From 1851 to 1861 there were numerous instances of frauds in Savings Banks, all which cases will he found included in a list at the end of this chapter, though not described at any length. It is the less necessary to do so, as nearly all of them are fully described in reports made by Mr. W. H. Grey, a professional actuary, who had long been experienced in Savings Bank matters, and who had been sent down by the National Debt Commissioners to investigate such cases as they arose. It would appear from his reports that most of them were imitations on a small scale of the gigantic frauds already described in detail. The common feature of almost every case was extreme laxity of book-keeping;[126] nothing like a proper audit; and signatures given by responsible persons without even a cursory examination. Thus in the Isle of Wight Savings Bank at Newport, Mr. Grey's testimony is, that he found that "fictitious documents, purporting to be signed by depositors, giving notice of their intention to withdraw a part or the whole of their deposits, have been produced by the secretary, on the faith of which cheques have been signed by the attending manager without seeing the pass-book, and without ascertaining whether such sums were really standing in the ledger or not. These cheques have been entrusted to the secretary for delivery to the depositors at any time they might call for them, instead of insisting on personal attendance during bank hours." The actuary of the Rugby bank committed his frauds in the same way. Again: "In some cases, fictitious accounts had been raised in the ledgers, and closed again immediately fraudulent repayments had been made; and in other cases in which the amounts had been previously withdrawn, the dates of the real withdrawals had been altered into those of the fraudulent ones." No comparison, it seems, was ever instituted between the cash-book and the ledger, and the system pursued had practically left the whole control of the receipt and payment of about 30,000_l._ a-year to one individual. The secretary, indeed, William Wheeler Yelf, "was generally much respected in the island," was distributor of stamps, did a large business on week days, and was employed as a Wesleyan preacher on Sundays; but we have seen how much all this, and more, avails where the man is thrown amongst overwhelming temptations and has no principles to guide him. We have already spoken of many of the results of the Rochdale fraud; the case of the Isle of Wight bank shows that that fraud affected other banks. It was suggested after the failure of the Rochdale bank that the trustees of every other institution should at once set about a rigid comparison of the depositors' books with the books of their respective banks. The Newport trustees at once acted upon the suggestion of the National Debt Commissioners. They established the practice of having the balance-book containing a list of the balances due to depositors