Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/268

Rh 256 ENGLAND [SAVINGS BASKS. Distribu tion of houses. These charitable institutions are numerous all over England, and many of them of ancient date, but the incomes of the majority of them are very small. In the metropolis alone there are over 100 asylums and almshouses, and the total number of them in England and Wales is considerably more than 1000. Among the most notable of these institutions are the Charter House of London, established in 1611, which has an annual income of 25,000 ; the almshouses of the Mercer s Company, dating back to 1393, endowed to the same amount ; and Morden College, Blackheath, near Greenwich, founded 1695, with revenues of over 10,000. Distribution of Charities. There is a curious agglomera ^ on of endowed charitable institutions in many parts and and their districts of England. Thus the small town of Baldock, in abun- Hertfordshire, has 17 chanties ; the village of Banstead, dance. Surrey, 21 ; and the city of Norwich, 28 different charities, mostly of ancient date. Probably a sort of competition for becoming founders of charitable institutions, with the names of the originators going down to posterity, existed in these and many more small places for some period, which led to their becoming rich in bequests, not always to the advan tage of future generations, while other towns, some thickly inhabited, remained without these foundations. It is stated by the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales in their fourth annual report, published in 1877, that great reforms in the still existing irregular distribution of charities, arising from endowments, are urgently required. &quot; The case of a parish,&quot; says the report, &quot; has been brought to our notice, which is in possession of parochial charities to the value of upwards of 800 a year, the population of which is at present 46, of which number it is believed that only four or five sleep within the parish, and not one of whom could properly come under the designation of poor.&quot; It is estimated that the total amount raised annually for charit able purposes in England amounts to, if it does not exceed, ten millions sterling a sum strikingly indicative, in its abundance, as of national kindness, so of national wealth. XIV. Savings and Wealth of the Population. Origin of Giving Alms no Charity was the title given by Defoe to savings a pamphlet, published in 1704, in which he recommended the establishment of savings banks as a remedy for pauperism, the cancer of which, he declared, was only increased by charitable institutions. The imaginative author of Robinson Crusoe thought it quite possible that parliament might order the nation to be thrifty, passing Acts &quot; which shall make drunkards take care of wife and children, spendthrifts lay up for a wet day ; make lazy fellows diligent, and thoughtless, sottish men careful and provident.&quot; A long time elapsed before Defoe s wish for savings banks was acted upon. In 1771 Francis Maseres, a thoughtful philanthropist, carried a bill through the House of Commons enabling rate-payers of parishes to establish savings banks ; but the bill was thrown out by the Lords, as revolutionary in its nature. Subsequently there were several private efforts to effect the same end, which met, however, with only trifling success. A savings bank for the poor, under the ill-chosen name of &quot; Benevolent Institu tion,&quot; was established by the Rev. Joseph Smith at Wend- over, Buckinghamshire, in 1799, on the model of a Swiss &quot;caisse de domestiques,&quot; and a similar one by Mrs Priscilla Wakefield at Tottenham, near London, in 1804, the title of the latter being that of &quot; Charitable Trust.&quot; But these institutions met with no support from the people; and it was not before the year 1817, when parliament took the subject in hand, and legislated upon it, that savings banks took root in the country. The statute which effected it was Act 57 George III. c. 105 and 130, which placed all the savings banks of England and Wales under the control banks. of the Government. In 1828 the Act was extended to Ireland, and in 1835 to Scotland; but in neither of these divisions of the United Kingdom had it to any degree the same effect as in England. For various reasons, chief among them ordinary banking facilities, savings banks never flourished greatly in Scotland, while the poverty of the country prevented them flourishing in Ireland. The extension of savings banks in England, rather slow De at first, became very marked during the decennial period mei from 1830 to 1840, and at the end of the latter year 552 the of them had been established in the country, the total tem deposits amounting to 21,036,190. Thenceforth the deposits rose steadily one million every year until 1846, when there came a period of decrease till 1849, followed by a further increase which lasted uninterruptedly till 1861. At the end of the latter year, the total deposits in the sav ings banks of England and Wales had risen to 36,855,508. The deposits in Scotland at the same date amounted to 2,537,963, and in Ireland to 2,153,004. The following table shows the amount of deposits p ro received and paid back by trustees of the old savings of banks, in England and in Wales, during every third year sav from 1864 to 1876, together with the sum of the total J capital at the end of each year, the whole exclusive of the ^ deposits in post-office savings banks : Old Savings Banks. Years. England. Wales. 1864 Received Paid

6,580,322 8,837,626 33.743,143 5,582,409 6,607,-107 30,974,031 5,537,136 6,353,980 31,038.029 6,344,132 6,600,535 32,501,383 6,588,701 7,034,866 34,206,562

177,369 233,228 984,910 159,069 186,472 976,621 162,404 175,584 1,029,468 242,479 195,292 1,213,587 198,956 257,208 1,201,093 1867 1870 1873 | 1876 j Capital Received Paid .... Capital Received Paid Capital Received Paid Capital Received .... Paid Capital The facilities of the people to place their savings securely Pos and profitably were greatly increased by the establishment offi ? of post-office savings banks, by which the number of offices ? avl taking deposits was spread, as it had never before been, all over the country. By Act 24 Viet. c. 14, passed in 1861, the postmaster-general was empowered to direct all postmasters to receive deposits of money, of not less than one shilling, for remittance to the central office at St Martin s-le-Grand. London, to be repaid on demand, with 2J per cent, interest per annum. The first of the new post-office savings banks were opened throughout Great Britain on the 16th Septem ber 1861, and their progress since that time is shown in the subjoined table, which gives the number of offices open, the number of deposits, and the amount of deposits, in years and periods of years, from 1861 till 1876 : Years and periods of Years. Number of Banks. Number of Deposits. Amount of Deposits. From 16th Sept. 1861, to ) 31st Dec. 1862 2535 639,216 -62,114,669 1863 2991 842,848 2,651,209 1864 3081 1,110,762 3,350,000 1865 3321 1,302,309 3,719,017 Average of 5 yrs. 1866-70. 1871 3815 4335 1,802,031 2 362,621 5,232,108 6,664,629 1872 4607 2 745,245 7,699,916 1873 4853 2 917,698 7,955,740 1874 5068 3,044,692 8,341,256 1875 5260 3,132,433 8,783,852 1876 5448 3,166,136 8.982,350