country, designed to encourage the industrious classes in frugal and provident habits, and to afford them some protection from those ordinary casualties which are incident to all men, but fall most severely on persons in the humbler ranks of life. Of these institutions it is remarkable, that they were all of them originally suggested and brought into use by private individuals, though they attracted at length the favourable notice of the legislature, and acts of parliament have been passed to sanction and promote them. Nor is it possible to refer to them, without pausing to pay the tribute justly due to the humanity and wisdom displayed in their establishment; for while materially contributing to the physical and moral welfare of an important portion of society, they tend by direct consequence to prevent the increase of the public burthens connected with pauperism, and the public disorders resulting from distress among the lower classes. It is but seldom that human laws are able so successfully to reconcile the interests of rich and poor; and to blend, in such perfect harmony, the considerations of benevolence and expediency.

1. Savings banks.-These are institutions devised for the safe custody and increase of the small savings of the industrious poor; and when regulated according to act of parliament, certain benefits and protections are afforded to them by law (y). The statute containing the existing regulations is the 26 & 27 Vict. c. 87 (z), by which also the previous enactments then in force on this subject were

(y) By 5 & 6 Vict. c. 71 (amended by 8 & 9 Vict. c. 27; 12 & 13 Vict. c. 71, and 22 & 23 Vict. c. 20), savings banks are provided for noncommissioned officers and soldiers in the army; and by 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, s. 180; 18 & 19 Vict. c. 91, s. 17; 19 & 20 Vict. c. 41, and 29 & 30 Vict. c. 43, for seamen in the VOL. III.

navy and mercantile marine. The provisions of these statutes are not included in the text.

(z) There are also the 16 & 17 Vict. c. 45, and 27 & 28 Vict. c. 43, with respect to the grant of government annuities to depositors in savings banks, as to which vide post, p. 84.

G

repealed (b). The institutions thus sanctioned consist of banks for the receipt of small deposits of money, the produce of which is to accumulate at compound interest, and the principal and interest whereof are to be paid out to the depositors as required, deducting only the necessary expenses of management. The deposits from a single depositor are not to exceed 307. in the whole in any one year (c); and no fresh deposit is to be received from him when the sum (inclusive of interest) amounts to 1507. And where the sum standing in the name of any depositor amounts to 2007. (principal and interest included), no interest shall be paid thereon so long as it remains at that amount(d). The management of these banks is vested in trustees, who must (by the rules of the bank) be prohibited from receiving, directly or indirectly, any benefit from any deposit made therein (e); and who are required to remit the money deposited (with the exception of what is retained in the hands of the treasurer to answer exigencies) to the Bank of England (f). The monies so remitted are carried to an account kept in the names of the commissioners for reduction of the national debt, and denominated "The Fund for the Banks for Savings;" which affords interest to the trustees at the rate of 31. 5s. per cent. per annum, and the arrears of which are carried half-yearly to the account of the principal (g). But the interest payable to depositors themselves is limited to 31. Os. 10d. per cent. per annum (h). Provisions are also

(b) Viz. the 9 Geo. 4, c. 92; 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 14; 7 & 8 Vict. c. 83; 22 & 23 Vict. c. 53, and 23 & 24 Vict. c. 137. As to the post office savings banks, vide post, p. 84. (c) 26 & 27 Vict. c. 87, s. 39. (d) Ibid.

(e) Sect. 6.

(f) Sect. 15.

(g) Sect. 21. The commissioners for the reduction of the national debt are (sect. 19) required to in

vest all monies so carried to their account in some parliamentary security, created or issued under the authority of acts of parliament, for the interest on which provision is made by parliament; or else in stock, debenture or other security expressly guaranteed by authority of parliament. As to the investment of savings bank monies by the commissioners, see also 32 & 33 Vict. c. 59. (h) 26 & 27 Vict. c. 87, s. 23.

