prosperity must result, any additional contribution that serves to promote it, is applied to the best of all purposes. Considered in a political point of view, these local depositories are particularly important. If the wealthy in this country find it their interest to support good order and obedience to the laws, from the stake they have in the Public Funds, independently of their duty as subjects; so the poor will likewise find it their interest to respect and defend that constitution, which secures to them the little accumulations they have invested in these depositories, and which to them are of no less value than their immense treasures are to the affluent. Self-interest is the predominant principle of the human breast, and man never fails to act in compliance with its dictates. The effect of Savings Banks in diminishing the public burdens will in a short time become apparent. In proportion as they extend over the country, applicants for parochial relief must necessarily decrease; nor will the assessments on the several parishes for the maintenance of the poor be near so heavy as before, while in the progress of time, I have no doubt but that the necessity of them will be entirely precluded. The burden of these assessments as it has hitherto increased, is become too weighty for all the industry of the country to bear; the agricultural counties have been unable to withstand its pressure, and the nerve and activity of the manufacturing districts are laid prostrate beneath its grievous weight. Yet intolerable as it is, it cannot possibly be removed, unless by the admirable expedient which has so happily been devised, and the Savings Bank is therefore justly termed the sinking fund of the poor's rate.

With respect to the principle on which these Banks are founded, it must be observed that it is entirely different in its nature and operation from the system of Tontines or Friendly Societies. The savings when vested to such an amount as to bear interest, continue in a progressive state of accumulation at a fixed rate, according to the particular economy on which the Bank is established; but either the whole or part of the sum vested may be drawn out at the option of the party, according as the exigencies of the time may require a supply. The precautions taken against the possible failure or defalcation of any of these Banks are such, that no occurrence of that nature can ever be apprehended. The fund of each Bank, when it reaches a certain amount, is vested in Government Securities, and the local security is always considerably more than sufficient for the sum deposited till it arrives at that amount.

Though the establishment of these Banks is of recent date, yet their importance is already sufficiently appreciated by the public, and they are spreading with rapid increase over the several counties both in England and Scotland, and have also made some progress

in Ireland. Their general tendency may be inferred from the preceding remarks, which cannot be better concluded than by making the following extract from the useful and instructive Essays of Mr. Henry Duncan of Dumfries-shire, who in the year 1810 established, in the parish of Ruthwell, in that county, the first institution of this kind that was ever known to exist in the British Empire.

:

"There is something noble and affecting," he observes," in the struggle which a poor man makes to preserve his independence, and rise superior to difficulties and discouragements incidental to his situation. The end he has in view, and the privations he must undergo before he can attain that end, are such as must attract the applause and sympathy of every good man. When from the scanty pittance which he has earned from his honest industry, and which, though it suffices to supply the common wants of nature, is inadequate to procure the conveniences or comforts of life; when from that scanty pittance he is able, by the exercise of a virtuous selfdenial, to lay up a provision for the exigencies of his family, he exhibits a pattern of prudence and manly resolution, which would do honor to the highest station. The sentiments which give rise to this conduct are nearly allied to the best feelings of the human heart and the man who can, with such becoming fortitude, deprive himself of present indulgencies for the sake of future independence, will not readily stoop to the suppleness of duplicity or the baseness of fraud. The fact is, that the most careful and industrious are universally the most trustworthy; and he who has been accustomed to look forward with a steady eye to distant consequences, is not slow in discovering that honesty is the best policy.' Feeling the comfort and the dignity arising from virtuous conduct, he acquires a more elevated way of thinking and of acting, and insensibly becomes superior in mental attainments, as well as outward circumstances, to the thoughtless crew by whom he is surrounded, and who were formerly perhaps the chosen companions of his dissipated hours. Nor is the state of his feelings less favorable to religious impressions. A love of order naturally leads his affections to the God of order. A habit of reflecting on the changes of life teaches him to repose with confidence in the wisdom and goodness of that Being by whose will these changes are regulated; and his mind, trained to look beyond present enjoyments to those which are future, is evidently in no improper frame for regarding not so much the things that are seen and temporal,' as those that are 'unseen and eternal.'"'

Being anxious that this short treatise should be rendered as cheap as possible, in order that its dissemination may be the more

'Duncan's Essays, p. 127.

of vessels, and the entire practice of seamanship. How rich and diversified such enquiries, how vastly surpassing the discoveries of Archimedes' in hydrostatics, must be evident even from this bare enumeration: but these, momentous as they are, sink much in grandeur and importance when compared with the sublime investigations of Laplace, in reference to the flux and reflux of the tides, and the stability of the equilibrium of the ocean. Although, in the indefinite variety of disturbances to which the ocean is liable, from the action of irregular causes, it may appear to return to its former state of equilibrium; yet, a theorist inclined to speculate, and not qualified to investigate this profound subject thoroughly, may apprehend that "some extraordinary cause may communicate to it a shock which, though inconsiderable at its origin, may aug. ment continually, and elevate it above the highest mountains." Now Laplace, by means of an elegant and refined analysis, has developed the conditions which are necessary for the absolute stability of the ocean. He has shown, irrefragably, "that the ocean is in a state of stable equilibrium: and if (as can scarcely be doubted) it has formerly covered continents which are now elevated much above its level, the cause must be sought elsewhere than in the defect of its equilibrium. This analysis also shows, that this stability would cease to have place if the mean density of the sea exceeded that of the earth: so that the stability of the equilibrium of the ocean, and the excess of the density of the terrestrial globe above that of the waters which cover it, are reciprocally connected, the one with the other.""

