Success of Penny Banks. 139 hour or half a day's work, and the very fact that the deposit of small sums will give no singularity to a man is provocative of good. No man likes the amount of his actual savings to be met by ill-looks from the accountant or derision from the bystanders; it touches him in a most sensitive point, and is a great obstacle in the way of his social advancement. The immediate response on the part of the people, where these institutions have been opened, is a strong proof of their acceptability in the eyes of the labouring class. If the space over which such an influence must have worked to have produced so astonishing results can be roughly estimated, we may safely affirm, that the area is thrice as large as it is possible to cover by the most energetic literary society, be it named Athenæum, Zetetic, or what not, in the whole United Kingdom. In some instances there has been a perfect rush the very first night of opening. The seven years' existence of the Birmingham bank has resulted in the total receipt of 52,3541. 4s. 1d., the payment of 47,9217. 4s. 2d., and the balance in hand, Dec. 31, 1857, was 4,4327. 19s. 11d.; and this in conjunction with a very efficient Savings Bank. The thoroughness of their working is nevertheless impeded by many restrictions that demand removal. We have only space to point out a few of the more important points. The first striking one is, that a guaranteed security is necessary for all deposits. This Government has undertaken to give upon all property in their hands; but as remittances in transitu, and sums retained, however large, to meet local demands, are not included, a panic like that of 1844 may come, and, as it did then, utterly ruin many depositors. Moreover, as the sums allowed to be deposited in the Penny Banks are not sufficiently large to be invested in Government funds, and local gentlemen are mostly the only security, great care should be evidenced in the selection of those whose integrity is unsullied by a doubt. In his letter to Sir G. Cornewall Lewis, Mr. Sikes suggested a General State Guarantee Fund, with the main office in London, and a rigorous system of inspectorship. His proposal is an admirable one, and emanating from one so thoroughly master of the science of banking, deserves to form the basis of any future remodelling of the present plan which the Government may think necessary. A much larger extension of these banks is also demanded, so that no town with a population of 10,000 shall be without one; a uniform lowering of the receivable deposit, so as to include the smallest savings, some of the Penny Banks presenting the anomaly of a fixed deposit no lower than a shilling; daily banking hours; district banks in large towns and cities; and quarterly statements, showing the total amount of every separate depositor with his number and initials only. Simplicity in the transaction of business, so as to detect the smallest inaccuracy inaccuracy and promptly despatch the depositor, is worthy of more attention. We might compare the systems of York, Huddersfield, and Derby, but such a proceeding might be wrongly construed, and lead to no good results. Let the founders of such institutions peruse Mr. Clarke's pamphlet, where all three are given, and judge for themselves. The rules of the West Riding Bank are so admirably constructed as to meet every emergency of death, insanity, or imbecility which may occur to the actual depositors. In rule 22, we are pleased to find it necessary for every depositor to disclose his 'profession, business, occupation, or calling,' and this is a classification which, if our statistics are to be of real service, must be more generally adopted. Mr. Sikes has advocated the establishment of preliminary Savings Banks in connection with Mechanics' Institutes; and he argues justly that the institutions, whilst thus sanctioning and facilitating prudent habits, would be redoubled in interest and practical good. We can hardly desire the connection of a sort of bank with every large manufacturing establishment, as is often the case in America, from the temptation to which it would expose many of the heads of firms, and the insufficiency of the security in the eyes of the operatives, but we are of opinion that manufacturers might beneficially guide and assist their workpeople in their attempts to provide for the future. The late Ambrose Brewin, Esq., of Tiverton, set an example of a high and rare kind. He bequeathed to each of his workpeople who had been in his lace manufactory for five years, a month's wages, which was placed in the Western Provident Association, with an earnest request that they would constantly add to it their savings. The utility of these Penny Banks cannot well be overrated. We do not assert that they will induce so radical a change in the condition of our labouring class as an enthusiastic mind could desire, we even doubt that in many things they would be entirely inoperative; but inasmuch as they would implant the first principles of advancement, we may justly anticipate from them more beneficial results than from any other scheme a fertile brain has yet devised. Here they will behold the successive heights up which they may climb, and the means to be employed as auxiliaries. As penny by penny their savings run on to pounds, so step by step, slowly and constantly, must they toil up the rugged path. No bold leap, no destruction of recognised barriers, no misanthropical envy, no burning hatred of their superiors, but a steady, active persevering spirit, commanding both sympathetic and neutral forces, working inch by inch in firm faith of the ability of their own manliness and integrity to elevate and ennoble their condition. A common notion amongst uneducated persons is, that if some one, or something, be it fairy, genii, or troll, would but lift them them to a locus standi above their present one they could maintain it unimpaired. And this the working man often nestles and nurses in his heart. He allows feeling and imagination to run riot until the possibility of such a thing appears a probability, and he looks up to, and makes a god of what he calls luck, forgetful that it denudes him of all healthy exertion, and must inevitably terminate in misanthropy and the bitterest disappointment. A slow growth is ever favourable to permanence and stability. The kingly oak that spreads its knotted arms to the storm, has been hundreds of years attaining maturity from its diminutive acorn-seed. Such must be the growth of the man of toil-a slow expansion, a steady progression, a sturdy opposition. The Penny Bank will not only give the aspirant a grand impulse to work with, but it will break and extend itself into several minor ones. Here is a man living entirely for the future, providing for the manhood or womanhood of his children, and his own age. His sympathies and feelings are renovated and strengthened. He is proof against many things which disturb the peace of his fellows. A hopeful spirit diffuses a rich glow over his whole life. Secure from the fluctuations