On Saturday last a letter signed by Lord Rosebery, Lord
Rothschild, Lord Avebury, and Mr. Balfour was published in the Press appealing to the public to provide the funds to feed those London school-children who may be ascertained to be in real need of food and whose parents are unable to provide it,—a letter to which Mr. Peel, a member of the Finance Committee of the County Council, draws the special attention of our readers in another portion of our issue. We are delighted to see from the most recent accounts that the appeal is meeting already with a good response, and sincerely trust that this good beginning will he maintained and the required sum forthcoming. There is nothing in the world more pitiful or sadder than a starved child, and if it were possible to act without thought of consequences, nothing would be easier than to say that it could never matter where the help came from so long as it was given. As a matter of fact, however, discrimination in charity to children is as necessary as, or we may almost say more necessary than, dis- crimination where grown-up people are concerned. The case in which the evil of indiscriminate charity is most easily realised is that of the underclad, underfed children who beg in the streets. Those who give money to such children are in the most literal sense the cause of the misery they try to relieve. If a bad parent finds that a child with bare feet, a hollow cough, or an unhealed sore on its emaciated arms and legs is a specially good collector of money, he takes care that it shall remain in the condition which makes its earnings so large. It becomes a bad piece of economy for him to have the children, who either belong to him or are hired for the purpose, in a healthy, well-fed condition.
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