The success of this bank soon began to tell all around; many private establishments and charitable institutions were not long in following the example that had here been set. In the following year Mr. Queckett, a benevolent and painstaking clergyman, in the east of London, established a Penny Bank in connexion with Christ's Church, St. George's in the East, and the success attending the venture was still more encouraging and remarkable; nearly 15,000 deposits were made in this parish Penny Bank in the first year of its existence. It seems that the number of depositors, for some reason or other—probably because that number was enough for one person to control; the whole of the repayments, at any rate, passed through Mr. Queckett's own hands—was limited to 2,000; and so great was the demand, that there were always several applicants for any vacancy that might occur among the favoured two thousand. Two “Penny Banks” were next established about the same period—one at Hull, in August, 1849, and the other at Selby, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, in July of the same year. The clergymen and gentry of both towns joined together to form an institution, “which should create and foster habits of regularity and frugal economy among the poorest people, and which should afford an opportunity for the deposit and safe keeping of the smallest sums of money, repayable with interest when required.” The Birmingham Penny Bank was established in 1851, and in six years from its commencement had received the enormous sum of 52,354l. in amounts from one penny to one pound. Many of our readers will be aware of the unfortunate end of this bank, under circumstances which, deeply to be regretted, have had a prejudicial effect on the usefulness of other banks of the same description. Were it not that a new class of banks, since established, offers considerable inducements to the poorest classes, and thus supersedes, though only to a limited extent, the necessity even for Penny Banks, such an effect could not but have been considered irremediable, as well as most deplorable. Of the remaining Penny Banks, the principal ones in England are those of York,[143] established in 1854, and excellently managed throughout, and very successful in attracting depositors; the Halifax bank, commenced in 1856, and equally successful; the Derby bank, established in 1857, under the auspices of the Rev. J. E. Clarke, one of the most earnest of the promoters of the principles of Penny Banks; and the Southampton and Plymouth banks, established in 1858. There are no means of obtaining statistics as to the number of Penny Banks in existence, but there cannot be less than eighty or ninety in English towns alone. Over and above the regular public Penny Banks, however, there are an enormous number connected with and doing an incalculable amount of good in private establishments, ragged and other schools, and different religious bodies.
In Scotland the movement has progressed even more rapidly than in England. Dr. Chalmers always held, and often urged during his lifetime, that far too little was done to tempt the poor, and especially the families of working people, to save their little surplus cash: in commencing his “Territorial Savings Banks,” as he called them, in Edinburgh, he was actuated by exactly the same view and the same spirit which afterwards influenced the promoters of Penny Banks. The Penny Bank system flourishes in Glasgow to an extent unknown in any other neighbourhood. In and around that city there were, at the close of 1864, no fewer than sixty-eight Penny Banks in active operation, all of which deposited with the Savings Bank of that place. The total amount of deposits in these sixty-eight banks during the year 1864 was 9,386l., and withdrawals to about half that amount. The number of depositors exceeds, at the present time, 24,000.
That these auxiliary banks are effecting a great amount of good can well be believed. “The saving of pence,” says the report from which these extremely interesting facts are taken, “proves a training to habits whereby ultimately larger sums are saved, and the virtues of industry and providence are cultivated and confirmed,” and there cannot exist a doubt on the matter. The principles upon which they and all other banks of the kind were started, and have been throughout conducted, make them peculiarly institutions of a preliminary character for the poorer class of workmen; emphatically they are, as they have been called, “the poor man's purse.” In their operations they are so simple, that few could possibly get perplexed in dealing with them; and they are best adapted to working populations, because they are open at such hours, generally on Saturday nights, as are known to suit these classes. As the most salutary change is made in a man's habit, perhaps in his character, when he begins to save, the Penny Bank deserves every countenance and encouragement.[144]
It only remains to add, that the Legislature took the matter up in August, 1859, when it passed the Act 22 and 23 Vict. c. 53, legalizing, as it were, these institutions, by enabling them to invest the whole of their proceeds in Savings Banks.
* * * * *
Much that remains to be told of Savings Bank reforms, and of other proposals to supplement the system by fresh provisions, may be told in connexion with the life of a gentleman to whom reference has already been made. Amongst those who have devoted much time and immense labour to bring about a better state of things in Savings Banks, the foremost place is undoubtedly due to Mr. Charles William Sikes, of Huddersfield. Mr. Sikes, the son of a private banker of that town, was born in 1818. We will pass over his early years, only remarking that he received a commercial education, and, in 1833, entered the employ of the Huddersfield Banking Company, the third or fourth joint stock bank established in this country. Subsequently cashier, Mr. Sikes now holds the position of deputy manager of the bank in question. We mention this, because it has an immediate bearing on the subject: it was while Mr. Sikes was cashier of this bank,—which, like other private banks, received deposits above 10l., and allowed interest at the current rate,—that his attention was arrested to the question of banks for the people. He witnessed a considerable number of instances of workmen, who, beginning with a few pounds, had silently amassed what was to them a little fortune, of one, two, and even three hundred pounds; and he became deeply impressed, as he himself informs us, not only with the idea that the number of these provident working people was far less than it ought to be, or might be, but that the social and domestic results for good that would ensue would be absolutely incalculable, if bank depositors among the working classes became the rule, instead of the rare exception. About this time—the era of the Free Trade agitation—there was great distress in the manufacturing districts, and Huddersfield, like the rest of the West Riding towns, was heavily visited. In the neighbourhood where Mr. Sikes resided, the population was chiefly engaged in the weaving of fancy waistcoatings, and that trade was almost suspended. “Privation and suffering,” says Mr. Sikes, “prevailed on every hand, and was frequently borne with silent and noble heroism.” He seems to have entered freely into discussion with working men as to the various remedies for such a state of things, and in this practical way to have penetrated into their thoughts, and to have got at their wants, wishes, and feelings. And for such objects as Mr. Sikes had in view, the end amply justified the means. There seemed to him only one remedy, to which they might possibly be assisted, but which they themselves must adopt; whatever was suggested, Mr. Sikes's thoughts would always recur to the comparative comfort of those who had to some extent lived for the future—who had had the wisdom in their better times to remember that rainy days must come at some time or other; that
"Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary;"
and that the difference between those who had a little store laid by and those who had none, was the difference between hopeful expectancy and comfort, and helpless misery and want.
