4. Most unsatisfactory, however, was the proposal to make 1_l._ the minimum sum that could be received. There were thousands of depositors in the ordinary banks whose average deposits were not half that sum. Moreover, the plan was designed to meet the wants of the poorest; to encourage and foster the habit of small savings among those who had not yet begun to save. No provision, therefore, could have been more unfortunate; and it is well that Mr. Sikes's fears--such as, that if a less sum were taken the measure would not pay--were soon shown to be groundless. It is not our intention to trouble the reader with much detail as to what passed during the preparation, or, we may call it, the organization of this interesting and beneficent measure. It is, perhaps, sufficient to say, that differences of opinion rose upon it--that some of the authorities of the Post Office thought Mr. Sikes's scheme, with many important modifications, might be worked; while others of them held that no amount of alteration would enable the department to work it by means of Money Orders. In this way several months passed in discussion, and it is scarcely too much to say, that but for the unceasing vigilance of Mr. Gladstone, who continued to urge further efforts to overcome the natural obstacles that presented themselves, the temporary fate of many a good measure might have been the fate of this. It was when matters were in this state of abeyance, and when the difficulties in the way fairly threatened to overwhelm the scheme altogether, that a gentleman, since prominently connected with all that relates to Post Office Banks, was induced to turn his attention to the subject. Mr. Chetwynd, one of the staff officers of the Money Order Office, took up the matter of applying the Post Office machinery to Savings Banks; and, discarding all the other plans for working then in dispute, addressed the Postmaster-General in November, 1860, and proposed a plan which he thought would, notwithstanding all the difficulties that had been experienced, meet all the reasonable requirements of the case. Mr. Chetwynd's scheme was based on the principle that Savings Bank business might be done "through the various Money Order Offices in a much more economical manner than by the issue and payment of Money Orders;" and that the plan should be so comprehensive as not to need the restriction which had been previously put upon it that sums under 1_l._ could not be received,--that sum, as Mr. Chetwynd truly said, being "so large as seriously to reduce the value of the benefit proposed to be conferred on the provident portion of the public." The following outline, necessarily brief, gives all the material points of the plan proposed, and which has in its integrity been since carried out, and forms the basis of existing arrangements:--