POST OFFICE SAVINGS' BANKS.

"All wealth, even the wealth which constitutes the pride and power of this country, sprang originally from the savings made by honest and frugal men."Speech of the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P., at a Meeting of the Oxford Friendly Society, January, 1863.

To encourage habits of industry and frugality should be one of the aims of every parochial clergyman, and of those who assist him in his association with his parishioners. Especially should these virtues be impressed upon the poorer portion-the agricultural and factory labourers and mechanics. The recent establishment of a system of Post Office Savings' Banks seems to offer an opportunity for urging these things. The mode in which the old savings' banks have been conducted hitherto has not, we believe, led to any extensive use of them by the great mass of those people who, for the most part, have a constant struggle to obtain the means of livelihood. The shortness and infrequency of the times when the offices were open for the transaction of business, may have militated much against their usefulness. The recurrence from time to time of cases of gross dishonesty amongst managers and secretaries has tended to raise a feeling of distrust, and the amount of the minimum deposit has prevented very poor people from using them.

There are few people so poor that at some period of their lives they may not be able to save a trifle from their weekly earnings, and we would therefore earnestly press upon those engaged and interested in parochial work to endeavour to excite a desire to save and a habit of saving among even the poorest, to point out and press home the argument "that many a little makes a mickle," which, trite though it be, is too often practically overlooked. A youth just beginning to earn money should be encouraged and urged to set apart a sum, no matter how small, say a penny or twopence a weck, to be increased as his wages increase. Few agricultural labourers would be unable to spare for their deposit at least a shilling a week for four or five years before the time when it would be prudent for them to marry.

We happen to know that it is no uncommon thing among the classes to which we now refer for a young couple to undertake the responsibilities of married life without having anything more to depend on than the man's weekly wages, without any but the most scanty furniture, which is left to be supplied as occasion offers, and which occasion does not in many instances offer at all. They often lodge in the cottages of their fellow-labourers, and so these become crowded; and, being for the most part ill-ventilated, the result is often discase and

death to the occupants, or at least an accelerated wear of their strength and constitution, which sends them to the workhouse, their only refuge, years before their time. We know a case within the last year where a labouring man, with his wife and four children, occupied a small cottage with four rooms. At busy times on the farm odd men came to work for a few weeks, and were received into this cottage to lodge, two or three at a time. The unhappy result was that diphtheria seized first the children, and afterwards the young men. Three of the children died within a few weeks, and one of the men; another man sickened and was removed to his home at some distance, an overcrowded place like the one he had left. Although he himself recovered, the infection was communicated to his family, and three deaths resulted.

These people start behindhand with the world, and are seldom or never able to make it up. The experience of every village beer-shop keeper shows that mere maintenance and clothing does not exhaust even their scanty wages, especially those of the single men. If these could be induced to save a part of what they spend at the publichouse they might start fair with a cottage comfortably furnished, and a small fund in hand, and thus have a much better chance.

Now a process of even the small deposit mentioned previously, accumulated during the years of boyhood and youth, would, by the time a man arrived at the age of twenty-five, amount to a good many pounds; such a sum, in fact, as a labouring man seldom dreams of or hopes to possess, and amply sufficient to furnish a cottage with every convenience and necessary required by people of this class; and with capital to stock a pig-sty and cultivate an allotment. The pig is truly the poor man's friend, it is the most profitable feeder of all our meatproducing animals, and may be made the means of eking out the scanty wages of the poor man to a very considerable extent. Let us suppose a boy beginning to earn money at nine years old-most boys in agricultural districts make a commencement long before this; let him save twopence a week for four years, and be encouraged occasionally to add an extra penny so as to make each year's deposit up to ten shillings. In the next four years he would be able to double the weekly saving; and in the next series of four years, he would doubtless find it possible to spare sixpence a week without feeling the weekly deprivation. In another interval, now anticipating marriage and a settlement in the world, surely he would, if necessary, deny himself something to lay by a shilling a week. This person at fiveand-twenty would be a wealthy man among his fellows, for his accumulated savings would come to upwards of £21, which would be increased somewhat by interest, although that item would not be very much. Of course all this is quite simple, but does the idea ever cross

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the minds of labouring boys and men, that by an almost imperceptible growth, the most tiny regular saving will amount, in the few years of boyhood and youth, to what is, in fact, a fortune for such persons?

