here in which they live, and the treatment that they
receive from those intrusted with their care or custody, shall be such
as to establish in them habits of industry, of sobriety, of honesty, and
good conduct. For injurious treatment of a child, inasmuch as it tends
to result in the distortion of its physical and moral nature,
constitutes an offence whose importance seriously effects the public
order." But what is to be understood by cruel treatment? It consists in
every act of omission or of commission which causes or procures physical
injury or death. It is hardly necessary to observe that this definition
must be limited to its practical meaning, rather than interpreted in its
broader, philosophical sense. We must leave out of the question the
results of improper or imperfect educational training and discipline. It
is doubtless a cause of harm to a delicate and nervous child to force
the development of its intelligence; a harsh word hastily uttered by
parents may leave an ineffaceable impression upon a sensitive
organization; severity degenerates into injustice when it confounds a
peevish act, the result of physical disorder, with an act of deliberate
disobedience. The weakness which resigns its authority In order to spare
itself the care of a child's education engenders for life the spirit of
insubordination. The humiliating and unjust reproach, the stinging
sarcasm, wound the child in its tenderest feelings;--but these are not
the forms of cruelty and wrong which fall within reach of the law. It is
unable to interpose between the parents and the child, except in case of
an actual and serious offence, and for the rest it must rely upon the
affection planted by nature in the hearts of parents. These distinctions
are more felt than expressed, and opinion will never deceive itself in
regard to the conduct of unnatural parents.

But if these propositions are absolutely incontestable, how do they
leave room for the function of a society? If children are beaten,
abandoned, given over to odious practices, will not the authorities, on
the complaint of those interested, or compelled by public opinion, be
able adequately to fulfil the task? This reasoning, altogether French,
would not properly take into account the American temperament, the
genius of the Anglo-Saxon race, of its institutions, and of its usages.
In France, since the fourteenth century, misdemeanors have been
prosecuted the more generally by the public minister,