TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 209 



invariably increases or decreases as food is cheap or dear. Such being the case, there 

 is always a portion of the labouring class whose wages are very little more than 

 sufficient to provide them with the necessaries of life. Such wages I will describe 

 as minimum wages. Since we have seen that an increasing population must always 

 have a tendency to make food dearer, these minimum wages must, from this cause, 

 have a constant tendency to rise. This acts as a counteracting force to reduce 

 profits. We can now attribute another important influence to emigration. It raises 

 wages by reducing the number of the labouring class ; but since, as I have said, it 

 adds a tract of fertile land to our own soil, it cheapens food, and since cheap food pre- 

 vents a reduction in the rate of profit, there will be a greater inducement to save. 

 The capital of the coimtry will from this cause become augmented, and there •will 

 be therefore a larger fund to be distributed amongst the wage-receiving popidation. 

 When emigration is thus considered, its vast social and economical importance can 

 be understood. Mr. J. S. Mill, who, more than any living person, has systematically 

 thought upon the modes to ameliorate the condition of the poor, emphatically insists 

 that it is necessary to make a great alteration in the condition of, at least, one genera- 

 tion, to lift one generation, as it were, into a different stage of material comfort. 

 He attributes little good to slight improvements in the material prosperity of the 

 poor, because, unless accompanied with a change in their social habits, the ad- 

 vantage is sure, as it were, to create its own destruction, by encouraging an increase 

 of popidation. It seems to me that there can be no agency so powerful as emigra- 

 tion to effect a great change in the material condition of the poor. I therefore 

 regard the discovery of gold to be of the utmost social value to England ; for it has 

 been so potent an agent to induce emigration, that it has caused Australia in ten 

 years to advance from a settlement and become a nation, with all the industrial 

 advantages of the oldest and most thriving commercial community. 



On Popular Investments. By Sir John S. Forbes, Bart., of Fettercairn. 



The Savings' Banks have produced a vast amount of benefit to the industrial 

 classes. In eleven years after 1817, when they became general, about thirteen 

 millions was received, and the sum deposited in them in 1857 exceeded thirty-five 

 millions for the British Islands. The largest number of depositors above 250,000, 

 held sums between £1 and £5, the total number of depositors being 1,341,752. 



The average per head — £ s. d. 



In England, £26, or for the popidation 1 15 



In Scotland, 16 4s. ditto 13 5 



In Ireland, 30 ditto 5 3 



The average of deposits in Scotland to the population is small as compared with 

 England ; but, besides the poverty of the country, this may be accoimted for, with- 

 out any disparagement to its admitted economy, by the fact that the branches of 

 the common banks now established in every large village afford great facilities for 

 investment, and it probably in part proceeds from the intelligence of the people, 

 who seek for other sources of return for their capital. 



It is remarked that the class of depositors is not generally what might be ex- 

 pected. In Scotland, domestic servants are generally the most numerous class, 

 with artisans, mechanics, and hand-loom weavers, while scarcely any of the mill- 

 workers deposit. In Glasgow and Edinburgh, and Aberdeen, the females exceed 

 the males in number. The rural classes do not largely avail themselves of these 

 institutions as compared with the inhabitants of the towns. In Perthshire there 

 are only £554 as against £7091. In Aberdeen the average to each depositor is a 

 little above £12. In 1847, the deposits in that bank amounted to £88,000, while 

 in November last it had risen to £191,731, in 22,744 accounts. 



Though Assurance Offices were originally arranged for a class above the indus- 

 trial, the small premiums which their schemes require are perfectly adapted to the 

 smallest incomes. For example, the following satisfactory arrangements may be 

 made for the future at many respectable offices, any one of the objects being 

 secured by beginning at the age of twenty to pay Is. per week. Of course 2s. per 

 week will secure double those sums in reversion, and Qd. per week one-half of 

 them. 



1859. 14. 



