Nature Corner

Moths. Also, record shots of wildlife seen on our walks in the West Midlands.

[Nature Corner @CornerForNature]

This is an astonishing story. Why does stuff like this not make it into film/TV drama?

[Lily Craven @TheAttagirls]

Never before have I devoted two consecutive days to one Woman of the Day, but Josephine Butler, born 198 years ago yesterday in Milfield, Northumberland, is an honourable exception. Even this, my second post about her, doesn’t touch on her tireless campaigning for women’s suffrage and for better education for girls.

Today is about the widespread scandal that confronted her when she was trying to extricate women from the steel jaws of steel rape.

Child prostitution.

In the 1870s and 1880s, there was a lucrative and lively trade to the Continent in the trafficking of British girls as young as 12 to European brothels. There was no point in appealing to the police over there. They were part of the problem. In fact, Josephine was instrumental in securing the removal from office of a Belgian chief of police. She filed a deposition and sent it to both the Procureur du Roi (Chief Prosecutor) and the British Home Secretary. As a result, the deputy police chief and twelve brothel owners complicit in a conspiracy of kidnapping, trafficking and child rape, were tried and imprisoned — but the practice still flourished.

“Economics lie at the very root of practical morality."

For ten years, Josephine had relentlessly campaigned for the age of consent to be raised from 13, to no avail. There were too many men far too keenly interested in young girls held in brothels — virgins attracted a special premium — for the lethargic government to act. It was time to go public.

“We all feel now that the time is come when we must appeal to the judgement of the public, so as to bring the condemnation of public opinion to bear upon these men, seeing that our laws give us no hold whatever upon them, and are not likely to do, so long as our legislators continue to refuse us the small boon we ask.”

Josephine enlisted the help of William Stead, influential crusading editor of the Pall Mall Gazette. Stead, whose own mother had campaigned against the Contagious Diseases Acts. He ran a series of highly controversial articles about child prostitution — an early form of investigative journalism — and to illustrate his point, purchased a 13 year old girl named Eliza Armstrong from her mother for £5 on 3 June 1885.

Eliza was taken to a London brothel. chloroformed, examined by a midwife to confirm her virginity, examined by a doctor — I know, I know. It was all part of a staged demonstration — and spirited away to a safe foster home in France with the help of Florence Booth of the Salvation Army.

The newspaper articles threw Victorians into a state of moral panic. They pulled no punches, none at all. Copies changed hands for twenty times their original value and the office was besieged by 10,000 members of the public. Public demand was so great that the Gazette's supply of paper ran out and had to be replenished with supplies from the rival Globe.

On 16 July 1885, shortly after the articles appeared, Josephine capitalised on the public outrage by delivering a major speech at Exeter Hall in London, and calling once again for greater protection for young girls, and the raising of the age of consent. This helped to sustain public pressure on Parliament, which had little choice but to revisit a stalled bill.

On 14 August 1885, Parliament bowed to pressure and passed the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. It raised the age of consent for girls from 13 to 16; criminalised the procurement of girls for prostitution via threats, fraud, or drugs; outlawed the abduction of girls under 18 for carnal knowledge; strengthened measures against brothels; and allowed greater police and court intervention to protect minors.

What happened to Stead? He was tried at the Old Bailey. Eliza’s father objected to the £5 being handed to his wife, when in law, both mother and daughter were HIS property. The judge and jury agreed and sentenced Stead to three months for abduction on technical grounds.

And how about Eliza? She was provided with education and training in domestic service, and some years later, wrote to Stead to thank him for saving her from her certain fate.

She was the inspiration for George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, by the way.

Josephine turned her attention to the next big scandal: India, where a British Major-General had issued standing orders for local girls — some as young as 11 — to be kept in special accommodation near Army camps, examined regularly (steel rape again) and for local commanders to ensure “the provision of a sufficient number of women, [and] to take care that they are sufficiently attractive” for the comfort of soldiers.

She compared the girls to slaves and raised such a stink about it that public outrage forced the House of Commons to pass a unanimous resolution repealing the legislation and order the Indian government to stop the practice.

During the course of her activism, Josephine Butler wrote more than 90 books and pamphlets, travelled countless miles around Britain and the world, changed the way feminists and suffragists conducted future struggles, and brought into the political fray groups of people that had never been active before.

That’s why she was hailed by Millicent Fawcett as "the most distinguished Englishwoman of the nineteenth century".

I think it’s about time a statue of Josephine Butler adorned the empty plinth in Parliament Square, along with her inspiring quote:

“God and one woman make a majority".

[Nature Corner @CornerForNature]

@LoveGrowingVeg Nice moth

[Nature Corner @CornerForNature]

Lots of Heart and Dart, Dark Arches, plus Spectacles, LYU, Small Magpie Ingrailed Clay (all not pictured)

[Nature Corner @CornerForNature]

Really delighted with this Green Silver-lines, a NFG

[Nature Corner @CornerForNature]

Cabbage moth

[Nature Corner @CornerForNature]

@LibDems No, your attitude to women voters will put Farage in Number 10

[Nature Corner @CornerForNature]

Knot Grass caterpillar

[Nature Corner @CornerForNature]

Dryad's Saddle

[Nature Corner @CornerForNature]

@JoshFG Ha ha, you're no better than Reform, wanting to take away the law that protects women's spaces

[Nature Corner @CornerForNature]

@soppystern @Keir_Starmer 👏

[Caroline Lucas @CarolineLucas]

Good news! Ministers have finally given green light to new #NaturalHistory GCSE. Big hats off to tireless advocate Mary Colwell 🙌 Now young people will be able to get to know & love the natural world & gain vital skills to protect it @curlewcalls🌷🌳 🦅🦡 https://t.co/UZ9jvqHGaH

[Nature Corner @CornerForNature]

@ShropshireWild1 @ActionHare @ProtectTheWild_ Scum

[Nature Corner @CornerForNature]

@JamesEsses Congratulations

[James Bashford @wrenandbee]

Small Elephant Hawkmoth 💕
#NatureWithin

[Nature Corner @CornerForNature]

@MarburyBirds I love the raven chat

[Nature Corner @CornerForNature]

@TempleBalsall Excellent. Mother Shipton?