¶The first Contagious Diseases Act was passed in 1864, with several amendments made over the following few years. It was essentially enacted as a means for controlling prostitution, giving the police the right to arrest and detain suspected prostitutes, and to hold them in notorious lock hospitals if they were found to be carrying a venereal disease. It was hugely controversial, and a movement to repeal the Act was convened almost as soon as it became law. Stansfeld, a liberal M.P. from Halifax, was a committed repealer, arguing that it violated civil liberties, and that it exacerbated the problem of vice in society, rather than improve it. His campaign eventually proved successful, and the Act was repealed in 1886.