ON SAVINGS’ BANKS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 131 
rish Bank Friendly Society of Ruthwell” in Dumfries-shire, established through 
the exertions of Mr. Henry Duncan in 1810, and it was mainly owing to its 
success, as set forth in the published reports of that gentleman, that many 
other institutions were formed upon the model of that at Ruthwell, so that 
before any legislative provision had been made for their encouragement there 
existed 70 savings’ banks in England, 4 in Wales, and 4 in Ireland. 
In July 1817 two acts received the royal assent for encouraging the esta- 
blishment of banks for savings in England and Wales, and in Ireland. It was 
not until 1835 that these institutions were placed under legislative regula- 
tion in Scotland, a circumstance which in all probability is to be ascribed to 
the facilities given by bankers in that part of the kingdom for the profitable 
deposit with them of small sums. Under the acts of 1817, the sums depo- 
sited were placed by the trustees of each bank in the hands of the Commis- 
sioners for the reduction of the National Debt, who thereupon issued deben- 
tures for the amount bearing interest at the rate of 3d. per centum per diem, 
or 4/. 11s. 3d. per cent. per annum. It was customary for the trustees to allow 
4: per cent. only to the depositors, retaining the balance of the interest received 
from government to delray the necessary charges of the establishment for 
office-rent, clerks, &e. 
The progress of these savings’ banks, after receiving the sanction of the 
legislature, has become a matter of national importance, not only as affording 
means for judging concerning the actual and comparative condition, from 
time to time, of those classes of persons who make deposits, but also as in- 
centives to prudence, and in some degree, too, as security for good citizen- 
ship, among a very numerous body, now numbering more than a million of 
our fellow-subjects, who are thus made to feel that they too have an interest 
in the stability of government, and something to lose from acts of violence. 
By this means some slight degree of sympathy in feeling and interest has been 
ereated between classes as to whom that link was previously wanting, sothat the 
untaught orill-taught labourer orartisan who has a small, but to him important, 
capital arising from his savings and deposited in the savings’ bank,can nolonger 
look with the same feelings of estrangement as formerly upon those whose 
Savings, or those of their prudent ancestors, may have exceeded his own. 
_. During the five months that followed the passing of the acts of 1817, viz. 
to January 5; 1818, the savings deposited with the Commissioners for the re- 
duction of the National Debt amounted to 328,282/.' In each of the following 
thirteen years, to January 5, 1831, the sums so deposited were— 
b! Year ending 5th January 1819 ......... £1,567,667 — 
J, 
; 
Bnoiss 2 Sth», PO! ites 222 1,019,612 
40 + ble yy 5th -\,, lh >: Re ea eS ' 707,106 
is yo 414.808 gy Sth: 35 NOME Mest 4. <2. 1,205,960 
iow BRIS GY Sth iy a Se ei 1,632,166 é 
ebstebnig02) ci oSth: yo) 184 oo was) 1,089-448 
Me Metioneh, ovis Sth. jhe) I8B cows 2,586,219 
foil os (576i Sth 9 BBQG > .sdleviiz 1,261,290 
nie 5, 5th ,, BBO?!) assure. 526,155 
Peaabvasis eo Sth) » ¥ BBQB2! sitive 979,641 
Rigi 5) 5th’ °,, LOQD sd tivee.s 931,361 
Rion: go VIDAINEHE (1:r39) MOBBBOD sf -o!a. 4. 450,137 
OF qu adie 5 5th it) Cie 549,459 
” 
forming am aggregate sum of 15,677,503/., the greater part of which appears 
to\have been permanently lodged, since the sum remaining in deposit on the 
20th of November 1830, is stated to have been 13,507,565/., so that the sums 
withdrawn must have amounted in all that time to but little more than two 
millions in addition to the interest allowed. 
7 
