often asked about heaven. They believed in God's Providential care. It was a very heavy blow for Josephine and George, but it was one which strengthened their faith. As Josephine was to write:

"Do the words 'accident'or 'chance' properly find a place in the vocabulary of those who have placed themselves and those dear to them in a special manner under the daily providential care of a loving God? Here entered into the heart of our grief the intellectual difficulty, the moral perplexity and dismay which are not the least terrifying of the phantoms which haunt the 'Valley of the Shadow of Death' - that dark passage through which some toil only to emerge into a hopeless and final denial of the Divine goodness, the complete bankruptcy of faith; and others, by the mercy of God, through a still deeper experience, into a yet firmer trust in His unfailing love." (11)

Josephine's illness got worse, undoubtedly affected by her daughter's death. She was advised to take a holiday, so she went to Italy to stay with her sister Hatty. Josephine nearly died on the return journey.

Throughout 1865, Josephine suffered what she called a "long drought of the soul".

She was drawn into prayer. The Lord laid on her heart to pray for those who suffered, and in particular to pray for poor young girls who suffered as a result of a life of prostitution.

Josephine wrote in her spiritual diary
"I long to have a hundred voices, that with all of them I might pray without ceasing that Christ will come quickly, & deliver for ever the poor groaning world: slaves from all their woes, the victims also & slaves of lust in our own land, the poor women who are driven as sheep to the slaughter into the slave market of London…We are all involved in the guilt of society, in the destruction of the innocents, in the denial of happiness to the young, of purity to children." (12)


Liverpool

In 1866 the Butlers began a new life in Liverpool. George was appointed the headmaster of Liverpool College, a school which took over 800 pupils. The school became one of the top schools in the country.

Josephine developed a great desire to help those whose pain was keener than her own. She believed that she could look afflicted people in the face and say "I understand. I, too, have suffered." (13)

At the suggestion of the local Baptist Minister, Josephine visited the local work house. She found she had a natural way of speaking with the women there. Some of them had been prostitutes. One thing led to another. Very soon prostitutes dying of disease were invited into her home to stay.

The first woman they took in was Mary who was dying of consumption. George went to read the Bible to her.

"He began to talk to her about Jesus Christ her saviour when she stopped him and said "O, Sir, you need not tell me about Jesus Christ. I know him for I have seen Him." An anxious George asked her, "How so?" Mary replied, "Sir, you have brought me to your own beautiful home. You have treated me as if I were your own daughter, as if I had never done anything wrong. That is what I mean. I have seen Jesus." (14)

Mary was the first of very many prostitutes to embrace faith in Christ in the Butler's home.

Josephine decided to expand her work. She set up her own refuge. A doctor offered his services for free. The Butlers rented a property near their home which could accommodate 13 women at any one time.

Josephine said that she had only two methods of raising money: praying, which she said was the best way, and by personal application to wealthy individuals, particularly young unmarried men of means.

Josephine said that she welcomed "any gifts however small, or contributions down to a shilling"(15). It was very difficult financially for the Butlers who heavily supported the whole enterprise, but the money came in.


The call of 1869

One day in 1866 Josephine was reading a report in The Times about the House of Commons deciding to extend the Contagious Diseases Acts. (16)

The Acts horrified her. Under the legislation a system of licenced prostitution was introduced in 11 designated ports and garrison towns. Any woman suspected of being a prostitute was required to undergo a medical examination or face imprisonment. Diseased prostitutes were also imprisoned.

Special police who did not wear a uniform were employed to enforce the Act.

Josephine had been so deeply immersed in grief that she had missed the introduction of the 1864 Contagious Diseases. She was later to discover that Florence Nightingale had battled in vain to stop the legislation going through.

The 1866 Act did away with the need for a magistrate's hearing before an infected woman was imprisoned for six months. All that was needed was the signature of a doctor. This act also introduced periodical examinations over the period of a year for any woman that the police believed was a 'common prostitute'.

When Josephine read the newspaper report she realised that she knew all about the system that was being introduced. She had seen it before in Paris. It was the same system.

The Government was very worried that so many soldiers had venereal disease. They could not do their job as a soldier because they were in hospital suffering from VD. Some of them never recovered and died.

The Lancet reported in that at any one time a fifth of the army was in hospital suffering from VD. The average hospital stay was three weeks.(17)

That was in 1858. Six years later in 1864 one in four soldiers in the army had VD(18). In some regiments it was much higher.

The Government's solution was "the hygienic control of prostitutes".

It appeared that all respectable medical opinion agreed. The police also concurred.

