AN EXAMPLE FROM THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL.
[To THE EDITOR GP THE " SPECTATOR."] hope you will not forget the statement made in your article on " An Example from the London County Council" to the effect that " carelessness and dishonesty" are " defects of human nature" " the most serious," the penalties meted out to them being " laughable, even in the case of dishonesty." These cases brought into Court " have been dealt with in a totally inadequate manner." I have said so for long, but no one will listen because I venture to give the real reason. He who steals a pair of boots from a tradesman's shop-front is severely punished ; but the tradesman who sells light weight or who adulterates gets off with a small fine. We are ruled by the class that sits on the common jury ; that fills the Town Councils ; that supplies advertisements to the newspapers ; that buys rows of small cottages, mortgages them, and collects the rents—the class that regards " the people " as existing to supply them with a living. The bankruptcy laws enable the son of that elates to begin business with insufficient capital. We have far too many persons trying to live by selling something. We are truly a nation of shopkeepers, individualists with no sense of common duties. Against the community every one tries to drive a hard bargain. Whether it is street improve- ment, housing improvement, acquisition of water or gas works, the individual's greed is excessive. So in former days when railways began. Now when railwaymen try to gain profit out of the country's need there is an outcry 1 When frauds were discovered at one of the Metropolitan lunatic asylums a few years ago nothing was done because so many tradesmen were involved. This indi- vidualism (which makes a skeleton the best figure for John Bull, because each member can move off if it pleases) takes the form of some three hundred and fifty sects in religion, and it is at the root of opposition to National Service.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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