2. That it be made a criminal act to procure young persons for
The Salvation Army demanded that the Bill be passed forthwith, and that four provisions be included. These were:
1. Protection for children, boys and girls, to the end of their seventeenth year.
2. That it be made a criminal act to procure young persons for immoral purposes.
3. That parents or guardians be given the right of a search-warrant to recover children from brothels.
4, Equality of men and women before the law, that is, that it should be an offence for men to solicit women.
In The War Cry of July 18, 1885, a petition was printed which people were asked to sign.:Copies were displayed in every corps. In only seventeen days 393,000 signatures were received. These were made into a gigantic roll which was taken to Westminster, housed under a Noah's ark-like roof on a dray drawn by four white horses. This contraption, accompanied by marching Salvationists, set out from the Congress Hall, Clapton, and proceeded to Trafalgar Square whence, in order to comply with the law forbidding processions within a mile of Westminster, the marchers started on their return journey. Officers in charge of the procession were mounted. The march was headed by a brass band of fifty men playing well-known hymns. A hundred and fifty uniformed Salvation Army "Life Guards" marched in close formation, with a number of less marshalled Salvationists, including
"ranks of English Mothers". In Cheapside they were loudly cheered.
The dray was driven on to Westminster. There, eight Salvation Life Guards in red jerseys and white helmets carried the petition into the House of Commons, across the floor, and deposited it by the table near the mace. Members stood to get a view of the unique apparition.
Professor Stuart, M.P. for Hackney, presented the petition. The police were helpful and friendly, in particular the Chief of Police at the House of Commons.
The Bill, the Criminal Law Amendment Act, passed the House of Commons early in August with the Army's demand for the age of protection reduced from seventeen to the end of the fifteenth year, and the law has since remained unchanged. Thanksgiving meetings were held in Exeter Hall, amid much enthusiasm. The General said that although they had not got all they wanted, they were there to "sound the note of triumph". The Army Mother declared,
"I look upon the Bill as a first instalment of a long and heavy debt of justice due to women. The age of sixteen to eighteen years is the most dangerous for our girls and boys and the law must be altered further yet."** Had she lived it is possible, one feels, that young girls might not still be destroyed with impunity in these vital years.