“Should the Post Office Savings Bank bill become law, and should it also answer, we shall then possess an institution the convenience and value of which it will be impossible to over-estimate, and this author will deserve the thanks of the country. The country will recognise at once the universal boon of a bank maintained at the public expense, secured by the public responsibility, with the whole empire for its capital, with a branch in every town, open at almost all hours, and, more than all, giving a fair amount of interest.”—Times, March 20, 1861.

“I have been asked,” says Mr. Edwin Chadwick, “by several M.P.'s and others, what I thought of Post Office Savings Banks. I have answered them, that I know no measure of late years affecting the condition of the working and the lower middle classes which appeared to me so excellent in principle. I am disposed to say, as Sir Robert Peel said with reference to the Encumbered Estates Act, that it is 'so thoroughly good a measure, he wondered how ever it passed.'”

We have already seen that the Post Office Savings Bank bill was rapidly and successfully passed through Parliament, and did become the law of the land. The Act “to grant additional facilities for the depositing small savings at interest with the security of Government for the due repayment thereof,” received the Royal Assent on the 17th of May, 1861. The author of the bill has the best claims on the thanks and gratitude of the country. The press and the people of this land have, almost with one accord, been loud in their praise; and the three-quarters of a million of depositors, most of them attracted to saving habits by the facilities he then for the first time offered them, joined in silent thanks. The scheme for working this measure, organized in the Post Office after repeated requests from Mr. Gladstone, accomplished to a great extent under his oversight, and then carried through Parliament by his administrative ability and convincing eloquence, will ever cause his name to be most prominently associated with the new system; and among the many triumphs of his skill, this one will stand out with distinct prominence on the page of history.

The Post Office Savings Banks have not only “answered,” to use the phraseology of the “leading journal,” but they have attained a marked position, and have been, in every respect, an eminent success. Not nearly so much, however, with regard to their present condition, as to their manifest and inevitable destiny in the future, the Postal Banks are entitled to a high place amongst the social institutions of the country. In every department of labour, the new banks have become, and must yet become to a far greater extent, most effective agents in the social and moral improvement of the people, and will give tenfold effect to the endeavours which have been made, in so many directions, to better the condition of the masses. Next, perhaps, to the repeal of the Corn Laws, this is the greatest boon ever conferred on the working classes of this country; and next to the scheme of Penny Postage itself, the scheme of Post Office Banks is the greatest and most important work ever undertaken by the Government for the benefit of the nation. Whatever differences of opinion may exist as to the claims of the present Ministry to public gratitude, there can, we should imagine, be but one opinion now as to the vast advantages conferred upon the bulk of the people by the measure of 1861.

The success of the Post Office Banks has been of the most complete kind. Whether we consider, as we shall now proceed to do in proper order, the amount of the business done; the nature of the business done; the influence of these banks on the provident habits of the community; the results upon those small banks which more especially have partaken of the character of eleemosynary institutions; and the manner in which the business of the Postal Banks has been organized and performed, the scheme has far more than realized the anticipations under which it came into existence.

As to the Amount of Business done. The interval between the passing of the Act and the 16th of September, 1861, was occupied, it appears, in completing the arrangements for the conduct of the measure, including the appointment of Mr. Chetwynd to control the scheme he had originated, and a staff of superior and subordinate officers with which to begin the business; and on that date operations were commenced by the opening, in England and Wales, of 301 Money Order Offices as Savings Banks. The grounds upon which the first places were chosen were unquestionably the best that could have been adopted to test the feeling of the country with regard to the scheme itself. They were, (1) Avoidance of all collision with existing banks which supplied a fair amount of accommodation; (2) The selection of important and thickly-populated districts, making that selection embrace the widest possible area, and leaving no inconsiderable tract of country without the required accommodation; (3) To meet the wishes of the public, so far as these wishes were indicated by memorials or requisitions to the authorities; and (4) To take care that the postmasters of selected places were trustworthy, and capable of transacting the business efficiently. Had the scheme failed under such conditions as thus seem to have been imposed, little hope could have been held out that it would ever have been successful: as it happened, however, the banks were found at once to supply a great public want. The authorities seem to have been so far encouraged, that in six weeks an enormous addition was made to the number of banks. 254 were opened in the month of October following, 338 in November, and 784 in December, making the entire number of 1,629 new banks open to the public at the end of the year.

On the 3rd of February, 1862, the benefits of the measure were extended to Ireland, by the opening of 300 banks; on the 17th of the same month, 299 banks were opened in Scotland; and by the end of six months from the original commencement of the plan, there were in the United Kingdom no fewer than 2,532 Post Office Banks in existence. 400 additional banks were opened in 1863; and at the end of 1864 the total number of banks was increased to 3,219. Up to the present time (March, 1866), the number of Post Office Banks is 3,369, of which,

2,469are in England and Wales,
525are in Ireland, and
375are in Scotland.

There is now a Government Savings Bank not only in every town in the United Kingdom, but in every large village;[177] and over and above this already ubiquitous and comprehensive arrangement, the large towns of the country have each a number of new depositories for savings proportionate to their size and population. Thus, in the metropolis, at the present moment of writing (April, 1866), there have been provided the extraordinary number of 452 Post Office Banks; in Manchester, there are 26; in Liverpool, 25; in Birmingham, 22; in Edinburgh, 18; in Glasgow, 18; in Dublin, 15.

In the three months of 1861 during which the 1,600 banks were in operation for portions of the period, 25,729 persons opened accounts with them, and deposited money to the extent of 167,530l. in deposits of the average amount of 3l. 11s. 10d. At the end of the next year (1862) 180,199 persons had opened accounts in these banks, depositing 1,947,139l., and withdrawing less than a quarter of that sum. Year by year, up to the present time, as appears by the accompanying table, the increase of deposits, and the increasing number of new accounts, are far more than proportionate to the increase of facilities; and, as showing the firmer hold that these banks have taken on the community, this fact is most satisfactory and gratifying. Equally so, and a most convincing proof of their success, is the account of the total amount of business shown to have been transacted up to the 31st of December last. Up to that date these banks have received from no less than 857,701 depositors, in 3,895,135 deposits, a sum of money amounting to 11,834,896l.;[178] the withdrawals during the same period of four years numbering 1,011,379, and amounting to 5,619,251l. There were in December last, 611,819 open accounts, the amount standing to the credit of these accounts being 6,526,400l.