25. ART. X. (II.) An Essay on the Nature and Advantages of Parish ART. XII. (IV.) Reasons for the Establishment of Savings Banks, WE 12mo. E observe with great pleasure that the question of savings-banks is likely to be put on a proper and definitive footing, with much less discussion and loss of time than the introduction of a new institution generally occasions. Whoever has been obliged to travel through the mass of pamphlets that have appeared on the Bullion-Question, or even those on our agricultural distresses, will find much gratification in comparing, with those tedious and frequently inconsistent publications, the clear and candid essays recapitulated in the title of our present article. A new undertaking seldom acquires at once all the simplicity of which it is susceptible; for it is a curious fact that we find it a matter of much greater time and difficulty to disentangle a plan from superfluous accompaniments, than to form the first conception of it or to sketch its fundamental outlines. The Bank of England itself was encumbered, for many years after the grant of its charter, with schemes of advancing money on the deposit of goods, and with a vain attempt to mix the business of a mercantile with that of a money-establishment. In the present instance, some errors of a similar kind have occurred, first in the case of the undertaking called the London Provident Institution, and next in the first parish-bank founded by the Rev. H. Duncan of Ruthwell in Scotland: but the degree of inconvenience resulting from either has been trifling; and we may now consider ourselves as having attained, in the Edinburgh savings-bank, a plan of almost as great simplicity as the object can well admit. I. We shall proceed, then, without farther preamble, to pass in review the different tracts; beginning, with that of Mr. Beaumont, who has a title to precedence on more grounds than one. He was the person who in 1806 projected the Provident Provident Institution in our metropolis, calculated its tables, and conducted its affairs from the outset; and he commences his pamphlet with a short notice of the attempts made in former years to introduce such establishments by act of parlia ment. After having recapitulated the regulations of the institution just mentioned, he explains those of the parish-bank of Ruthwell in Scotland, which dates from 1810, and was one of the earliest models of those repositories that have of late engaged such general attention:-next, he takes notice of a similar association, on a somewhat different plan, founded two years ago at Edinburgh;- after which we have the regulations of the Provident Institution of Bath, and of a corresponding establishment at Southampton. This brief history of Institutions for rendering early savings available for the supply of future wants would be very incomplete, if it were not to take notice of a description of provision against casualties, and for old age, of a very comprehensive nature, and most extensive application, viz. Friendly or Benefit Societies. These societies, extending to every town in Great Britain and abounding in every quarter of the metropolis, propose to indemnify the early economist against almost every ill that can happen to his corporeal existence; and to anticipate every want to the supply of which his early savings are applicable. In these societies not only are the visitations of ill health, and the pressure of old age provided for, but relief is frequently offered in cases of insolvency-when in want of work-on accidents by fire-to provide substitutes if drawn for the militia—on the birth of a child-or the decease of any part of the member's family. Various acts of parliament have given encouragement to these societies: and a bill that was passed in 1793 endows them with a preference, before any other creditor, against their trustees and officers-it also exempts them from stamp duties and court fees in their legal proceedings, and supplies them with expeditious and cheap means of" settling disputes. It is only to be lamented, that such a good disposition in the people, and such beneficent provisions in the legislature, should be used by the artful as the means of foisting impositions upon the deserving persons intended to be made secure. Benefit Clubs in the metropolis are, it is believed, with very few exceptions, cheats upon the unwary- their benefit is chiefly to the publican at whose house they are set up, and to the secretary, their contriver, who is usually some broken adventurer. For the most. part, the contributions are not a third part of what is necessary to realize the promised advantages and the secretaries, some of whom manage twenty different clubs, seem to be under no other restraint in outbidding each other in the advantages they promise, than the necessary caution not to overstrain the credulity of their subscribers. Consisting at first of the young and healthful, the members are all payers-in- and the fund continuing to improve G 4 for for a time, persons unused to consider subjects of this kind are delighted with the prospect, and think it must last for ever; but when, from being young and healthy payers-in, they become sickly and aged drawers-out, the scene presently changes. Hence most of the clubs are exhausted in fifteen or twenty years, and very few indeed reach to the age of thirty years, when those who have been many years members reap no other fruit from their life-long industry and frugality, than grievous disappointment. These continual falsifications of the just hopes of the frugally disposed are not more cruel to the sufferers themselves, than they are prejudicial to the cause of industry and frugality in others. Many, desirous of saving part of their earnings, and applying them to their future wants, seeing the failures of these clubs, give up their object in despair, and spend the sums they would otherwise save, in present enjoyments.' Mr. B. then explains the farther objections to benefit-clubs, and points out the defects of the different schemes for banks that have been proposed by Baron Masères, Mr. Whitbread, and Mr. Ackland, who was aided by the calculations of Dr. Price. He next enters into a more specific detail of the London Provident Institution, the object of which was twofold; that of insuring lives on a scheme rather more favourable to the assured than other institutions of the kind; and that of acting as a savings-bank (on a particular plan) for the kingdom at large. In the former, the business of the establishment has been pursued with great success, but in the latter a variety of obstacles have been encountered. The trouble of corresponding, and the risk incurred through the neglect or defalcation of agents, soon made it necessary to stop the receipt of small savings in the country, and to confine it to London; the management of the latter at the office was found scarcely