A bank was opened in Clerkenwell, another pa rish in the metropolis, on the 29th of January 1816, chiefly through the instrumentality of Charles Tay lor, Esq., on a plan by which the depositers appoint their directors, their committees of. accounts, their superintendents, Ic. from their own. number, and thus conduct the business of the institution wholly for themselves. The treasurer is allowed to retain to the amount of only L. 200, for which be gives se curity, and allows interest at 5 per cent. for the sum in his hands. The other funds are invested in govern ment securities. The great defect in this otherwise admirably constituted institution, seems to be the li miting the choice of managers and functionaries to the depositers themselves. Why should the deposi ters deprive themselves of the advantage of choosing a person who would be eminently useful as a ma nager, though not of a rank of life to require the in stitution for his own use ? If the depositers have the power of choosing, for the management, whom they *ale, depositors or not, they will have all that share of action which is necessary to establish their confi dence and animate their zeal ; while, at the same time, men of superior education and influence may be joined with them, and prevent, by their wisdom and authority, any error to which the business might be otherwise expmed. As often as men of superior education and fortune showed a disposition to render themselves useful in the conduct of the institution, daily and universal experience prove how certainly and gladly they would be chosen. In the meantime, the prosperity of the Clerkenwell bank is a complete proof of the safety with which that co-operation of the contributors, the utility of which is so well de monstrated by Mr Duncan, may be employed in the greatest cities. Clerkenwell is a parish, a great part of which is inhabited by some of the poorest people in the metropolis; the establishment of the bank was attended with nothing which was calculated to excite any attention ; with advertisement scantily sufficient to make it known in the district ; yet on the 22d 'of April, less than three months after the time of its in stitution, it had 157 depositers, and had received 115. 6d.
These local and confined attempts in the metro - polls Were followed by others on a larger scale. The Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor took measures for interesting a sufficient number of noble men and gentlemen to establish a grand Savings Bank, or Provident Institution, which was deemed are ferable name, for the whole of the western half of the metropolis. Several meetings of persons of high rank . and others were held during the month of March 1816. The plan of the bank of Southampton, to pay a cer tain fixed rate of interest, and return the neat de posit on demand, was first proposed. This, with re gard to the facility of giving satisfaction to the con . tributors, and avoiding all misconception on their part, injurious to the prosperity of the institution, was • highly desirable. But, after a due consideration of the danger to which the institution would, on this plan, be exposed, in the event of any great depres .suon of the price of stock, it was resolved to follow the example of Bath ; to render each depositor a • stockholder, and consequently himself liable to either the profit or the loss which the fluctuation of stock -might occasion. This institution was composed of
. the noblemen and gentlemen by whom it was pro - muted, who formed themselves into an association, .consisting of a president, vice-president, trustees, and managers ; wholly excluding the co-operation of the ..depositers, and all intervention or control on their part. This institution was opened in Panton Street, . Hay Market, on the 15thof April following; and an -other, promoted by the principal gentlemen in the city, and founded on similar principles, was soon af terwards opened in Bishopsgate Street, for the eastern .half of the metropolis.
Of the bank for the western division of the metro polis, a particular account has been published by -Joseph Hume, Esq. one of the managers, which de serves attention, as containing a valuable set of prac -tical rules for the detail of the business, according to the principles on which that institution is founded ; and, above all, as containing the descriptiqn of a sys tern of Book-Keeping, admirably adapted to the pur pose of savings banks in general, and of which that gentleman himself was the principal contriver.
By Mr Hume and Dr Haygarth, we see that the term Provident Institution is applied as the name of those associations which have it for their object to enable the poor to place their money in the stocks. The term Bank, whether called a Savings Bank or a Frugality Bank, they would confine to these institu tions which pay a fixed interest, and return the neat deposit. The term Bank, however, is equally appli cable to both, and the best denomination they can receive. Some adjunct is wanted to distinguish this from other species of banks, and no good one has yet been found. Neither Frugality nor Savings is dis tinctive ; every bank is a frugality bank. Poor's Bank would be the best, but for one conclusive ob jection, that it is humiliating, and in common accep tation disparaging.
As government securities afford in England the only expedient, attended with safety, for employing the deposits of the poor ; but as these securities are, at the same time, attended with the great inconve nience of fluctuation, and require the transmission of the money to and from the metropolis, of which the inconvenience would often be considerable; Mr Hume is of opinion, that the powers of government should be employed for the removal of these two inconve niences, which would merely afford to banks for the poor in England those advantages which they already enjoy in Scotland, from the admirable state of the banking business. The effects might be accomplished by the payment of the money to the receiver of each county, and by the receipt from him of the proper re turns. This would no otherwise change the nature of the transaction, than that the money would thus be lent to government in a way extremely convenient to the poor, while, by purchase into the public stocks, it is still lent to government, but in a way far from convenient to that class of the people.