HOW TO PROVIDE SOLDIERS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR." 3 Sin,—Mr. Murray's letter, and your comments on it, in the Spectator of December 7th, suggest another plan akin to Mr. Murray's, and to my mind equally expedient. There are at the present moment in England about twenty-six thousand children in Poor Law schools and similar insti- tutions, and about seven thousand five hundred who are "boarded out." Some of these are orphans; but the greater part of them are children of parents who have absconded, or of parents who have been prosecuted for neglecting or ill-treating their families. These children are being brought up at the public expense. They are being better housed and fed—and often are receiving a better education—than the majority of the children of honest and industrious working men. (Rank Socialism ; but so is this branch of the Poor Law administered in England!) We may take it that nearly half of these children are boys. Surely it is not going too far to demand that these boys, who have received home, food, and education at the public expense, should be required to do something for the nation, which has hitherto done everything for them. I am Chairman of a country Board of Guardians, and a certain number of " boarded-out " boys pass under my notice. For the most part they turn out well (notably two or three, who have entered the Army, and who keep up a correspondence with their foster-parents); but, on the whole, we find it difficult to find employment for them. I feel certain, however, that nearly all, if they were passed on to military schools, would become excellent and willing soldiers.
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