That these auxiliary banks are effecting a great amount of good can well be believed. "The saving of pence," says the report from which these extremely interesting facts are taken, "proves a training to habits whereby ultimately larger sums are saved, and the virtues of industry and providence are cultivated and confirmed," and there cannot exist a doubt on the matter. The principles upon which they and all other banks of the kind were started, and have been throughout conducted, make them peculiarly institutions of a preliminary character for the poorer class of workmen; emphatically they are, as they have been called, "the poor man's purse." In their operations they are so simple, that few could possibly get perplexed in dealing with them; and they are best adapted to working populations, because they are open at such hours, generally on Saturday nights, as are known to suit these classes. As the most salutary change is made in a man's habit, perhaps in his character, when he _begins_ to save, the Penny Bank deserves every countenance and encouragement.[144] It only remains to add, that the Legislature took the matter up in August, 1859, when it passed the Act 22 and 23 Vict. c. 53, legalizing, as it were, these institutions, by enabling them to invest the whole of their proceeds in Savings Banks. * * * * * Much that remains to be told of Savings Bank reforms, and of other proposals to supplement the system by fresh provisions, may be told in connexion with the life of a gentleman to whom reference has already been made. Amongst those who have devoted much time and immense labour to bring about a better state of things in Savings Banks, the foremost place is undoubtedly due to Mr. Charles William Sikes, of Huddersfield. Mr. Sikes, the son of a private banker of that town, was born in 1818. We will pass over his early years, only remarking that he received a commercial education, and, in 1833, entered the employ of the Huddersfield Banking Company, the third or fourth joint stock bank established in this country. Subsequently cashier, Mr. Sikes now holds the position of deputy manager of the bank in question. We mention this, because it has an immediate bearing on the subject: it was while Mr. Sikes was cashier of this bank,--which, like other private banks, received deposits above 10_l._, and allowed interest at the current rate,--that his attention was arrested to the question of banks for the people. He witnessed a considerable number of instances of workmen, who, beginning with a few pounds, had silently amassed what was to them a little fortune, of one, two, and even three hundred pounds; and he became deeply impressed, as he himself informs us, not only with the idea that the number of these provident working people was far less than it ought to be, or might be, but that the social and domestic results for good that would ensue would be absolutely