notoriously debauched to avail themselves of the toleration offered by the police.

Originally, little attention seems to have been paid to the checking of the growth of vice. But there has been an increasing tendency to refuse the registration of minors. While this cannot be done in every case, minors are registered much less frequently now than formerly. The tenants of licensed houses are forbidden to admit boys under eighteen, or students of the various higher schools. Great care is also exercised in making it easy for a woman who desires to reform to do so.

The control of prostitution is given over almost entirely to a body of special agents who form a part of the general secret service. The ordinary police have nothing to do with prostitution, except in case of gross violation of public decency or public order. Between forty and fifty agents are required for this service. They must, of course, be men of great tact, they must be men upon whom reliance may be placed, since any mistake they may make entails the most serious consequences.

The medical service consisted in 1890 of a chief and assistant-chief surgeon, fourteen surgeons in ordinary, and ten adjunct surgeons. They are assigned to various quarters of the city, changing at intervals by regular rotation.

The first thing that strikes the student of the Parisian system is the weakness of its legal basis. Since the Revolution, no general laws on the sub

ject of prostitution have been made. The Penal Code does not touch upon it. The police are therefore compelled to go back to the ordinances of 1684, 1713, 1768, and 1778 for their authority to regulate vice. According to these ordinances, prostitution was a crime, which the lieutenant of police could punish at his discretion. Clandestine prostitution is still punished according to those ordinances.'

The modern police are not, however, the successors to the powers of the lieutenant of police under the ancien régime. The lieutenant of police could pass sentence if his royal master authorised him to do so.

The modern police commissary has no power to sentence a criminal; yet he appears to assume such an authority with regard to the so-called crime of debauch.

Another legal prop for the service of morals is the law of 1789 constituting the municipalities. By this law, the municipalities are assured the advantages of a good police system. The exact powers of the police are not enumerated, but by a law of 1790 it is specified that the police are to maintain public order and decency and to protect public health. It is assumed that this implies a system of police regulation of prostitution."

There have been numerous attempts to pass general laws with regard to prostitution. In 1 Cf. Réglement du 13 Novembre, 1843, Sec. 7.

Lecour, op. cit., 29.

1811 and in 1816, in 1819 and in 1823, eminent administrators, lawyers, and statesmen attempted to formulate special laws that would be appropriate to so delicate a subject. The task had to be abandoned, however. It was impossible to devise a law at once efficient and just. And so the police have continued to take matters into their own hands, changing their regulations from time to time to suit the exigencies of the occasion.

Doubtless the service of morals has gained rather than lost by the flexibility thus attained. But the lack of any other than a fictitious legal basis has always been a point of attack for the opponents of the system. While some of the supporters of the system of regulation acquiesce in the absence of general laws, believing it beneath the dignity of the State to notice a subject which is the cause of so many cares for the police, the majority would look with favour upon any measure which would free the police from the serious charge of illegal usurpation of powers.

CHAPTER IV

REGULATION IN BERLIN AND IN OTHER CITIES OF EUROPE

Berlin.-The Reformation and the great social and economic movements that were connected with it wrought a complete change in the character of the city of Berlin. From a conservative mediæval town, in which every person had his fixed place, it had become a large and wealthy city. The old regulations concerning vice had been quite outgrown. Although the old regulations, abolished at the time of the Reformation, were restored when the religious ardour had cooled, prostitution was no longer easily controlled by them. It had increased greatly in volume and in complexity. The inference of contemporaries was that the Reformation had thoroughly ruined the morals of society-an inference accepted by not a few modern writers.

In 1700 a system of regulation was adopted which contained the essential features of modern regulation. As one would expect, much was borrowed from the Middle Ages. The principle

of dealing with groups of individuals under a responsible head appears in the provision which makes the keeper of the brothel responsible for the conduct of the inmates of his house. If any outrage were perpetrated, such as assault or robbery, the keeper had to make good the damage done. If a woman, known to be diseased, transmitted the malady, the keeper had to stand the costs of treatment. In this way it was thought possible to restrain effectively all tendency toward disorder.

For the sake of preserving the health not only of the prostitutes, but also of their visitors, an official surgeon was to examine them fortnightly. Those who were found to be diseased were to be confined to their rooms, if the malady were slight; if it were grave, they were to be sent to the Charity Hospital. This feature of the regulation is of course distinctly a modern innovation.

Another thing that strikes one as distinctly modern is the declaration that prostitution is not permitted, but tolerated-a bit of sophistry which marks a distinct advance over the naïve view of the Middle Ages. Instead of the mediæval tax upon prostitutes as the possessors of a lucrative trade, we find a fee of two groschen for medical examination. This, too, is modern. It shows that even then there was a feeling that it was dishonourable for the State to accept the earnings of so foul a trade, excepting for the expenditure of