or annual benefactors to the Society. The higher classes are thus enabled to be at the head of the institution, while their contributions give them a claim of gratitude on the whole body.

This appears to be one of the advantages of the popular principle which enters into Mr. Duncan's plan; and there are others calculated to make us consider it, upon the whole, as preferable to the Edinburgh scheme,in which the depositors are excluded from all management. In the commencement of an institution there often exists a degree of zeal which cannot be expected to continue; and it may be apprehended, that if the managers have no interest, and no responsibility, they will, in the course of a few years, leave the whole care of the concern to one or two pensioned officers, who may, from heedlessness or design, bring the institution into disgrace, and blast the hopes of its supporters.

We have heard it alleged by some very acute persons, that the practice of our public banks, which daily transact business with their customers, but never admit them to any share in the administration, is favourable to the principle of excluding the depositors from any share in the management. The circumstances of the two cases, however, we apprehend, are by no means parallel, and, therefore, will not warrant the same conclusion. In the ordinary public banks the managers are proprietors of Bank Stock, and are strictly accountable to the Board of Directors selected from the whole. Hence the powerful and ever wakeful principle of selfinterest pervades the whole economy of the establishments, and affords to the public a strong pledge of the prudence and regularity of their proceedings. Here too, as in other things, competition gives additional security. But in these Friendly Banks the stimulus of private interest can be felt only by the industrious depositors, who ought therefore to have some voice in the management. The observations which we formerly made on the influence of the wealthy, and the disposition of the members to avail themselves of their aid in Friendly Societies, will apply in the case of Friendly Banks with still greater force, inasmuch as the details connected with these are necessarily somewhat more difficult, and therefore peculiarly require the aid of men of intelligence. Mr. Duncan, however, though favourable, perhaps in too great a degree, to the popular system of which we have been speaking, very candidly acknowledges, that in large towns the mixed and incongruous mass that forms the chief part of the population, seems to render it. expedient to give them the benefits of the institution without hazarding its safety by allowing them a share in conducting it. To this country, where the lower classes, we fear, are less instructed, and certainly less under the control of moral principles than in Scotland, this exception seems particularly applicable; but it must be applied

with great delicacy lest it be defeated by prejudice, or by voluntary associations of the lower classes, from which the higher may be systematically excluded. It happens also that in England the increasing pressure of poor-rates is so generally complained of, that the indirect stimulus of interest will be felt, and will operate more strongly on the higher classes, in inducing them to lend their aid, than in Scotland, where these rates have, indeed, a legal sanction, but where their actual existence is confined to a small district, and to a very moderate amount.

In the Dumfries Parish Bank there are two funds. The first, called the deposit fund, consists of the aggregate of the sums lodged at interest for the benefit of the depositors, and may be withdrawn at pleasure. Any sum not less than one shilling is received, and the annual sum deposited must be less than 301. In the Edinburgh Bank not more than 10%. can be received. The reason for this limitation is to simplify, as much as possible, the transactions of the Friendly Bank, and to confine it to the mere supply of the desideratum arising from the circumstance of the public banks receiving no smaller deposits than ten pounds. The rule has been adopted by other Friendly Banks to enable them to avail themselves of the offer of 5 per cent. made by the Public Banks (while 4 per cent. is the ordinary rate of interest they allow,) on condition that the former should adopt this limitation. We regret this necessity, and think it would be better to give up the additional one per cent. than interfere so much with the habit of accumulation which it is the great design of these institutions to promote,and to reward. A simple expedient, however, has been suggested by Mr. Duncan for rendering this transference of cash from the Friendly to the Public Bank as little injurious as possible. Let the Treasurer of the Friendly Bank offer to retain in his own hands the Trading Bank's receipts, and give an acknowledgment signed by him to the individuals for whom they are held; or let the sum in the Trading Bank be marked in the depositor's duplicate. This will preserve their connexion with the Friendly Banks; they will be thankful thus to have an additional safeguard for their little treasure, and though at perfect liberty to withdraw it, will be unwilling to do so, except in cases of necessity. In the Friendly Banks, on the Ruthwell plan, though a deposit of one shilling may be made, no interest is allowed on any sum under one pound; and, after a pound has been lodged, none on any additional deposits, till they amount to another pound, and so on. It is also stipulated in some of these banks, that, to simplify the duty of the treasurer, no interest shall be calculated for any fractional parts of a week, or, in other instances, for any period less than a month. Now as the Trading Banks of Scotland allow 5 per cent. on the aggregate sums weekly deposited by the

Friendly Banks, but under the condition above specified, and as the Friendly Banks do not allow 5 per cent. in all cases, it follows that there will be a surplus of interest, accruing to the Saving Banks, which will increase according to the number and regularity of its depositors, and may furnish means for defraying the expenses of management.

