The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-21 00:00:00

JANUARY 21, 1854• eS B InS influenced that it began to be thought that to rear a family might be a more profitable specu lation than to destroy one. So the Itiki-poot population has multiplied, and missionaries and philanthropists rejoice. But the evil, extinguished in one country, breaks out in another. What we have succeeded in dis countenancing among the wildest tribes of British Asia reappears in an aggravated form a mong the conquering race—the model nation, which affects to preach morality to all the world, which expends 200,000/. yearly to con vert Hindoos, and holds female meetings to emancipate American negroes. We affirm it deliberately—infanticide, as now carried on in England, is not only more r ife, but infinitely more cruel, than in the s hape in which it exists, or existed, on the banks of the Indus, and among the hill tribes of Raj-pootana. These heathen parents de stroyed their superfluous children, not from private lucre of gain, but lest the wealth of the family should be scattered among many claimants, and its influence thereby dimi nished. The murder, too, was predetermined before the birth—no time for repentance allowed—the deed purposely hurried on while the mother's weakness forbade interference, lest her prayers and tears should prevail against custom and fixed purpose. Our Eng lish peasantry speculate in slaughter, and sell the lives of their offspring ; adding, more over, robbery to cruelty ; for the infant's name is put on the lists of a burial club, the mem bers of which are defrauded by its murder. In England there is no fear lest parental affection should interfere with the pre arranged design. The child lives, thrives, is weaned, plays about the house until the age, it may be, of three or four, until suspi cion is lulled, or the pressure of a harder season than usual makes it convenient to call in the money which the parents may claim on its decease. Then the fatal sentence is carried out, generally in a straightforward, business like way, with very little mystery or disguise. The father or mother goes to the druggist's shop—buys the requisite quantity of arsenic— administers it in the next meal—watches com posedly the dying agonies of the little victim— and sends, when all is over, to trouble the secretary of the burial club for that 5/. which is due, inviting him at the same time to verify the fact of the death. These things are not of rare or exceptional occurrence—they happen daily—and, for once that they come to light, they probably escape detection a hundred times. Two efforts, which are worthy of all praise, have been made to abate this nuisance. The grand jury at the recent Liverpool Assizes call on Parliament to put a stop to the existence of burial societies ; and the Rev. Mr. CLAY, of Preston, whose name has been long and fa rourably known to the public in connection with questions of prison discipline, seconds their appeal in a vigorous pamphlet, full of useful details. Let us see what is the actual state of the law. Some years ago an act was passed in tended to check the evil now complained of. By this act (0 and 10 Vic., chap. 27, sec. 1) no insurance is allowed to be effected on the lives of children under six years of age. The re striction, however well meant, seems practi cally useless, for a child of seven or eight is Just as much in the power of its parents as one two years younger ; and the act, such as it is, seems to be a de a d l e tt er , f or it on ly forbids infant insurance in the case of clubs estab lished after the date of its passing—in other words, it is prospective only—while clubs which existed antecedent to its establishment are still permitted to offer premiums for child murder. Yet farther, even the nugatory pro hibitions thus imposed are notoriously disre garded ; for, at this moment, says Mr. CLAY, ": I have bef ore me th e ru l es o f a b ur i a l so ' ciety, containing 1,500 members, established last May, and taking in infant lives as boldly and openly as if th e recen t ac t o f Victoria „ were already a dead letter." It is almost needless to adduce instances in which these clubs have operated as incentives to crime. These are of daily occurrence—not a week passes without some fresh illustration of the fact. Poisoning has become habitual THE. PRESS. among our labouring population, both in town and country. Mr. CLAY, in his pamphlet, gives the details of four or five murders com mitted in this way, of which the perpetrators were fortunately brought to justice. And for one who is detected, how many escape ? But the actual infliction of death by near relatives on one another is not the only result of this unnatural system. There are mealy who would recoil from actual homicide, who nevertheless wish to profit by its fruits: they " would not play false, but yet would wrongly " win." A little neglect during illness, a refu sal to call in the doctor, some precaution, slight but necessary, disregarded, is enough— death ensues—and no one is ostensibly to blame. " The poor," says one official before the Health of Towns Commission, " seldom " seek medical assistance for sick children, " except when they are at the point of death." We continue in Mr. CLty's words : Another collector states, " The poor people have often told me that they were unable to pay at that time; but when a certain member of the family—generally a child— died, they would be able to pay." " A lady states that a young woman whose services she required as wet nurse, having a child ill, she offered to send her own medical friend to attend it; the reply of the nurse was, Oh, never mind, ma'am, it's in two burial clubs.' " It also appears, on the unimpeachable authority of a burial club official, that, " hired nurses speculate ou the lives of infants com• mitted to- their care, by entering them in burial clubs ; " that "two young women proposed to enter a child into his club, and to pay the weekly premium alternately. Upon inquiry as to the relation subsisting between the two young women and the child, the club officer learned that the infant was placed at nurse with the mother of one of these young women." Such examples—even if there were none of a still worse character—are enough to show the demoralising tendencies of burial clubs. But further, to quote trom the same report, " There is no restrictton in any of the societies as to the admission of illegitimate children. If the weekly penny or halfpenny is paid by either father or mother, he or she is entitled, on the demise of the insured, to all the benefits which the society promises." Now, ,what solicitude can either of the ignorant and profligate parents of a bastard child have for the preservation of that child's life ?