600 
laws, the richer country will attract the male population to engage 
in trade, &c. ; and this element must be kept in view in comparing 
Scotland and England ; but it does not affect the question I am now 
putting, except in so far as Scotchmen wandering to England may 
prefer an English to a Scotch wife. But I would deduce from these 
figures, and from observations made otherwise, the benefits of early 
marriages. 
<£ But these remedies are all systematic, requiring time to develop 
them ; meanwhile, the evil which we find prevails amongst us 
should be promptly met by remedial measures. It is a difficult 
matter to suggest remedies for immediate relief, seeing how funda- 
mentally our system is deranged ; but, at the risk of being charged 
with over-zeal, I shall venture to make a few suggestions. 
“ ls£, then, An illegitimate child should be under the supervision 
of the parochial authorities, whether the parents can support it or 
not, and each county should be assessed for these children as far as 
not supported by the parents by a separate assessment. By advo- 
cating that illegitimate children should be under the immediate super- 
vision of the parochial authorities, I do not mean that they should be 
supported by the parish when the parents can do so, but I mean that 
the fate of each child born out of wedlock in the parish should be 
carefully watched, even although it entailed more expense and respon- 
sibility than at present. It may be argued, that by placing more 
responsibility on the parochial authorities than at present we would 
increase the evil ; but even if such were at first the tendency, I am 
firmly convinced that child-murder* would be less common when the 
parochial authorities had cognizance of such children, while the burden 
thrown on the landlords would rouse them not only to attend more 
to the position of the labouring class around them, but would be an 
inducement to them to urge the clergy to be fully alive to the 
spread of laxity of morals throughout their parishes, thereby ulti- 
mately securing a better state of things. 
“ 2d, Our clergy ought to be much in the houses of their pa- 
rishioners ; not as mere formal visitors, but as the best and nearest 
* By a return made to the House of Commons in 1861, it appeared that 
from 31st December 1855 to 31st December 1860, the number of coroners’ 
inquests held upon the bodies of infants within the Metropolitan District 
(London) alone were 3901 , —namely, on males, 2082; females, 1816; sex 
unknown, 3. 
