Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 - The Bill Languishes

The Bill Languishes

The Bill for the amendment of the law took four years to bring to completion. It began when Benjamin Scott, the anti-vice campaigner and Chamberlain of the City of London, approached Lord Granville to enact legislation for the protection of young girls from transportation to the Continent for "immoral purposes". In response, the House of Lords formed a Select Committee to investigate and confirmed an increase in child prostitution and white slavery. The Committee's report made nine recommendations which became the basis for the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, including raising the age of consent to sixteen years as well as increased penalties for sexual offenses.

The Bill passed easily in the House of Lords in 1883, but was dropped in the House of Commons. It was reintroduced in 1884 but was again dropped during the struggle over Parliamentary reform. In April 1885, the Earl of Dalhousie tempted fate by reintroducing the Bill a third time. While the Bill passed smoothly through the Lords in May — albeit with some revisions, most notably lowering the age of consent to fifteen — it again faced an uphill battle in the Commons, who were preparing to disband for the Whit Week bank holiday on 22 May 1884 and thus rather indifferent to the Bill. In addition, many Members of Parliament were opposed to the measure, citing the curtailment of civil liberties through its increase of police powers.

Despite the effort of the Home Secretary, Sir William Harcourt, to move for a second reading of the Bill, no vote was taken on the measure by the time Parliament was adjourned on 22 May 1884. Supporters of Bill by that time feared that the Bill would again be put aside and decided to take drastic action.

These fears apparently became real when Gladstone's government resigned over the budget. A minority caretaker government was formed under Lord Salisbury pending the holding of the general election later that year. As a result, it was deemed that no time-consuming or controversial measure be undertaken until then.