The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-05-22 00:00:00

SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1886.
THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN.

OF all the May meetings which have just
lately been held in London, not one could
be mentioned with which the great mass of
the people are more genuinely and generally
in sympathy than that held the other day
at the Mansion House. We refer to the
annual meeting of the Society for the Pre-
vention of Cruelty to Children. Prominent
personages, as widely sundered in religious
thought as the poles, met on a commonfoot-
ing on the broad platform of this charity.
Lord and Lady Iddesleigh were there, Card-
inal Manning and the Rev. Benjamin Waugh,
Professor Stuart and Mr. Samuel Smith,
Mr. Jacob Montefiore and the Baroness
Burdett-Coutts, the Duke of Abercorn and
Mr. J. H. Wilson, M.P. not to mention a
whole host of other titled and untitled sym-
pathisers of almost every creed. Just as
the society's title is an index to its aims, so
are the names above given a guarantee of
. the catholic way in which its work is being
carried on. There is something subtly
sacred in childhood, beyond the power of
tongue to tell, which in itself craves for
kindness to the little helpless epitomes of
man. It is a sad fact, though, that helpless-
ness and innocence appeal to depravity in
vain; hence this society's existence for the
prevention of cruelty. Even in the lowliest
life and amid the most unsavoury surround-
ings the idea that the wife should be the
husband's slave seems to have been almost
eradicated. But the allied darkness-born
persuasion that the child may be man and
woman's slave still lingers, and in conse-
quence many a poor drudging girl or bul-
lied boy may be found dragging on a miser-
able existence under brutal parental tyranny
in the slums of our great towns. The ig-
norant and unfeeling hold that they have a
right to treat their offspring according to
their own caprice or will; to thrash or other-
wise punish, with no right object, just when
seems good to them. In the vernacular
they consider it "hard lines if they can't do
as they like, in a free country, with their
own children," and resent as meddlesome
and uncalled for the interference of the
tender-hearted when intended to stop ill-
treatment. The parent has a right to the
child's obedience, and in return the child is
entitled to protection, nurture, and the
kindness for which its heart yearns. That
savage fits of temper and drunken rage are
too frequently wreaked upon defenceles,
little ones by those who are in authority
over them is often enough set forth "plain
for all folk to see." This society seeks to
suppress such cruelty by punishment of the
offenders, by moral suasion, and by I».;iig-
ing about judicious amendment in the 'aw
of the land. This latter, as regards the
protection of children, is lamentably de-
fective; but pending the feasibility of urg-
ing improvements, the Society makes the
best use possible of existing statutes for
repressive purposes. During the year past,
147 cases of cruelty, inflicted upon 327
wretched victims of tender years, have been
dealt with in London alone. Doubtless the
Society's operations will be greatly extended
as its objects become more widely known,
and the annual meeting just held should
give it an appreciable impetus, which so
(rood a work well deserves. We should like
e
to see a branch or kindred society for the
prevention of cruelty to children established
in every town in the kingdom. Many have
already been opened, and are in good Ivork-
ing order, but there should be one in each
district. The ramifications of the Royal
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals—a worthy organisation—extend
everywhere. Why should not an associa-
tion of the humane to protoet the little mas
be equally far-reaching? One of the Lon-
don society's chief obstacles is the cowardly
neglect of neighbours in the worst districts.
They look on too often callously when
brutality is being practised, and are seem-
ingly afraid to interfere. Another stumb-
ling block in the way is the ridiculously
inadequate penalties enforced by some of
the magistrates for crimes of violence. And
a still more serious difficulty in the way of
charitable interposition is the consequences
which may follow the rescue of ill-treated
children from heartless, degraded, and
drunken parents. Many mothers and
fathers—unworthy of the name, it is true,
but they have to be dealt with—of that
baser sort who lightly tell the stipendiary
when sentenced to short. terms of hard
labour that they "can do that little bit on
their ileads,"would not at all mind a con-
viction for cruelty, if thereby they would be
relieved from further responsibility for their
children's keeping. That being so, we must
recognise that unless such brutalised people
—and they may be found in any town in the
kingdom—are closely followed up and com-
pelled to continue their unwilling contribu-
tions towards the maintenance of their off-
spring. there is great danger of rescue work
' placing a positive premium upon clueity. .z u
end by no means desirable. To be sure en-
forced payments of this class are scarcely,
worth collection from the financial view
point; the cost of realisation being well-nigh
as much as the aggregate amount recovered.
But that does not render it advisable to take
the burden off the culprit's shoulders. They
must be made to feel the pinch, if possible,
by war of punishment, and as a deterrent.
The society may with advantage turn their
attention to those half-starved waifs and
strays whose nimbleness enables them to
elude the vigilance of School Board officers,
though their presence is often painfully felt
by the ordinary householder or street pas-
senger. In this and in many other directions
there is a large field of usefulness open to
the London Society and its provincial
branches now in existence or about to be
started, and the cause commends itself to
the parses and charitable labours of the
large hearted. Wise and vigilant manage-
ment and liberal support are what is wanted
and the society should not ask this of the .
public in vain. The rev. secretary reports .
that a bill has been prepared for Parliament
which seeks to secure for a child what the ,
state now denies it—the protection already
accorded by law to a dog. After the public il
yini)L.tliy wita and approval of the drastic

juvenile clauses of the Criminal Law
Amendment Act have been so plainly
evinced, there shntild be no difficulty in
adding such a statute to the roll of the
realm.