under Divine protection, their natural rights. "There, forgetful of those petty distinctions which temporary circumstances had created, they met as brethren, each to do his duty to his neighbour." After an Irish member had expressed his wish that the same bill might be extended to Ireland, where, he truly said, such habits as these banks inculcated were most urgently needed, even more so than in England, this one-sided debate was closed.[29] The bill was read a first time on the 15th of May, 1816. It provided, that any number of individuals might enrol themselves as Trustees of a Provident Institution or Savings Bank at the Quarter Sessions. It was not meant by this to give any power to Justices of the Peace, but simply that the act of enrolment might thus be made in as public a manner as possible. It was further arranged, that the Rules proposed for the management of the new Savings Banks should in like manner be left with the Clerk of the Peace for the respective counties. The bill authorised the Trustees or Managers to appoint such officers as were likely to be needed, and required that in all cases where the persons were to be entrusted with money, they should give reasonable security. It was only further provided, that depositors should not be prevented from applying for parish relief, but that, if any dispute arose on this point, the decision in the matter should be left with the magistrates in Quarter Sessions. The session being near its close, and several members having expressed their sense of the importance of the subject and the necessity of producing a well-considered bill to regulate these banks, the bill was withdrawn till the next session. On the 15th of February, 1817, Mr. Rose again returned to the subject, and got leave to re-introduce his bill. He did not on this occasion enter minutely into the consideration of Savings Banks, further than to express a conviction he had, "which daily became stronger," that these institutions, if properly directed, would have a very direct influence on the vexed question of Poor Law relief. He contended, that, if they became generally introduced through the length and breadth of the country, they would gradually mitigate, and then do away with, the evils attending the system of the English Poor Law; and he very reasonably urged that any measure which would tend, even remotely, to such a desirable object, was deserving of, and ought to have, the hearty support and countenance of the Legislature. _Mr. Curwen_, an authority on this phase of the subject, held that there could be only one opinion as to the utility of the banks, but he was satisfied "it was an error to imagine they would essentially contribute to the alleviation of the present distressing situation of affairs." Nothing short of a measure which in its nature might have a compulsory influence over the minds of the people, to teach the poor and the peasantry that the means of relief, of content and happiness, were