Definition of a Common Prostitute.

I am, however, far from considering the insertion of any such clause a necessity, as it is a most remote possibility that any woman should be charged with being a common prostitute, unless her conduct was notoriously and openly bad, and it is obvious that any distinct statement of the acts that shall render a woman liable to be included in the class supplies, by the definition, the means of evasion. It is worthy of remark, that the number of women, returned by the police, as common prostitutes, reaches to little more than (5000, though the metropolis is believed to contain an infinitely greater number of vicious women. This shows the strong reluctance that exists on the part of the police, to include in such page 13 a category any but the most abandoned. It also shows that there are certain women, whose number is far from inconsiderable, whose profligate mode of life is open and undisguised, and admits of no reasonable doubt. These at least may be dealt with by this act, and we may, I think, lay it down as a general rule, that it is reasonable to treat as a common prostitute every woman who can be shown to be an habitual street walker, or frequenter of casinos and similar places of resort, or in the habit of hiring herself out to different men, and every woman known to resort to houses of accommodation, and whom no respectable man will acknowledge as cither wife or mistress.