The Contagious Diseases Acts sought to ensure that there was a clean supply of hygienic prostitutes for men to use.

There was increasing agitation all over the country. There was growing alarm at the brutality of the examinations. There was concern that many ordinary women walking the streets were being set upon by the secret police and made to undergo the examinations.

In 1869 the Contagious Diseases Acts were extended to a further six towns and the period of imprisonment for infected women was increased to nine months. The possibility of extending the legislation to the whole of the nation was now being openly discussed.

After a campaign meeting in Bristol on 30 September 1869, Josephine was written to with a request that she take up the leadership of the campaign.

One of the greatest difficulties in challenging the legislation was that prostitution was simply never talked about in polite society. It would be simply indecent for a man let alone a respectable woman to talk about prostitution.

Josephine knew that leading the campaign to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts would be a fearful task to undertake. For a period of three months she pondered long and hard about whether God was truly calling her to action.

In her diary Josephine wrote "It is now many weeks since I knew that Parliament had sanctioned this great wickedness, and I have not yet put on my armour, nor am I yet ready. Nothing so wears me out, body and soul, as anger, fruitless anger; and this thing fills me with such an anger, and even hatred, that I fear to face it…" (19)

Josephine knew that she had to talk to George. She decided to write down her thoughts and ask him what he thought in a note. Josephine wrote about this:
"It seemed to me cruel to have to tell him of the call, and to say to him that I must try and stand in the breach. My heart was shaken by the foreshadowing of what I knew he would suffer. I went to him one evening when he was alone, all the household having retired to rest. I recollect the painful thoughts that seemed to throng that passage from my room to his study. I hesitated, and leaned by cheek against his closed door; and as I leaned, I prayed. Then I went in, and gave him something I had written, and left him. I did not see him till the next day. He looked pale and troubled, and for some days was silent."(20)

Her husband George knew the cost of the undertaking. He thought about it and then said to Josephine "Go! and God be with you". Josephine said that she could never have accepted the call without her husband's support. This he gave unstintingly in the years ahead.

Organisation and the arguments

The National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts was formed after the Bristol meeting, but it only permitted men to be members.

Josephine therefore set up the Ladies' National Association for women. There was a regular publication called The Shield.

So there were two great societies which fought for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts. These were to work very closely together. They employed some staff, but most of the work was done by volunteers.

We know the arguments that were used because on 1st January 1870 a Solemn Women's Protest was published. It had eight arguments against the Contagious Diseases Acts. I just want to look at four of the arguments.

First that the system amounted to the state regulation of vice. Josephine called it "Legalised harlotry". The Protest stated "the path of evil is made more easy to our sons… as moral restraint is withdrawn the moment the State recognises, and provides convenience for, the practice of vice which it thereby declares to be necessary…" (21)

Second, the police are given absolute control over a woman's reputation and freedom. There is imprisonment without trial.

Third the Acts leave unpunished those who are the main cause of vice, namely the men whilst at the same time punishing in a most degrading way those who are the victims of vice.

Forth, the Acts can never work by tackling only one sex.

Josephine was an extremely capable arguer. She deployed moral arguments, statistics, and constitutional arguments. Given her background Josephine was no stranger to political debate. Like her father, was a life long supporter of the Liberal Party. A large proportion of evangelicals voted Liberal. Certainly there were many more Liberal MPs than Conservative MPs who supported repeal. Gladstone, the High Church leader of the Liberals never did.

For a woman, Josephine did an amazing thing. She spoke at public meetings. Even more amazing she actually spoke about a subject which was a complete taboo.

In the first year alone Josephine Bulter travelled 3,700 miles and organised 99 public meetings.(22)

She was greatly helped by two faithful friends who were both later to become Liberal MPs: James Stuart a Cambridge graduate and Henry Wilson a Sheffield Industrialist.

The widening of the voting franchise in 1868 to all men in the boroughs (and in 1880 to men in the counties) meant that there were new political opportunities for the repealers.

Josephine's leadership of the campaign was to be spectacularly vindicated by her tactics at three by-elections.

The Newark by election

In the Newark by-election of 1870, the Liberal party put up Sir Henry Storks, a former governor of Malta. He believed that prostitution should be recognised as a necessity and wanted the Acts extended to the whole country. He also believed that soldier's wives should also be subject to regular examinations.

It was a safe Liberal seat, but the abolitionists placarded the town and gained the support of the trade unions. Storks withdrew on the day of the election. Josephine Butler's candidate was then returned to represent Newark.

