The following letter by William Morris refer to the St. James\u27s Hall Conference and Hyde Park demonstration of August 21 and 22, 1885. The letter is not in []orman Kelvin\u27 The Collected Letters of William Morris, 3 vol. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984t but appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette, August 19, 1885, p. 12..

Meyers, Terry L.

English

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W&M ScholarWorks Arts & Sciences Articles Arts and Sciences 2003 William Morris on Prostitution: A Letter of August 17, 1885 Terry L. Meyers College of William and Mary, tlmeye@wm.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/aspubs  Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Meyers, Terry L., William Morris on Prostitution: A Letter of August 17, 1885 (2003). https://scholarworks.wm.edu/aspubs/380 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts and Sciences at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Articles by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact scholarworks@wm.edu. Victorians Institute Journal is an annual publication of studies in Victorian literature, art, and culture. 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Meyers William Morris on Prostitution: A Letter of August 17, 1885 David Latane An Unnoticed Really Bad Review of Browning's Strafford Reviews and Review-essays 211 Paula Marantz Cohen Rev. of Victorian Literature and the Anorexic Body by Anna Krugovoy Silver 213 Susan Hamilton Rev. of The Theological and Ethical Writings of Frances Power Cobbe, 1822-1904 by Sandra J. Peacock 219 Leila S. May Rev. of The Flirt's Tragedy: Desire Without End in Victorian and Edwardian Fiction by Richard A. Kaye 225 Sally Mitchell Rev. of Chastity and Transgression in Women's Writing, 1792-1897: Interrupting the Harlot's Progress by Roxanne Eberle 227 Jeffrey Twitchell-Waas Rev. of Victorian Modernism: Pragmatism and the Varieties of Aesthetic Experience by Jessica R. Feldman 231 234 237 241 Adrienne Munich Rev. of Henry and Mary Ponsonby: Life at the Court of Queen Victoria by William N. Kuhn Sophia Andres Rev. of George Eliot: A Bibliographical History by William Baker and John RossAna Vadillo Rev. of Women's Poetry and Religion in Victorian England. Jewish Identity and Christian Culture by Cynthia Scheinberg Notes on Contributors Cover: Michel Faber, illustration for The Crimson Petal and the White, adapted from "The Sisters" by Charles Baxter (1809-1879) William Morris on Prostitution: A Letter of August 17, 1885 Terry L. Meyers College of William and Mary The following letter by William Morri refer to the St. James's Hall Conference and Hyde Park demon tration of August 21 and 22, 1885. The letter i not in orman Kelvin' The Collected Let­ters of William Morris, 3 vol . (Princeton: Princeton Univer ity Press, 1984t but appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette, Augu t 19, 1885, p. 12. The conference and demon tration were being organized, largely by W.T. Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, a part of Stead' " ew Crusade" against pornography, indecency, and pro titution, and in up­port of the Criminal Law Amendment Bill that had just been passed by the Hou e of Commons on August 7, 1885 and accepted by the Hou e of Lords on Augu t 10. Stead wa eager to move forward the campaign be­gun by his famou expo e "The Maiden Tribute of Modem Babylon," and hoped that the meeting and demon tration would help, according to his biographer1 "to generate entiment for purity reforms, to pur individ­ual actions, and to form 'Vigilance Committees' in every town." 1The letter wa printed in the Pall Mall Gazette as one of dozens received by the Demonstration Committee expressing regrets at being unable to attend, participate, or speak-there was, given the season, a "general absence of ladies and gentlemen of influence in town" (p. 11). Morris's letter distinguishes itself by its independence of thought, by its setting the problem of pro titution and its solution in an economic and social context, and by its polite skepticism of some of the dynamics and values behind the movement being celebrated: Kelmscott House, Upper Mall, Hammersmith, August 17. Sir,-The Socialist League is going to have a platform of its own, at which I shall have to speak as in duty bound. But besides that, if you will allow me to define 208 VIJ my position a little closer, I must say that I fear the matter is now being pushed in a wrong direction. I am far from sure as to the wisdom of some of the main provisions of the bill ( though, of course, I am opposed to the Tory and "respectable" opponents of the movement), and I am quite sure that no legislative enactment will touch prostitution as long as the present condition of the people exists; as long, in short, as there are rich and poor classes. I think it is misleading and dangerous to put any other view than this before people, and I especially fear the very possible danger of a Puritan revival obscuring the real causes of this hideous unhappiness. Of course you understand that I have nothing to say against the single-heartedness of most of those engaged in the movement, and that I think they have done good service in exposing the rottenness of society on this point. With many thanks for your kind persistence in asking me to speak, I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully ,  WILLIAM MORRIS. 1 Raymond L. Schults, Crusader in Babylon: W. T. Stead and the Pall Mall Gazette (Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1972), p. 169. Schults provides a detailed account of Stead's campaign on behalf of the Criminal Law Amendment Bill (pp. 128-192); the Pall Mall Gazette of the period is, of course, itself a prime source of further information. 

William Morris on Prostitution: A Letter of August 17, 1885

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William Morris on Prostitution: A Letter of August 17, 1885

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