As in the case of the other proposals, the leading principle of Mr. Sikes's plan was to employ the machinery of the Money Order Office to collect and forward deposits to a central bank which he proposed should be established in London. Among the principal details of the plan were--the opening in every town, not previously supplied with a Savings Bank, of a Money Order Office, for the reception of Savings Bank deposits; that the money should be remitted to London in the form of Money Orders; that the deposits should be in sums of not less than a pound; and that in return for these deposits or remittances, Savings Bank "Interest Notes" should be issued in London; and that the interest on these notes should be at the rate of 2-1/2 per cent. per annum. That Mr. Sikes did not proceed boldly enough, and that there were some defects and omissions in his scheme, we shall have to show further on; here it is sufficient to indicate in what his plan consisted. On the reasons for a large and comprehensive reform of this kind, Mr. Sikes was most full and explicit; as, however, we have already been over this ground, and also said much in connexion with the name of this energetic Savings Bank reformer, it is quite unnecessary to repeat here his well-arranged statistics and his generally conclusive observations as they are given in the pamphlet before us.[162] Suffice it to say, that he adduced abundant evidence to show that additional facilities were required, and that if they were given, a proportionate increase of business would be the result; that the existing banks were totally inadequate to meet the requirements of the provident poor, much less to stimulate and increase the number of provident people; and that if his plan, or something like it, were carried out, both objects would be gained. Mr. Sikes argued that in a case of this sort, as in many others, increased facilities would bring increased business, and, in support, he adduced as an instance the Money Order Office itself. Quoting from the Postmaster-General's report for 1856, he gave an extract accounting for the increase of business in that office by the fact of the large additions that had been made to the number of Offices, and to further relaxations in the regulations regarding the issue and payment of Money Orders. "The establishment of a Post Office," said Mr. Sikes, with very great truth, "has unfailing influence in developing the correspondence; and of the Money Order Office, the remittances of a district." Mr. Sikes then instituted a comparison which, though not always to the point (for reasons quite obvious), was scarcely an unfair one, of the relative progress of Savings Banks with their small improvement as to facilities, and the Money Order Offices, with their increased facilities. Within the years 1846 and 1858, the former had progressed at the rate of seven and a half per cent.; the business of the latter had increased at the rate of seventy-nine per cent.