[55] Companion to the Almanac, 1839, p. 131.
[56] See [next page].
[57] We give the statistics as relating to England only. Scotland is out of the question, not merely on account of the slow progress of Savings Banks there, but more especially because of there being nothing analogous in Scotland to our English system of Poor Law relief.
[58] The mortality at the commencement of the present century was 1 in 40; in 1831 it was 1 in 58; and in 1841, 1 in 62; showing conclusively that the masses of the people were better housed, better clad, and, best of all, better fed.
[59] Miss Martineau's History of the Thirty Years' Peace, vol. ii. p. 88.
[60] Times, September, 1844.
[61] To make this statement more clear, we append a later Return, which, on other grounds, is interesting, as showing which classes of the community resort most frequently to Savings Banks. It speaks volumes as to the culpability of the higher paid English operative, that the agricultural labourer, with ten or twelve shillings a week, contrives to save more, relatively, than he does.
| Counties. | Number of Accounts open in 1858. | No. of Depositors to every 100 of Population. | Average Deposits per head of Population, 1858. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agricultural:— | £ s. d. | ||
| Berkshire | 16,393 | 9·64 | 2 12 7 |
| Devonshire | 61,558 | 10·33 | 2 18 11 |
| Dorsetshire | 14,134 | 7·67 | 2 12 2 |
| Yorkshire, East Riding | 25,091 | 11·35 | 3 6 1 |
| Manufacturing:— | |||
| Lancashire | 117,927 | 5·80 | 1 12 4 |
| Yorkshire, West Riding | 63,334 | 4·77 | 1 5 6 |
Something of this result can of course be traced to the varying facilities, such as the number of banks, which were not always established in the most populous localities.
[62] Vide Report of the Select Committee appointed to Inquire into and Report upon the circumstances connected with the failure of the Cuffe Street Savings Bank, 1849, from which our account is derived.