LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
TOO MUCH GOVERNWFINT. [TO THY EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."' Sra,—The Insurance Bill is serving a very useful purpose in many ways. It is opening the eyes of the people to the fact that you can have too much legislation. We have been having a debauch of Acts of Parliament, and whole clauses have been passed without any consideration whatever, and neither judge nor jury, counsel nor client, can clearly say what such clauses mean. When the Veto Bill passes the debauch threatens to become an orgy. The Insurance Bill has served another useful purpose, inasmuch as the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer seems at last to have come to the conclusion that the purse of the nation is not a bottomless one. In fact, his speeches on the Insurance Bill have been quite Conservative. But does not his Conservatism come too late to do him any good P By giving non-contributory old-age pensions, people naturally say : " If you can give me a pension for nothing, why cannot you give me insurance for nothing ? " His speeches at Limehouse and Mile End are bearing rich fruit.
We have had the soldiers in Manchester ; they are now at Cardiff, and this is only the beginning. Many people think that the Chancellor's appeals to class hatred are the direct cause of the unhappy state of civil war into which we seem to be fast plunging. No one can envy the Government's position.
It is a most melancholy one. Our Premier is in process of paying his debt to Mr. Redmond for voting for a Budget he did not want. The appeals to class hatred have fallen on fruitful soil, and the mob, finding that "something for nothing" is so long in coming, is naturally getting impatient. The Home Secretary will strain to the uttermost to prevent a repetition of Featherstone—vainly it is to be feared—and blood will flow before society gets back to a peaceful state again. The Insurance Bill is opening people's eyes, and making them come to the conclusion that most of the recent Acts of Parliament called social reforms are two-edged swords, curtailing their liberties and destructive of individuality and freedom. You cannot have such a thing as compulsory THRIFT. Thrift must be voluntary. You cannot make people virtuous by Act of Parliament. What does Lord Macaulay say in his "Life of Southey" P-
" It is not by the intermeddling of the omniscient and omni- potent State, but by the prudence and energy of the people, that England has hitherto been carried forward in civilization; and it is to the same prudence and the same energy that we now look with comfort and good hope. Our rulers will best promote the improvement of the nation by strictly confining themselves to their own legitimate duties, by leaving capital to find its most lucrative course, commodities their fair price, industry and intelli- gence their natural reward, idleness and folly their natural punishment, by maintaining peace, by defending property, by diminishing the price of law, and by observing strict economy in every department of the State. Let the Government do this; the people will assuredly do the rest."
Are not these words specially applicable to present-day politics P The forcible deduction of part of a man's wages is an infringement of the Truck Act and a usurpation of the
offices of the insurance companies' and friendly societies' functions. The Insurance Bill is really most useful. It is showing the Socialist what too much Government means. As the debates on it prooeed a groan is going up from doctors, insurance companies, chambers of commerce, infirmaries, Socialists, and honest workmen alike, and the groan will soon
become a roaring torrent, and the universal cry will be, " Oh,
do let us alone ! " It is most encouraging. Some Conserva- tives are always thirsting for a programme. Let them beware.
The only programme wanted is to promise the country a rest. If Mr. Balfour will only do this then after a few weeks more of
Insurance Bill debates and a few more weeks' strikes and riots he may walk into office. Let the Conservative Party take to heart Lord Macaulay's words quoted here and be true to its old traditions, not the hideous nightmare of Conservatism of the last nine years. Too much Government is what we are
suffering from. Conservatives need not despair. The remedy is now so patent, and it is a rest. It is the proper function of
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