sorrow, we clear the road
for a better race. Let it be understood that I have a truly orthodox
dread of "pauperisation," and I watch very jealously the doings of
those who are anxious to feed all sorts and conditions of men; but
pauperising men by maintaining them in laziness is very different from
rearing useful subjects of the empire, whose trained labour is a
source of profit and whose developed morality is a fund of security.
We cannot take Chinese methods of lessening the pressure of
population, and we must at once decide on the wisest way of dealing
with our waifs and strays; if we do not, then the chances are that
they will deal unpleasantly with us. The locust, the lemming, the
phylloxera, are all very insignificant creatures; but, when they act
together in numbers, they can very soon devastate a district. The
parable is not by any means inapt.

XIV.

STAGE-CHILDREN.

The Modern Legislator is a most terrible creature. When he is not
engaged in obstructing public business, he must needs be meddling with
other people's private affairs--and some of us want to know where he
is going to stop. The Legislator has decreed that no children who are
less than ten years of age shall henceforth be allowed to perform on
the stage. Much of the talk which came from those who carried the
measure was kindly and sensible; but some of the acrid party foisted
mere misleading rubbish on the public. Henceforth the infantile player
will be seen no more. Mr. Crummles will wave a stern hand from the
shades where the children of dreams dwell, and the Phenomenon will be
glad that she has passed from a prosaic earth. Had the stern
law-makers had their way thirty years ago, how many pretty sights
should we have missed! Little Marie Wilton would not have romped about
the stage in her childish glee (she enjoyed the work from the first,
and even liked playing in a draughty booth when the company of roaming
"artists" could get no better accommodation). Little Ellen Terry, too,
would not have played in the Castle scene in "King John," and crowds
of worthy matrons would have missed having that "good cry" which they
enjoy so keenly. We are happy who saw all the Terrys, and Marie the
witty who charmed Charles Dickens, and all the pretty mites who did so
delight us when Mme. Katti Lanner marshalled them. Does any reader
wish to have a perfectly pleasant half-hour? Let that reader get the
number of "Fors Clavigera" which contains Mr. Rusk