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Equality, sexual values and permissive legislation: the English experience1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

O. R. McGregor
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Extract

I have the honour to address you today in this lecture founded to cherish the memory of L. T. Hobhouse, who was the first professor of sociology in this University and in these islands. He devoted his life to extending the study of social development within the framework of those evolutionary theories which had contained so much of Victorian social thought. He discerned a ‘self-conscious evolution of humanity’, found ‘therein a meaning and an element of purpose for the historical process which has led up to it’, and concluded that the ‘slowly wrought out dominance of mind in things is the central fact of evolution’. His fundamental thesis was that humanity had for the first time reached the stage of self-direction. Hobhouse's approach to sociology was itself a protest against sterile separatism either among the several social sciences or between them and the world of everyday affairs. He was a main contributor in his day to the principles of constructive liberalism and a leading exponent of the ideal of democratic equality. He sought for himself a unity of academic theory and social practice through his lifelong commitments as a journalist and commentator as well as an active participant in the work of Trade Boards and other institutions of the labour market. I do not therefore feel that I should apologize for taking as the theme of this memorial lecture present-day anxieties, enthusiasms and confusions about sexual conduct in their bearing upon Hobhouse's ideals of the liberation of the individual, of self-direction and of democratic equality.

Type
Special Issue on ‘Values in Social Policy’
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , January 1972 , pp. 44 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

2 Hobhouse, L. T., Morals in Evolution, 3rd ed., London: Chapman and Hall, 1915, p. 637.Google Scholar

3 Ginsberg, Morris, ‘The Unity of Mankind’ (Hobhouse Memorial Lecture, 1935), p. 3.Google Scholar

4 Beales, H. L., ‘The Making of Social Policy’ (Hobhouse Memorial Lecture, 1945), pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

5 Galsworthy, John, The Forsyte. Saga (London: Heinemann, Grove, ed.), vol. 11, pp. 696–70.Google Scholar

6 Quoted Woodham-Smith, Cecil, Florence Nightingale, London: Constable. 1950, p. 93.Google Scholar

7 Lecky, W. E. H., History of European Morals, 10th ed., London: Longmans, 1892, vol. 11, p. 283.Google Scholar The 1st ed. was published in 1869.

8 The Queen v. Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant (Freethought Publishing Company), n.d., p. 263.Google Scholar

9 Charles Reade made bloomers the theme of his novel The Course of True love Never Did Run Smooth, 1857.

10 P. 10.

11 Ibid. p. 43.

12 pp. 39–40.

13 Below Stairs, London: Pan Books, 1970, p. 7.Google Scholar

14 Dodd v. Dodd [1906], pp. 207–8.Google Scholar

15 Report from…Commissioners for Inquiring into…the Poor Laws (1834), p. 250.Google Scholar

16 1920–6 Reform of Illegitimacy Laws, Parts I and II, P.R.O. 12259/405558.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid.

19 Minutes of Evidence taken Before the Royal Commission on Marriage and Divorce (1952), Sixth Day, p. 160.Google Scholar

20 Ibid. p. 142.

21 Ibid.

22 P. 109.

23 Hansard HL, 21 June 1963, col. 1547.

24 Ibid. 23 November 1966, col. 270.

25 P. 32.

26 The establishment and functions of the Law Commission are discussed in the article of Chorley, Lord and Dworkin, Gerald, ‘The Law Commissions Act, 1965’, Modern Law Review, vol. 28, no. 6, 1965.Google Scholar

27 Reform of the Grounds of Divorce: The Field of Choice, Cmnd. 3123, 1966.

28 Scarman, Leslie, ‘Law Reform and Family Property’, The Listener, 10 11 1966, p. 683.Google Scholar

29 Scarman, Leslie, ‘Law and the Family’, The Listener, 24 09 1970, p. 407.Google Scholar

30 Cmnd. 247, 1957, para 3.

31 Ibid, para 14.

32 The sad history of Lord Chorley's attempts to reform the Street Offences Act 1959 is described in his article in the centenary number of The Shield. November 1970.

33 The history is set out in Simms, Madeline and Hindell, Keith, Abortion Law Reformed, London: Owen (Peter) Ltd, 1971.Google Scholar

34 The details are contained in the publication of the Family Planning Association, National Health Service (Family Planning) Act 1967, Extent of Implementation by Local Authorities (1971).Google Scholar

35 The most recently published is that of Cartwright, Ann, Parents and Family Planning Services, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970.Google Scholar

36 By Michael P. Fogarty and Rhona and Robert Rapaport (1971), p. 25.

37 Wootton, Barbara in The Observer, 28 03 1971.Google Scholar

38 Hobhouse, L. T., Liberalism, London: Thornton Butterworth, 1911, p. 86.Google Scholar