Sikes being largely consulted by gentlemen who were desirous of establishing "feeders" to the existing Savings Banks, either in the form of the Penny Bank, or the Mechanics' Institute "Preliminary" bank. He soon came to be regarded as an authority on the subject, and justly so; many different banks were at this early stage formed as the results of his advice and assistance, and Mr. Sikes seems to have had many gratifying assurances that his labours have been far from fruitless, a result in which the philanthropist finds his best reward.[145] Mr. Sikes's next exertion on behalf of the working population around him was to help them to a proper estimate of the value of provident habits, by the publication, in 1854, of a pamphlet entitled _Good Times; or, the Savings Bank and the Fireside_;[146] an admirable little manual for the class for which it was written, and which deservedly obtained a large sale. Mr. Sikes himself described how he was led to write his pamphlet by hearing, in an extensive intercourse with working men, the most crude ideas as to the utility and virtue of habits of economy and frugality; and we know no better corrective than a perusal of this little "compendium of practical wisdom" now before us. Up to this time we find that Mr. Sikes laboured very earnestly to spread the knowledge of Savings Banks among the people, and to obtain more appreciation for these institutions. He also, as we have seen, proposed his "Preliminary Banks" on the principle that, as the existing institution did not sufficiently recognise the small attempts at saving habits, this supplementary class of banks would supply the deficiency. He seems, however, to have carefully abstained from saying anything that would tend to lessen the influence or usefulness of the existing Savings Banks; but in 1855, the time would appear to have arrived when it became necessary to attempt some reforms in their constitution and management. It is not at all difficult to comprehend the steps by which Mr. Sikes, with his practical knowledge of Savings Bank business, would arrive at the conclusion that if these banks were to continue to be in any sense the depositories of the money of the poor, they must undergo almost a transformation, and further, that reform must come from within. That this was the conclusion to which he came is evident from the able and exhaustive letter which Mr. Sikes addressed, in 1856, to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the late Sir G. Cornewall Lewis, on "Savings Bank Reforms."