ew of the frequent origin of crime must
awaken our commiseration for its miserable victims, and excite in us a
desire to become the defenders of the unprotected.

It will, however, be said by some, "Where are the natural guardians of
the child? Where are its parents? Are we to encourage their neglect
of duty, by becoming their substitutes? It is their business to look
after their children, and not ours." Frequently have I heard such
sentiments put forth, and sometimes by persons in whom I knew they
were rather owing to a want of reflection than of philanthropy. But a
want of thought, or of feeling, it must certainly be; because, on no
principle of reason or humanity can we make the unnatural conduct
of fathers and mothers, a plea for withholding our protection and
assistance from the helpless objects of their cruelty and neglect.
If we do so, we not only neglect our duty towards such children, but
permit the growth and extension of the evil. We must recollect that
they will not merely play their own wicked parts during their lives,
but will also become models to the next generation.

It should be remembered here, that I am treating of an evil which
extends itself to all classes of society; I am appealing to the
prudence of men, that they may, for their own sakes, investigate its
cause; I shall hereafter appeal to them as philanthropists, and, still
more urgently, as Christians, that they may examine the merits of the
remedy I shall propose.

The culpability of many parents is beyond dispute. They not only omit
to set their children good examples, and give them good advice, but,
on the contrary, instil into their minds the first rudiments of
wickedness, and lead them into the paths of vice. Their homes present
scenes which human nature shudders at, and which it is impossible
truly to describe. There are parents who, working at home, have every
opportunity of training up their children "in the way they should go,"
if they were inclined so to do. Instead of this, we often find, in
the case of the fathers, that they are so lost to every principle of
humanity, that as soon as they receive their wages, they leave their
homes, and hasten with eager steps to the public house; nor do they
re-pass its accursed threshold, till the vice-fattening landlord has
received the greater part of the money which should support their
half-fed, half-clothed wives and children; and till they have
qualified themselves, by intoxication, to ac