03524cam a22003853u 4500 78588 UtSlPG 20260610134825.0 m cr n 260607r20261910utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d UtSlPG en iso639-1 HQ Butler, Josephine Elizabeth Grey, 1828-1906 Personal reminiscences of a great crusade New edition. Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg, 2026 1 online resource : multiple file formats text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Release date is 2026-05-03 Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) "Personal reminiscences of a great crusade" by Josephine Elizabeth Grey Butler is a memoir written in the late 19th century. It charts Butler’s campaign against state regulation of prostitution and the Contagious Diseases Acts, presenting a blend of personal witness, political strategy, and moral argument. The focus is on building a broad movement—women, working men, clergy, and public figures—to defend civil liberty and women’s dignity from coercive medical-police systems. The opening of the book sets the stakes of the struggle, offers a brief biographical sketch of Butler’s formation (family influences, marriage, charitable work, and grief that turned her to rescue work), and then explains how regulation began in France and was later introduced in Britain. It recounts early warnings and protests—from Harriet Martineau, Florence Nightingale, Nonconformist leaders, and rescue workers—leading to Butler’s decision to act and the Women’s Protest with its core arguments about liberty, justice, and public health. She describes taking the fight to the nation when elites were unresponsive, finding strong support among working men, enduring press silence, and receiving international encouragement from figures like Victor Hugo and Mazzini. The narrative highlights mass meetings, a hostile Glasgow student disruption, and border-county rallies, then turns to electoral battles, especially at Colchester against Sir Henry Storks, where mobs tried to silence reformers but the abolitionist side prevailed. Further scenes include a huge Manchester meeting, clerical hostility at the Nottingham Church Congress, and a government bill that the movement helped defeat. Chapter III reframes the cause as a defense of constitutional liberties as much as of women, and notes rapid organizational growth, allied reforms, and renewed election pressure on ministers, closing as activists shift a crowd to their own meeting at Pontefract. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Originally published: London: H. Marshall & Son, 1910 Women -- Social and moral questions Prostitution -- Great Britain Child prostitution -- Europe -- History -- 19th century Child prostitution -- Great Britain -- Prevention Prostitutes -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century Social movements -- Religious aspects -- Christianity https://archive.org/details/personalreminisc00butliala https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78588 119306 119306