We have already seen that the Post Office Savings Bank bill was rapidly and successfully passed through Parliament, and _did_ become the law of the land. The Act "to grant additional facilities for the depositing small savings at interest with the security of Government for the due repayment thereof," received the Royal Assent on the 17th of May, 1861. The author of the bill has the best claims on the thanks and gratitude of the country. The press and the people of this land have, almost with one accord, been loud in their praise; and the three-quarters of a million of depositors, most of them attracted to saving habits by the facilities he then for the first time offered them, joined in silent thanks. The scheme for working this measure, organized in the Post Office after repeated requests from Mr. Gladstone, accomplished to a great extent under his oversight, and then carried through Parliament by his administrative ability and convincing eloquence, will ever cause his name to be most prominently associated with the new system; and among the many triumphs of his skill, this one will stand out with distinct prominence on the page of history. The Post Office Savings Banks have not only "answered," to use the phraseology of the "leading journal," but they have attained a marked position, and have been, in every respect, an eminent success. Not nearly so much, however, with regard to their present condition, as to their manifest and inevitable destiny in the future, the Postal Banks are entitled to a high place amongst the social institutions of the country. In every department of labour, the new banks have become, and must yet become to a far greater extent, most effective agents in the social and moral improvement of the people, and will give tenfold effect to the endeavours which have been made, in so many directions, to better the condition of the masses. Next, perhaps, to the repeal of the Corn Laws, this is the greatest boon ever conferred on the working classes of this country; and next to the scheme of Penny Postage itself, the scheme of Post Office Banks is the greatest and most important work ever undertaken by the Government for the benefit of the nation. Whatever differences of opinion may exist as to the claims of the present Ministry to public gratitude, there can, we should imagine, be but one opinion now as to the vast advantages conferred upon the bulk of the people by the measure of 1861.