Tiie fact that out of 1000 oases taken up during the last five years by the London Socioty for tbe Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the courts were only competent to deal with 150, illustrates strikingly the need for fresh legislation. Somo of these instances, though by no means the most (.hocking, may be quoted. In most of them it is noticed that those responsible for acvs which, if not technically unlaw ful, were as wicked and inhuman as can well be conceived, wore not poor people, but ofton persons possessed of comfort able means of subsistence. Oases of quite young children tortured to madness by being shut up for days by themselves, sometimes without food and fire, are very common. On one occasion two boys, of 5 and 7 respectively, were found locked up in a bedroom, where they had lived for eight days, with potatoes, bread and water as their only food. One of them was almost insane with terror, and their condition and that of the room is described as horrible. Legally, however, the food and lodging provided were adequate. Again, a wretched child of 6 —a stepson—was virtually imprisoned in a wash house. Thousrh there were plenty of beds in his father's house, he had to sleep on a stone floor. Here again, notwithstanding that the neighbors were aware of the facts, they had no right to interfere, or to bring the boy any help or comfort. Another form of illtreatment which goes entirely unpunished is that occasioned by parents when they frighten children from their homes and shut them out at night. Still tnoro abominable are the cases in which persons pecuniarily interested in the deaths of infants de liberately attempt to kill them by starva tion and cruel usage. Plenty of instances ean be given where the deaths of children insured" in clubs have been obvionsiy hastened by neglect ; but as the evidence would not support a charge of man slaughter no steps could bo taken to prosecute. At the present time it is, speaking generally, impossible to rescue their offspring from parents utterly carelcss, brumal and drunken till thoy have injured them irretrievably. For example, a drunken pair were seen reeling through the streets, every now and then passing a wretched baby from one to the other. 