ACCESS OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN.

AN anonymous letter-writer complains, in a tone better to be shunned than followed, that, notwithstanding a summons from himself some three weeks ago, we have neglected or disdained the discussion of Mr. Sergeant TALFOURD.S Custody of Infants Bill, Which was then in the House of Commons, but has since gone to the Lords. Being accustomed, in our necessarily limited selection of subjects, to prefer those which effect large classes of the community, and regarding the operation of the bill in ques- tion as of very limited range,—not aware, moreover, of any thing objectionable in the measure, and approving of its principle,— we did not feel it incumbent upon us to interfere in any way with its progress. Our correspondent imputes bad motives to the promoters of the bill.* Of these, if they exist, we know nothing.

• His words are—" You cannot, 1 think, but know, it has bad its origin in the foulest corruption. This is indubitable, whether in its principle the bill be right, or wrong." Again—" How these magnates aid each other at a pinch ! Lord 1.vxmlunsr dandles, and presents in a ...lean hilt and tucker, the rotten darling t,f the First Lord of the Treasury."—Of all which, we are to this hour in happy ignorance.

Possibly thelbill may have originated with an eye to scries special

for such the emigrants to the United Stales from England gene. case. We meddle not with men's secret motives, but their open rally are—to become the citizens of a rival power, brought by. acts. . Our correspondent himself may be influenced by private steam navigation within a fortnight's sail of us, sTvalliiliedrnete,hbeyKiitilitglidet and sinister considerations : he does not write like a person who exercise of -the proper functions of goyernistileient

had merely the general weal at heart. use of our own resources, emigrants from

The bill is now, for the first time, before us ; and our original may be mado the founders of prosperous colonies purely Bri. fayourablo impression respecting it is not shaken. It enables the tish. The rapidity with which New South Wales, in spite of highest Courts of Justice to grant orders for the access of parents, its moral taint, has become one of the most wealthy and important living apart, to their children under twelve years of age, in the of our foreign possessions, shows how well adapted that part of manner and at the times to be prescribed in the orders. Such is the empire is for colonization. It appears from tables in a re. the utmost scope of the measure. The cases falling under its cent work of authority,* that in 1828, the total amount of the practical operation, must of necessity be few. There are pro- imports of general merchandise into that colony was 570,0001., of bably some brutal husbands, who, abusing the power which a exports 90,000/.•' but in 1835,the imports had nearlydionugble6(31,gz tyrannical law has conferred, would deprive their wives of access 1,092,500/., and the exports increased sevenfold, be to their infant children, although injury to the children from The estimated revenue of the colony for 1837 was 234,5451. m. eternal contact were utterly impossible. Mr. TALFOCRD, when the expenditure 240,673/.; excluding on the one side S0,0o0/.. introducing the bill, cited severe' cases of this description, in

ings and rights too often outraged. exists in the midst of the extretnest moral depravity that ever It was ingeniously suggested in the discussion on the bill, by polluted the earth. The fact of the prosperity, however, undo. Mr. WARBURTON, that the disagreement of the parents might be niably proves the facility of edvantageous colonization in that prolonged by it, inasmuch as the potent incentive to reconcilia- part of the world ; and it has given a fresh impetus to Southern tion, arising from a longing for reuewed intercourse with her emigration.

children, world no longer exist if the mother could have access The object of Mr. Beersn's bill is to found, in New Zealand, to them while living apart Mum the husband. This is a partial a colony free from slavery in any shape, in a soil mid climate and one-sided view : the incentive in question coerces the wife, superior to that of New South Wales, under a system which shall but enlarges the husband's licence. Very rarely could the on- secure to the landowner that without which his land is valueless, equal compulsion operate otherwise than to the oppression of the a regular and sufficient supply of free labour—to the labourer, weaker sex. good wages in the mean time, with the prospect of speedily ae- " For every wrong there is a remedy," is a law maxim, but not a quiring land and hired labour for himself—to the capitalist and practical fact. 111-ticated wives have no remedy, in the most tender the trader, ample returns for the employment of their funds.

point, but that which this bill confers. The process of redress The geographical position of New Zealand, combined with its

un ler the bill is expensive : much will be endured before the extraordinary fertility and delightful climate maths it as the woman will plead before the Lord Chancellor and his brother future seat of a great and wealthy nation. in length, the two Judges for permission to see her own children ; but if this bill islands, nearly adjoinieg, are eight hundred miles, with no aver- pass, the Judge will have the discretion, at present denied to him, age breadth of one hundred. The temperature resembles that of

of granting or refusing her prayer. the South of France, or the most favoured part of the temperate

To show that the Custody of Infants Bill is what we have stated, region; and it is one of the most equable in the world. From neither more nor less, its convenient brevity enables us to subjoin the chain of mountains which runs nearly the whole length of a copy. as it passed the House of Commons. the two islands, numerous streams and rivers flow, and refreshing ' AN ACT TI) PROVIDE FOR THE ACcEss OF rAILENTs LIVING, APART FROM EACH OTHER rains fall in their appointed season : droughts, so noxious in New To THEM CHthonEN or' TAMAR AGE. '

- I. Whereas it is expedient to make provision for the access of parents living apart front each other to their children of tender age : lie it therefote enacted by the Queen's indented whit numerous bays, forming secure harbours for ships Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the adVice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and ping of various dimensions. Excellent flax abounds through- TeMpOtad and Commons in this present Parliament assembled. and by the authority of the sAmr, that when any child. being tinder the age or twehe years, whose parents Out the country, being its native product. The timber is of the ahall lx, living apart from each other. shall be in the custody of one of such parents, or finest quality, in great variety, and in immense forests : the 13ris of any person by IIIS or her authority. and complaiot shall be made by the other of such parents of the wont of proper access to such child, it shall be lawful tor the Lord High Chancellor, the Master of the Rolls, tlw Vice-Chatwellor. or any Judge of either of the and large quantities are also shipped to Van Diemen's Land, New Courts of Law at Westminster,to hear such complaint, nod either to dismint the same or South Wales, British India, and the Brazils. The seas teem with to make order fur the access of the complainant LO stick child. at such times awl in such

discharge any suit order.

-3. And be it enacted. that till orders which shall be mule by virtue of this not by

stub Coml. and enforced by 'Ike process of tomb Cond. ODItSt of Africa.

rite the making an Order tor accesS on behalf of a mot her against whom adultery shall "b. Provided also and be it enacted, that this act shall not hp deemed to declare or - 6. And to it enacted. that this net may be amended t r repealed by any act to be