BLACKWELL FAMILY
ELIZABETH BLACKWELL

From Smale, JohnSmale
private
21 Sussex Place
Regent's Park NW
London July 1 1881
Dear Madam
Your letter to me of
the 29th of June places the
large objects proposed in the
shortest and clearest terms possible.
As long ago as in 1871 I sd of the
CDA "Its first tendency is to
invite to immorality and its next
to degrade women whereas the
natural tendency of civilization
is to elevate her and so elevate man
(p 57 of Collections of Opinions &c) I so
wrote in a private letter not expecting
it would get into print. The opinion I
then expressed I hold more decidedly
now after having had occasion from the Bench to
denounce kidnapping & the brothel
and domestic servitude in Hong Kong
in terms which have been designated
"wild exaggeration" in the House of Lords
and which has exposed me tocensure and to imputations that I
have carried an undue vehemence
on to the Bench it is therefore
important that so long as I am
a Chief Justice I should abstain
from partisanship and whilst
holding to the opinion that
the Common Law and the highest
morality are at one on these
subjects as on most other questions
to keep out of action other than
purely judicial. 
The legal aspect of these questions
to which I have confined my 
observations in Hong Kong would
I think have appeared in Parliamentary
Papers for which at
the instance of the Aborigines
Protection Society Mr McArthur
would but for the Irish block have
moved in the House this session
but as to which I as an official
have held it proper not even
to have seen him. That aspect

differs from the aspect arising on
the facts of the case in England
and at present I am unable to
say to what extent in my estimation.
I am now & shall be for some
weeks very much occupied so
that I cannot turn from the work
immediately before me.
I have long thought that the
attack upon vice must be turned
on man as well as on woman
but this will not be until ---
education - different from what
is now called education shall
have raised the tone of our
social world to the standard
which Christianity has raised
& Christianity of all the religions
in the world alone has raised. I
write I believe from a practical knowledge
of more varied religionists than
almost any other man.
I hope to have the pleasure of
making your personal acquaintance 
I am yours faithfully
John SmaleIt was suggested to me that
my address to you is not correct
I put the Letter aside to
get a correct one but I
have failed & therefore
send the address at the risk
of being incorrect
J [?]