We hope all the postmasters in England are not thieves,—because
if they are it will be inconvenient to the Treasury, and thieving is for them quite legal. The postmaster of Swindon, as appears from a question asked by Mr. Cadogan on Thursday, was a defaulter, and his sureties had to pay the money. The Post Office, however, could not prosecute, the solicitor to the department advising that a postmaster having a debtor and creditor account with the Post Office does not, by becoming a defaulter, break any criminal law, but only owes the money, and as the man at Swindon had spent all he had, there was no use in suing him for the balance. That is quite nice for postmasters, who have only to help themselves and spend all the money, and then get off with- out fear even of the County Court, but it is not a pleasant state of the law. Would it not be more satisfactory if a State officer spending State money on his own account were held ipso facto guilty of a criminal breach of trust ?
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