Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-01-23


man.
The subject of providing for public
charities before the Constitutional Conven-
ton of New York, Hon. Erastus Brooks
on the 18th inst, delivered an able and ex-
haustive speech upon the question, review
ing the whole subject. We subjoin extracts
treating upon infanticide, which should at
tract attention outside of NeH York He
said:
The report of your committee on chari-
ties shows how, even in New England, dog
matte and boastful as she is, it is the same,
for there judicial statistics prove that the
number of deceased infant children upon
whom inquests were held in one year was
6S72. Of these 5523 were legitimate, and
1349 were illegitimate, which would seem
to disprove the assertion that illegitimate
children are the usual subjects of infanti-
eide.
To this crying sin of child murder, /
feel called upon TO draw your attention. Ii
is not new among US, but has. grown with
fearful rapidity. The comments of Addi-
son upon it read like lesson Of to-day,
though the punishment is mild now COM
pared with what it was then, though now
not one offender IN a III ousand Is discov-
cred. Says the Spectator:
"One does not know how to speak on
such subject without horror, but what
multitudes of infants have been made
away with by those who brought them in
to the world, and were afterwards ashamed
or unable to provide for them. There is
scarcely an assizes where some unhappy
wretch is not executed for the murder of
a child. And how many more of these
monsters of inhumanity may we suppose
to be wholly undiscovered, or cleared for
want of legal evidence, not TO mention
those who by unnatural practices do in
some measure defeat the intentions of
Providence. 1t robs the
Commonwealth of its full number of citi-
zens, and certainly deserves the utmost ap-
plication and wisdom of people to pre-
vent it,"
And Addison then points out the hos
pitals at Paris, Madrid, Lisbon and Rome
for prevention, and he closes his 105ih
paper by saying:
"This, l think, is a subject that deserves
our most serious consideration, for which
reason / hope shall not be thought inn
| pertinent in laying it before my readers"
The WASTE OF YOUNG LIFE is also every
way and everywhere alarming. In Great
| Britain, of 1,730,076 born in one year,
| 373053 died. In New York, fouraffths
of the mortality is of those under two years.
1 In series of years, in the city of New
York, of 532, ,539 deaths, 49, ,307 were un-
| der two years, and 222,618 under FIVE years.
| In the ten years, from 1845 to 1856, of
| 22S, ,355 who died, 110,SS7 we're under five
| years, and until recently this ratio was
| upon the increase. And yet some of us
daily thank God for our creation and pre-
serudtion, as well as all the blessings OF
this life. The little waits rest upon their
mother earth like snow flakes in winter,
and disappear as soon, or they pass away
as the morning mist before the breath oi
day.
The subject of infanticide brings me to
the question of foundling hospitals, as one
of the proper remedies for the prevention
of the evil. King Herods order to go forth
and slay the infants of Judea, like King
Ptolemy's decree to.destroy the children>o
the Jews, is one of the marvels of history
and revelation. So is the decree of the
Tarquins to save only the male children
and the eldest daughter. The old Roman
law went so far as to say that children could
be but death at pleasure. So also the Spar
tan law to destroy weakly and deformed in
fanIs-a law even approved by Aristotle
and Plato, and defended under the practice
of Justinian. The Chinese destroy theiI
offspring without remorse, and by tens O
thousands The Greenlander and Esqui
maux pay no regard TO infant life, while
tho Mangua Bushman, when the mother
| dies whose infant cannot find its natural
| nourishment, is burned with the mother.
We do nothing, or course, like this ir
the United States but how much better is
a system which 30 orders, governs, or per
mits. as to take off by death eighty-five pei
cent. of infant life, even when professedly
cared for, and which beholds with almos
Indifference the destruction of thousands
hy literal sacrifice.
In considering the subject of founding
hospitals, we must distinguish between
those which are established in differen
countries. They are common to all Eu
rope. The treasury of the Church in Rom'
supports 5000 inmates yearly; Naples no
Iess than 1000; Madrid 1000; Lisbon 5000
and Moscow and st. Petersburg each abou
25.O00 In France, where there wer
10000 foundlings in 1874, there are nov
over 100000. There, under the Cod
| Napoleon, each reimbursement now main
tains a separate hospital, instead of crowd
ing the children all upon Paris, as was tn
case before 1911.
But, sir, it is tsaid foundling hospital
are nurseries for crime, and that the grea
majority in them are born ont Of wedlock
| This ia true of half the children of Swedel
and of portion of all Northern and Cen
tral Europe, but it is no argument agains
/ the existence of these institutions, unles
we mean that children, because they ar
| illegitimate. shall bear the double curse q
false parentage, and if possible th
greater misfortune of being set adrift a
unon a stormy sea without chart, compass:
or pilot to guide them. / shall not dis
guise the fact that in Italy illegitimat
births have increased 100 per cent, an
that the same is almost relatively true
Russia. Sweden and Germany. But, sil
against these truths let me also state tn
fact that there are no foundling hospital
in Scotland, and that their absence doe
, not prevent an Illicit life, but rather in
pels to further crimes, many infants theT
! being either strangled, thrown into tn
river, or very commonly left at the dooI
! of the church. Per contra, these institr
tions have existed in Dublin for more tina
a century, and yet seduction and crimini
ofenses are there branded as hagitious o
fenses. 1t is, as has been said, rather the
! absence than their presence that has led
the commission of more serious crime
such as intentional abortion, child murde
and all the evils-freqnently death itse
, resulting 70 the woman who has no asylul
: in which to hide her shame and amend h'
= life
But again. In Guthrie's Standard Gee
: graphical Work, it is stated that the SEQ
= tish women are most prone to infanticid
: In France the famous turning table used {,
!. so many years is now falling into disus
: The frequent promises TO shield from pun
Z ishment inculcate contempt for the mo
sacred laws. France, in this respect, eI
courages vice in the name of misfortun
There is another and better method whiC
D.. seeks light, in order to bestow the beneh
of the State more wisely. In the Nursel
e and Child's Hospital, the mothers sorro
n ia only told to one female in authority. III
# erring woman is surrounded by good il
a -. u,,l anoopraUad instead of heir