irst, that they encouraged the increase of illegitimate children,
and second, the great expense to the state, and the last consideration
was the one which had most weight.

It was found upon trying the new system, that infanticide increased with
considerable rapidity, as the morning exhibitions at La Morgue greatly
indicated. When we consider, too, that the majority of the infanticides
are unquestionably not detected, the body of the child being hid from
the sight, and the vast amount of injury which results to the mothers
from the attempt to destroy unborn children, we cannot wonder that
French philanthropists have been inclined to return to the old system.
Infanticide is one of the most horrible of crimes, and its growth among
a people is accompanied by as rapid a growth of vice of every other
kind. In England where a foundling hospital could not be endured for a
moment, the crime of infanticide is increasing every year, and the
number of murdered children is already an army of martyrs.

The safest way is, perhaps, for the government to leave the whole matter
with the people, and not either encourage illegitimacy or attempt to
prevent infanticide, except by punishment. Upon the heads of the guilty
ones be their own blood. But there certainly should be asylums for those
children who cannot be supported by their poverty-stricken parents.

* * * * *

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

Paris abounds with charitable societies and institutions. Until the
latter part of the last century, the city was full of objects of
compassion, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the sick and suffering. The
prisons too, and the madhouses, were scenes of cruelty and violence. But
a controversy arose upon the whole matter, and under Louis XVI. four new
hospitals were ordered to be erected, but in the excitement which
preceded the great revolution, they were not completed. After the
revolution the subject came up from time to time to the consideration of
the governing powers, and new hospitals were erected, and great
improvements made in the old ones. At the beginning of this century,
they were placed under the direction of a general administration. All
the civil hospitals and the different institutions connected with them,
are under the control of an administrative committee. The regulations of
the hospitals are nearly the same as they are in London and New York. In
cases of severe wounds, persons are admitted in