The Colchester by election [1870]

Sir Henry Storks then stood in the Colchester by election in the same year. The repealers took to the streets distributing handbills throughout the town explaining his views on prostitution. Their intention was to split the Liberal vote. It succeeded.

Brothel owners stirred up a mob to oppose Josephine. The put up posters on the town walls with an exact description of Josephine's dress so that she could be attacked. But Josephine outsmarted them. She decided to change her dress every day. (23)

At night a mob surrounded the place where Josephine Butler was staying. She had to be smuggled out to safety. But when the results of the election came Storks had lost heavily. The Conservative Candidate won with a majority of 500.


The Government compromise

The Government responded to the public controversy by setting up a Royal Commission. It reported in 1871. The Commission was deeply divided. There were six minority reports. The majority backed the Acts, and stated that "There is no comparison to be drawn between prostitutes and the men who consort with them. With one sex the offence is committed as a matter of gain, with the other it is an irregular indulgence of a natural impulse". (24)

The repealers arguments were gradually getting through. Very significantly the Royal Commission recommended that the age of consent should be raised from 12 as it then was, to 14 (25).

At that time the only laws which effectively protected young people was the age of consent. Above that age, the young person was presumed to consent to an act of sexual intercourse. The word of an adult was implicitly believed. There was also extensive police corruption which protected the brothel trade.

Once raped and brutalised, abducted young girls were effectively imprisoned in their life of prostitution. Obtaining support for the raising the age of consent was an important step forward for the campaigners.

This was good news, but seven members of the Commission also said that the Contagious Diseases Acts should be extended to cover the whole country. The Government decided go ahead with this particular recommendation. A Bill was introduced by the Home Secretary, Henry Austin Bruce.

Bruce's Bill was introduced on 13th February 1872. It was one step forward and two steps back. It proposed that the age of consent for girls be raised from 12 to 14 and the technical repeal of Contageous Diseases Acts. But significantly Police powers to arrest women on suspicion were extended over the whole country.

The National Association convened a meeting to consider the Bill on 29th February. The abolitionists were divided. Some supporting the Bill, whilst others including Josephine opposing it. The meeting passed a final motion which was equivocal. It declared that several Clauses in the Bill were immoral called but merely called for the Bill to be amended.

By April, the National Association had come round to Josephine's view. Before the end of August the campaign was to fight another by election in Pontefract.


The Pontefract By Election

In those days a Member of Parliament had to seek re-election from his constituency if (in addition to being an MP) he became a member of the Government or if he changed Government responsibilities.

Hugh Childers served as First Lord of the Admiralty in the Liberal Government. He had issued orders enforcing the Contageous Diseases Acts in Naval Ports. He now had to seek re-election because his Government duties changed.

His own Pontefract constituency included a newly designated military depot. So it was significant to the repealers. Unfortunately things seem to have been done in a bit of a rush. The repealers failed to put up an candidate. They still went ahead with a campaign to dent the majority of the sitting MP.

With three days notice Josephine was telegrammed and asked to attend the campaign.

Childers printed handbills one morning to say that he had refused to meet the repealers. It appears that by the afternoon the repeallers had had their own handbill printed declaring that "He is afraid to meet us" and calling on the women of Pontefract to assemble for a meeting.

The repealers meetings in the constituency were being broken up by mobs. There was also the problem that the repealers had difficulty in finding anyone who would rent them a hall.

In order to reduce the likelihood that a mob would disrupt their meetings, the repealers organised their meetings at the same time as Childers.

Only men could vote. Josephine's formidable campaigning tactic was to reach the men through their wives. She therefore held many meetings for women.

I now would like to quote Josephine's own account of the women's meeting which was held during the Pontefract by-election. It is a long quotation, but it gives a strong flavour of the sort of thing that the campaigners were up against.

"At last we found a large hay-loft over an empty room on the outskirts of the town. We could only ascend to it by means of a kind of ladder, leading through a trap-door in the floor. However, the place was large enough to hold a good meeting, and was soon filled. Mr. Stuart had run on in advance and paid for the room in his own name, and had again looked in to see that all was right. He found the floor strewn with cayenne pepper in order to make it impossible for us to speak, and there were some bundles of straw in the empty room below. He got a poor woman to help him, and with bucket of water they managed to drench the floor and sweep together the cayenne pepper. Still, when we arrived, it was very unpleasant for eyes and throat. We began our meeting with prayer, and the women were listening to our words with increasing determination never to forsake the good cause, when a smell of burning was perceived, smoke began to curl up through the floor, and a threatening noise was heard below at the door. The bundles of straw beneath had been set on fire, and the smoke much annoyed us. Then, to our horror, looking down the room to the trap-door entrance, we saw appearing head after head of men with countenances full of fury; man after man came in, until they crowded the place. There was no possible exit for us, the windows being too high above the ground, and we women were gathered into one end of the room like a flock of sheep surrounded by wolves. Few of these men, we learned were Yorkshire people; they were led on by two persons whose dress was that of gentleman.

