Kim& CHILDREN.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1 Sin,—In the Spectator of December 14th is an article about slum children, and a cheering picture is drawn of what Mr. Matthew Arnold calls "that within us that makes for righteous- ness," saving/ them largely from the contamination of their surroundings. With all this I cordially agree ; but I think that Mr. Bray, whom you quote, goes too far when he says: "Slum parents love their children and treat them according to their own lights kindly and well." Had he said some slum parents, or there are slum parents who, &c., it would have been another matter; but as a worker for a number of years f or the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, I cannot help being aware that "their own lights" are often darkness made visible, and there is but little ground for such unqualified optimism. Why should such a Society be needed at all if child life were so universally cherished, whereas only last year nearly forty thousand people were proved to have committed offences against children, of whom eighty-five thousand five hundred were suffering from their wrong-doing ? The article goes on to say : "The children of whom we used to hear, who put their hands to their ears to ward off a cuff when any grown- up person approaches them, belong to an imaginary race." Unhappily, if you substitute the word " father " or "mother" for "any grown-up person," it still continues a very grievous fact, and one which the National Society for Preven- tion of Cruelty to Children's inspectors too often see; and children do fear unknown grown-up people too. When we had a shelter in Birmingham I used often to have a child to spend the day with me, and I well remember one dear little girl making a remark which struck me very much at the time. My sons came out into the garden where she was with me. They were joking and rather shouting at one another, and the poor child was in absolute terror, and. said, "Oh, there'll be a row directly," and I could not pacify her at all till I took her into the house to my nurse for safety. She and her brothers and sisters had had a ghastly home experience, and it will be many years before she recovers her nerve, if she ever does so. May I take this opportunity of saying that although the Society covers two-thirds of the United Kingdom, there is still one-third where little children are still unprotected, and must remain so until funds for reaching them all are forth- coming'? It is known by statistics that in every thousand inhabitants there is one ease of cruelty, and where the in- spectors cannot reach. it continues unchecked.—I am, Sir, &c., 184 Hagley Road, Birmingham. MARIA. LA.KIN-SMITH.
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