[135] It is very difficult to obtain correct and complete statistics on this subject. It is to be regretted that a valuable suggestion which Dr. Farr made before the last Census was not acted upon. He recommended that facts connected with the rate of wages should be collected during the Census. Had it been attended to, much might have been stated here with precision which will only admit of approximation. [136] Subsequently Mr. Bright went the length of saying, that Savings Banks were "nothing less than traps for the people who subscribed to them. There was a universal belief that Government was responsible." [137] Since writing the above, it is only fair to say, that we find this writer has taken no pains at all over the matter, but has simply benefited by the industry of another, without in any way acknowledging his obligations. Mr. Edward Taylor of Rochdale, in a pamphlet now before us, published several years before Mr. Scratchley's book, entitled "Savings Bank: ought Government to make good past losses in Savings Banks?" supplies the whole of the quotations given, and even the setting for them. [138] The preamble of the first Act (Act 57 George III. c. 130, 1817) runs thus: "Whereas certain Provident Institutions or Banks for Savings have been established in England, for the safe custody and increase of small savings belonging to the industrious classes; and it is expedient _to give protection to such institutions, and the funds established thereby_," &c. &c. The preamble of the Act of 1828 runs exactly to the same effect.