CHILDREN'S MEALS AND PARENTS' POCKETS.
[TO THE EDITOR or THE " SPIECTATOE."i
Sin, —I am indeed assured that the social ideals of my friend Mr. Hookham and myself are closely allied, and therefore; "differing in nothing save opinions," it is the less painful to us to disagree as to methods. I admit the justice of his criticism last week on my letter in your issue of the 24th ult., viz., that in speaking of children unsuitable for State feeding I included not only the well-fed, but children whose parents can, but do not, feed them. I had not quite grasped, and still find it difficult to realise, that Mr. Hookham advocates relieving all neglectful and unnatural parents from any obligation to maintain their offspring, and this not by the existing machinery of the Poor Law, nor by the multitude of charitable agencies already at work-, but by a newly constituted authority, to be care- fully dissociated from any taint of discredit or social stigma. If I am correctly interpreting Mr. Hookham's proposal, it goes beyond what has hitherto been advocated, and appears to me ruinous to the morale of present and future generations. Ti the strongest of all incentives to restraint and self-denial be thus removed, better for us to adopt the ideal of Socrates, and remove the children entirely from the aura of a home where the ever-present lesson is that the consequences of callous selfishness and nwlect of duty may be safely left to the public to bear. The fate of a drunkard's children is heart- sickening enough, I admit, to shake our better judgment ; but perhaps the one ray of light on such evils is the heroism often called forth in mere children by the experience of the inevitable, Providential misery caused by the sin, and the resolve to save others as well as themselves from such a fate. That even those deeply sunk in the slough of drink are not wholly beyond reach of the divine calls of parenthood and the redemption of love and duty is proved by the suggestive and warning story which you, Sir, appended to my last letter, and for which I thank you.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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