By tHe Riour How.
'When I first worked in the Home Office, many years ago, both Br. Churchill' and myself learnt an tnforgettable lesson from that very wise man, Sir Edward Troup, its late Permanent Secretary. "We rel are bombarded, with un~ were bombarded, as all Home See-
Limited demands, mostly from quite worthy people, bishops, anti-vice Bocieties, and the like, for, the introduction of legislation which would (in their opinion) prohibit ome existing social evil; or for \dministration which would (as they thought) "tighten up" Acts already passed.
To all of those we returned sympathetic roplte But afterwards Sir Edward Troup was imperturbable in the maintenance of great governing principles, The first was—Do not make crimes, unless forced to do 10, out of things which are not crimes already. The second was: Do not introduce prohibitive legislation beyond the standard of conduct which will be accepted not only by judges and magistrates, but by the general feeling of the country. And the third was: Do not throw on the police force a burden greater than it ought to bear. You may injure a hundred harniless citizens in endeavouring to effect the arrest of one minor criminal. And you subject your police to the temptations of bribery or perjury, special instances, which not even 80 fine a body of men could resist, In America it is the normal a under 16 who are smoking cigar-sites or who are playing cards in 3 disused brickfield on a Sunday fefternoon diminishes in any appreciable degree the number of those who perform these dismal operations. It merely makes them more careful of detection. Betting ud gambling may lead to ruin and: disaster, but in cities where everyone bets and gambles you cannot cure the evil by commanding the police to stop it, Last summer attempts were made to clear the parks from licit or illicit love. Police eonjeealed in laurel bushes suddenly rushed out on man and maid who showed outward signs of mutual affection. Plain-clothes detective trested men of high character and Position, clergymen, and others, on the charge of "accosting" or "annoying" women who brought no charge against them at all. What was the result? In some cases proved perjury on the part of the police—or at least verdicts to that effect in the courts—always an ugly thing to see; undoubtedly bl and unlimited opportunity for the parks in such a condi tion that no man dared walk through them at evening; for, even if he Jeould prove himself guiltless of being a "nuisance," his public career would be as effectually ruined as he were proved guilty. wonders if ever such good mon as {the Bishop of London, who openly approved of this system of organiz~ fed harrying and spying, really im-
'A Vision of the Futore The vision of the future if the "home" is to be thus dominated by the "commune" is of police swarming everywhere, battening open Jdoors to ascertain the morality of [the citizen, the quality of his reading, the nature of his legal enjoyments, the manners and habits of hie Ute; hauling him off to the Courts of Justice if he has delay-Jed paying his income-tax or is Jconsuming illicit food or drink This is no idle dream. Already m America, under the Prohibition Laws, they have in some States number of cases accumulated which will take 60 years to try: cases against mayors, senators, lawyers, clergymen, captains of industry, as well as humbler folk, So that one State is contemplating the dropping of the charge against the first few thousands, while the police are a position to add tens of thousands of new cases every day. When the "Tobacco Drive" follows the "Liquor Drive™ one conceives the number of arrests will rise to millions. From which and all similar operations may this land of freedom be delivered. Laws should be limited in the main to the protection of the weak and the prevention of injury to others. Let its rulers consider the encouragement of virtue by the removal of causes which prevent and hamper the development of all noble effort and ideal. But the attempt will be ineffectual to batten men into abstention from vice by a gigantic tyranny of interference and espionage, which may affright the minds, but' cannot transform the souls of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.