Comparative View of the external or physical Means that Abstract of the Chimney-Sweepers' Act.. On the Want of Provision for the Insane in Ireland Considerations on the State of some of the Prisons in the Me- tropolis; with Remarks on the Proceedings of a Commit- Comparison of the Sixteenth Century with the Nineteenth, in Account of the Friendly Society for the Benefit of Poor Wo- THE PHILANTHROPIST. No. XIII. On Frugality Banks. We have received communications from various philanthropic correspondents, on the subject of providing banks in which the earnings of the laborious classes might be safely deposited, and afford the benefit of interest to the owners. It is, indeed, true, that every man who turns his eye with a brotherly feeling toward the least opulent, that is, the most numerous part of the community, will find many advantages open to the more fortunate, which are shut against them, partly from their own weakness and ignorance; partly from the general indifference of human nature to evils from which a man thinks himself and his own order exempt. A poor man, for example, (and in this sense more than ninety-nine in a hundred of the whole population are poor men,) is shut out from a great portion of the benefits of law. The expense of a law-suit, by the sinister interest of lawyers of all classes, has been unhappily allowed to grow to so enormous a height, that it is only a man of the richest classes who can even apply for justice in the case of almost any injury. The disadvantage under which the most numerous class is placed by this circumstance, surely needs to be mentioned only in order to be felt. In fact, for all injuries, except very atrocious ones, which are sufficient to excite a public feeling, submission is a poor man's only remedy. This operates with great force as one among the causes of the mental degradation which threatens our countrymen. The man who cannot pay for law, can get no justice; and screens himself from injury by sneaking from it, by suppleness and art. Our countrymen may be considered as divided into two classes; a class who enjoy the benefit of law, and a class who are deprived of it; the last a very large class, the former comparatively a very small one. VOL. IV. On this subject, however, we shall take other opportunities of en→ larging. To make a profitable use of his money, is another case in which the situation of the poor man is unfavourable. His disadvantage in this instance, however, is not like that under which he lies in the case of law. It arises not from the interested perversion of a human institution, so much as from the nature of things. The large sum of the rich man renders it immediately the interest of another man to take charge of it, and to allow pay or interest for the use of it. The pittance of the poor man carries no such recommendation along with it. The trouble of taking charge of it, and accounting for it, is apt to exceed the profit which can be made by the use of it. It is, however, of great importance, that the poor man should be enabled to profit by the smallest sum; because it is a circumstance so calculated to operate beneficently upon his character. It is a kind of natural reward for what, in his situation, are the primary virtues, the qualities by which his own happiness is the most secured and his misery prevented, and the qualities by which he most contributes to the good of the community. It is the natural reward for industry and frugality, the virtues opposed to the poor man's most ruinous vices, sloth and intemperance. As this is undeniably true, and as the application of adequate motives would insure the industry and frugality which we desire, it is only necessary to call to recollection the advantages of having a people industrious, frugal, and happy, and the contrary disadvantages of having a people slothful, intemperate, and wretched, to press the natural advantages of a bank for turning the earnings of the people to account, upon the conviction of every rational being. The personal advantages which attend, or appear to attend, upon any act, or any mode of acting, are, together with the disadvantages of not so acting, the causes of action and of all its modifications. In proportion as we can succeed in raising the apparent advantages of any species of conduct, in that degree are we sure of producing such conduct. But to attach a profit to the savings of the industrious, is directly to increase the advantages of saving; and in proportion as these advantages are increased, the sort of conduct which leads to saving, viz. the practice of industry and frugality, is insured. It is, therefore, not only desirable that the poor should be able to make interest upon their savings, but that they should be able to make something more than common interest. As the industry and frugality and happiness of the most numerous class form the greatest of national blessings, whatever contributes to that end is itself a proportional advantage; and so of course the motives to that conduct. The motives to save ought therefore to be increased. To what extent it would be possible to increase, beyond the market rate, the interest given upon the savings of the poor, without encountering disadvantages of an equal or greater amount, it would require a pretty long and difficult analysis to ascertain. This, however, in the mean time, may be affirmed, that the more it is increased, the more the motives to the industry and frugality of the people, the greatest of national benefits, is increased; and that to a very considerable extent of increase no disadvantages appear to arise, which can come in comparison with the benefits produced. It would therefore be highly desirable, as one of the greatest of national improvements, not only that a system of banking, adapted to the circumstances of the majority of the people, should be established all over the country, but that funds should be provided for paying a higher than the common interest upon the savings of the industrious poor. We know no objection which can be opposed to this idea but one. The plan may be affirmed to be impracticable. Upon this it is important to make one remark; that when a scheme is good, and highly beneficent in principle, its impracticability ought not to be too lightly presumed. This is the plea of indolence, and the plea of inhumanity; and in ninety-nine instances out of a hundred in which it has been made, it is ill-founded. It has prevented many schemes for the benefit of mankind, and has extended the duration of many evils. It ought to be laid down as a rule, to look upon the plea of impracticability with suspicion; never to receive it upon trust; and to give way to it only upon proof. It is one of the standing enemies of human improvement. We can see difficulties of detail, and inconveniences to be guarded against; but nothing which to our minds appears to be insurmountable. If a greater than the ordinary rate of interest were allowed for the savings of the poor, artifices would be employed by some of those who are not poor to share in the advantages. But those to whom the epithets poor and not poor apply, are such distinct classes, that the line of separation between them might, we are persuaded, be pretty clearly drawn; and the number who, under proper checks, would find it possible to accomplish the deceptive purpose, might be kept so low, as to produce no material defalcation from the mass of advantage. If we are right in this opinion, the grounds of which we shall analyse fully at some future period, there can be no doubt about the great utility of affording extra encouragement to the industry and frugality of the poor, by providing an extra interest for their savings. This idea, however, we shall content ourselves for the present with barely throwing out. It was useful to illustrate the conception which we desire to convey of the importance of frugality banks. But one thing only must be done at a time. We shall, in the present article, confine ourselves to the more familiar and customary idea of banking, the advantages of which are safe-custody and common interest. It can require but a moment's reflection to convince every one that the most numerous class lie under great disadvantages, from not knowing what to do with the surplus of their earnings. Even to lay it up and preserve it is very difficult, under the feeble securities of their ill-locked houses and chests. It seldom happens that any considerable hoard is collected by any of them without sustaining depredation, and not unfrequently exposing the life of the possessor. It really is remarkable how large a proportion of the murders which are committed in this country, are committed upon individuals of this class, by whom hoards are supposed to have been collected. As saving is by no means an easy, but a very hard and difficult virtue, to those who have so little to spend, a slight obstruction will generally operate as a preventative. And the belief, or only the suspicion, that what a man saves he is saving merely for the thief, will act as a powerful auxiliary to the appetites or passions which excite to expenditure on immediate enjoyment. In the many instances in which a trifle would turn the balance in favour of virtue, that trifle is thrown into the opposite scale, by the difficulty of securing the money that might be saved. In acquiring a habit of doing that which is difficult to be done, every observing spectator of human life must be aware how much little facilities promote, and little inconveniences obstruct, the endeavour. Nor is it easy to pronounce how far the providing even the simple circumstance of convenient places of reception for the earnings of the poor, without any other advantage than safe-custody, would contribute towards the practice of saving. way. It It would contribute to this desirable effect in another would often render spending difficult, by placing the money out, of the way. This is exactly that to which as much as possible ur arrangements should be directed; to render saving conveni ent, spending inconvenient. If the labouring population could be induced to carry at the time of receipt as much of their wages as they could spare to a place of deposit, this single circumstance |