It was difficult to describe in words what followed. It was a time which required strong faith and calm courage. Mrs. Wilson and I stood in front of the company of women, side by side. She whispered in my ear, "Now is the time to trust in God; do not let us fear"; and a comforting sense of the Divine presence came to us both. It was not personal violence that we feared so much as the mental pain inflicted by the rage, profanity and obscenity of the men, of their words and their threats. Their language was hideous. They shook their fists in our faces, with volleys of oaths. This continued for some time, and we had no defence or means of escape. Their chief rage was directed at Mrs. Wilson and me. We understood by their language that certain among them had a personal and vested interest in the evil thing we were opposing. It was clear that they understood that "their craft was in danger". The new teaching and revolt of women had stirred up the very depths of hell. We said nothing, for our voices could not have been heard. We simply stood shoulder to shoulder - Mrs. Wilson and I - and waited and endured; and it seemed all the time as if some strong angel were present; for when these men's hands were literally upon us, there were held back by an unseen power. There was among our audience a young Yorkshire woman, strong and stalwart, with bare muscular arms, and a shawl over her head. She dashed forward, fought her way through the crowd of men, and, running as fast as she could, she found Mr. Stuart on the outskirts of Mr. Childers' meeting, and cried to him, "Come! Run! They are killing the ladies." He did run, and came up the ladder stairs into the midst of the crowd. As soon, however, as they perceived that he was our defender, they turned upon him. A strong man seized him in his arms; another opened the window; and they were apparently about to throw him headlong out. Some of us ran forward between him and the window, thus just giving him time to slip from between the man's arms on to the floor, and glide away to the side where we were. He then asked to be allowed to say a few words to them, and, with good temper and coolness, he argued that he had taken the room, that it was his, and if they would kindly let the ladies go he would hear what they had to say. A fierce argument ensued. Meanwhile stones were thrown into the window, and broken glass flew across the room. While all this was going on (it seemed to us like hours of horrible endurance), hope came at last, in the shape of two or three helmeted policemen, whose heads appeared one by one through the trap-door. "Now," we thought "we are safe!" But no! There were Metro-politicians who had come from London for the occasion of the election; they simply looked at the scene with a cynical smile, and left the place without an attempt to defend us. My heart grew sick as I saw them disappear. Our case seemed now to become desperate. Mrs. Wilson and I whispered to each other in the midst of the din, "Let us ask God to help us, and then make a rush for the entrance." Two or three working women placed themselves in front of us, and we pushed our way, I scarcely know how, to the stairs. It was only myself and one or two other ladies that the men really cared to insult and terrify, so if we could get away we felt sure the rest would be safe. I made a dash forward and took one leap from the trap-door to the ground-floor below. Being light, I came down safely. I found Mrs. Wilson with me very soon in the street. Once in the open street, these cowards did not dare to offer us violence. We went straight to our own hotel, and there we had a magnificent women's meeting. Such a revulsion of feeling came over the inhabitants of Pontefract when they heard of this disgraceful scene that they flocked to hear us, many of the women weeping. We were advised to turn the lights low, and close the windows, on account of the mob; but the hotel was literally crowded with women, and we scarcely needed to speak; events had spoken for us, and all honest hearts were won."


Went the voting in by-election was announced, one third of the electorate of 2,000 abstained and Childers majority was cut from 233 to 80.

This created a national sensation in the press. Newspapers vigorously denounced the repealers.

After the Pontefract by election Josephine and her fellow campaigners set new organisations to influence the Parliamentary candidates. The aim of the new electoral machine was in Josephine's words to "make these fellows afraid of us (26).

This new organisation came too late for the 1874 election. The Liberals lost power to the Conservatives.

But in 1874 a very significant event occurred. James Stansfeld a renown Liberal Party politician decided to resign from the front bench to help repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts. Although not a Christian believer himself he faithfully supported Josephine in her campaign.


The long campaign at home and abroad

In 1875 a backbench MP, Mr Charley introduced a private members' bill to raise the age of consent to 14 as unanimously recommended by the Royal Commission four years earlier. Unfortunately the Commons voted to increase the age of consent only to 13.

Throughout their lives, the Butlers would often take holidays abroad. Both George and Josephine were capable linguists. Josephine's sister lived in Naples and she developed many friends across Europe because her campaigning work.

