THE HUMAN SCIENCES 57 



(which is probably true as a rule), but also that they are 

 charged with definite propensities towards a degraded life. 

 This view, however, is not endorsed by those social 

 reformers who have had most to do with placing ill-treated 

 and neglected children in happier surroundings. The 

 Poor Law Inspector in Glasgow, Mr. J. R. Motion, sends 

 every year to Kirkcudbrightshire in the south of Scotland, 

 to Ross-shire and Inverness-shire in the North, and to the 

 remote islands of lona and Islay, numbers of little children 

 found in the streets, "picked up selling newspapers between 

 the knees of drunkards in public-houses." On being 

 asked by the writer how far these children, born almost 

 invariably of the worst parents, suffered from their inheri- 

 tance, his startling reply was, ' ' Provided you get them 

 young enough, they cannot be said to suffer at all from 

 that cause." He supported his conclusion by statistics 

 which showed that out of some 630 children sent out by 

 him and kept under close observation for years, only some 

 23 turned out bad. " A smaller proportion," it was play- 

 fully added, " than if they had been the sons of ministers 

 or professors." 



" Thraw the willow when it's green, 

 Between three and thirteen," 



says an old Scotch educational maxim. Mr. Motion would 

 have the child in his hands earlier: "At any age from a 

 fortnight Jojen years : after ten, unless the child has had 

 one, at least, decent parent, the results are long in coming 

 and uncertain." 



I have no doubt that the risks of a tainted heritage are 

 exaggerated. So also, I believe, are the dangers of lower- 

 ing the sense of parental responsibility amongst the poor. 



