It now remains that we should give an account of the measures which have been taken for the establish ment of savings banks, and endeavour, if we can, to ascertain the most useful form which they are capa ble of receiving.
We are not aware that the idea of an institution, answering in any degree the description of a savings bank, was in this country expressed in public before the year 1797, when k peculiar scheme for the ma nagement of paupers, or persons deprived of the means of maintaining themselves, was published by Mr Bentham in Young's Annals of Agriculture. It would require too long a digression to give an account of this plan of Mr Bentham, which embtaces a great number of points, and would require an exposition of considerabte complexity. Of that plan, one part consisted in the institution of what he distinguished by the name of afrugality bank.
The series of wants to which it was by him des- tined to operate as a remedy, were as follows : 1. Want of physical means of safe custody, such as lock-up places ; thence, danger of depredation, and accidental loss.
2. Difficulty of opposing and never-yielding re sistance to the temptations afforded by the instru ments of sensual enjoyment, where the means of pur chasing them are constantly at hand.
3. Want of the means of obtaining a profit by the savings of the poor, or the use of them in portions adapted to their peculiar exigencies.
4.. Want of a set of instructions and mementos constantly at hand, presenting to view the several exigencies, or sources of demand for money in store, and the use of providing it.
He next proceeded to sketch the properties which appeared to him to be desirable in a system of fru gality banks, commensurate to the whole population of the self-maintaining poor. These were, 1. Pond, solid and secure.
Si. Plan of provision all-comprehensive.
3. Scale of dealing commensurate to the pecunia ry faculties of each customer.
4. Terms of dealing sufficiently advantageous to the_ customer.
5. Places of transacting business suitable ; Viz. in point of vicinity, and other conveniences.
6. Mode of transacting business accommodating.
7. Mode of operation prompt.
B. Mode of book-keeping clear and satisfactory.
• In the plan, however, of the bank which Mr Ben tham contemplated for answering the purposes which he thus described, he did not direct his view to that simplest of all the forms of banking, the mere re ceipt of money, to be paid again with interest when demanded; the form to which the patrons of savings banks at present appear judiciously to confine their attention. Mr Bentham's proposal was to receive into
the frugality banks the deposits of the poor, not for the mere purpose of yielding an interest, and being with drawn when wanted, but to form or purchase an an nuity for old age, when the power of earning would be either destroyed or impaired.
That the accumulation of the poor might not, how ever, be confined to one exigency, though that the greatest, he proposed that this superannuation annui ty should be convertible, in the whole or in any part, into any other species of benefit, adapted to the exi gencies of the owner. It might, for example, be converted into an annuity for an existing wife, in the event of widowhood. It might be converted into an annuity during the nonage of a certain number of children. It might serve as a pledge on which to borrow money. Part of it might be sold to raise a marriage fund, or it might be simply withdrawn.
Mr Bentham then proceeded to compare the ef fects of a system of frugality banks with those of friendly or benefit societies. To this comparison, however, we cannot with any advantage proceed, till that other species of institution is first described. We are, therefore, inclined to reserve it wholly to the article BENEFIT SOCIETIES, to which the reader is referred.
It is somewhat remarkable, that no allusion which we can perceive in any of the numerous pamphlets to which the subject of savings banks has lately given birth, is made to this early scheme of Mr Bentham ; though the work in which it is contained not only appeared in a periodical and popular publi cation so long ago, but was laid upon the table of the committee of the House of Commons, appointed to inquire into the subject of Penitentiary Houses in 1811, and referred to in the appendix to their report; and was published separately in one 8vo volume, in 1812, under the title of Pauper Management im proved.