TRANSACTIONS OV THE SECTIONS. 187 



cent. ; that it rose to its highest point in 1815, when it was £861,039,000; that it 

 was in 1868-09 £749,314,000, since which it lias been reduced to iDetweeu 

 £720,000,000 and £730,000,000. 



The given Income and Disbursement for Civil, Military, and Naval expenditure 

 and interest on debt were, as given in Government Account : — 1832 to 1837 about 

 £50,000,000 yearly ; 1839 to 1843 about £52,000,000 yearlv ; 1844 to 1854 about 

 £57,000,000 yearly; 1855 to 1873 about £70,000,000 yearly. Since 1854 the 

 llevenue Departments, which up to that time only paid into the Exchequer the 

 net amounts earned, after paying therefrom salaries and expenses, have by Peel's 

 Act paid the whole amount received to the Exchequer, thus swelling the stated 

 income, and the salaries and expenses have been voted from the public purse. 

 Hence about £6,000,000 must be added to the income and disbursements of years 

 previous to 1854, or the figures must be raised in 1844 to 1854 from £57,000,000 

 to £63,000,000 in order to compare them fairly with the fiigiu-es given since Peel's 

 Act. Errors constantly arise from this not being known. 



Unless, however, we know also (what we do not know and what it was the object 

 of the paper to urge) the value of the property of the Government in land, buildings, 

 shops, and stores, &c., how it has increased or decreased during this period, and 

 how it stands year by year, these figures give no real information as to the state 

 of our national assets and liability or of our national current expenditure ; and the 

 paper was read in continuation oi' other similar papers read before this Association 

 and the Statistical Society of London with the view of urging that a Capital and 

 a Current Account should be kept in each Government Department similar to that 

 now being introduced at the Admiralty, so that we may know year by year what 

 is the real expenditure of the' Government both for investment or capital and also 

 for current purposes, neither of which we know now. 



The Scivings-Banlc in the School. By J. G. Fitch, one of the Assistant En~ 

 doived Schools Co77imissioners, and Her Majesty's Ins^mtor of Schools*. 



This paper consisted mainly of some facts which the author had recently gleaned 

 in the course of a visit to Belgium respecting the working of the " Caisses d'epargne" 

 in the Communal Schools of Ghent. It appeared that without any Government 

 influence, but merely through the energetic initiation of one of the professors in 

 the University of Ghent, M. Laurent, aided by the schoolmasters and mistresses, 

 the system of saving ha.s been very efficiently introduced into the schools ; so that 

 five sixths of the children in attendance have savings-bank books (livrets) and bring 

 their centimes regularly as they obtain them to the teachers, to be by them deposited, 

 as soon as the saving amounts to a franc, in the public savings-bank at 3 per cent, 

 interest. Ghent is a town of about three fourths of the population of Bradford ; 

 and in it the number of young people under instruction who are depositors has 

 steadily risen in the course of seven yeai-s to 13,032. Statistics showmg the gra- 

 dual growth of the system, under the watchful care of the Communal School 

 Council, the professors, and the elementary teachers, were given by the writer of 

 the paper, from which it appeared that in the Free Primary Schools there are in all 

 7989 scholars (boys and girls), of whom 7583 have savings-bank accounts, the 

 agoregate sum thus deposited amounting to 274,602 francs, or about £10,984. In 

 the Infant Schools {Ecoles gardiennes) there are 3039 children, of whom 1920 have 

 livrets, representing a sum saved of 00,523 francs or £2651. In those primaiy 

 Echools which are frequented by the better classes who pay for their instruction, there 

 are 1079 scholars, 640 of whom have deposited in all the sum of 22,687 francs or 

 £907 ; and in the schools for adults, which are partly held in the evening and 

 partly on Sunday, there is a total number of 3285 men and women, of whom 2889 

 are depositors, and whose united deposits amount to 99,252 francs or £3970. Thus, 

 throuo-h the agency of the scholars alone, a total sum of £18,512 has been saved, 

 givin^ an average of rather more than 35 francs each to 13,032 depositors. Mr. 

 Eitch^argued earnestly that in England the increase of wages did not increase the 



* A fuller account of this experiment is contained in an article, by the sanie author, in 

 • Macmillan's Magazine ' for March 1874. 



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