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320 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
partment.* An impartial review of the whole question can
only lead us to the conclusion thac the bankers are right
in crying ont to the Government, “Let us alone !” It is
a new phase of the old economic adage-laissez fuire-laissaz
pa.wer; the only novelty in the matter is, that the cry is
now addressed to EL great Minister and an eminent economist,
tho latter of whom has advocated in his writings what the
former has, to a great extent, carried into effect.
But to return to our more immcdiatc topic of Postal Kotes,
I will now poiut out that it is only government interfereuco
which provents bankers from organising a system of small
payments by choqucs, far mor0 perfect, safe, and convenient
than anything the Post Office can do. The Cheque Bank
has nlready done more tllm the department; it has dons a
largo business in small payments, with almost complc~to freedom
from frsud, and has paid at the snmo time a large revenue to
Govornment through the peuny cheque stamp. But this penny
tax, though qtaito inconsiderablo in larger payments, becomes
intolerably oppressive ill the case of paymcnts undcr a pound
or two pounds. Tho Post Office probably loses on the smeller
trnusactiouv of tho mouey order system, and what revenue it
does seem to gain is gained on tho larger orders, at least so
The dtutid holds. For my part, I cannot see how we can be
aure thero is any gain at all, because the business is conducted
* In Iris speech on the Savings Bank Bill (JLIIIC 18th), Mr. Gladstone
is reported to hnve said : I‘ If they had in this country a blrnking eptcm
so largely derciopcd that it went into every town and considerable
parish, hc rertninly should bc very doubtful indccd as to the desirability
of raising the uppcr limit of f2W. . . . The Post Office Sarings Banks
for tho threc kingdoms were already bcFond 6,000, and werc rising at
the rate of 300 banks n year ; but the other banks, notwithstanding the
extellcut dcsclopment which they hsd undcrgone, hardly reached 2,000,
banks and branches taken together.”
Them must bo some mistake here ; for Nr. Kewmarch’s figures show
the total number of banks and branch offices in the United Kingdom to
be 3,554, or 78 per cent. more than Mr. Gladstone is reported to have
said. Moreorer, the branches, as shown above, are being multiplied
in an advancing ratio of multiplication! Clearly, according to &.
Gladstone’s own admission, ho ought to rciinquish tho part of the Bill
raisiug the limit OE deposits.