TBANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



493. 



labouring: classes received in hard cash some 70,000,000/. per year, or a total of 

 210,000,000/. more than the normal amount. The cost of living, however, increased 

 during those three years ; a rise of wages was not all gain to the working man, 

 for the cost of production increased, and higher prices had to be paid for food, 

 rent, and every enjoyment. That rise was estimated at ten per cent. ; therefore 

 105,000,000/., were required for the increased cost of living in the three years. 

 Allowing five per cent, more for a legitimate increase of the comforts of life in 

 times of prosperity, or 42,500,000/. in the three years, or in all 147,500,000/., there 

 still remained 63,000,000/. which should have been saved and stand now to the 

 credit of the labouring classes in some form or other. Since 1872 wages had 

 suffered a considerable fall, yet even now in many occupations the wages were 

 liberal, and, with the lower prices of many articles of consumption, there might 

 be room for saving something if only a sense of economy and proper management 

 prevailed in the households of the working population ; for at least the half of the 

 last eight years, wages were most liberal, and afforded ample room for saving a 

 handsome amount. What trace of these savings did they find stored in the Savings 

 Banks ? The account of the savings in 1870 and 1878 stood as follows : — In 1870 

 Trustees' Savings Banks 37,958,000/., Post Office Savings Banks 15,099,000/.— total 

 52,987,000/. ; in 1878, Trustees' Savings Banks, 44,293,000/., Post Office Savings 

 Banks, 30,412,000/.— total 74,705,000/. Thus the Savings Banks in 1878 possessed 

 21,700,000/. more than in 1870. Deducting 14,000,000/. for interest, there remained 

 7,500,000/. saved in this form out of all the extra wages in the eight years. It cannot 

 be said that what was saved in 1873 had been since lost and withdrawn ; for the 

 accounts showed that in the totals there had been no going back, but only a slow 

 progress, as shown by the following table : — 



This was an increase of twenty-four per cent, for England and Wales, fifty per cent, 

 for Scotland, and thirtj'-two per cent, for Ireland. The results of the last eight 

 years were therefore most favourable to Scotland and Ireland, the next to England 

 and Wales. Comparing six agricultural — Bedford, Buckingham, Cambridge. 

 Hereford, Oxford, and Essex, with six manufacturing districts — Lancaster, 

 Yorkshire, Warwick, Durham, Northumberland, and Gloucester, it will be found 

 that the savings of the manufacturing districts had increased forty-eight per cent., 

 and the agricultural seventy-one per cent. ; but in large towns there were many 

 other ways of saving, and that may account for the difference in the percentage. 



3. On the Assimilation of the Law in England, Scotland, and Ireland as to 

 the care of Lunatics and their Property. By W. Neilson Hancock, 

 LL.D., M.R.I.A. 



The report of the Irish Lunacy Inquiry Commission disclosed the startling fact 

 that the neglected lunatics have increased from 1,500 to 3,000 in the last twenty 

 years. This had arisen in part from the non-extension to Ireland of the English 

 Act of 1853, and in part from the non-extension of the provision of the English 

 poor-law order of 1844 allowing out-door relief to be given on account of mental 

 infirmity not only of the head of a family, but of any dependent member of it. 

 A large number of harmless lunatics and idiots were provided for by out-door 

 relief in England. But in Ireland the guardians were prohibited by Imperial 

 statute from giving out-door relief on account of the mental infirmity of the 

 dependent member of a family. In Scotland, paupers suffering from mental 

 infirmity may be supported out of local rates while residing with relatives or 

 boarded with strangers. This was a portion of the famous Belgian system which 



