46 ADMINISTRATIVE SECTION 



of procreation. The Mental Deficiency Bill goes to 

 the root of infant mortality, and is urgently required. 



Towards the infant at and after birth the State has 

 accepted certain duties 1 : (a) To secure the rights of 

 children against violation by their parents ; (b) by 

 advice or otherwise to help parents in the fulfilment 

 of their parental task ; (c) to provide a substitute for 

 the parents in case of their default through death or 

 incapacity. These objects are to a large extent 

 obtained by the State through purely legal and non- 

 medical measures. If, in this Conference, we refrain 

 from discussing the general laws of marriage, of 

 property, of guardianship, of cruelty and crime, we 

 must at any rate express our sense of the important part 

 played by such laws in fixing the physical character of 

 the infant multitude, and reducing its mortality. 



Historical. English law has always held the father 

 civilly liable to his children for wrongs done to them ; 

 and the Court of Chancery, on behalf of the sovereign 

 as parens patrice, has always assumed the right to 

 assume or transfer the wardship, where parental rights 

 were abused. The conception of this abuse has been 

 enlarged in recent years, parental duties being thus 

 very greatly increased, while filial obligations have 

 diminished. This is of some significance in connec- 

 tion with the falling birth-rate ; for to the nation, as 

 Sir J. Compton Rickett has said, babies are getting 

 scarcer, and by the law of supply and demand are 

 rising in value, while to the parent children are 

 certainly not the " business proposition " they once 

 were. 



Abandonment or exposure of infants was made 

 punishable in 1861 by the Offences against the Person 

 Act; and in 1868 the Poor Law Amendment Act 



1 " The Children of the Nation," by the Rt. Hon. Sir John 

 E. Gorst. Dedicated to the Labour Members of the House of 

 Commons. Methuen and Co., 1906. 75. 6d. 