—a child which is a burden and a reproach to them; which, living, costa them 3s. or 4s. a week; but whose death, should it be in the " lists," will profit to the amount of 5/. to 201. This is the second class of crimes arising out of the same inducement. But the evil in fluence of these societies is not to be measured exclusively by the actual guilt, in the eye of the law, which they create. Even where no murder is committed, either by positive vio lence or passive neglect, it is impossible that demoralisation should not ensue from a sys tem which renders the death of children a pro fitable speculation to the parents. The natu ral feelings are blunted or destroyed—a hard, calculating, mercenary spirit is fostered—pa rental affection is checked—and a correspond ing sentiment is produced on the part of the children, thereby perpetuating the evil, and entailing it upon the next generation. We shall resume this subject at an early period. REMOVAL OF THE COURTS OF LAW. Irt another part of the paper will be found an account of an interview between Lord ABERDEEN and a deputa don from the Incorporated Law Society on this impor tant subject. We call it important, because it is a ques don in which not only the convenience of those im mediately engaged in the administration of justice is concerned, but every member of the community has a direct pecuniary interest in its determination. For a lawsuit is like the measles or scarlet fever, one of those inevitable evils which at some period of life all men are doomed to undergo, and the present posi don of the courts greatly increases the expense of that never inexpensive process. Many of the di•;- advantages incident to their present site are noticed in the statement of the Incorporated Law Society, but others exist on which they did not touch. A trial at Nisi Prius is to all engaged in it, except the principals, their counsel, and ocaasionally their attorneys, a period of festive excitement and profuse expenditure. The distance of Westminster from the attorneys' offices gives an excuse for this. The case is in the list; it may be called on at any moment; not one person whose presence is desirable at the trial is allowed to be absent longer than is impe ratively necessary. Accordingly thirty or forty wit nesses, and certainly two attorneys, each with a staff of clerks, are " attending at Westminster," often fora week at a time, consulting in rooms which 51 are hired by the hour, and paid for proportionally, lounging about coffeehouses, eating constantly recurring luncheons, and at least one dinner in the day, or, if they leave the vicinity of the court for ten minute% they are seen tearing along at head long speed in a Hansom cab at fares measured, not by Mr. Fitzroy's Act, but by the emergency of the moment. There are three courts of common law at West minster; each has from twenty to thirty cases in the paper for trial at the same time; from these data a calculation can easily be made of the enormous ex pense annually incurred, for great part of which no pretence would exist if the courts of law and the offices of the attorneys were in close proximity. It would certainly put an end to the cab nuisance in Parlia ment-street, down which the cabmen now charge with a fury more akin to the impetuous onset of ancient Britons in their war-chariots than the fune real pace of dispirited "jarvies " suffering from melancholia and paid at the rate of sixpence a mile. To this point Lord ABERDEEN does not need to have his attention directed. Last year, in this place, from this cause, he in his own person nearly furnished another of those instapces in which the premiership has terminated either in premature or violent death. The funds requisite to accomplish the removal exist : the present courts are not only inconvenient in their internal arrangements and in their situation, but are a blemish to the group of national edifices that sur round them. On what, then, do the opponents of the removal rest their opposition' A very respect able prepossession in favour of a site interesting from old historical associations. But mere senti ment can never be allowed to prevent positive im provement; and, in point of fact, the present courts are of comparatively modern construction, and have nothing in common with those which witnessed the trial of CHARLES 1., whilst the trial of STRAFFORD, the acquittal of SOMERS, and the denunciations of HAsxxsos, took place in the adjacent hall. The site to which it is proposed to remove them is, loosely speaking, between - Lincoln's-inn-fields and the Strand, where the houses at present existing, although they have the charm of antiquity, have not as yet found advocates for their preservation in the press. Perhaps, also, that vexed question of Tem • Ple bar that enigma which some speak of as if it were the beautiful gate of the Temple, while others consider it the greatest bar to improvement that exists in the City, might be solved to the satisfaction of all parties if some nook were found for it in the courts which it is proposed to erect.. If, as some allege, it is interesting because the heads of traitors were once stuck on it, there would be propriety in attaching it to the halls where the . . successors of those who doomed them to the block would sit, like Eastern kings, administering justice in the gate. Two things, indeed, forbode that the consummation of the proposed removal may Le re mote. One is, that it is promoted by lawyers • the other, that Lord : ABERDEEN has promised "to t a ke it into his consideration." ■ I SPIRITUAL AMERICA. MR. COBDEN never makes a speech which does not contain some reference to Americans,—sometimes to their press, sometimes to their education, &c., and generally eulogistic. In his address delivered this week, noticed in another column, it was to their reli gion. We have before us an instance in which their superiority to the English in these three respects is combined and exemplified in one broad page. It consists of a newspaper called the Spiritual Telegraph, which is entirely devoted to the subject of spirit rappings, &c., in America. That extraordinary land swarms with disembodied spirits, who manifest their presence through an army of media. From one column we learn that a pasteboard figure of a man, being magnetised, stood upright by itself, and, at the sound of music, danced vigorously, keeping time cor reedy. In another, the miracles related in the Bible are boldly questioned ; whilst in a third the conver sations of the garrulous spirits are given—Tom PAINE amongst the rest. Dulness is the predominant cha racteristic of these ..dialogues—" Dull, beyond all conception dull ;" but, as is well remarked, the spirits don't find another man's brains so easy to use as their own. Cannot Mr. CobuEN qualify himself for spiritual intercourse ? It would be very interesting to know the opinion of the great men of the past on our present state—Lord CHATHAM on our fcreign affairs ; PENN on the province he founded ; or WASH INOTON on the people to whose independence he so largely contributed. It would be unjust to omit that the typo and paper of the Spiritual Telegraph are good, and in the first page is an illustration repre senting the round world dark in space, save on one favoured spot. Need we add that this bright excep tion is " the smartest nation in all creation ?"—the favoured land of spirit-rappings, and the topic of Mr. CODDEICS eulogiums. Mar