What we term accident, produced the train of thought in the mind of Archimedes, which issued in the elegant though simple

It is evident from Archimedes's Arenarius, or treatise on the number of the sands, that the main 'property which he employed in his curious computations, is equivalent to that which was assumed as the fundamental property of logarithms. "If numbers (says he) are continually proportional, increasing from unity, and if two terms of such progression are multiplied together, the product will be a term of that progression, placed so many terms from the greatest factor, as the smallest is from unity; and this same product will be distant from unity, so many terms, less by one, as the two terms together are from unity." This property slumbered 1850 years without being applied to any more extensive use, when it was seized by Napier, and extended, in his admirable invention of logarithms, to all numbers, whether they were terms of the assumed geometrical progression, or not. The mode of intercalation for all intermediate terms, constitutes at once the chief difficulty, and the principal excellency of Napier's invention. Far easier methods of accomplishing the same thing, are now known: but, under the disadvantages with which Napier must have had to contend, his success is at once a proof of the energy and the fertility of his genius. See Hutton's History of Logarithms.

2 Laplace, Exposition du Systême du Monde, p. 266, 4to edition.

Stock Broker, and keeping it by them perhaps with an intention of adding to it, their prudent purpose is too often defeated by some seductive persuasion which they have not fortitude to resist.

In order as much as possible to accommodate the proposed measure to the feelings of clerks in general, I would suggest that there should be in every establishment a book kept purposely for themselves, and a person exclusively appointed to receive their deposits, either in the name of the depositor, or by a number; and the person appointed shall, if deemed expedient, be sworn to secrecy. But I am persuaded that the preposterous delicacy which would require these cautious measures, would very soon give place to more rational sentiments; for they must reflect that it will always be a recommendation to them in the eyes of their superiors to be seen laying the foundation of their future comfort and independence by a provident economy of their present resources. The young man who is known to be thoughtless or prodigal in his expenditure will never secure his advancement in life with so much certainty, as he who is reputed prudent and frugal in the disposition of his means. The one deprives himself of that confidence. which is so necessary to his uprise, the other is sure to invite it.

It is much to be feared that persons, who from their independent circumstances, were never meant to be included among those classes for whose benefit Savings Banks were established, have notwithstanding, availed themselves of them in order to serve the purposes of avarice. But in the plan I have submitted, no abuse of this kind can possibly exist; for every man's income being known and defined, a line of limitation can easily be drawn. I should think, however, that yearly incomes from 80l. to 5007. would not be thought too high to participate in the advantages of these depositories. Indeed my opinion is, that persons with still larger incomes ought to be admitted to the same participation, for these are generally married, and very frequently find their means inadequate to that state of respectability in which they are obliged to live; while it would be of inestimable advantage to such of them as could save 201. or 301. yearly, to have an opportunity of laying it up as an increasing provision for their families.

But should it be deemed expedient to exclude the general classes of clerks in public offices from the provisions of the Act of Parliament, I would nevertheless advise a Savings Bank in every large establishment, and the vesting the money in the Funds. The object of a few shillings per cent. interest is but trifling, compared with the advantage of being able to make the deposit on the very spot where the income is paid, whether that deposit be one pound or twenty, or whether it be lodged weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Nor would the benefits of this system apply only to clerks in

large establishments, it might be extended with proportional advantage to those in smaller ones; as for instance, to all the clerks in the several Fire Offices in London. Let there be, as it were, an Union Bank formed for the whole of them, in some central office, where a common treasurer shall regularly attend, to receive every week, month, or quarter, the aggregate amount of the deposits which were previously paid in at their respective offices. This amount, as soon as it is transmitted to him, the treasurer shall invest, under the provisions of the Act, in government debentures. Other associations of this nature might be formed upon the same principle, either in London or any other commercial city or town in the kingdom, and would be of the most material service to a body of young men who stand so much in need of such a depository as I have suggested. To clerks in the Inns of Court the principle will apply most conveniently, from the circumstance of their being collected together in a comparatively small space; and I have been requested by some gentlemen high in the profession, to call the attention of that particular class to the observations which I now submit to the public.

It generally happens that a man is rather sanguine as to the probable success of any measure which originates with himself, and I do certainly entertain the strongest hopes with regard to the plan of which I have thus given the necessary details. Such hopes, however, are not induced by any vain ambition on my part, of being reputed a successful theorist, but result from a serious and attentive consideration of the subject. I am satisfied in having given a new direction to the principle on which these benevolent institutions are founded, and the more I deliberate upon the plan in question, the more am I convinced of its beneficial tendency.

Since this Tract has been written, the plan has been adopted by the East India Company, and in five months upwards of 4,000. have been deposited by the junior clerks, laborers, &c. &c.

END OF VOL. XIII.