Goddess on the Rise Pilgrimage and Popular Religion in Vietnam Book

#003.09 p.53 "The eighteenth century was somewhat more liberated in its sexual attitudes than its ancestor, the seventeenth, or its descendant, the nineteenth. The Victorians condemned its morals as being lax. Lip service was paid to the strict sexual code of Christianity, and not much more. From time to time, there was a middle-class outcry against immorality and the authorities responded with a command to 'round up the usual suspects'. Prostitutes were in consequence arrested and sent to be flogged in Bridewell, where floggings were watched with satisfaction by Christians who had probably been their clients. Obviously this did no good and few really cared."