On Tuesday, Lord Meath, in the House of Lords, moved
the second reading of the Adoption of Children Bill, the object of which, he declared, was " to prevent parents from recovering their children after they had consented to their adoption; unless they satisfied the Justices that their claim was legiti- mate." In support of the Bill, the mover urged, among other arguments, that there were many people " who were dying to obtain children, having no children of their own, and who would be very anxious to adopt children, if only they felt they had a legal claim upon them when they had been adopted." The Lord Chancellor and Lord Fitzgerald, in opposing the Bill, argued that it proceeded on no intelligible principle, and that if any alteration was to be made in the law of England, it should be far more thorough than that proposed. Ultimately, the measure was withdrawn, though not before an announcement had been made that the Government intend to deal with some of the evils com- plained of in the legislative proposals which they purpose to base on the Report of the recent Poor-Law Commission.
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