Many other nations were implementing legislation to regulate prostitution on the same basis as that in France and Britain.

Josephine was a great international networker. On holiday should could often not resist the temptation of holding campaign meetings in the towns she visited.

The Ladies' National Association asked Josephine to open correspondence with anti-regulationists in every European Nation. This she did. As a result a whole series of international congresses were convened in the years ahead.

The first meeting was held in Liverpool in 1875. In 1877 there was to be an international congress was convened in Geneva. These gave valuable opportunities for sharing evidence and giving scientific papers. It was becoming increasingly clear that the buying and selling of young girls was happening on an organised basis across countries. This was to become known as the "White Slave Trade".


Winchester, 1882

Such was their expenditure on their rescue work that the Butlers have been unable to save anything whilst they were at Liverpool. When George decided to retire in 1882 they were concerned about how they would pay their bills.

Unbeknown to them Henry Wilson had contacted their friends to set up a fund to help give them an income in retirement. They read of the gift and their hearts were "filled to overflowing with wonder and gratitude".(27)

They also had more good news. Gladstone, the Prime Minister wrote to George to say that he had proposed with Queen Victoria's sanction, that he be appointed to be a Canon of Winchester Cathedral.

After 12 years in Liverpool, the Butlers moved to Winchester. Josephine was to be much nearer Parliament. Her most demanding years were still ahead of her.


The death-blow for the CD Acts, 1883

A national day of fasting and prayer was called early in 1883. This was heavily advertised in the national press.

Charles Hopwood MP attempted to move a motion on 27 February
"That this House disapproves of the compulsory examination of women under the Contagious Diseases Acts." (28)

Several large prayer meetings were called.

Josephine had successfully lobbied MPs for the right of Ladies to hear the debate. She went up to the Ladies' Gallery in the House of Commons at 4pm so that she could relay news to the prayer meeting where 200 Ladies had gathered kneeling down to pray in a large room in the Westminster Palace Hotel.

In the event the Charles Hopwood's motion was obstructed by supporters of the Acts. They had spun out the earlier Parliamentary business so that there was no time for the motion to be heard.

An effective message was getting through to Constituents. One MP said that he had received 500 letters in one day urging him to vote for repeal.

After the motion was blocked ten sympathetic MPs immediately put their names into a ballot to secure time to move a motion. In the event James Stansfeld won the ballot. The debate was held on 20 April 1883. Stansfeld gave a very powerful speech. The division was called just after midnight.

Josephine sat in the Ladies' Gallery. The House was completely silent. As the MPs emerged from having voted, Josephine looked at the expression on Stansfeld's and Hopwood's faces which were "lighted up by such joy and surprise at the great and complete victory won after so many years of hard conflict, sorrow and disappointment"

A huge cheer went up went the vote was read out. They had won by 182 to 110. Josephine ran down the stairs from the Ladies' Gallery. Stansfeld was there waiting for her with tears streaming down his face.

As a result of the victory the operation of the Acts was immediately suspended. The press said it was the death blow for the Acts. And so it proved. The Government attempted to salvage some of parts of the legislation, but a General Election intervened in 1885. Gladstone lost power in favour of the Conservative administration headed by Lord Salisbury.

In that election great efforts were made to obtain promises from the candidates that they would vote for repeal. A large number of repeal candidates were elected. On 16th March 1886 James Stansfeld moved a motion calling for immediate repeal of the Acts. He won by 114 votes. Two days later he introduced a Bill to repeal the legislation. It sailed through both Houses of Parliament and received Royal Assent on 15th April 1886.

In the sixteen year campaign to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts a total of over 900 public meetings were organised, 520 book and pamphlets on prostitution were published and well over 17,000 petitions with over 2 million signatories had been collected. (29)


The age of consent

While all this was going on Josephine was already working on her next campaign as well as setting up a brand new refuge for prostitutes in Winchester.

A former brothel manager, Rebecca Jarrett, had become a Christian. She had had a very sad childhood. Her mother had rented her out to men as a prostitute from the age of 12. She left home at 15 or 16 and lived with a succession of lovers whilst managing brothels. Her speciality was procuring young girls to work in brothels. Rebecca knew all about buying girls for a few pounds from their parents or abducting them from public parks.

After coming to faith Rebecca proved to be a very effective witness to other prostitutes. She ran the refuge at Winchester organising daily prayer meetings and Bible studies for the nine ex-prostitutes who lived in the refuge. Every Sunday girls from the brothels in Winchester would be invited to tea. She also ran a nightly outreach work.

