Lord Stanley of Alderley has done a wise thing. He
has issued an order in the Post Office allowing its officers to pass through the Bankruptcy Court for debts contracted before January without dismissal. Mr. W. Jackson availed himself of this order on Tues- day, and it came out that he had " backed a bill " for a brother clerk, was called on to pay, and borrowed the money of Messrs. Nathan and Swattom, usurers. They charged him usually sixty per cent., relying on the order which dismisses them if they appeal to the Court of Bankruptcy. The bankrupt stated that six or seven money-lenders regularly visit the Post Office on pay-day, and " clean out the clerks," who then are obliged to run into debt for necessaries. We believe worse stories would be told at the War and other offices,—the only one, it is said, free of the usurers being the Customs, which is filled with working clerks. Surely it would pay some minor bank to abolish this outrageous system, and advertise loans to the Civil Service at say ten per cent. The security is good enough, though not saleable.
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