ON SAYINGS' BANKS. 283 



children. It is your duty to save up money for 

 them ; and you will enjoy your home much more 

 when you have done this. May I ask you a 

 question? When you have had more money 

 about you than you required for current pur- 

 poses, have not some of you been tempted to 

 spend it ? Is it not, to use a common phrase, 

 apt to burn a hole in your pocket ? Are you 

 not easily entrapped into company, and into an 

 ale-house, with its bright fire, and there spend 

 your money foolishly, and perhaps become in- 

 toxicated? It is a fearful fact, that in 1859 

 there were, throughout the kingdom, 152,222 

 houses licensed to sell intoxicating "drink, and 

 only 606 savings' banks. Indeed, in Manchester 

 alone, there are 6306 houses licensed to sell 

 drink, and in the large, populous county of 

 Lancaster, only thirty savings' banks. You see, 

 then, what sad inducements there are to tempt 

 the working classes to impoverish themselves. 

 On the contrary, thousands of working men 

 have been benefited by savings' banks, in which 

 large sums have been accumulated. For in- 

 stance, a respectably-dressed working man, when 

 making a payment one day at the savings' bank, 

 which brought his account up to nearly 80Z., 



