The Society was founded in 1802 by William Wilberforce following a Royal Proclamation by George III in 1787 (the Proclamation for the Discouragement of Vice). The Obscene Publications Act came into force in September 1857, superseding the 1787 Proclamation. One effect of the Act was to forbid the distribution of information about contraception and human biology to the working classes.
In August 1885, the Society was absorbed into the National Vigilance Association, an organization founded in repsonse to articles exposing child prostitution published by W. T. Stead in the Pall Mall Gazette. Its broader aims were similar to the Society for the Suppression of Vice, stated as being “for the enforcement and improvement of the laws for the repression of criminal vice and public immorality”. Stead became a member of its council.
Michael Ryan in his Prostitution in London (1839) reproduces a long extract from Mr. Wilberforce’s preliminary observations to the Report of the Society for the Suppression of Vice : —
From these, and other considerations, and when, from some peculiar circumstances of the times, publications, prints, &c. of the greatest obscenity had, in the year 1802, become more than commonly numerous, the Society for the Suppression of Vice was established as an auxiliary to the Proclamation Society, which had been formed for the purpose of giving effect to his late Majesty’s (George III.)
most gracious proclamation, then recently issued, against Vice and Immorality ; the Proclamation Society itself having been grounded on the precedent of former similar institutions, which, as has been already stated, had not long before fallen into disuse. The main object of the Proclamation Society, as well as of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, was to carry into effect the laws for the protection of the religion and morals of the country. The Society for the Suppression of Vice was, for some time, greatly indebted to the Parent Institution for considerable donations; but by degrees the members of the Proclamation Society ceased to assemble, and the Institution itself became extinct, in consequence of its being, in a great measure, superseded by the more active operations of the Society for the Suppression of Vice. The Society is supported solely by annual subscriptions and donations, the amount of which is left to the discretion of the contributors. It may not, however, be improper to suggest, that the general Annual Subscription is a Guinea, though other sums of greater and less amount are received ; and, in
compliance with the wishes of many individuals, the names only of the members are printed, omitting the sums subscribed.
The particular objects to which the attention of this Society is directed are as follow ; viz. : —
1. the prevention of the profanation of the Lord’s Day.
2. Blasphemous Publications.
3. Obscene Books, Prints, &c.
4. Disorderly Houses.
5. Fortune Tellers.
1. The profanation of the Lord’s Day.— It is unnecessary, and indeed scarcely possible, to point out how
essentially the cause of religion and morality suffers, by the prevalence of such an offence. It is, in fact, the unanimous opinion of all our ablest moralists, that, on the decent and orderly, though not austere and pharisaical, observance of the Lord’s Day, the preservation of the religion of the bulk of our people must depend. It ought ever, likewise, to be borne in mind, that the immediate and direct mischief arising from suffering the few offences of this kind, against which the Society proceeds, to pass unpunished, is by no means to be taken as a fair estimate of the total amount of evil, which would, ultimately, result from their impunity. From various, and many of these obvious causes, it is the tendency of such violations to increase. When one artificer or shopkeeper, less scrupulous than others, has for some time employed his men, or sold his goods, on the Lord’s Day, others are too naturally
led to follow his example ; and even those that were at first restrained by religious principles, are too often induced by degrees to give up their scruples, when the loss of their trade, and the consequent ruin of their families, appear likely to be the consequence of adhering to them. The very extensive sale at present of Sunday newspapers, (the first solitary instance of which commenced about thirty years ago), proves the tendency to increase in similar cases ; and we might also refer to the still more extended,
and now almost universal prevalence, within the last fifty years, of travelling on Sunday, by stage-coaches, which formerly used to stop during the whole of that day, or at least from the hour preceding the morning, till the conclusion of the afternoon service. But, independently, of the reverence due to religion, and however lightly some may be disposed to regard the sacred obligation of the Christian
Sabbath ; yet, if they were aware of the miseries that result from its being devoted to the purposes of trade, the common feelings of compassion, and even the obligations of justice, would lead them to discountenance such abuses. Frequently do complaints reach the Society from apprentices, workmen, and others, whom the inordinate avarice of their masters keeps at their occupation during the whole of that
day, which, if not exclusively devoted to religious duties, is so necessary for relaxation and repose from toil. Master-tradesmen also, who are desirous of exemption from secular employment on this sacred day, often apply to the Society for its aid against their unprincipled neighbours ; who, availing themselves of the shops of their competitors being closed, often succeed, by such means, in depriving
them of their business and customers. This is the case particularly with butchers, fishmongers, poulterers, and greengrocers. Some of these people have declared with sorrow and shame, that for many years together, neither they nor their journeymen and apprentices have been able to attend public worship.