Josephine knew that this white slave trade had to be stopped. A key objective was to raise the age of consent from 13 to 16. This had been backed by the House of Lords on several occasions but each time the move had been scuppered in the House of Commons.

Campaigners also wanted pass a whole raft of other legislation to prevent the abduction of children.

The Jeffries Case

Josephine and her campaigners were constantly told that they should seek to enforce the law as it stood with the age of consent at 13. An Inspector Minahan from Scotland Yard had taken a personal interest in supporting the campaign. After having been sacked for his stance against prostitution, he started investigating one of the leading brothel owners in London, a Mrs Jeffries from Chelsea.

Due to a providential accident, a letter to Mrs Jeffries had been sent to the wrong address. Another Mrs Jeffries in Chelsea opened a letter which she thought was addressed to her. The letter was from the King of Belgium. It was a request to buy a girl. The letter was passed to campaigners.

On further investigation it appeared that there was evidence that the King of Belgium bought around 100 virgin girls a year. Evidence was obtained showing that other clients of Mrs Jeffries included MPs, Princes, Dukes, and Government Ministers.

Two Cheslea residents complained to the police about the brothel. Under the law, this triggered a prosecution. Campaigners were looking forward to the trial when all the evidence would come out in open court.

Unfortunately when the case got to court, it was abruptly called to a halt by the Magistrate. Mrs Jeffries pleaded guilty and was let off with what was for her a token fine of £200.

Christians up and down the land scented a conspiracy on the part of the rich and the powerful.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a keen supporter of Josephine's campaigns. He preached against corruption in the judiciary on 7 June 1885 saying:
"Deep is our shame when we know that our judges are not clear in this matter, but social purity has been put to the blush by magistrates of no mean degree; yes it is said that the courts of justice have lent themselves to the covering and hushing up of the iniquities of the great" (30)

Josephine was appalled that the press would not publish the evidence against Mrs Jeffries and her clients. She said that this led to "the perpetuation of the most cruel and murderous tyranny" against defenceless young children. (31)

The Secret Commission

Josephine teamed up with William Stead flamboyant editor of the Pall Mall Gazette and Bramwell Booth son of William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army.

WT Stead was from the North East of England. He had previously been editor of the Northern Echo. Stead had suggested that they set up a secret commission to investigate child prostitution.

They needed to prove a number of allegations: that children could be bought from their mothers; that so-called midwives operated to prove a girl's virginity and to provide drugs to stupefy the children whilst they were abducted and raped. Finally that there was an organised trade in girls from Britain to the Continent.

In July 1885 Josephine and her son Georgie had dressed up in disguise and spent ten days walking the streets of London to gather evidence on what she called "the crimes of the aristocracy". She posed as a brother owner and George posed as a client.

Georgie went into high class brothels buying children. They spent a total of £100 buying children during their ten days.

Josephine saw no problem with Rebecca Garrett meeting up with WT Stead. Unbeknown to her Stead had asked Rebecca to help him to show that a girl of thirteen could be bought from her parents and smuggled to the continent.

Rebecca was very reluctant to go back to her old brothel contacts in order to help. Stead prevailed upon her, and she agreed.

Rebecca met up with a procuress called Nancy Broughton. For the fee of £4 she arranged for Rebecca to meet Mrs Armstrong who agreed to sell her daughter Eliza for £1. The Armstrongs had six children and lived in a slum. On 3 June the bargain was made. Rebecca took Eliza away and Mrs Armstrong drank the proceeds of the sale.

As part of Stead's plot, Eliza stayed in night with Rebecca in room in a lodging house which was frequented by prostitutes.

Within two days Eliza was in Paris. She was put into service with a Christian couple as arranged by Bramwell Booth.

Stead now had all the evidence he wanted.

On Saturday 4 July the Pall Mall Gazette announced that it was going to run a week's exposé. "Therefore we say quite frankly today that all those who are squeamish, and all those who are prudish and all those who prefer to live in a fools' paradise of imaginary innocence and purity, selfishly oblivious to the horrible realities which torment those whose lives are passed in the London inferno, will do well not to read the Pall Mall Gazette…."

Stead promised "an authentic record of unimpeachable facts, abominable, unutterable and worse than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived". (32)

When publication day came on Monday 6th July, Stead's offices were surrounded with people jostling for copies of the paper. The public reaction was extraordinary.

Josephine had personally supplied much of the evidence to Stead, but he had also done his own research. Stead had purchased seven girls between the ages of 14 and 18.A prominent MP offered to sell him virgins at £25 each. A procuress told Stead that she had a regular order from a prominent London doctor: 3 girls a fortnight from £5 to £7 each.

