The Sun. — 1863-07-28 (London, England)

POST.--A question reappeared on Friday evening in the House of Commons which, although its discussion led to no immediate results, is destined, if we mistake not, to force itself, in one shape or another, before long, upon the attention of the Legislature. It is seldom that we are fortunate enough to find ourselves in accord with the opinions of the member for Finsbury, and still less often that we are able to approve of the tone and manner in which they are advocated. Mr. Cox's speech in the debate to which we allude was, however, an exception to the general rale. In calling attention to the subject of infanticide in England and -Wales, he struck a chord that will vibrate to the touch in the heart of every lover of his country. The tables of infant mortality, in the abstract, form the most delicate gauge which is accessible to us of the state of the public health. The mephitic exhalations, the poisonous miasma or the low type of vitality which crowd our hospitals and workhouses with the adult poor, can be detected instantly in the returns of the infantile death-rate. If the natural ratio of this be high, we may be quite sure that influences pernicious to the public health are unnecessarily rife. Where no disturbing causes, such as the employment of young mothers in the manufacturing districts as mill hands, and their consequent separation from their babies, are at work, a more infallible test of the health of any particular locality caa hardly be applied than the average number of deaths registered among that part of the population between their birth and the age of two years. Latterly, however, it has been shrewdly suspected that, especially in certain localities, there have been influences at work which tend materially to diminish the value of such data. It is roundly asserted that the number of untimely deaths among children of tender years is enormously augmented by the effects of violence, or of a wilful neglect, which answers the purpose quite as effectually. In other words, it is stated that a large proportion of the infant mortality throughout the country can only be properly classed under the ugly heading of murder. Mr. Cox has moved for a return, extending over 18 months, of the number of verdicts in the case of infantile deaths brought in by coroners' juries. The results thus elicited are sufficiently startling. In that comparatively short space of time upwards of 5,500 children under the age of two years met with untimely deaths. Of these, 224 are returned as the victims of wilful murder; 697 were found dead, a mere euphemism for murder, to which juries would appear to be partial, while in 956 casts the helpless little creatures had been suffocated. At the head of this ill-omened list stands unfortunately the metropolis, in which close upon 300 children have had their short space of existence suddenly abridged under circumstances which leave but little doubt as to the causes which have been at work. Now, it may reasonably perhaps be doubted whether the increased prominence which this particular crime has of late undoubtedly obtained be not due, as Sir Geo. Grey suggested, to the greater vigilance of the police, and not to any augmentation in the frequency of the crime itself. Many cases may now be subjected to scrutiny which formerly escaped the light, so that, especially when the enormous increase of our popu