banks £ s. d. 31 paid interest to depositors at the maxm rate of 3 0 10 per cent. 107 " at the rate of 3 0 0 " 215 " " 2 18 4 " 11 " " 2 13 6 " 24 " " 2 17 1 " 12 " " 2 16 8 " 78 " " 2 15 6-1/2 " 35 " " 2 15 0 " 2 " " 2 10 0 " added to which smaller numbers paid other rates, making thirty-two separate rates.[149] In accordance with the above table the average cost of management per cent. was, in 1857,--in Scotland 7_s._ 8_d._, in Ireland 9_s._, and in England 6_s._ 7_d._; in Middlesex, however, it was as much as 9_s._ 2_d._ Confining ourselves to individual banks, we find that the Manchester Savings Bank cost at the same period, in expenses, an average sum of 1_s._ 3-3/4_d._ per account, the Bloomfield bank 1_s._ 9_d._, the St. Martin's Place 2_s._ 0-1/2_d._, the Liverpool bank 2_s._ 5-1/4_d._, and the Cork bank 3_s._ 2_d._ per account. The greatest expense was shown to be incurred in those banks which dealt largely in small accounts; hence some of the actuaries openly sought to discourage the taking of small sums. _Mr. Meikle_ thought it was the interest of the banks rather to discourage small depositors and encourage large ones. _Mr. Finney_ showed that they _were_ discouraged at the Marylebone bank, where a less interest was given to small amounts. _Mr. Craig_, however, went to great lengths on this point, and grounded his opinions on such facts as the following (3,752):--"The average cost of a transaction that enters a bank is more than a shilling; there is not a transaction entered in any Savings Bank that does not cost a shilling and a fraction. Now, if you allow a man to deposit a shilling, which costs the bank a shilling, it comes to this, that the manager might as well say to him, 'There is a shilling for you; pray do not come here again.' The Committee are about seeing whether Government can or not safely undertake to make itself responsible for the transactions of 600 Savings Banks scattered all over the country. If so, they must only take such sums and in such ways as will be safe for the public. It will not do to allow people's sympathies to run away with them by the mere clap-trap of saying, 'We will take a shilling.' I say that to take these small sums, instead of being a benefit to the people, is merely encouraging them to waste their time." We need not here go out of our way to expose the fallacy of such an argument, further than to point out how entirely Mr. Craig overlooked the fact that he had previously advocated a system of