(_b_) The official guardian is much better able than the individual guardian to make good the claim for a maintenance allowance for an illegitimate child. The official guardian, who is in most cases an official working on behalf of the poor-law authorities, will push such a claim with the greatest possible vigour, in order to prevent the cost of the child’s maintenance from coming upon the poor law. The official guardian will be actively at work on the child’s behalf within a very few days of its birth, and will probably have been able to secure that a proper provision for maintenance shall have been made at the very time when it is most urgently needed. The father will show much more respect to the official guardian--a man in an official position--than he will to the individual guardian. In Germany it has been the general experience, that in most cases the father of an illegitimate child, when summoned by the official guardian, puts in an appearance, admits his paternity, recognises the child, and undertakes to make an allowance for maintenance. Nor does it so rarely happen that, under the persuasion of the official guardian, the child’s father and mother agree to marry, and to legitimise their child. The official guardian owes his influence to his official position. (_c_) The official guardian possesses special legal and educational experience, and in the management of the large number of cases with which he has to deal acquires yet more experience. For these reasons he is often consulted in difficult cases by individual guardians, and even by many parents. (_d_) It is easier for the official guardian than it is for the private guardian to find suitable employment for his wards. He is better acquainted with employers and with working conditions. It is not to his interest that his wards should begin wage-earning at the earliest possible age; thus, under his guardianship, many who would otherwise have become unskilled labourers, are trained to be skilled artisans. (But to make it possible to attain this end, and because the years immediately after leaving school are the years most dangerous to the child, the official guardianship must be continued until the child attains its majority.) (_e_) Since the existence of the official guardian makes the appointment of private guardians superfluous, the persons who would have otherwise been engaged as private guardians are set free for other spheres of activity. (_f_) Institutional guardianship renders it possible for the influence of the guardians to be maintained very effectively even after the minor has left the institution.