_Guardianship of Illegitimate Children._--The guardianship of illegitimate children is a matter of great importance: first, because a very large number of influences affect illegitimate children unfavourably, and the children have to be protected against these influences; secondly, because the guardian has to safeguard the interests of his ward against the natural father and also against the Destitution Authority; thirdly, because in many countries the laws provide that every illegitimate child should have a guardian. Who should be the guardian of an illegitimate child? The guardian may be, (_a_) the mother, (_b_) the father, (_c_) some other relative, (_d_) a stranger. (_a_) According to the laws of most countries, the mother has no parental authority over her illegitimate child; indeed, in some cases, the mother is not even granted legal powers of guardianship over her illegitimate child (or is granted such powers only if she herself is of full age). The reasons for this are as follows: The considerations on account of which the granting of parental authority to the married mother is regarded as permissible, have no bearing upon the case of the unmarried mother. The interest of the illegitimate child, and, indirectly, the interest of society at large, urgently demand the securest possible guarantees that the child will be properly brought up. Even if the unmarried mother is capable of undertaking and exercising the duties and rights involved in parental authority, she still too often lacks the necessary good-will and the requisite earnestness. In many cases the unmarried mother does not feel for her illegitimate child the interest and the love which are felt by the married mother for the legitimate child; she is rather inclined to be indifferent towards her illegitimate child, and to regard it merely as a serious burden, from which she hopes to be free, and the sooner the better. In addition, the unmarried mother seldom has a settled home of her own, and in order to gain her livelihood she commonly has to separate herself from her child. Moreover, the position of the unmarried mother differs from that of the married mother in this respect, that the latter, as a rule, does not acquire the parental authority until after the death of her child’s father--that is to say, when she is herself of mature age. The care of the property and the exercise of the powers of a legal representative are associated with the exercise of parental authority, and there is an obvious danger, in many instances, that a thoughtless mother might utilise the child’s property--more especially an allowance for maintenance made by the father, or a capital sum paid by the latter to provide for the child--in her own interest, instead of in that of the child, and that in this way the provision made by the child’s natural father would be unprofitably employed. If the mother of an illegitimate child be disallowed the