Perseverance, and the laborious exertions of its originators, especially the efforts and high character of Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Forbes, soon made up what the bank may have lost by this connexion, and in five years from its formation was in every respect a decided success. Without ostentation, and without trenching in any respect on the independence of those who needed their assistance, the originators of this bank went on, not only in Edinburgh, but in other Scotch towns to which their influence extended, and with which the metropolis has always some connexion, and their endeavours to cope with the improvidence and carelessness of that period resulted, in a few years, in a complete spread of the principle. What society owes to the men who at this early date laboured with such zeal and devotion in behalf of their fellows, little thought has ever been given; the names of many of them have not even been preserved. It ought to have been far otherwise. "It would be difficult, we fear," says Francis Jeffrey in an early number of the _Edinburgh Review_, "to convince, either the people or their rulers that the spread of Savings Banks is of far more importance, and far more likely to increase the happiness, and even the greatness of the nation, than the most brilliant success of its arms, or the most stupendous improvements of its trade or its agriculture. And yet we are persuaded that it is so."[27] Before we close this notice of original Savings Banks, we would refer to their establishment in Ireland. The first Savings Bank in the sister country of which record is made was one established at Stillorgan in 1815, and was called the "Parochial Bank." The Rev. John Reade, the parish minister of that place, was not only the founder of this bank, but also of the second venture of the kind; for, on removing to Clondalkin, he would seem to have taken his benevolent disposition with him, and to have repeated the process among the poor of his new charge. A peculiar arrangement existed in these early Irish banks, of which no trace is found elsewhere. The deposits of each subscriber were kept separately, and open to the inspection of the owner when he brought any fresh deposit, on which occasion he might count his money if he chose. So soon as the deposits of any person had reached 1_l._ the money was invested in Stock, and produced interest, but not till then. Both banks eventually formed the nuclei for ordinary Savings Banks after the act relating to Irish banks was passed in 1817. The Belfast Savings Bank, opened in 1810, was the first formed after the ordinary model, and has always been very successful. [11] Mr. Scratchley's _Practical Treatise on Savings Banks_, 1st edit. p. 36. [12] See the _Reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor_, vol. iii. which contains a full account of this earliest Savings Bank.