Mr. Chamberlain made a very good speech at Birmingham on
Tuesday, in support of the Birmingham branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, at the Midland Institute. He explained the doubts he had at first felt whether it was wise to interfere in this way between parents and children, and the extreme caution with which such interference should be guarded if it was not to do more harm than good ; and he expressed his belief that the actual proceedings of the Society had been conducted with that ex- treme caution, and had been productive of a vast balance of good. Daring the last two years, 8,810 cases of cruelty had been dealt with, of which 5,064 had been satisfactorily dis- posed of by mere warning, and without, therefore, exciting in the parents' minds any vindictive feeling. In 1,497 cases,— that is, in less than one-sixth of the total number,—prosecu- tions had been ordered ; and of these prosecutions, no fewer than 1,338 resulted in convictions, showing that the prosecution was wise and necessary. Mr. Chamberlain believed that the recent Act was doing great good, and that the operations of the Society were prudently as well as firmly conducted.
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