When it is ascertained, that banks for the cash of the poor would be useful to the poor, we should act very carelessly, if we remained contented with a mere vague conception of utility in general. To complete the inquiry, we should trace the subject in its ramifications, and pursue them to the very point of termination. We should not be satisfied with a belief that banks will, to some degree, and in some way, we know not what, be useful to the poor. We should ascertain, with accuracy, in what way or ways, and in what degree, they will tend to increase the happiness of this principal branch of the population.
This is rendered more necessary, by the conduct of those who have chiefly undertaken the patronage of banks for this class of the population. They have been too lavish in their promise of beneficial effects from this desirable institution. They have stretched the vague idea of utility to any extent which suited their imaginations. There is nothing desirable for human beings which they have not described as the natural product of banks for the poor. Happiness and virtue are two things which they will be sure to produce in any quantity we please.
But when gentlemen treat us with these extraordi nary promises of good from Savings Banks, they take not sufficient pains to show the connection. They neglect to inform us how the events are to come about. They do not show in what manner, if the one set of things precede, the other things which they so largely predict, must all of them follow. Now, this is not satisfactory. This is to assume and affirm, not to disclose. This is to beg the question, not to resolve it. This way of proceeding not only removes no uncertainty, it has a tendency to draw men upon false ground, and to recommend to them measures for practice founded upon mistaken no tions of things, and therefore pregnant with the chances of evil.
The first part of a sound and rational inquiry into the subject of Savings Banks would thus undoubt edly be, to define the utility which the institution is calculated to ; to ascertain exactly the ingredients of which the composition is formed, and the quantity in which it may be expected to exist.
For this purpose, it may be remarked, that the effects calculated to arise from the institution of Savings Banks are of two sorts ; lit, the immediate ; 2dly, the derived. The first result at once from the operations of the Bank. The second arise only
from the first, and are, in reality, the effects of the effects.
1. The effects of the first stage,—the effects which immediately result from the operations of the Bank, are two,—safe custody for the money deposited, and interest upon it.
Of these effects no general exposition is required. They are known and familiar to every body.
2. The effects of these effects come next under review. They are more complicated, and far less easy to understand.
It is expected that safe custody for money, and a profit by it, in the shape of interest, will produce a disposition to accumulate. This is the second stage. From this, other effects, which may be called effects of the third stage, are expected.
The disposition to accumulate will produce indus try and frugality, which implies temperance. This is the third stage, and these are effects of the third derivation.
Industry and frugality will produce a reserve of wealth. This is the effect of the fourth stage, or fourth derivation.
This reserve of wealth will produce an effect of the fifth stage, namely, security against the miseries of want.
The utility consists in these latter effects, the in dustry and frugality, the provision against the mise ries of want. These, then, are the ingredients of which the compound is formed. The question is, in what degree it may be expected to be produced : in other words, what power can the banks in ques tion possess to produce among that class of the po pulation industry, frugality, and a provision against the miseries of want ? It is the resolution of this question which is required at the hands of every one by whom is undertaken an account of a system of banking adapted to the circumstances of the is the want of food ; that mankind, as Burke somewhat ingeniously expressed it, " propa gate by the mouth ;" and that the number of men, if food were not wanting, would double, as the example of America proved, every twenty or five and twenty years. But after establishing this doctrine, the world seemed a long time afraid to look it in the face, and glad to leave it in the situation into which it had been brought. At last, a period arose when men of a certain description began to talk intemperately about the opinion, that the human condition was pro gressive, and susceptible of indefinite improvement, and men of another description began to be alarmed at this doctrine.