The story about Eliza figured prominently. 'A child of thirteen brought for £5'. For the purposes of the story her name was changed to Lily and one or two other details were changed.

Josephine was overjoyed that the upper classes were being exposed.

Spontaneous public meetings of outrage were being held all over the country from London, to Newcastle, Plymouth, Sunderland, Jarrow and Liverpool. Thousands of people attended the meetings. The Government felt that it had to do something.

By Thursday 9th July the Government acted. The age of consent legislation was given a swift second reading. It sailed through all its stages and became law on 10 August 1885.

The age of consent for girls was raised from 13 to 16, the same law we have today.

But that was not all. The Attorney General's Office had been forced to draft Clauses to put into law the entire demands of the campaigners. When the Bill passed a whole raft of new laws were put on the statute book to protect children and suppress brothels. It was a complete and total victory for the campaigners.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act (1885)
  • Raised the age of consent from 13 to 16
  • Made it a criminal offence to procure girls for prostitution by threats, fraud or administering drugs
  • Punished householders permitting under-age sex on their premises
  • Made it a criminal offence to abduct a girl under 18 for the purposes of carnal knowledge
  • Made it a criminal offence to detain a girl without her consent for the purposes of carnal knowledge
  • Gave magistrates power to issue search warrants to find missing females
  • Gave power to the court to remove a girl from her legal guardians if they condoned her seduction
  • Provided for summary proceedings to be taken against brothels.

It is often made out that all this was accomplished by Stead in the space of just four days press coverage. Certainly the reporting was important, but it served as the trigger for a national outburst of pent-up indignation which had been steadily growing thanks to the work of Josephine Butler and her fellow campaigners.

When all the excitement had died down, there was to be a very nasty sting in the tail. Neighbours of Mrs Armstrong, the mother who had sold her daughter, had cottoned on to the fact that the story about Lily was actually a story about her own daughter Eliza. They taunted her that she had sold her daughter to the well known brothel owner Nancy Broughton. She had only got £1 and Nancy had got £4!

Mrs Armstrong was angry. She went to the police and claimed that she had not consented to her daughter leaving the house.

There can be no doubt that some politicians, maybe even including the Attorney General, wanted to wreak revenge on WT Stead.

The Times and other newspapers seized upon their opportunity to discredit their rival newspaper the Pall Mall Gazette. The good name of Britain's upper classes had been besmirched by Stead. The Times actively campaigned for Stead to be prosecuted.

The Government duly obliged. On 2 September prosecutions were brought against WT Stead, Rebecca Jarrett and Bramwell Booth for the assault and abduction of Eliza Armstrong without the agreement of her parents.

A show trial followed in October. The Attorney General himself conducted the prosecution. Stead conducted his own defence.

The verdict came in November. Bramwell Booth was acquitted. Rebecca was given six months without hard labour. Stead was sentenced to three months in jail. The harsher sentence was given to Rebecca because she gave the wrong addresses for some of her former associates. She probably wanted to protect them because she was afraid. She also gave other confused evidence which prosecuting Counsel was easily able to take advantage of.

The jury were in great difficulty. They believed that Rebecca and Stead had committed a technical misdemeanour, but had acted entirely from good motives.

It later emerged that Mr Armstrong was not the father of Eliza at all. Mrs Armstrong had clearly consented to the sale of her daughter, but the man called Mr Armstrong was her lover not her husband. If Mr Armstrong had been exposed as a fraud the prosecution case would have collapsed.

Stead had always insisted that he should take all the blame. He had made three serious mistakes. Firstly he got the law wrong. The agreement of both parents was needed, not just Mrs Armstrong. Secondly he had put Rebecca in a very difficult position. Thirdly he changed some of the facts of the story.

It is no wonder that many people believe that Stead is the founder of modern journalism. People are still arguing over the rights and wrongs of what Stead did.

Josephine stood by Rebecca. She also stood by Stead despite her own doubts about his unstable character and vanity.

Stead seems to have been treated very well whilst in prison. He confessed "Never had I a pleasanter holiday, a more charming season of repose". Despite this Stead's Christmas card played up his martyrdom.

Eliza was returned by the Salvation Army to her parents. Rebecca went to work for the Salvation Army and Stead wrote a book rather arrogantly entitled My First Imprisonment. He asked the Governor whether he could keep his prison uniform. The Governor agreed, and on the anniversary of his conviction every year Stead would dress up in his prison clothes.

