OBSERVATIONS,

&c. &c.

IN considering the principle upon which Provident Institutions or Saving Banks are formed, it appears to me that, in order to render the advantages which they offer, completely accessible to a large proportion of the laboring part of the community, as well as to other classes who might be disposed to avail themselves of such a resource, it would be highly desirable that a plan should be adopted, precisely similar in its nature, but different in its formation, to that which is now so generally established. The object of these pages is to propose such a plan, and I trust the public will coincide with me in its obvious utility. The description of persons to whom it would immediately apply with material benefit, are congregated bodies of men employed in all large establishments throughout the United Kingdom, whether private or national; such, for instance, as extensive manufactories, the Custom House, Excise Office, the Dock Yards, &c. At a moment when the views of the legislature are seriously directed to the extension of Savings Banks, from a thorough conviction of their invaluable effects in ameliorating the condition of the poor, any effort of cooperation, however humble, will, it is hoped, be treated with candor by all those who are studious of their country's welfare,in the happiness and contentment of the great mass of its population.

The details of the plan I would suggest in the above-mentioned establishments, are few and simple; the short outline is thiswherever there are in such establishments any number of men paid their wages weekly, books shall be opened on the day of payment to receive their voluntary deposits, for which the establishment becomes accountable, and allows the same, or a greater interest

than would be granted if they were paid into the Savings Bank of the parish or district. Among the many advantages which must result from this measure, there is one which is particularly important, namely, the facility it offers to the poor laborer, of laying up at once, in a place of profit and security, whatever portion of his earnings he can spare from his daily wants.

In such case, the Savings Bank would in fact be brought to him; whereas, according to the existing plan, he is obliged to keep in his pocket the little pittance which he intends to deposit, from Saturday night till Monday morning, and many instances have been known where the Bank was not open to him even till the Thursday following. Experience fully proves, that the lower orders, from their habits and the limited sphere to which they are restricted, have not the same prudence in the management of their affairs, as men of education and enlarged views; and though they might be disposed to industrious exertion and frugality, while no temptation presents itself, yet the possession of money lying idle on their hands, even for ever so short a period, will too often act as an incitement to negligence and immorality. The gin-shops and other haunts of riot and debasement are ever open to receive them; and the owners of these places entice from them very frequently the shilling or half-crown which, in their more guarded moments, they intended for the Savings Bank. Uneducated man must always be wanting in consistent stability, and it will surely be proper to keep from him, by all the equitable means that can be devised, any allurements to transgression. Though the plan here. proposed cannot reach the whole of the laboring classes (nor is it desired that it should, since those who are employed in agriculture being less exposed to temptation can resort with advantage to the regular Savings Banks) yet a great body who by the present system are liable to lapse into idleness and extravagance, would have it in their power to avail themselves of it. When once accustomed to make that establishment from whence they derive their daily bread, the depository of their savings, a visible alteration would be produced in their habits; a spirit of emulation would animate each individual, and sobriety, diligence, and good order, would be the peculiar characteristics by which they would henceforth be distinguished.

The remarks here made with respect to laborers will equally apply to artisans of all descriptions employed in these establishments; and I shall now advert to another class, who might, in the same manner, participate in the advantages of the plan which I submit. Clerks in public offices, and particularly the junior clerks, would derive the greatest advantage from it. The latter, from their youth and inexperience, are generally heedless as to

money matters; and being led away by the impulse of the moment, they spend, without reflecting on the consequences of their indiscretion, whatever sums they can spare at stated intervals, and which, if suffered to accumulate, would serve as a fund for future exigencies. To such youths a depository of this description would be of incalculable benefit; they would soon consign to it the money which they now dissipate; and even the most careless among them would become by degrees habituated to frugality, in proportion as its effects were manifested in the prosperous condition of those who availed themselves of the plan when once regularly established.

We have in this country, likewise, another description of persons who might render this measure available to their interest: I mean those who receive pensions for past services in public offices; also the widows and children of deceased clerks, who in many. establishments have a fund set apart for their support. I can state it as a fact, that I have been applied to by persons of this description, to include them in the proposed measure; and I have every reason to believe that in the establishments that are adopting this plan, they were not forgotten.

Having thus given an outline of the plan I would recommend, and briefly noticed some of its advantages, I shall now proceed to offer a few remarks on the important effects which the institution of Savings Banks in general is calculated to produce on society, and shall conclude with some further illustrations of the proposed

measure.