2. Blasphemous publications. — This is another leading object of attention with the Society. But in the instance of this class of publications, it is careful not to lay itself open to the objection, that, from the manifest difficulty of drawing any precise line, it may obstruct the progress of truth, by preventing free discussion. It therefore directs its attention to works which, from the vulgar scurrility and coarse ribaldry in which they abound, render it manifest, that no one can have been led to publish them by a
sincere, though misapplied, desire to promote the cause of truth ; and which prove, on the contrary, that their authors trust for the accomplishment of their object, — the rooting of religious principles out of the mind, — to the too sure expedient of extinguishing all reverence for sacred subjects, by accustoming it to regard them with levity, and polluting them by base and degrading associations.
3. Obscene books, prints, &c, — Under this head is included every thing that may tend to inflame the mind, and corrupt the morals, of the rising generation. These are diligently sought out, and no efforts are spared to bring the venders of them to punishment. It is truly remarked by Dr. Paley, that, of all the crimes which call for legal animadversion, this is perhaps one of the least excusable, when the evils that result from it on the one hand, are compared with the motives which prompt to the commission of it on the other. Experience only could convey any adequate idea of the systematic manner in which this base
traffic is conducted, or of its various forms and great extent : yet from its nature it courts concealment, and therefore it requires no little assiduity to discover the noxious wretches by whom it is carried on, and to suppress their pernicious practices. It cannot but call forth the indignation of every
mind that is not utterly depraved, to learn what is stated in the evidence taken before the Police Committee of the House of Commons, that the dealers in this nefarious trade have endeavoured, but too successfully, to introduce their pestilent articles into the Seminaries of Education for boys, and even into boarding-schools for young ladies. The list of the prosecutions of this class of offenders, which the Society has instituted, and the success that has attended its exertions, would alone establish its title to the gratitude, and the liberal support of all the friends of public morals ; — of all, more especially, who wish to preserve from contamination the purity and decency of the rising generation.
4. Disorderly houses. — The Society is not only active in suppressing these, when competent and proper evidence can be obtained for that purpose; but is frequently the organ of important communications respecting them, to the Police, and parochial authorities, to which the enforcement of the laws against such nuisances more immediately belongs.
5. Fortune-tellers, &c. — This may appear to be too trifling to be made a distinct head of attention ; but the public in general are not aware of the various and extensive evils commonly arising from this system of imposture. The police reports, and the annals of the Society, serve amply to prove, that these practitioners, after reducing their credulous dupes (most commonly servant girls, and others of the labouring classes,) to complete destitution, even to the disposal of then wearing-apparel, proceed to
incite them to the robbery of their employers. They are often resorted to also as the profligate agents of the seducer, to whom the deluded victim is led by preconcerted events, so managed as to assume the appearance of that fatality, which completes the delusion, by seeming to verify the prediction.* To the thinking and considerate, it will so readily occur, to what other numerous ill-consequences this offence may be instrumental, that to enlarge on the subject is unnecessary, farther than to observe, that it has an inevitable tendency to draw its infatuated votaries from that line of good conduct, and that exercise of common sense, on which the happiness and prosperity of their future days must, under divine providence, chiefly depend.
Such is the outline of the nature and principal objects of the Society for the Suppression of Vice ; but in justice to the Institution, it should be stated, that in those particular cases, where the desired end can be accomplished by admonition and warning, the Society uniformly seeks to effect its purpose by prevention, rather than by punishment.
- See Powell’s trial, published by the Society.