once agreed with the Chancellor of the Exchequer;" he was glad to hear the Post Office Banks were working so well, and expressed his opinion that "they would ultimately swallow up all the old banks."[112] In March, 1863, Mr. Gladstone brought forward once more his propositions relating to the investment of Savings Bank money. He moved-- "That it is expedient to amend the laws relating to the investment of the moneys of Saving Banks, and to create a charge for such Savings Banks upon the Consolidated Fund, in place of certain perpetual annuities now standing in the names of the Commissioners of the National Debt; to give the power for converting certain other amounts of such perpetual annuities into certain other annuities, and to provide for the due payment out of the Consolidated Fund of any deficiency which may arise from insufficiency of the securities to meet the legal claims of the trustees of such Savings Banks." After considerable discussion, the bill (26 and 27 Vict. c. 25) was sent up to the Lords under the charge of Lord Stanley of Alderley, and received the Royal Assent on the 8th of June, 1863. We come now to the last item of legislation on the subject of Savings Banks. On the 14th of April, 1863, Sir H. Willoughby and Mr. Ayrton obtained leave to introduce the bill which, according to promise, had been prepared by a convention of Savings Bank managers. To a great extent this measure "to Consolidate and Amend the Laws relating to Savings Banks," was identical with the one which Mr. Estcourt introduced and withdrew during the previous session. The managers had met during the recess, and had consolidated into one the eight Acts, or parts of Acts, which then governed their establishments. Mr. Tidd Pratt, on being consulted in the matter, certified that the new Act "would constitute a fair and just measure of improvement." Mr. Gladstone, too, it seems, had been furnished with a copy, had suggested some trifling emendations, which had been frankly adopted and embodied, and was therefore disposed to offer no captious opposition to it. Not only so, but he thought it creditable to the gentlemen who had it in charge, and, so far as it went, likely to be effectual. Several clauses were altered, struck out, or inserted, and the bill, known as the "Consolidation Act," received the Royal Assent on the 28th of July, 1863. Of this Act (26 and 27 Vict. c. 87, a full description of which will be found in the Appendix)[113] we shall speak in a subsequent chapter, when we come to consider the law at present regulating Savings Banks.