The instances which had come before him of persons who before the establishment of Savings Banks had never saved a penny, but who then had made ample provision for a rainy day, were cheering in the extreme. He proceeded to give particulars of several instances of the kind, mentioning them, as he put it, "to induce hon. gentlemen to exert themselves, and that they might not sit with their hands before them, believing that nothing could be done." The moral good to be expected from these banks was great and obvious. He hoped and expected that they would gradually tend to revive in the lower classes that decent spirit of independence, now almost extinct, which shrinks from accepting parochial relief; the poor man would learn to regard his own industry and labour as the source whence he was to derive temporary aid in the hour of sickness, or permanent support when the approaches of age should unfit him for active exertions. Not that this matter was applicable only to the poor; a consideration of the subject in all its bearings might well be given to it by the rich on their own account; he thoroughly believed that the poor-rates of the country would diminish in proportion to the spread of Savings Banks among the masses. _Mr. Thompson_, a Yorkshire member, expressed his warmest approbation of the proposed bill. In Yorkshire, he knew there was a great desire to establish Savings Banks of this sort, but the better classes were afraid of doing so, on account of their apparent complexity, and because they had not received up to this time the sanction or countenance of the Legislature. He hoped the provisions of the proposed bill would be as simple as possible, and afterwards that the bill and its clauses would be made as public as possible. Hundreds of working men, to his knowledge, might easily save ten shillings a week, whereas they did not then save a penny; nor could they be blamed to any great extent so long as they were without the requisite machinery for acting differently. Establish these banks, and place their working under proper Acts of Parliament, and he should then say that many who were accustomed in times of scarcity to solicit parochial relief would have no excuse for their conduct; if they did not avail themselves of the opportunity of becoming independent he would rather punish than assist them. Thus early were our legislators alive to the maxim that "the only true secret of assisting the poor is to make them agents in bettering their own condition." The _Chancellor of the Exchequer_ (Mr. Vansittart) believed that nothing tended more to the independence of the poor than their learning to support themselves by their own exertions. He thought the object of the proposed bill would be congenial to the feelings of the whole House. On the part of the Government, he was ready to offer his best assistance on behalf of an institution such as the Savings Bank, where rich and poor might meet together and mutually combine in promoting,