of trade, from the dread of sickness, and what is often its cause, from everything save national bankruptcy, he can front calmly and conqueringly the grim demon of despair which has destroyed so many of his kind. Around his home are woven new attractions, around his fatherland new ties. With increased interest in the former, in books, fireside reading, and the appendages of home, he is won from less pure resorts, and having something at stake in the latter, he is a truer and better citizen, the friend of order, justice, and national rights. He receives impressions in a variety of ways. He must sign his name to receive his money or its interest, must be able to read, or his deposit book and the yearly or half-yearly reports are worse than Palanque pictures to his eye; he must calculate and busy himself with the intricacies of compound interest and exchequer bills. His children are trained in the most frugal and provident habits. "Videtur ex se natus' is the motto of the father, operating continually and unconsciously upon the minds and hearts of his children. All are taught the dignified virtue of self-confidence and energetic striving. Fichte or Hegel, wrapped in their philosophical cloud-robes, might say, 'I think; therefore I am a god; but the true worker, however colossal may be the difficulties around him, so long as his courage is unshaken, may more justly affirm, I struggle; therefore I am a man.' And we have it upon the testimony of a friend who was not fervid enough to exaggerate, nor sufficiently dishonest to tell an untruth, that in those parts of America where Savings Bank depositors abound, there is a noble and manly look about the workmen which is as marked as is the fine contour of the Circassian from the sleepy effeminacy of the Turk, or that of the peasant of the northern from the inhabitant of the southern Tyrol. It behoves all true philanthropists to carefully examine for themselves the utility of these institutions we have suggestively advocated; and if they find in it the materials which have been sought for in more winning and poetic theories, as eagerly as gold by alchemists in lion-red' cinnabar and 'lily' antimony, we may hope to see our islands and its possessions covered with such a network of them, that no man who is disposed to aspire may fail from want of opportunity. ART. IV.-1. On the Degeneracy of the Race. By M. Morel. Paris: 1857. 2. Intellectual Education: its Influence on the Character and Happiness of Women. By E. Sherriff. 1858: Parker. 3. Annales Medico-Psychologique. THAT HAT the type of crime has wonderfully changed within the last century, and has become essentially one of craft and cowardice, is a fact which to the philosopher affords matter for reflection and speculation, and to the philanthropist cause for profound pain and perplexity. The boldness which characterized the robbers of ancient days has passed away, and the name and deeds of Claude Duval and Dick Turpin are remembered only in the melo-dramas of our minor theatres. Our modern thieves hesitate to bid travellers 'Stand and deliver,' but three or four spring on a single man from behind, and throttle him as well as they can. We have given a name to this un-English and detestable crime, and garotte robberies form a large item of the offences tried before the judges of our land. The contests between gamekeepers and poachers are not so frequent but more deadly, being fought less with blows and bludgeons than with knives and guns. Meanwhile the fish is netted, the game drugged, and the roosting pheasant is brought down with an air-gun. When we wish to remove an obstacle in our path we insure our victim's life and administer strychnine. Terror did at one time rise to the height when it becomes deadly, and a panic ensued; so that in 1856 there were more men hanged than we care to count. Burglaries are less ommon; but educated villains embezzle thousands and leave the aged, the helpless, and the thrifty poor to bewail their incredulity. Infernal machines are preferred to the dagger or the sword. Colt's revolvers, which economize time and multiply death with frightful accuracy, are the fashionable weapon. Such is the genuine genuine use of gunpowder, that it makes all men alike tall.' Mere animal courage is an article of much reduced value in the market. Not that we wholly reject the national bull-dog; but we make him pass through a competitive examination. Palmer and Dove, Sadleir, Paul, Strahan, and Redpath represent the present type of crime-and it is not a pleasant one to contemplate. Our craft has eaten up our courage. Suicide, a sin of moral cowardice, is on the increase. When the mind is enfeebled by drink, anxiety, excitement, or terror, and ceases to receive the stimulus which bodily health affords-in a word, when a man has mentally no hope, and physically no strength, suicide is the natural result. The deaths from this cause in the middle ages were few in proportion to those in the nineteenth century. In the eighteenth it began to spread, urged by the sensuist doctrines then in vogue. Rousseau, Goethe, Lamartine, and Chateaubriand presented phases of this sickly turn of mind in their writings. It is a vice accompanying civilization, for no one ever heard of a savage or an animal committing suicide. That the Greeks and Romans commended it there is no question; and most of our readers will remember the words of Epictetus: The door is open; do not be more fearful than children; but as they, when the play does not please them, say-"I will play no longer," so do you say —“I will play no longer," and go. But though the ancients killed themselves from pride and tedium vitæ, and our Gallic brethren do so from ennui and caprice, an Englishman rarely does so unless under the influence of an amount of terror, desperation, and hopelessness which breaks down his mind even as it nerves his hand. Ah, death! thou art acceptable to him that despaireth and hath lost patience!' Even our minor vices have changed. Precocious boys indulge in the use of tobacco, and men drug themselves with it. In 1821 the total consumption of tobacco in Great Britain was 15,598,152 lb. In 1851 it had risen to 28,062,841 lb. Among our manufacturing population, opium-eating is increasing to an appalling extent. In 1839 the quantity imported into this country was 41,000 lb. In 1852 it was 114,000 lb. That the ancient type of crime differed completely from all that we have just described is patent to the most careless observer. One hundred and fifty years ago bloodshed and rapine were abroad; might was right; the strong arm won, and the weak went to the wall. War was not then, as now, a scientific and deadly duel of nations; but physical force was at a premium, and ignorance of the grossest kind no disqualification. The audacity which was the characteristic of a semi-barbarous warfare is foolishness to the present generation; for why should we grapple with a savage when at a distance of half a mile we can pick him off with an Enfield rifle? Our feeble frames and excitable nervous systems are |