A mighty power which fathers hold in trust for the future of their children, is the character of the legislation which they establish or sanction. It is almost inconceivable how intelligent and well-meaning individuals, knowing the weakness of human nature and its inevitable growth towards good or evil through circumstances, can fail to see the immense moral bearing of legislation. The laws of a country are powerful educators of the rising generation. They reach all classes; their influence is a national one, silently exercising a never-ceasing effect on the community. Every new act of legislation is a power which will work much more strongly upon the young than the old. The adult who makes the law has grown up to complete manhood under other influences; he is moulded by the laws of a previous generation, and no new legislative action can change his fixed character. It is the young and unformed who will grow in the direction made easiest to them by our laws. Whether the subject of legislation be the increase of standing armies, the promotion of the liquor traffic, the regulation of factory labour, the arrangement of national education, or the establishment of railways--these subjects affect the moral condition of a people. It would be difficult to find a subject of legislation which has not some moral issue, more or less directly connected with it, and which will not influence the rising generation more powerfully than the generation that establishes the law. Legislation, therefore, has an inevitable and most important bearing upon the welfare of the family, and must be considered in relation to its effect upon the youth of the nation. Every mother has a right to ask this from the legislators of a country. No parental legislator should ever lose sight of the central family point of view in legislation--viz., How can good conquer evil? How can it be made easier for children to grow up virtuous than vicious?