Great Britain can with justice, we think, lay claim to the original establishment of the system of Savings Banks. One well-known writer[11] on this and cognate subjects has traced them to Switzerland, if not to Hamburg, at a time prior to any experiments with them in this country; but from the best investigation we have been able to make, the institutions in question were something very different from Savings Banks as English people understand them, dealing, as they did, in business more like the sale of deferred annuities. The institution at Hamburg, which is said to have been founded in the year 1778,--and which is interesting to readers of history as being one of those whose coffers the First Napoleon swept of their funds, thus giving it its death blow,--simply took the spare cash of domestic servants and handicraftsmen, and granted annuities on the members arriving at a certain age. No withdrawal of money was allowed. In this country the first proposals for a bank for savings were made in 1798 or 1799, according to the judgment of the reader as to which of the two original schemes best deserves the name of Savings Bank, or whether either of them is entitled to the honour. The two persons whose names it is customary to speak of in connexion with the earliest people's banks are those of the well-known Priscilla Wakefield, and the Rev. Joseph Smith of Wendover. In the mind of each of these estimable persons we think the question of becoming the bankers for the poor around them was at first only a subordinate measure, and quite auxiliary to other matters deemed of greater importance. Mrs. Wakefield's scheme arose out of a well-meant anxiety to better the condition of the weaker and more defenceless portions of the community, an object to which she devoted much of her literary ability, and was first started in 1799, for the benefit of women and children in her own village of Tottenham, and under her immediate superintendence. Members paying according to their age certain sums per month became entitled to a pension after sixty years of age; in case of sickness, four shillings a week; in case of extraordinary misfortune a certain amount could be withdrawn; in case of death a sum of money was allowed for the funeral. Honorary members paid subscriptions, which went to meet deficiencies and current expenses. In 1801 there was added, first, a fund from which loans were made to those who had been members for six months; and second, a regular bank for savings. The interest given in the latter case was the same as that charged in the former, or five per cent. The clauses relating to children were such as almost to entitle the founders to the honour of being the originators of Penny Banks, if nothing else; juveniles were encouraged to deposit their penny per month, which was kept for them, along with interest, until such a time as the accumulation was needed for apprentice fee, clothes, or such like object. The management of