OBLIGA TION IN PARENTHOOD. 163 



enlisted ; if we go too far he will dismiss the case, 

 and it may be long before it can be taken up again. 



Segregation is Not yet Practicable. 



No one in their senses would at the present 

 moment venture to bring in a Bill for the segregation 

 of criminals and vagrants, for we are not prepared for 

 such a measure. A certain number would, no doubt, 

 be strongly in its favour, but they would be in a small 

 minority. At present the community at large have 

 hardly even discussed their obligations as race pro- 

 ducers, and the enforcement of these obligations could 

 only follow a strong growth of public feeling and 

 public practice. Long, too, before the question can 

 be discussed in a practical form, the criminals and 

 vagrants must be separated from the deserving poor ; 

 it is probable that this step would commend itself to 

 all, indeed in all probability the present system con- 

 tinues to exist solely on account of a widespread 

 ignorance of the real state of things. Our work- 

 houses and institutions for the relief of the poor have 

 never elicited much personal interest; they are 

 rarely visited by the public, who have never realised 

 the scandalous herding together of the very scum of 

 humanity with the respectable but unfortunate and 

 aged of the labouring class which is nowadays 

 prevalent. Once this state of things were ended, 