They should be impressed with the fact that such a start in life would give them a much fairer opportunity of success and enjoyment than if they spend all they have while single, and marry, as most of them do, without having any money to begin with.

A bachelor labourer, or mechanic, after a certain age is rare; no prudential motives occur to them to defer marriage until such time as they might contract it with greater hopes and prospects of success. In the manufacturing districts, indeed, many instances occur of people marrying at a ridiculously early age; we remember to have noticed in one of the Registrar General's reports some time ago, the mention of a family in the neighbourhood of Manchester, consisting of father, mother, and child, the united ages of whom were thirty years. There is little hope against such manifest imprudence as this indicates.

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Young mechanics and factory-hands would, as they get more wages even from their first apprenticeship or employment, be able, if they could be induced to do so, to spare without hardship considerably more than the minimum we have indicated for the agricultural labourer. A person of this class might save according to his increasing wages, from the age of twelve to twenty-five, from sixpence to half-a-crown a week; if he did so, the increase being about in the proportion indicated in the former example, he would, at the age of twenty-five, have at least £50. We need scarcely say that we recommend savings' banks, not as places to hoard money, for the interest is small and unprofitable, but as secure depositories for small sums, to be withdrawn, either as a provision for some anticipated expense, as indicated typically above by marrying and furnishing, or as a means of carrying on little commercial speculations which fall in the way of most people with their eyes open.

If this habit of providence could be inoculated into the character of our labouring population, it would take away the ground from under the feet of the iniquitous money clubs, which are, however, the vice principally of towns. These blood-sucking corporations multiply exceedingly; and their rules are so cunningly contrived that the poor victim has generally no idea of the bargain he is making. There is a sum of money of which he is in need, ready to be advanced; this he is required to return by easy periodical repayments, commencing, however, from the very time of borrowing, while inquiry fees and per centages of various kinds are deducted from the first advance. Not to go into detailed calculation, which would not interest our readers, we must ask them to take our word, that in a recent case of a man who borrowed a sum of £10 of one of these vile clubs, which was to be returned by instalments within six months, the amount of usance

actually exacted, and paid by the unfortunate victim, was thirty-three per cent., or at the rate of sixty-six per cent. per annum.

It should be particularly impressed upon the minds of the parties for whose especial benefit this paper is written, that it is infinitely more profitable to provide for anticipated expense (and most expenses may be anticipated by providence) by gradual previous saving, than by incurring debt which weighs on and absorbs a large portion of future earnings.

Every clergyman and every person who may take an interest in these matters will be able to enforce, from his own experience and observation, precept by instance. We just notice two, in their way, remarkable cases of providence in working men; one as a pattern for imitation, one as a beacon for avoidance, but both illustrative of what may be done by care and prudence, and especially by the habit of accumulated saving, commenced early in life by poor men.

Walking with a friend in a rural district with which we had been familiar many years ago, we met a fine and fast pony drawing a pretty and comfortable light cart; the latter was occupied by a man in a bricklayer's dress, his face round and red, and the picture of robust health. A keen sense of enjoyment was reflected from every part of his face, which was completely wreathed in jolly smiles. The implements of his trade could be distinguished beside him in the cart. He greeted us jovially as he passed rapidly along, hurrying home. after his day's work. We recognized the man, and looked inquiringly at our friend. "Oh! that's Johnson, the bricklayer," said he. "You recollect him, a very industrious man. You know he has had tolerably regular employment, and been careful and prudent; he has a clever wife, who made the most of his small means.* He began to save a little money from early youth: he invested in pigs, and got a little allotment; presently he got an acre of grass land, on which he kept a COW. After a time our good parson let him have three or four acres of the glebe, and now he keeps several cows, and has bought a cart, in which he is transported to the scene of his daily labours by the best and fastest trotting pony in the village. He is employed on the great estate here, and his work is often at some distance from his home. Other men, his fellows in the art of bricklaying, have to walk miles to and from their work, but Johnson, thanks to his foresight and prudence, can now indulge himself by riding. No doubt that, all other things being equal, the power of easing his labours in this way, with the contentment of knowing that for him the workhouse has no terrors, will keep him in health, and life, and power to work, years longer than the other men with whom he began life. That he

* About three shillings a day when in regular work, but subject to deductions by interruption from the weather.