As the interest of 12s. 6d. per month at 4 per cent. is exactly one halfpenny, the Edinburgh Bank allows monthly interest for all deposits amounting to this sum, or to its successive multiples, i. e 12s. 6d., il. 5s., il. 17s. 6d., 2l. 10s., &c. On either of these plans, with the aid of accurate interest tables, the calculations are a matter of perfect ease. A circumstance common to the Edinburgh and Ruthwell Friendly Banks is, that at the close of every year all the accounts in the ledger are balanced. The interest is added to the capital and placed to the credit of the depositors. New duplicates or bank receipts, are given to them, the former being called in and cancelled. These duplicates, on a half or quarter sheet of paper, are so contrived as to contain columns both for payments and receipts during all the months in the year, and each week of every month. By looking into his duplicate the peasant or mechanic is reminded, by the vacant spaces, of the use even of one or two superfluous shillings, and the expediency of making gradual provision for the future. The surplus interest needs little calculation. It is the natural result of the operation of the deposit account of the Friendly Bank with the trading one, and appears at once in striking the balance, by substracting the sum total of interest due to the depositors for the past year, from the sum total of interest due for the same period by the Trading, or Public Bank, to the Friendly Bank. The surplus interest, or Bank profit, thus appearing by this simplest of all processes, is carried by the Ruthwell Friendly Bank into a separate account under the distinct head of the Auxiliary Fund. This is raised from the donations or annual subscriptions of the benevolent, with the surplus interest or bank profit arising in the manner described. This fund is designed to defray the expense of articles of stationary, printing, and treasurer's salary. The latter of these is the chief article of expenditure; but the office should on no account be gratuitous.-The treasurer ought to be under strict responsibility and control, as every thing depends on his fidelity; and should unquestionably receive a salary adequate to his trouble. If the annual proceeds of the auxiliary fund be found unequal to the demand, we doubt not that the depositors themselves would contribute to make up the deficiency.

To those who wish to go farther into the detail, we would recommend Mr. Rose's Observations, the Summary account of the

Edinburgh Savings Bank, The Report of the Committee of the Highland Society, but especially Mr. Duncan's Essay, 2d edition. This last gives an account of the principles on which Saving Banks are founded, and contains the forms and details both of his own and other plans. The third part contains many excellent remarks on Friendly Societies, and on the propriety of uniting them with Saving Banks, so that one set of persons might manage both at the same meeting, though the funds of both should be kept separate. We really wish that Mr. Duncan would omit the title of this division of his Essay in future, and throw his remarks on Friendly Societies (in the promotion and improvement of which he has greatly exerted himself) into a separate section. At present we shall only observe, as an obvious objection to his proposal, that, as by his plan, the Managers of the Friendly Bank, and of the Friendly Society, are each to be appointed by, and responsible to, all the members and depositors, such a plan would exclude every one from the management of either society who should not be connected with both. Besides, simplicity, which may be called the first, second, and third requisite of this institution, is likely to be destroyed by the proposed union. We give Mr. Duncan great credit for pleading so ably the cause of Friendly Societies in opposition to those who wish to see them superseded by this new plan. He shows the two to be perfectly consistent, and calculated to promote the same important results. From his concluding remarks we shall make two short quotations.

Every thing, however, must depend on the activity, the zeal, and the intelligence of those under whose management the system is conducted; and I cannot conclude without earnestly recommending it to the continued and increasing patronage of the public. Much may be done, with this view, in various ways, by persons in all the different stations of life. The rich may support it by benefactions, the poor by their example; the prudent may promote its prosperity by their advice, men of rank by their influence, the active and skilful by their judicious exertions. But, perhaps, it is in the power of no description of persons more essentially to advance the interests of the Institution, than heads of families, and men engaged in trades and manufactures which require them to employ a number of dependents. Were it possible to persuade such persons of the immense importance of the object in view, we might from this circumstance alone indulge the most flattering hopes.* -p. 61.

The other is from that part of the pamphlet which answers an objection that has sometimes been made to the moral tendency of Provident Institutions.

'It has been alleged, that, in guarding against the idleness and profligacy of the lower orders, we are attempting to erect a system calcufated to excite and to cherish the opposite vice of selfish niggardliness.

Were this objection made to an institution, the tendency of which was to increase the parsimony of those who are already blessed with independent fortunes, or even with a competency, no person could be more ready than myself to admit its force; but it must not be forgotten that the Parish Bank is intended for the benefit of the lower orders, in whom industry and frugality are not only themselves moral virtues of the first class, but also the foundation of many kindred virtues. There is something noble and affecting in the struggle which a poor man makes to preserve his independence, and to rise superior to the 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 by 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 self-denial, to lay up a provision for the exigencies of his family, he exhibits a pattern of prudence and manly resolution, which would do honour 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 a becoming fortitude, deprive himself of present indulgence for the sake of future independence, will not readily stoop to the suppleness of duplicity, or the baseness of fraud.'p. 64.

To complete the plan which we proposed, we must make some observations on Mr. Rose's Bill, which was introduced on the 15th of May, but, after passing the House of Commons in an amended form, was, in the House of Lords, postponed for thesession. This delay we consider as a circumstance by no means to be regretted. The discussion which it has undergone will render it much more perfect when it shall be passed into a law, and the marked attention which it has already received will in the mean time tend to extend the benefits of the plan to various parts of the kingdom. The few suggestions and amendments which we shall venture to offer are chiefly on the Bill as it was submitted to the House, as we have not yet received the copy sanctioned by the House of Commons, though we shall allude to some of the alterations which have come to our knowledge through the medium of the parliamentary reports.

Mr. Rose's Bill gives permission to any number of individuals to form Banks for the savings of industry, on the principle of mutual benefit, and in this, as well as in its other leading enactments, agrees with Mr. Duncan's plan. The original rules, and every alteration that may be made in them, are to be exhibited to the justices of the peace, at their quarter sessions, and a duplicate, written on parchment, is to be filed by the clerk with the rolls of the sessions, without any fee. This duplicate is to be referred to