If such anticipations seem exaggerated, they have nevertheless played an important part in determining the policy pursued in England towards more than one question, and lie behind many of the criticisms which are passed on certain recent forms of social intervention. The idea that relief given to the child must be regarded as relief given to the parent, and that, if given at all, it must be accompanied by severe restrictions, was enunciated emphatically in the Poor Law Report of 1834--indeed that famous document scarcely mentions children except in so far as the treatment of adults is influenced by these appendages--and has since become a settled part of Poor Law policy. The fear that parental responsibility might be weakened was a criticism brought against the Education Act of 1870, against the abolition of school fees in 1894, and against the provision of medical treatment for school children under the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act of 1907. Naturally, therefore, the public provision of meals for school children has not escaped the criticism that it would weaken the bond between parent and child and ultimately result in "the breaking up of the home." "To remove the spur to exertion and self-restraint," reported a special committee of the Charity Organisation Society in 1887, "which the spectacle of his children's hunger must be to any man in whom the feelings of natural kindness are not altogether dead, is to assume a very grave responsibility, and perhaps to take away the last chance of re-establishing the character and fortunes of the breadwinner, and, with him, the fortunes of the whole household. It is true, no doubt, that there are parents who are past redemption by influences of this kind, but the majority of the committee are of opinion that it is better in the interests of the community to allow, in such cases, the sins of the parents to be visited on the children than to impair the principle of the solidarity of the family and run the risk of permanently demoralising large numbers of the population by the offer of free meals to their children."[528] Footnote 528: "Charity and Food," report of a Special Committee of the Charity Organisation Society, 1887, p. 16. For later expressions of the same line of criticism, see, for instance, "The Relief of School Children," by M. Clutton and E. Neville (C.O.S. Occasional Paper), March, 1901, pp. 4, 6; "Underfed School Children," by Arthur Clay (C.O.S. Occasional Paper), May, 1905, p. 3; "The Feeding of School Children," by Miss McKnight, in _Charity Organisation Review_, July, 1906, p. 37; "A New Poor Law for Children," by Rev. H. Iselin, in _Charity Organisation Review_, March, 1909, p. 170.