and the Poor Late. 
10!) 
to some respectable young- fellow, and that the two are enabled 
to keep clear of rented furniture and travellings bagmen. Again, 
in cases where parents save something towards paying an ap- 
prentice-fee for the boy, they will take an endowment insurance, 
payable at the end of fourteen or fifteen years, which costs a 
Is. or lid. a month according to the term agreed upon. In case 
of the death of their nominee, or death of the father, the money 
is returned. Endowments are a better investment than deposits 
in the savings banks. In the first place, the interest paid on the 
contributions is a little more than that commonly paid in the 
old savings banks, and considerably more than that which is paid 
in the Post Office Banks, which at present does not exceed 2^ per 
cent. ; and in the next, it is not so easy to realise the amount of 
contributions paid for an endowment before its completion as 
it is to withdraw the deposit from the bank. And such are the 
common trials of the wage-paid classes that they are often 
pressed to encroach, and they do encroach, on the small sum they 
have been able to put into the bank. But in the case of the en- 
dowment the society will interpose. If the pressure is such that 
in the judgment of the board the endowment policy should be 
turned into cash before it is complete, the amount of contribu- 
tions, with a trifling deduction, is returned. Otherwise the 
board will decline to return the money ; and the member is 
benefited in the long run, though for a time compelled, as it 
were, to save in spite of himself. No persons are warmer in their 
acknowledgements for the adoption of such a course towards them 
than those who have struggled on with their payments till the 
term is complete, and they receive their money according to 
their contract with the society. They are pretty sure to want a 
new endowment, and there are cases where, when No. 2 is 
- complete, they will come for another. The habit to save some- 
thing monthly has become confirmed, and they appear to like the 
notion of continuing to be benefit members of the society. This 
excellent insurance has been hitherto thought too good by the foes 
of friendly society insurances, " the companies," to be suffered to 
fall into the hands of the Postmaster-General. We would Bgain, 
and notwithstanding the discouragements which led Lord Har- 
tington to withdraw his bill last session, empowering the Post 
Office to grant further burial money insurance, submit its claims. 
It is admirably suited to the development of provident habits 
among the industrial and labouring classes, and it entails very 
little trouble and expense in the way of agency and manage- 
ment. In truth, the endowment ought to have been granted at 
the Post Office before any other insurance, and had it been prac- 
ticable, it should even have had precedence over the establishment 
of Post Office Savings Banks. 
