Ch. viii. of the Poor- Laivs proposed. 341 



London, within the first year. The loss to the 

 society is the same ; but the crime is diluted by 

 the number of people concerned, and the death 

 passes as a visitation of Providence, instead of 

 being considered as the necessary consequence of 

 the conduct of its parents, for which they ought 

 to be held responsible to God and to society. 



The desertion of both parents, however, is not 

 so common as the desertion of one. When a ser- 

 vant or labouring man has an illegitimate child, 

 his running away is perfectly a matter of course ; 

 and it is by no means uncommon for a man who 

 has a wife and large family to withdraw into a 

 distant county, and leave them to the parish; in- 

 deed I once heard a hard-working good sort of 

 man propose to do this, as the best mode of pro- 

 viding for a wife and six children.* If the simple 

 fact of these frequent desertions were related in 

 some countries, a strange inference would be drawn 

 against the English character ; but the wonder 

 would cease when our public institutions were 

 explained. 



By the laws of nature, a child is confided di- 

 rectly and exclusively to the protection of its pa- 

 rents. By the laws of nature, the mother of a 

 child is confided almost as strongly and exclusively 

 to the man who is the father of it. If these ties 



* " That many of the poorer classes of the community avail 

 " themselves of the liberality of the law, and leave their wives and 

 " children on the parish, the reader will find abundant proof in 

 " the subsequent part of this work." Sir F. M. Eden on the State 

 of the Poor, vol. i. p. 339. 



