One of the causes of the number of these _filles de joie_ was, probably, the constant immigration from the provinces of young friendless girls eager to taste the delights of London. When their means were exhausted it was impossible for them to return or obtain employment without credentials, and they entered upon the only career that seemed open to them.
Another Frenchman comments on the openly lax morality which disgraced English family life--
“There’s yet a much greater fault which the English women have reason to complain of, and that is that most of the husbands keep mistresses. Some have carried them home and made them eat at the same table with their wives, and yet no mischief happened.... They have been seen even in company with the wives, and if there is any distinction, ’tis that they are handsomer for the most part, better dressed and less starch’d.”[65]
“If this be thought an exaggerated portrait, drawn with the inaccuracy of hasty observation and coloured by prejudice, the same cannot be said with regard to the pen of Fielding, who, in “Tom Jones,” reflects popular opinion and represents the standard of the day. A young fellow, named Nightingale, who has betrayed his landlady’s daughter, is thus addressed by his uncle:--
“Honour is a creature of the world’s making, and the world has the power of a creator over it, and may govern and direct it as they please. Now, you well know how trivial these breaches of contract are thought: even the grossest make but the wonder and conversation of the day. Is there a man who afterwards will be more backward in giving you his sister or daughter, or is there any sister or daughter who would be more backward to receive you? Honour is not concerned in these engagements.”
It will be remembered how “Squire Western,” when he heard that “Tom Jones” had betrayed a village girl, laughed at the episode as a good joke, and called upon his daughter to bear him out that women would think no worse of a young fellow for that. As for “Sophia” herself, it proved no serious check on her passion.
And yet England was said to be the country where offences against women were punished with the greatest severity, and where, if a man wished to find an unlawful partner, he must search among those whose poverty made them ready victims to temptation.