New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-07

of the pauper population, the inefficiency OF
the means either to elevate it or to relieve the
country of it by emigration, offer the most IN
soluble social problem which England has to
face. The case is simple. There is not room
nor labor for the larger half of the English
people and this moiety as an inert, Tester
ing mass upon the other, crippling the country
in every motion. Where the fault lies, or where
the remedy, does not alter the present fact.
IL is the old story of the dead body tied to the
living one. The efforts of England In the last
year have been rather cOnvulsive thrOes to rid
herself of this weight, than reasonable schemes
based on any sincere desire to help the unable
classes TO better chance in life. Parliament
and emigration societies, and even private
beneyolence, have all worked with this motive
and to the same end, and so far with but little
effect. John Bull runs great risk OF dying
from venous congestion, and, considering
the quality of his surplus blood, 1t Is no
wonder he is simply anxious to be nd OF It,
without much caring what becomes OF 1t.
Now, the adult pasper is tangible fact, and
sufficiently perplexing; but the baby, which,
like the king, never dies, but appears new
born every year, a wailing, starving incubus,
ton. The ingenuity displayed by England of
late to choke off this unconscious infant would
be amusing if it were not horrible. The usual
expedients of baby farming and schools greatly
enlarged, on the Dotheboys Hall plan, are re-
sorted to and advertised openly in respectable
Journals. Somebody has lately published
clever brochure in which the pauper ex-
crescence, under the name Of "Ginx's Baby"
has his story told, from the day of his birth
until the night when, finding no foot OF earth
for even his dead body on English soil, he
throws himself into the filthy Thames, and SO
ends the vexed question, What to do with
himf His historian, feeling, probably, that
the purpose of God in sending him into the
world could hardly have been only to swell
that very foul and full stream, asks: " Phloso-
"phers, Philanthropsts, Politicians, Papists
"and Protestants, Parish Officers and Poor-Law
Ministers-While you have been theorizing
"and discussing, debating, wrangling, legislat-
"ing and administering-good God! between
"you all, where has Ginxs baby gone to ~
Where Ginx's baby has gone to does not con-
Germ The ReUieU so greatly, which undertakes to
give the solution of the pauper problem on
behalf of the cultured classes. Where Ginx's
baby ought to go to has been easily answered
by all philanthropists. Expatriate an odd
million or two; by means of education and
decent homes give those that are left the
chance they never yet have had, for human
life. But the answer does not suit The ReUieD.
" Expatriate one million" it says, "and those
Il" that are left will multiply into thirteen mil
lions" Ginx's baby may have a soul, and
unused wasted brain power; but it is no less
dirty and offensive, and needs to be fed.
Ginx's baby has, therefore, no business to be
born at all. The ReUieU having thus uttered
it's Herodian decision, meets all opposition
with cool complacency. 1t is, of course, true
4" that certain evils of the gravest kind result
I" from the desire to restrain population; but it
I" is silly to say that a reckless multiplication
" of numbers is not q gross act of impru-
dence !" and an act of imprudence, it goes
on to prove, is more to be dreaded than
crime.
We confess our establishment. Infanticide
has long been favorite means of Kidding pri-
vate individuals of the results of crime; but it
has never before obtained the approval of a
respectable journal as the means of deliverance
for whole nation. Besides, The Rerjep has
donned so lately full religious garb in which
hardly prepared to hear it preach free murder.
We commend this revelation of the opinion of
the educated class in England to Mr.. Hepworth
Dixon, who took occasion while here to COM
ment on the small families in Massachusetts,
and to draw conclusions that caused all En-
gland to hold up its hands in holy horror,
thanking God the ocean rolled between us.
The Slaughter of the Innocents proposed by
our philosophic contemporary has, however, those
fine and subtle distinctions in caste which the
English mind alone can make when dealing
with the irrevocable fate of human beings,
and therefore will, no doubt to quote The Re
riep itself, abe welcomed into the range of
current politics" The murder is not to ex-
tend into the "genteel classes" 1t is only the
pauper who is so summaTily to be put out of
the way. Why notf Only his obtuseness has
made him blind to the fact that he was born
de tr0p. He should have learned before now
that his proper place was on the other side of
the Styx.
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CHINA.
The bad news which we publish this morn