Mr. Sikes, after thus recapitulating in his able pamphlet the imperfections in the organization and management of Savings Banks, advocated the following improvements, viz.:--That the State should give a perfect guarantee; that there should be a central bank in London to control the whole system, in the same way that the central Money Order Office controlled all money-order operations at the Post Office; that there should be a vigilant and general audit of all accounts; that there should be a great extension of the hours during which Savings Banks were open; a great increase in the number of such banks--the services of private and joint-stock banks to be called into requisition in cases where such arrangement was likely to prove economical and advantageous; that there should be an increase in the facilities for the deposit and withdrawal of money; that one-fourth of the capital of Savings Banks should be employed in first-class landed securities and railway mortgage bonds, yielding four per cent. Mr. Sikes further proposed that the rate of interest on sums up to 100_l._ should be three per cent., and two and a half per cent. on all sums beyond. Mr. Sikes felt the difficulty of providing that essential Government guarantee for every deposit, without which any reform in Savings Banks was scarcely worth the name; but he strongly insisted on the point that if a Savings Bank department was established in London, which should, on its part, insist upon weekly returns, a good and uniform system of book-keeping, and a liability to unapprised visits by inspectors from the London office, the entire staff of Savings Bank officials in the country might, to a great extent, be kept honest. Bearing in mind, however, that errors and losses would occur to the best regulated department, he further proposed that the treasury might be made safe by the establishment of a "General Guarantee Fund,"[148] to which contributions should be made from the "Separate Surplus Fund." These suggestions, if carried out, Mr. Sikes believed would help to form the basis of a system that would restore Savings Banks to the estimation in which they were held during the first twenty years of their existence; and there can be no doubt of it. The difficulty was, however, in getting such recommendations adopted--either because the then Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir G. C. Lewis) did not bring his extraordinary powers to bear upon the subject, or else there was still something lacking to give a more practical turn to the questions at issue. As subsequent events have proved, it is more likely to have been for the latter reason that the matter was not persevered in.