French Morality, Under the Regulation System

''French morality, under the regulation system'' by Julie-Victoire Daubié is a social reform treatise written in the late 19th century. It condemns the state “regulation” of prostitution, arguing that police-tolerated brothels, legal privileges for men, and economic desperation for women together entrench exploitation and corrode society. Drawing on research, official reports, legal cases, and historical comparison, it urges equal legal responsibility for men, better wages and protections for women, firm action against procuring and public solicitation, and humane refuges for those seeking to leave prostitution. The opening of the work frames the issue through a preface and a letter calling on British lawmakers to reject regulationism and pursue just, gender-neutral laws, then launches into a stark analysis of how poverty, low wages, ignorance, and seduction funnel girls and women into both registered and clandestine prostitution. It details the capitalized business of brothel-keeping, police complicity, and the contrast between destitute street women and lavishly kept courtesans, even extending the critique to colonial Algeria. The next section shows many “penitent” women’s shame and maternal devotion, surveys historic Church- and state-backed refuges, and argues that charity alone is inadequate without curbing male profligacy. A legal survey contrasts ancient and medieval severity toward panders and male clients with modern France’s protection of male debauchees and persecution of women, illustrating hypocrisy through courtroom examples and annulled debts to mistresses. Finally, the early pages of a chapter on male prostitution indict students, officials, and soldiers—linking student seduction and abandonment, an ex-official’s public scandals, and military marriage restrictions and court leniency—to show how institutional practices normalize and spread vice.