CRIMINALS AND 1NCAPABLES. 109 



probably be unfavourably received. In the case of the 

 unhealthy we may hope by force of public opinion 

 soon to prevent such marriages as are to-day of too 

 common an occurrence, but in the case of the 

 criminals and incapables the case is different. They 

 are not to be touched by a sense of public duty, for 

 they only obey the preponderating influences of the 

 moment. Their lives will have to be ordered for 

 them, and the responsibility of action must fall upon 

 other shoulders. One cannot help thinking that a 

 great step could be taken in the meanwhile by purg- 

 ing the poorhouses of all unworthy occupants. 

 The criminal classes would then stand by them- 

 selves, and the public, learning gradually to re- 

 gard them in their true light, would probably very 

 soon grudge to support them, generation after 

 generation, and would come to see that their 

 segregation under circumstances involving no per- 

 sonal hardship would diminish and in time remove 

 the evil. 



Incapables to be Treated like Chronic Hospital Patients. 



The incapables seen side by side with the dis- 

 tressed and aged would then be viewed with that 

 commiseration they truly merit. Their lives might 

 be made better worth the living than they are at 

 present, and the poorhouse might come to be re- 



