remembering that it would virtually bring the Savings Bank within less than an hour’s walk of the fireside of every working man in the United Kingdom, I trust that it is not taking too sanguine a view to anticipate that it would render aid in ultimately winning over the rank and file of the industrial classes of the kingdom to those habits of forethought and self-denial which bring enduring reward to the individual, and materially add to the safety of the State.”

The working classes have not yet, however, taken full advantage of the facilities for saving afforded them by the Post Office Savings Banks.  Take Birmingham for instance, where the artizans are among the best-paid workmen of the town.  In the list of depositors in the Post Office Savings Banks, we find that the artizans rank after the domestic servants, after the married and unmarried women, and after the miners.  They only constitute about one-tenth of the entire depositors, though it is possible that they may deposit their savings in some other investments.

Then take the returns for the entire United Kingdom.  Out of every ten thousand depositors in the Post Office Savings Banks, we find that the domestic servants are again the first; next, the women, married and single; next, persons of “no occupation” and “occupations not given;” next, the artizans, and after them, the labourers, miners, tradesmen, soldiers and sailors, clerks, milliners and dressmakers, professional men, and public officials, in the order stated.  We must, however, regard the institution as still too young to have fully taken root.  We believe that the living generation must pass away before the full fruits of the Post Office Savings Banks can be gathered in.

The inhabitants of Preston have exhibited a strong disposition to save their earnings during the last few years,—­more especially since the conclusion of the last great strike.  There is no town in England, excepting perhaps Huddersfield, where the people have proved themselves so provident and so thrifty.  Fifty years ago, only one person in thirty of the population of Preston deposited money in the Savings Bank; twenty years ago, the depositors increased to one in eleven; and last year they had increased to one in five.  In 1834, the sum of a hundred and sixty-five thousand pounds had been accumulated in the Savings Bank by 5,942 depositors; and in 1874, four hundred and seventy-two thousand pounds had been accumulated by 14,792 depositors, out of a total population of 85,428.  Is there any other town or city that can show a more satisfactory result of the teaching, the experience, and the prosperity of the last twenty years?

CHAPTER IX.

LITTLE THINGS.

“The sober comfort, all the peace which springs
 From the large aggregate of little things;
 On these small cares of daughter, wife, or friend,
 The almost sacred joys of Home depend.”—­Hannah More.