in which infancy created a defect in civil
status were that infants were subject to the restraints on complete
freedom of action involved in their being in the legal custody of the
father, and that it was and is lawful for parents, guardians, employers
and teachers to inflict corporal punishment proportioned in amount and
severity to the nature of the fault committed and the age and mental
capacity of the child punished. But the court of chancery, in delegated
exercise of the authority of the sovereign as _parens patriae_, always
asserted the right to take from parents, and if necessary itself to
assume the wardship of children where parental rights were abused or
serious cruelty was inflicted, the power being vested in the High Court
of Justice. Abuse of the power of correction was regarded as giving a
cause of action or prosecution for assault; and if attended by fatal
results rendered the parent liable to indictment for murder or
manslaughter.

The conception of what constitutes cruelty to children undoubtedly
changed considerably with the relaxation of the accepted standard of
severity in domestic or scholastic discipline and with the growth of new
ideas as to the duties of parents to children, which in their latest
developments tend enormously to enlarge the parental duties without any
corresponding increase of filial obligations.

Starting from the earlier conception, which limited ill-treatment
legally punishable to actual threats or blows, the common law came to
recognize criminal liability in cases where persons, bound under duty or
contract to supply necessaries to a child, unable by reason of its
tender years to provide for itself, wilfully neglected to supply them,
and thereby caused the death of the child or injury to its health,
although no actual assault had been committed. Questions have from time
to time arisen as to what could be regarded as necessary within this
rule; and quite apart from legislation, popular opinion has influenced
courts of justice in requiring more from parents and employers than used
to be required. But parliament has also intervened to punish abandonment
or exposure of infants of under two years, whereby their lives are
endangered, or their health has been or is likely to be permanently
injured (Offences against the Person Act of 1861, s. 27), and the
neglect or ill-treatment of apprentices or servants (same act, s. 26,
and Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875, s. 6). B