The Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1865-08-12 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE CAUSES OF INFANTICIDE.  A correspondent of the Time; under the signature of "A Traveller," speaking of previous communicacations by other writers on the subject of infanticide, says they are likely to "lead to very erroneous conclusions as to the best means of checking the crime of child murder, of which this neighbourhood has lately given so frightful an example, and which has naturally directed attention to the subject." He then adduces the following on the working of foundling hospitals in other countries, and their tendency to increase rather than allay Oe crime : When the late Empress Dowager of Russia had taken " Foundling Hospitals" under her special patronage, I sent a commissioner to report to the Imperial mistress on the various institutions intended for the reception of infants abandoned by their mothers. I have reason to know that he came to the conclusion, by no means a satisfactory conclusion to the Empress, whose heart and energies were engaged in what she deemed a great and holy work—that infanticide was most common in countries where the interference of the Government or the existence of charitable Institutions provided for and afforded encouragement to the abandonment of children. and thus gave as it were a public sanction to the neglect of the maternal duties, and helped to loosen the natural claims of the babe upon the mother. _  In China, where there is no large town without a Te-ceptacle, frequently on a very large scale, provided by the local authorities for receiving, nursing, and maintaining children there deposited by their mothers, infanticide is so common and public opinion so unenlightened that I have looked into ponds filled with abandoned infants, and have often seen their corpses devoured by rats and dogs in the precincts of the great cities, nobody thinking ever of removing them. Yet foundling hotpitals abound. Their very existence seems to release the mother from her responsibilities, anal invites anti patronizes that indifference and neglect which are the frequent causes of these dreadful ermines.  In most Catholic countries there are provisions made and every security given for the quiet and unperceived deposit of infants in establishments erected for the purpose. I venture to say they are Most common where monkish influences are most powerful, and tnat they will be found more rarely in the more enlightened and civilized portions of Europe. It is very difficult for reliable statistics to be drawn from the recesses of a crime so singularly bidden from observation. so frequently committed, and, when the law is inactive, and public opinion little interested. so commonly escaping iletection,—but no one with opportunities of investigation can fail in coining to the conclusion that Foundling Hospitals have served to encourage immorality among women, and have always been associated, not with the diminution, but the increase of infanticide.  Lamentably common as is this offence in Great Britain, there is no country in Europe in which child murder is more rare. There is none, in truth, where, on the whole, the links of affection which bind the mother to the babe are so strong and so general. It would be a wretched policy to diminish their efficiency, to afford the seduced girl and the scdueing tempter a secmity that society would provide against the consequence of their misdoings, and to tell the heartless parent that the benevolence of the community would take care of the child of which she desired to get rid. I have beard the fact that we have only one Foundling Hospital cited as evidence of our advanced civilization, enlightened and thoughtful not impulsive and impassioned! estimates of the best means of preventing misery, and should think it in no way creditable to the reputation of our country if another Foundling Hospital were added to that one whose solitariness is tons a lin tional honour.