Stead certainly attended many prayer meetings during the campaigns, but it seems unlikely that he himself was a believer. Certainly William Booth did not think so.

Stead was to die on the Titanic disaster of 1912.


The work done

George served as a Canon of Winchester Cathedral. He had faithfully supported Josephine in all her campaigns and had spoken at many meetings himself.

George died in 1890. For the rest of her life she tended to wear a widow's black dress.

After several months rest she began slowly to re-start her campaigning work again. Josephine decided to write a book about her husband.

One immediate consequence of George dying was that Josephine became homeless. In the years ahead Josephine moved between a number of temporary addresses in London. She lived with her sister, then with each of her three sons.

This is a picture of a family gathering in 1887. In 1901 she resigned from all public duties. Then in 1903 she moved back to Wooler.

There she wrote Personal reminiscences of a great crusade. Much of this book focuses on the abolitionist cause abroad.

Josephine knew that many of the footsoldiers in her campaign had been converted in the great spiritual revival which was underway at the time. Even though so many, particularly in the working classes, had been converted, there was an establishment or an elite which refused to budge.

All her life Josephine fought against the fashionable experts in medicine and the police. We need to do this today.

She stood up to the entire medical establishment. Josephine along with some courageous doctors broke the consensus into smithereens, but it took 16 years.

When the Contageous Diseases Acts were introduced 26.1% of soldiers had VD in any one year. When the Acts were suspended it was 26%. No change at all. In fact there is every reason to believe that the rate would have fallen but for the legislation.

A Royal Commission of 1913 noted that the disease rates in the Army and Navy fell after the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts. In fact they plummeted to 6%. During the First War only 4% of soldiers had VD.

Tolerance zones for prostitution were outlawed in 1886 thanks to Josephine Butler. Now there are calls by "experts" to bring them back in again. They already operate in some cities.

If she had been alive today, I suspect that Josephine would have been a fierce critic of damage limitation or harm reduction approaches where young people are told how to take drugs safely or how to have safe sex.

Josephine died in December 1906. She was buried in a simple grave outside Kirknewton Parish Church. After her death, small plaque was erected over the doorway of her house which still stands in Queen's Road in Wooler.

The fruits of her labours continued after she died. Most nations in Europe repealed their Contagious Diseases Acts.

Josephine Butler was a great believer in prayer. Those who knew her said that she loved the Bible. Josephine is an outstanding example to us all of Christian courage, determination and faithfulness. She was a robust campaigner precisely because she was such a compassionate carer.


References

1. Moberly Bell, E Josephine Butler, Constable, 1962, page 17
2.Jordan, J Josephine Butler, John Murray, 2001, page 10
3.Jordan, J Op cit, page 8
4. Ibid page 9
5. Ibid, page 19
6. Butler J The Hour Before Dawn, page 95 cited in Petrie, G A Singular Inquity, Macmillan, 1971, page 185
7. Johnson GW and L Autobiographical Memoir published as Prefatory Biographical Note in Butler, J E Personal Reminiscences of a Great Crusade, 1911 (Reprinted 1989, Hyperion Press, Westport, Connecticut), page xiii-xiv
8. Jordan, J Op cit, page 28
9. Ibid, page 51
10 .Moberly Bell, E Op cit, page 46
11. Jordan, J Op cit, page 58
12. Ibid, page 65
13. Ibid, page 67
14. Ibid, page 72
15. Ibid, page 76
16. Moberly Bell, E Op cit, page 71
17. Quoted in Fisher, Trevor, Scandal : The Sexual Politics of Late Victorian Britain, Allan Sutton Publishing, 1995, page 13
18. Fawcett, M G and Turner E M Josephine Butler: Her work and principles and their meaning for the Twentieth Century, 1927 (Reprinted 2002, Portrayer Publishers, Warrington), page 136
19. Jordan, J Op cit, page 109
20. Ibid, page 109
21. Quoted in Butler, J E Op cit, page 10
22. Fawcett, M G and Turner E M Op cit, page 59
23. Fawcett, M G and Turner E M Op cit, page 61
24. Quoted in Petrie, G A Singular Inquity, Macmillan, 1971, page 117
25. Moberly Bell, E Op cit, page 97
26. Fischer, T Op cit, page 29
27. Jordan, J Op cit, page 204
28. Ibid, page 214
29. Hewitt, P Women in Public: The Women's Movement 1850-1900, George Allen & Unwin, page 199
30. Stafford, A The Age of Consent, Hodder and Stoughton, 1964, page 146
31. Jordan, J Op cit, page 222
32. Fischer, T Op cit, page 67

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