130 REPORT—1845. rv 
acquired by their daily toil. Influences to this end have long been quietly 
but steadily at work, set in motion by individuals, few in number and, for 
the most part, of small account in the eyes of the world, who were at first 
sustained only by the consciousness of duty performed, and who long remained 
uncheered by any evidences of success; those influences are now, however, 
openly and even ostentatiously employed, they have found their way into 
every circle, and have even received the homage of the senate. It has be- 
come fashionable to express the desire of promoting the general welfare of 
the working classes, and even to make some exertion to secure it, and we can 
hardly conceive that this stage of the question could have been reached, un- 
less through the sense of its importance having taken a firm hold of the pub- 
lic mind, enlisting among its promoters men who, by means of their station 
and intellectual endowments, must command the attention of society. 
The present is not an occasion on which it would be proper to enlarge upon 
the moral obligation to which allusion has now been made, but it is clearly with- 
in the province of statistical inquiry to ascertain, as correctly as possible, the ac- 
tual condition of those whom we would seek to benefit. Without such inquiries 
we must always be, as it were, groping in the dark, and liable to make a pro- 
fitless use of our energies, if even they should not be hurtfully employed. 
Various efforts, which have been attended with more or less of success, have 
been made of late years by our statistical societies, and by means of govern- 
ment commissioners, to place before the world true pictures of the social 
condition of great masses of our fellow-countrymen, who form what, by a 
somewhat arbitrary distinction, are called the working classes; and from a 
variety of journals and parliamentary reports much is to be learned concern- 
ing their means of living, as well as the manner in which such means are em- 
ployed. Our hours of leisure could hardly find better employment than in 
studying the different volumes in which this subject is authoritatively treated, 
in weighing the recommendations which they offer, and in helping to carry 
into execution those among them which appear to call for adoption, and which 
it may be in our power to forward. The volumes in question are within the 
reach of every one, and it would be productive of but little good to call 
away attention from them, by offering an analysis, or pretended analysis, of 
their contents. There is, however, one subject, intimately connected with 
the matters of which they treat, and which at the same time has become a 
thing of national importance, inquiry into which may throw light upon every 
branch of the subject, and which has not been made the matter of any recent — 
investigation—the progress of savings’ banks,—in describing which [ would ~ 
now venture to solicit a few minutes of attention on the part of the Section. 
Savings’ banks, it is well known, are to be placed among the inventions of 
the present century. They are of English origin, although, happily, they are 
not now confined to these kingdoms. We owe their institution to a well- 
known benevolent lady, Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield, who in 1804 induced six 
gentlemen, residing at Tottenham, near London, to receive deposits from la- 
bourers and servants, and to be responsible for their safety and return when 
needed to the depositors, with 5 per cent. interest thereon, provided the sum 
were not less than 20s., and had remained for a year at least in their hands. 
Deposits of not less than 1s. were received. Four years later (1808) eight 
individuals, of whom four were ladies, took upon themselves the like respon- 
sibility at Bath, engaging to pay 4 per cent. interest upon all deposits up to 
501., but limiting to 20004. the whole sum to be deposited. In the same year, | 
the late Mr. Whitbread tried, without success, to procure legislative sanction 
for a plan, whereby the small savings of the industrious labourer and artisan 
would be placed under the safeguard of public commissioners. # 
The first savings’ bank, regularly and minutely organized, was “The Pa= 
5 
