use it themselves in other investments, if the funds were applied otherwise than under statute in the purchase of Bank Annuities; and referred to the uncertain title in law which depositors had for the money according to the governing statute. Mr. Gladstone's bill proposed to give this title to every penny so deposited with the State, by throwing the burden of any deficiency arising on the Consolidated Fund, and so silence at any rate the last objection.[96] Early in the session of 1857 the then Chancellor of the Exchequer (the late Sir George Lewis) was several times asked if the subject of Savings Banks had not to be brought forward and concluded. These questions led to his promising to bring in the Government measure which, often brought forward and as often withdrawn, was still waiting for a tide of popular favour to carry it into law. On the 27th of February in this year he gave notice of this intention, and earnestly trusted that the House would allow it to pass. In a short speech, the points of which we need not recapitulate--for it dealt with the same facts and came to the same conclusion as those speeches of previous Chancellors already described,--he proposed the first reading. Then came the dissolution of Parliament, and its forcible postponement for one more session.[97] In a fortnight from the meeting of the new Parliament Sir G. Lewis, true to his promise, moved that the House go into Committee on the Savings Bank Bill, which had even then reached that stage. His motion was, "That it is expedient to amend the laws relating to Savings Banks, and to provide for the establishment of Savings Banks with the security of the Government." The Chancellor said that almost everybody was agreed as to the principles of the bill, though it was true that the managers of many Savings Banks contested some of the details. The greatest objection to the bill when last introduced being the provision to limit the total amount of deposits to 100_l_., he would now propose, as it did not affect the bill at all materially, to drop that clause; the law to remain as it then stood. This was the only material difference; there were minor points, but they were not worth pointing out. He then went over the changes which the bill proposed to make in the law; the ample security he wished to give to all who deposited money in Savings Banks, at the same time taking no superfluous securities and imposing no unnecessary restrictions in order to guard the interest of the public. Should the local authorities of Savings Banks still be found unwilling to part with their own control, or admit any interference on the part of the Government, there was only one course left to him--namely, "to abandon the bill," to leave things in their present position, and continue a system by which the depositors are left entirely to the security of the local officers; while at the same time Government is left wholly irresponsible, except for the amounts actually lodged in its hands. "I