Though the origin of Savings Banks cannot be referred to the late Mr. Rose, yet it is but justice to the memory of that highly respectable character to state, that he was the first who methodised the system on which they are conducted, and that it is in consequence of his excellent work on the subject that they are now so generally extended. The legislature perceiving, from his judicious remarks, their tendency to increase the comforts of the poor, as well as to improve their morals, did not hesitate to sanction so salutary a measure; and in the Report of the Lords' Committee on the Poor Laws, it is recommended with a sanguine anticipation of its producing the most favorable results. It is justly observed in the Report adverted to, that the adoption of Provident or Savings Banks is likely to render the poor less dependent on parochial relief, which, under the best and most satisfactory adininistration of it, can never be so satisfactory to the person who is the object of it, or so consistent with those honorable feelings of pride and independence which are implanted in the breast of man, as that resource which is the result of his own industry, and the produce of his own exertions." Such is the opinion delivered by

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those members of the legislative assembly who sat to deliberate on that most important subject the Poor Laws, and the grounds on which it is founded can never be questioned by any reflecting mind. It must appear evident to any man who will for a moment consider the state of the poor in this country, endued as they are by nature with great powers for manual exertion, together with a shrewd and comprehensive intelligence, and participating in all the blessings of the freest constitution in the world, that they must look to themselves alone, and to the resources they individually possess, for the means necessary to secure their permanent comfort and prosperity. Neither the benevolence of private individuals, nor the liberality of charitable associations, nor the exacted contribution from the parochial fund, can possibly counteract the rapid progress of universal indigence among the lower orders of the community, if they are not themselves willing to relinquish pauperism for independence, by resorting to their respective energies, and making a prudent reserve from the remuneration of their labors. The poor man must be his own friend; he must lay up in the day of health and vigor some provision for the wants and infirmities of old age. While his constitution is yet unbroken, he must guard against that hour when the decay of all his faculties will prevent him from earning, as before, his daily bread, unless he prefers the miserable pittance doled out to him by the parish overseer, to the easy and independent competence realised by his own industry.

As all national wealth results from aggregate labor, it is evident that it must be an object of national importance to provide not only for the necessities but for the comforts of those classes who serve to aggrandise the country, and any plan that appears best calculated to do this with permanent success, cannot be too widely diffused nor too highly commended. This plan has in a happy hour been discovered, and it requires only to be steadily and universally acted upon, to prove it one of the most efficacious that ever yet entered's into the conception of man for the benefit of his fellow creatures. The institution of Savings Banks must be hailed by the patriot and the philanthropist as invaluable to society, for it encourages, I might say, by the strongest inducements, a complete system of practical' morality, while it rescues thousands, nay millions of human beings from misery and dependence. The poor man who before was accustomed to dissipate the greatest part of his earnings; or at least the little surplus that remained after supplying his daily wants, will learn from this institution the good effects of prudence and economy, and relinquishing his dissolute or extravagant habits, will resort to the Savings Bank with that weekly sum, which heretofore he regularly took to the publichouse. The influence which abstinence will have on his morals

will very soon be perceptible; his mind will take quite a different turn, and he will insensibly become attached to a temperate, economical, and regular mode of living.

Nor is it to be apprehended from this institution that it will ever create in the mind of the poor man either pride or insolence. It offers no encouragement whatever that can make him at any time forget his station in society: a good man will never be either presumptuous or insolent, and an institution formed on the basis of rewarding good, and discountenancing bad habits, cannot possibly induce any that are obnoxious. This institution is certainly calculated to promote among the laboring population, a spirit which ought always to be fostered as the best support of our national superiority over all other countries, a spirit of firm independenceresulting from an honest confidence in their native energies. But independence is a relative term, and there is a wide difference between a man's disdaining to derive his daily bread from the hand of charity while he can earn it by his own exertions, and his behaving with disrespect to his superiors; the former sentiment must always be encouraged, the latter invariably reproved.

We are frequently surprised that many useful, but apparently simple discoveries, which have been made in our time, were not so much as thought of by our ancestors; and we might perhaps reflect with wonder, that the first notion of Banks, where the savings of the poor might progressively accumulate, was reserved for the nineteenth century. The rich have always been able to make a selection of depositories where they could receive the highest interest for their large sums, while those persons among the poorer classes who had prudence sufficient to save an occasional trifle, were left without any established place to which they could consign it with safety or advantage. But as it needs no arguments to prove that a disposition to economy ought always to be encouraged among the poor, so it is evident that a Bank, where they can deposit their savings and receive a certain interest on them, is of the last importance, and has for ages been a desideratum in this country. How many an industrious man in humble life has lost his "little all," for want of being able to resort with it to such an institution as is now open to him! He confided it, perhaps, to the charge of some designing knave, who took advantage of his credulity; or intrusted it without profit, to some man who might have been honestly disposed, but who, from untoward circumstances, lost the little deposit in the general wreck of his own property.

Nor is it only expedient that the laborer or poor mechanic should receive interest on his savings, he certainly ought to receive somewhat more than common interest. The end proposed being the welfare of the great mass of the population, from which all national