Mr. Sikes tells us that he had already begun to feel, that though much might be done for the working classes by kindly and temperate advice, the greatest share of the work of their social elevation would have to be achieved by their own individual efforts; this feeling, moreover, was strongly confirmed by reading a passage in the late Bishop of Chester's (Archbishop Sumner's) Records of Creation: “The only true secret of assisting the poor is to make them agents in bettering their own condition;” and on this maxim, as a principle, he resolved solely to act. Mr. Sikes came to the conclusion that his work might well lay in endeavouring to stimulate the poor to more provident habits; and that, if there was anything in the constitution of such societies as were formed expressly to foster these habits which stood in the way of the poor man, the obstacles ought either to be quickly removed, or some new organization must be planned to effect this purpose. Though Mr. Sikes never seems to have had anything to do with the Huddersfield Savings Bank—having abstained, through motives of delicacy, owing to his connexion with an ordinary bank in the same town—he was thoroughly conversant with the system, and therefore fully appreciated the difficulties in the way. He was not long in finding out how utterly impossible it was to adapt the system, as it then stood, to the well-known wants and requirements of the workman; and he early turned his attention to some auxiliary machinery which he thought would meet the case of the younger people, if of no other. He truly held, that if he could do anything to inculcate the growth of frugality in young people, their habits would increase with their years and grow, in spite of the many inconveniences, amounting as they did to absolute discouragements, which they might meet with afterwards in their connexion with the majority of the old class of Savings Banks.
With this end in view, Mr. Sikes addressed a long letter to the editor of the Leeds Mercury, in 1850, which was subsequently republished in the form of a pamphlet, and widely circulated, recommending the formation of what he called “Preliminary Savings Banks.” There was nothing particularly new in the character of the banks proposed; the novelty was in their adaptation to the machinery of Mechanics' Institutions. Mr. Sikes took up the Penny Bank movement, and showed, with an energy and devotion to the subject which made his exertions quite impressive, how, by the already existing institute, that useful scheme for saving small sums might be propagated far and wide. His proposal, to give it in brief, was, that a few leading members of each Mechanics' Institute should form themselves into a “Savings Bank Committee,” attending, say, an evening weekly, in one of the class-rooms, to receive the trifling deposits of any member who should choose to “transact a little business” with them. They would only have to appoint a treasurer, provide a few inexpensive books, and with the exercise of just a little patience and self-denial they might succeed in bringing many round to saving habits. The excellent organisation, especially in Lancashire and Yorkshire, of Mechanics' Institutes, would thus wonderfully augment the number of agencies for receiving the savings of the people, and they would thus augment the number most where more facilities were most needed. The “Preliminary” banks were meant to be merely feeders to the larger banks: so soon as the money of any one depositor reached a guinea, or two guineas, the sum was to be paid into the nearest Government bank, as often as necessary. “If the committee of each institution,” concluded Mr. Sikes, in his very interesting letter, “were to adopt this course, taking an interest in their humble circumstances, and in a sympathising and friendly spirit, suggest, invite, nay win them over, not only to reading the lesson, but forming the habit of true economy and self-reliance, how cheering would be the result! Once established in better habits, their feet firmly set in the path of self-reliance, how generally would young men grow up with the practical conviction that to their own advancing intelligence and virtues must they mainly look to work out their own social welfare!” It is very satisfactory to find that this advice and such considerations had their proper weight with the committees of many of these institutions: Penny Banks were added to their other educational and social schemes; and Mr. Sikes was further encouraged by the Committee of the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics' Institutes, who more than once alluded to his proposals, and expressed their cordial approval of his plan, and their pleasure that it had been adopted in several places included in their sphere of operations. In the country generally the proposals attracted for some time considerable attention, and led to Mr. Sikes being largely consulted by gentlemen who were desirous of establishing “feeders” to the existing Savings Banks, either in the form of the Penny Bank, or the Mechanics' Institute “Preliminary” bank. He soon came to be regarded as an authority on the subject, and justly so; many different banks were at this early stage formed as the results of his advice and assistance, and Mr. Sikes seems to have had many gratifying assurances that his labours have been far from fruitless, a result in which the philanthropist finds his best reward.[145]