one of being more independent of his employer. The security of capital in this country, the ease with which it is turned to the best use, the quick and ready communication of labour and the produce of labour throughout the whole kingdom, afford inestimable facilities to what ought to be the first consideration of public and private men, the improvement of the state of the mass of the community. I do not mean to insinuate that this subject has been neglected in Great Britain. The eminence which our country has reached by her charities is no less remarkable, than that to which she has been raised by the superiority of her arms and opulence. But something still remains to be done. The poor man requires to be taught prudence, by seeing its advantage clearly before him. There are few situations in which the labouring classes might not save, in the season of their strength, a provision for the season of infirmity: but as things are, there are still fewer where they can place out their savings at all, or, if at all, with security.* A great commercial establishment cannot stop its machinery to receive weekly shillings from a hundred or a thousand individuals. If it could, or would, the melancholy instability of country banks, often built upon no other foundation than the credulity of the neighbourhood, is a powerful objection to their becoming, without an especial guarantee, the depositaries of petty savings. No bankruptcy among these establishments takes place, which does not heap ruin on the heads of hundreds of the most deserving members of the community; those who by laborious industry and long self-denial have laid up their twenty, or fifty, or hundred pounds, as a support to a future family or their own declining years; and now find themselves by a sudden blow deprived of the hard-earned produce of a life of labour. Neither does the evil * I have allowed these pages to stand as they were first published; though no longer applicable to their original purpose, they may not be without interest in showing the difference effected even in a few years. stop with the immediate sufferers. The bursting of a single dam inundates a widely-extended level. Is this the fruit of frugality? Why should we hoard up, that others may squander our savings? This reasoning is too obvious, not to be unanswerable in the view of youth, and irresistible when backed by inclination. The difficulty admits of easy remedy, though it is really the greatest of which our labouring poor can complain. If some of the more intelligent inhabitants of a district, or the principal landholders of a county, would bestow their attention upon this subject, as they have with great advantage upon Insurance Societies and other general interests, they would deserve the gratitude of the age, and receive the most satisfactory applause, the improvement of public welfare. In a small district, or a single village, an individual might effect something, by vesting a certain sum in the hands of trustees as a security to his poorer neighbours; and by devoting a few hours in every week or month to receiving their small savings, he might render them most effectual service, without the least risk to himself, by allowing the 4 per cent. for their little capital. But the system, to be useful, ought to be general; and, if general, could not be well managed without the regularity of habits of business and skill in the employment of capital. The establishment of county banks, with such security as should be satisfactory to the superintendents of the scheme, would be both desirable, and easily practicable; and might soon be made so far advantageous as at least to defray the expenses of management, since the customer would have just reason to be satisfied, if he could obtain without risk even 4 per cent. for his money. The security of the capital is of much more consequence than the rate of interest; and its insecurity, according to any mode already within reach of the poor of employing their savings, is one great reason why so little is at present saved. It is a benevolent appointment of Provi dence, that judicious charity is twice blessed, and redounds to the advantage of the giver, sometimes not to his moral only, but temporal advantage. If a system of this kind should ever be universally established, its promoters will find the poor-rates diminished, which now oppress landed property so heavily, not only by the amount of the sum thus annually saved from dissipation, but by all the habits which the constant custom of frugality and thoughtfulness would generate; and parish support will only be what it ought to be, the resource of irremediable misfortune, of orphan infancy or friendless age. Such a system seems alone to be wanting, in order to render this country the happiest as well as the most intelligent of the world; it would form a natural union with the general education now diffused among the poor; it derives an evident facility from the state of public debt; and is peculiarly demanded by the sudden variations of prices which our present condition seems likely to entail upon us, as well as to correct the improvident habits which the existence of |