thers and children.

THE NUMBERS.

Of the numbers of illegitimate children in New York, it is difficult to
speak with any precision. In European countries, we know almost exactly
the proportion of illegitimate to legitimate births. In Sardinia, it is
2.09 per cent.; in Sweden, 6.56; in England, 6.72; in France, 7.01; in
Denmark, 9.35; in Austria, 11.38; in Bavaria, 20.59. Among cities, it is
between 3 and 4 per cent, in English cities; in Genoa, 8; in Berlin,
14.9; in St. Petersburg, 18.8; in Vienna, 46. The general average of
illegitimate to legitimate children in Europe is 12.8 per cent.

Supposing that the average in New York is the same as in Amsterdam or
London, say four per cent, there were in the five years, from 1860 to
1865, out of the 144,724 children born (living or dead) in the city of
New York, 5,788 illegitimate, or an average each year of 1,157 children
born out of wedlock. More than a thousand illegitimate children are
thus, in all probability, thrown upon this community every year.

Though this is a mere estimate, there is a strong presumptive evidence
of its not being exaggerated, from the enormous proportion, in New York,
of stillbirths, which reached in one year (1868) the sum of 2,195, or
more than seven per cent of the whole number of births. Now, it is
well-known that the women who are mothers of illegitimate children are
much more likely to be badly attended or neglected in their confinement
than mothers in wedlock, and thus to suffer under this misfortune.

As to the relation of illegitimacy to crime, there are some striking
statistics from France. Out of 5,758 persons confined in the bagnios in
France, there were, according to Dr. Parry, in 1853, 391 illegitimate.
Of the 18,205 inmates of the State Prisons in France during the same
time, 880 were illegitimate, and 361 foundlings. "One out of every 1,300
Frenchmen," says the same authority, "becomes the subject of legal
punishment, while one out of 158 foundlings finds his way to the State
Prisons." In the celebrated Farm-school of Mettrai, according to recent
reports, out of 3,580 young convicts since its foundation, 534 were
illegitimate and 221 foundlings, or more than twenty per cent.

There can be no reasonable doubt, then, that a large number of children
born out of wedlock, and therefore exposed to great hardship,
temptation, and misery, are cast out every year on this community. A
very large proportion o