Summary:
The liberal-leaning Cambridge General Advertiser published a damning opinion piece on The University of Cambridge and its private prison, The Spinning House, following the death of, and inquest into Elizabeth Howe. Transcript from the British Newspaper Archive.
“The mysteries of the Spinning House base at length become notorious throughout the country. The facts of the recent melancholy case, as disclosed at the coroner’s inquest. were fully reported in our impression of last week; and nothing which can now be said upon a subject no painful can add much weight to the judicial verdict then arrived at, or palliate a cruelty proved beyond the possibility of doubt.
“If now revert to the case of the unfortunate woman, whose life was sacrificed, it is with no wish either to swell a popular outcry, or to screen the errors or the vices of the powerful. We desire neither to pander to excitement, nor to throw a veil over the questionable practices of those who, armed with a little brief authority, are sometimes tempted, by excess of zeal and conventional bad habits, to forget the offices of humanity.
“There may he those to whom such courses may be genial and lucrative; but there can be no doubt that they are both in the last degree objectionable, and our anxious wish is on every occasion to steer as clear of either as the fallibility of human judgment will permit.
“That an abuse, which has long existed in our accademical management, has et length been detected and exposed, is an evident as it is now certain that a remedy must shortly be applied. The University, we think, is too prudent to continue to support a vicious system now that it has been so loudly and universally denounced.
“The death — many would say, the murder—of the poor woman [Elizabeth] Howe, would lead inevitably to that reform of the Spinning House which hitherto had been but too successfully resisted. This is manifest beyond all argument. The reform even may may go deeper, and spread wider; but so far at any rate, we think we may venture to predict it is inevitable.
“This reform ought long since to have been accomplished. The suit in Chancery. which, now pending, for the reformation of this most excellent charity, was instituted newly fourteen years ago, and but for the determined opposition which has been constantly made to the attainment of the of that suit, viz. the abolition of the Spinning House as a prison, under arbitrary owl irresponsible control, for unfortunate women, the conversion of it to a public school, and the application of the munificent funds with which the charity is endowed to the purposes of education, there is every reason to believe that the Spinning House, with all its enormities, would long since have ceased to be as it most undoubtedly is, a blot, and a stain, and a disgrace, I both upon the Town slid the University.
“It was well observed by the coroner, that if Thomas Hobson by whom this institution was founded, for beneficent and useful purposes, could rise from his grave and witness the gross perversion of his humane and benevolent intention, he would shrink back with horror and disgust.
“But the case immediately under consideration opens out another question which has, we think, been too much overlooked. Pity and compassion on behalf of the unfortunate deceased and her unfortunate class have been loudly evoked, and the University and its proctorial establishment have been acrimoniously denounced, class have been loudly evoked.
“But attention has not yet been turned the consideration whether the system maintained is beneficial to the moral character of those for whose especial behoof it is said to be principally upheld. If women are sometimes treated by zealous proctors. it is not because they are naturally or even officially tyrannical; all is done. we are bound to believe, and do believe, entirely and absolutely for the stake of the morals of the undergraduates of Cambridge.
“True, perhaps it is, that under the influence of this feeling every thing else is forgotten; the poor miserable female, who has been seduced from the path of virtue is consigned without the least compunction nor commiseration to a cold, dark, noisome dungeon – her claims to compassionate consideration obtain not so much a passing thought – the means by which she was precipitated upon a course of guilt and infamy are totally unheeded – nothing is considered but that it is expedient to remove a stumbling block from the path of the innocent and inexperienced undergraduate.
“But, we would ask, do the means answer the end? Can anyone be found to assert that they do? Certainly not! Is it not notorious that females of bad character are not deterred by the terrors of the Spinning House from infesting Cambridge? Is it not equally notorious that they are abound here, and are every day to be seen in broad and open day, in the most public places?
“Should any one fondly imagine that proctorial influences or Spinning House privations and inflictions have the slighted effect in purifying, even apparently, the moral atmosphere of Cambridge, let him witness that interesting exhibition, a University boat race – let him attend the annual boat procession – let him about the hour of nine on Sunday evening in full term proceed from St Mary’s Church to the Conduit Head and he will soon find that he has laboured under a strange delusion, and will understand how utterly futile is all proctorial severity and surveillance.
“And here we would ask if undergraduates, even in Cambridge, could be preserved from moral contamination by proctorial vigilance, what is to become of them when absent from College? Neither respect for, if such a thing were possible, or dread of a Proctor can have the smallest particle of moral influence upon the mind of the Cambridge undergraduate when exposed to the blandishments of Regent Street or the fascinations of the saloon of a London theatre. [Historical note – the Cambridge-London railway line had opened the year before, in 1845]
“In sober truth the system is radically bad, and ought to be exploded. It outrages alike the decencies of society, and the dictates of common-sense and humanity. The flight of the woman – the pursuit of the reverend proctor, with his academic robes tightly tucked up, his bull-dogs at his heels – the capture – the furious struggle – the deranged apparel – the shouts, the yells, perhaps the execrations of the mob – the final incarceration – and, as we have recently seen, the untimely death of the poor, frail, and erring victim – are all attributes of a coarser and darker age, and are but so many irresistible proofs that such a system so utterly inefficient and so revolting, should be at once and for ever abolished.”
“Elevate, we would say to the distinguished men who now preside over this ancient University, the character of our students by lesson of virtue and exercises of religion, by lofty precepts combined with pure and brilliant example! Abandoned and shameless women will soon cease to defile the town with their presence when they upon whom they have been accustomed to depend, have been brought to know and feel that vice and profligacy are at once impious and ignominious.”
Lost Cambridge 