96s ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



■will even cat in a state of putrefac- 

 tion. Yet, little scrupulous as they 

 are with regard to diet, I am not 

 credulous caongh to believe the in- 

 formation of a Swedish author* to 

 be correct in his statement of a cure 

 for a certain disease, though " he 

 *' has no reason to doubt of the 

 '• ract,"/?cr riKvo(pxyiav (d/eniis (Uc- 

 bus, allcnm jcjunio — h)j eating citil. 

 (Ircn even/ utlicr day ! 



"A picture so horrid in its nature, 

 as the exposing of infants presents to 

 the imagination, is not to be surpas- 

 scd among the most savage nations. 

 The celebrated legislator of Athens 

 made no \a.\v to puniish parricide, be- 

 cause he considered it as a crime 

 against nature, too heinous ever to be 

 committed, and that the bare suppo- 

 sition of such a crime w ould hare 

 disgractxl the coujitry. The Chi- 

 nese, in like manner, have no posi- 

 tive, law against infanticide. The 

 laws of the rude and warlike Spar- 

 tans allowed infanticide, of which, 

 however, the parents were not the 

 perpetrators nor the abettors. Nor, 

 among these peoj)Ie, were the weak 

 .and sickly children, deemed by the 

 magistrates unlikely ever to become 

 of use to themselves, or to the pub- 

 lic, thro^m into the xvo^^i-n, or 

 comiHon repository of the dead bo- 

 dies of children, until life had been 

 previously exfing'iished, we will 

 charitably suppose, by gentle and 

 the least painful means. 



" The exposing of children, how- 

 ever, it must be aJloAved, was very 

 common amongst the ancients. The 

 »tfrn and rigid virtues of the Ro- 

 mans allowed thi.s among many other 

 customs, that were more unnatural 

 than amiable, and such as, in civiliz- 

 ed societies of the present day, would 

 Uavc been considered among the 



most atrocious of moral crimes. A 

 Roman father, if his infant was 

 meant to be preserved, lifted it up 

 from the ground in his arms ; if he 

 neglected that ceremony, the child, 

 it wotdd seem, was considered as 

 doomed to exposure in the highway. 

 Thus, in the Andrian of Terence, 

 where, though the scene is iiot laic^ 

 in Rome, Roman customs are de- 

 scribed, " quidqidd pcjunisset, dc- 

 " crevcruni /ollcir.'' " Let it be 

 " boy or girl, they have resolved 

 " to lift it from the ground." Nor 

 indeed is secret infanticide unknown 

 in modern Europe, although it may 

 be owing to a different principle. 

 In such cases, the sense of sham* 

 and the fear of encountering the 

 scorn and obloquy of the world, 

 have determined the conduct of tha 

 unhappy mother, before the feelings 

 of luttiire could have time to ope- 

 rate. For I am willing to liojxj 

 that none who had ever experienced 

 a mother's feelings and a mother'* 

 joy, would consent bv any means, 

 direct or indirect, or under any 

 impression of fear of shame, of scorn, 

 or biting penury, to the destruction 

 of a new-born babe. And I mav 

 venture to say, with confidence, that 

 a British cottager, however indigent, 

 would divide his scanty pittance 

 among a dozen children, rather than 

 consent to let some of them perish, 

 that he and the rest might fare the 

 better, were even our laws as tacit 

 on this subject as those of China. 



'• Some of the Christian mission- 

 aries, in their accounts of this coun- 

 try, have attempted to palliate the 

 unnatural act of exposing infants, 

 by attributing it to the midwife, 

 who, they pretend to say, from 

 knowing the circumstances of the 

 parents, strangles the child without 



*, Mr« Torreen. 



the 