made to save all unnecessary expense and inconvenience to the members of these institutions. Thus, in the case of the decease of a depositor whose estate does not exceed 501., no legacy duty attaches, and no stamp duty is payable on the probate or administration (i). And if any

person die having a deposit not exceeding 501. exclusive of interest, and no will or letters of administration be produced within one month afterwards, the money may be paid to such person or persons as shall appear to the trustees or managers to be the widow, or entitled under the Statute of Distributions or the rules of the bank (k). Upon the same principle it is directed, that deposits by or on behalf of a minor may be paid to such minor himself(); and that all disputes between the institution at large and any of its members or their representatives shall be referred to a cheap method of arbitration pointed out for that purpose (m). It was also provided by 26 & 27 Vict. c. 87, that the trustees should pay over all deposits made by a married woman to such woman herself, unless her husband should give notice of the marriage and require payment to be made to himself (n). But the law as to this is now altered,-it being enacted by "The Married Women's Property Act, 1870" (33 & 34 Vict. c. 93), s. 2, that any deposit made after the date of that Act in the name of a married woman, or in the name of a woman who shall marry after such deposit, shall be deemed to be her separate property, and the same shall be accounted for and paid to her as if she were an unmarried woman (0).

Any persons forming themselves into a society for the purpose of establishing a savings bank, are entitled to claim for it the benefit of the parliamentary provisions, upon causing the established rules and regulations to be entered in a book, to be kept by one of its officers for the inspection of depositors. It is also requisite, however, that two copies of the rules shall be submitted to a barrister officially appointed for the purpose, who is to certify whether the rules are in conformity to law, and pursuant to the legislative enactments (o). And the formation of the bank (in the case of one established after the 28th July, 1863) must be also sanctioned by the commissioners for reduction of the national debt (p).

In connection with these institutions it may be here noticed that, by 16 & 17 Vict. c. 45 (as amended by 27 & 28 Vict. c. 43), the commissioners just mentioned may grant to any depositor in a savings bank, or other person whom they shall think entitled to become such depositor, an immediate or a deferred life annuity depending on a single life, or an immediate annuity depending on joint lives with benefit of survivorship or on the joint continuance of two lives, or a sum (not exceeding 1007.) to be paid on the death of any person. These annuities and insurances are placed under the management of the same officers as those who conduct the Post Office savings banks about to be mentioned.

For the institution of savings banks, in general, being considered as of high importance, both in a moral and political aspect, and as well deserving encouragement and aid from the legislature-it has been recently thought expedient to establish a system for the deposit of small savings at interest, which should be managed by the authorities at the Post Office, and enjoy the advantage of the

a savings bank deposit, it may be ordered to be paid over to the husband if it appear to the court to have been made by means of his money

without his consent. (33 & 34 Vict.
c. 93, s. 2.)

(0) 26 & 27 Vict. c. 87, s. 4.
(P) Sect. 2.

direct security of the government for the repayment of the deposits. The Act passed to carry out this design was the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 14 (2), which authorizes the postmaster general, with the consent of the commissioners of the treasury, to cause his officers to receive deposits, in all towns in which a branch office for that purpose is appointed, for remittance to the principal office; and to repay the same under such regulations as shall from time to time be prescribed (r). Each depositor is to receive from the post-master general, through the branch office at which the deposit is made, an acknowledgment of its amount, which shall be conclusive evidence of his claim to repayment within ten days after demand, with interest thereon at the rate of 27. 10s. per cent. per annum (s). The monies deposited are to be forthwith paid over to the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt (t), to be by them invested in such securities as are lawful for the funds of other savings banks (u); and if at any time the funds so created shall be insufficient to meet the lawful claims of all depositors, the treasury is empowered to make such deficiency good out of the consolidated fund (x). And it is further enacted, that the accounts both of the post-master general and of the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt, in respect to all monies deposited with or invested by them under the Act, shall be audited by the comptroller general of the exchequer and auditor general of the public accounts (y), and that an account of all deposits received and paid during the

(4) This statute was amended in some particulars, other than those referred to in the text, by the 26 & 27 Vict. c. 14.

(r) 24 & 25 Vict. c. 14, s. 1. By 30 & 31 Vict. c. 142, s. 6, money paid into a county court in the course of any equitable proceedings instituted therein, is to be paid in by the registrar into the Post Office

Savings Bank established in the town in which the court is held.

(s) 24 & 25 Vict. c. 14, ss. 2, 3, 7. (t) Sect. 5. (u) Sect. 9. n. (g).

(a) Sect. 6.

Vide sup. p. 82,

(y) Sect. 13. See 29 & 30 Vict. c. 39, s. 5.