The Evening Post. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1865.

Evening Post, Issue 213, 13 October 1865, Page 2

The Evening Post. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1865.

It must be agreed on all hands that Mr. "'Gladstone is one of the most paternal rulers that ever sat in Downing street. 1 Previous tft fail* time the maxim was that an Englishman's house' was his castle, and he might do with it what he liked — nobody, least of all the Government, had any right to. interfere. All thst the State Jiad a right to ask from the citizen was a fair proportion df the Queen's taxes ; and all that the citizen ever dreamt of asking from the State was to be let alone and allowed to shift for himself .as best he could. Mr. Gladstone, however, being deeply imbued with the spirit of Homeric institutions, considered that a dash of the patriarchal style would improve the old Anglo gjaxonismTVfte experimented first with the Post Ontce Savings Banks Bill to overcome the prejudices against the interference of Government with private enterprise. Completely successful, he went a step further with his Government Annuities Bill, and latterly he had the courage to hint at a grand scheme for manipulating the railways on the same principle. The scheme, however, did not meet with the favour of the Parliament, but no doubt it one day be brought forward again, revised and corrected. It may, however, be presumed that his policy has already been carried far enough to call seriously into question the old theory of private enterprise, being a thing to be kept sacred from the hands of the Government. His experiments have been too successful to warrant the least hope in the most rigid Conservative mind of retrogression. The nation is committed both to his Savings Sank and Annuity schemes ; and in imposing them on the people, the principle of Government action, beyond the bare limit of rating, taxing, and defending, has been conceded. The only question then that remains, is where is it to end. If the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for the time being, is to to teach savings banks and insurance companies how to do business, why not go the whole length of the Napoleonic Providence, and fix the prices of butcher's meat and bread, from week to week. If one description of trade is to be taken under

the special cognisance of the Government! because its mode of operation necessarily involves more or less of a monopoly, why not take every company in the same situation. If the principle be right there is no logical reason why it should not be generally applied. In New Zealand the snme principle is being introduced in the Post Office savings bank Bill, now before Home of Representatives, and although we cannot see anything e\il in the measure, but much good, it is well that a line should be drawn where the principle involved in the Bill should end. We have scarcely learned the rudiments of self government; great caution , therefore, should be exercised in breaking in new ground. Legislators should not look so much to the present as to the future, and set examples which would not be likely to hamper others in following. Caution should be exercised against the probability uf a future difficulty or danger to the constitution, arising out of laws enacted now. Therefore, before the measure now before the House is passed, a limit should be given to the operation of the principle involved therein.