The Rev. Benjamin Waugh, founder of the National Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, died on Wednesday week. Born in 1839, he became a Congregational minister at Greenwich. It was he who convinced the British public, first, that cruelty to children, and neglect amounting to cruelty, really did exist, and was even widespread; and secondly, that the privacy of the home must when necessary be invaded by the law. He became honorary secretary to the London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1884, and succeeded in keeping it free from any sectarian bias. He worked long and cordially with Cardinal Manning. The investigations of the Society surprised even Mr. Waugh himself as to the extent of the ill-treatment of children. He was the soul of the agitation which procured the Criminal Law Amendment Act, with its vitally important provision that Magistrates may take the evidence of children who are too young to understand the nature of an oath. In 1889 his work was crowned by the passing of the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act. The Society received a charter of incorpora- tion in 1895, and is one of the most valuable of national institutions.
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