THE CRIME OF INFANTICIDE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Six,—As the prison visitor who first publicly protested against the laxity of the law in dealing with cases of infanticide, perhaps 1 may be allowed to say how glad I am that " one paper " at least has ventured to point out to Lady McLaren the exceeding mischievousness of her proposal to make two years' imprisonment the maximum penalty for child-murder. Of course each ease should be judged upon its merits ; there are perhaps sow " seduced, penniless, and disgraced women who kill their children in a frenzy of despair and passion," but it should be remembered that there are also others—and these predominate—who do the deed wilfully and inten- tionally. I have visited a local prison for several years, and have come into contact with many of these girls. I have heard one recommending another to " kill her kid " when it arrived, and on one occasion a girl who was about to become a mother said in my presenoe :—" Of course I shall kill it What would I do with a kid on the streets ? A pretty fool I should look !"
I have never yet met a girl in prison who appeared in the least sorry for having choked out the little life which her sinful weakness had called into being. On the whole their attitude is rather one of congratulation that the child is out of the way and will not have to be supported. I consider that the present condition of things is in a great measure answerable for this deplorable attitude on the part of the girls. They know that they " won't get nothin' done " to them, and the fact that the administrators of the law treat their crime with such extraordinary leniency makes them themselves regard it with the utmost levity and unconcern.
As to the " poor hunted and disgraced girl," all I can say is that if such a girl were to become an inmate of any one of our prisons she would immediately have a helping hand held out to her, there would not be the slightest difficulty in obtaining her an excellent situation with good wages, and she would have every opportunity of retrieving the past and leading a perfectly moral, good life in the future.
I hope sincerely that Lady McLaren's proposals will never become law. By all means let ns abolish the death-sentence, but do not let us encourage the chili-murderess by practi- cally asserting that her crime is of a trivial nature compared with that of theft, forgery, arson, &c., for all of which a woman may be, and often is, sent to penal servitude.-1 am,
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