It ought to be stated that the Act of 1863, for amending the Post Office Savings Bank bill, offered considerable inducements to the winding up of the then existing banks. Its principal objects were to relieve those trustees who were desirous to close, from liability with regard to the accounts of depositors who had not applied for repayment of their money, or for certificates to enable them to transfer their deposits to Post Office Banks, and also to make the transfer of the accounts of minors compulsory on the authorities of either class of banks on the application of the proper parties concerned. More important than either, however, was an addition made to the bill before it was allowed to pass. This addition consisted of a clause empowering the trustees of any old Savings Bank who should desire to close their bank, to compensate their paid officers out of the Separate Surplus Fund. This was a welcome and very proper addition to the bill, and tended materially to mitigate the inconveniences likely to arise from the officials, perhaps of many years' standing, being thrown out of employment. The Birmingham Bank, when it transferred its business, took advantage of this clause to compensate its officers accordingly; and this course has subsequently been followed by other banks. * * * * * We have left ourselves little space to describe what remains to be told of _the manner in which the business has been organized and performed_. Happily, however, those parts of the system with which the public have more especially to do, have not wanted numerous and faithful exponents; by means of the newspaper press, shoals of official and non-official tractates, handy-books, magazine articles, and public lectures, the public have been made fully aware of all the practical details of a scheme which is at once so simple and so satisfactory in its working, and which is at the same time as capable of indefinite expansion as it is of infinite power for good. It is indispensable, notwithstanding that these details are now so well known,[185] that we should rapidly glance at _some_ of them, prior to speaking of the special advantages which these arrangements have made possible. _With regard to Depositing Money._ By the Post Office Savings Bank bill any person who will subscribe the requisite declaration that he is not a depositor in any other Savings Bank may now, on every working day of from six to ten hours' duration, deposit any sum not less than one shilling, and not more than 30_l._ in one year, in any of the 3,300 places in the United Kingdom where the Post Office has been opened as a Savings Bank; also, that for every pound so deposited for a month or more, interest at the rate of 2_l._ 10_s._ per cent. per annum shall be paid, and that while the money remains in the hands of the Post Office the credit of the British Government shall be staked for its due repayment when asked for.