598 TALKS ON st AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER "

to commit assault without retraining him, but we
do interfere in numbers of ways, where we might
reasonably allow a little more liberty. r That comes
in a great deal in education. In school life quantities
of rules are made where there is no need for rules—
where freedom might reasonably be allowed—about
all Sorts of unnecessary details, and the consequence
of that is interference with individual liberty. That
is always a very dangerous thing to embark upon.
That is one of the great differences between the
English scheme of government and that of some of
other nations—that England on the whole tries to
leave its people as free as it can. There may be some
of you here who, before you came out to Australia,
lived in countries outside of the British Empire.
Those of you who have done so can probably remember
to how many restrictions you were subjected. They
were paternal and very kindly meant, but they were
restrictions. You were forbidden to do this and to
do that. I remember an official of a foreign State
saying to me once: " Well, sir, In a really well-
managed country everything would be forbidden/'
In some countries they try to govern the people by
saying : " You must not d6 this, you must not do
that," by trying to shut them off at every point.
There are, of course, different ways of putting all
these things. I have been much struck by this in
the different countries in which I have been. „ In one
country you will get a stern prohibition; in another