compatible with the other business of the concern; and the number of subscribers was very limited, because the repayment of the money took place not (as in the case of the lately established savings-banks) on the demand of the owner, but only in the shape of an annuity in old age. The intention was to make the poor lay by a provision for advanced years: but this, however well meant, was not found suitable to their circumstances; since the time, at which a married man is most likely to need an extra-supply, is generally that of middlelife, viz. when his children have begun to be expensive to him, without being yet able to do any thing for their own support. In advanced years, When this period is passed by-when his children's labour is sufficient for their support, and his wife also is at liberty to work for her livelihood, his condition then re-approaches to the independence of a single man, and if his diminished bodily powers cause cause his earnings to be at that period curtailed his subdued desires, on the other hand, free him from many expences which the habits of youth made necessary; so that, if he continues to enjoy the blessing of health, the labour of old age for many years will supply its wants. It is, therefore, not quite reasonable that a young man should sink his savings to procure an independence in an old age which he may not live to enjoy ; and overlook the probability of such savings being wanted to supply food for an infant-family, or the expences of the sick bed.' The savings-banks now established leave it in general to the contributor to withdraw the money at his option; and they are seldom liable to any other objection than that of too great a complexity in their arrangements, arising from a solicitude on the part of the directors to act as guardians to their humble neighbours. Be it ever remembered, that the great merit of these Saving Banks is their simplicity-adhering to the operation of merely taking care of the working man's savings, be they much, or little improving them at good interest-and returning them whenever demanded the management will be easy and without expence; but enter into complex machinery, and all the reverse effects will follow. The perfect freedom, convenience, and cheapness of these Banks, at once compose their attraction, and their great utility. Bind the depositors to stated periodical payments, and speculate on contingent benefits, and this very promising plan of economy will evaporate into the cloud of plausible but erroneous schemes, which daily win the complaisance of the charitable, but which soon disappoint their expectations and sink into oblivion. The plan of the Edinburgh Bank is the best of all in the north because it is the most simple; it professes to do but little, but it does that little well.' In various other parts of England, and also in Ireland, similar institutions have lately been proposed, and announced under high patronage and munificent support; indeed the best feelings appear to have been kindled toward the subject. and That they may not end in disappointment, the writer of this essay has been induced to take up his pen, and submit to the public the result of his experience.-The best advice then that he can give to the opulent and beneficent is, to be the Interest Bankers for the poor in their respective neighbourhoods, there to stop. In that way they may do more for the good of working people, than by any other act of general kindness.-The chief caution necessary is not to spoil this simple machine by improvements. Almost every place of deposit for savings that has been lately announced has had something new thrown in -a combination of several districts, with a central seat of managementimpediments against the deposits being withdrawn, lest they should be wasted-optional annuities an actuary or secretary, to be elected, with a certain salary, before it is seen whether any ade quate employment will arise-and lastly, a large subscription from among 1 among the rich and charitable. All these things, it is submitted, are unnecessary. A combination of several townships, with a centrical seat of directors, can seldom be of use; for if proper persons, in each town, are willing to receive the weekly amounts of deposits, and pay interest, no combination of places can do more; but they must do less, by creating useless correspondence, interference, and delays. Interest Banks are best managed in their separate localities. All regulations for suspending the freedom of paying in, and drawing out, are essentially bad.' It is now ten years since the author projected the Bank for Savings, of the Provident Institution; but being encumbered with restrictions and scientific calculations, after several years unsuccessful trial it was given up: experience has now stript the plan of every thing but the simple process of receiving, improving, and paying, and it thrives beyond expectation.' It is the great object of the Banks for Savings to reclaim the working class from their present habit of relying on the helping hand of others in their difficulties, and to teach them to depend only on the natural support of their own industry and prudence.- Impressed with these considerations, the author has exerted himself lately to establish a "Provident Bank" in his own parish, St. Paul's, Covent Garden, and he has the satisfaction to see that it has every prospect of doing well. Indeed the alacrity, with which the benefit has been embraced, confirms him in the belief that the wanderings of the lower class are, in a great measure, attributable to the want of plain and convenient ways for the exercise of prudence. In the course of an hour after the books were opened, fifty-seven persons had deposited savings to the amount of upwards of seventy pounds." In an appendix to Mr. Beaumont's pamphlet, we find the office-regulations of the institution in question, followed by an address to the lower orders; which we would recommend as a model of clearness, ingenuity, and cogent argument, to persons who intend to make similar appeals to their humble neighbours. The only deficiency in Mr. B.'s plan relates to a very material point, we mean the mode of investing the deposits. Bankers not being in the habit of allowing interest on small sums, and the public funds being liable to fluctuation, Mr. B. suggests the scheme of dividing the deposits among the most repectable persons of the neighbourhood; taking the precaution that not more than 2 or 300l. shall be in the hands of any one individual. He is induced to recommend this course by the existence of an act of parliament relative to benefit-clubs, (33 Geo. III. cap. 54.) which gives, in the event of bankruptcy, a preference to the depositors before all other creditors: but this is certainly liable to objection, and by no means so desirable an arrangement as that of lending the money on a specific security |