The exertions of Sir Rowland Hill having given great vitality to the Post Office system, and extended its usefulness as a public institution in all directions, it was next suggested that the money-order offices (which were established in 1838) might be applied for the purpose of depositing as well as for transmitting money.  Professor Hancock published a pamphlet on the subject in 1852.  In November, 1856, Mr. John Bullar, the eminent counsel—­whose attention had been directed to the subject by the working of the Putney Penny Bank—­suggested to the Post Office authorities the employment of money-order offices as a means of extending the savings-bank system; but his suggestion did not meet with approval at the time, and nothing came of it.  Similar suggestions were made by other gentlemen—­by Mr. Hume, by Mr. M’Corquodale, by Captain Strong, by Mr. Ray Smee, and others.

But it was not until Mr. Sikes, of Huddersfield, took up the question, that these various suggestions became embodied in facts.  Suggestions are always useful.  They arouse thinking.  The most valuable are never lost, but at length work themselves into facts.  Most inventions are the result of original suggestions.  Some one attempts to apply the idea.  Failures occur at first; but with greater knowledge, greater experience, and greater determination, the suggestion at last succeeds.

Post Office Savings Banks owe their success, in the first place, to the numerous suggestions made by Mr. Whitbread and others; next to Sir Rowland Hill who by establishing the Branch Post Offices for the transmission of money, made the suggestions practicable; next to Mr. Sikes, who took up the question in 1850, pushed it, persevered with it, and brought it under the notice of successive Chancellors of the Exchequer; and lastly to Mr. Gladstone, who, having clearly foreseen the immense benefits of Post Office Savings Banks, brought in a Bill and carried it through Parliament in 1861.

The money-order department of the Post Office had suggested to Mr. Sikes, as it had already done to other observers, that the organization already existed for making Post Office Savings Banks practicable throughout the kingdom.  Wherever the local inspector found that as many as five money-orders were required in a week, the practice was to make that branch of the Post Office a money-order office.  It was estimated that such an office was established on an average within three miles of every working man’s door in the kingdom.  The offices were open daily.  They received money from all comers, and gave vouchers for the amounts transmitted through them.  They held the money until it was drawn, and paid it out on a proper voucher being presented.  The Post Office was, in fact, a bank for the transmission of money, holding it for periods of from twenty-four hours to weeks and months.  By enabling it to receive more money from more depositors, and by increasing the time of holding it, allowing the usual interest, it became to all intents and purposes a National bank of deposit.