It was not long before it was seen that the Act just described was defective in many particulars, and further legislation rendered necessary. During the year which elapsed after the passing of the Savings Bank Act, the progress of these institutions, in so far as the number and amount of their deposits were concerned, was great beyond all expectation. In nine months from the date of the bill of 1817, the large sum of 657,000_l._ had been deposited. The largest amount received at the National Debt Office during that period from any one bank was 32,000_l._, remitted from the flourishing Exeter bank; the smallest was received from a new bank just then opened at St. John's, Wapping, for the benefit of sailors living in that locality. By the middle of the year 1818, or less than twelve months after the passing of the first bill, there were no fewer than 227 banks established in England and Wales, and about an equal number in Ireland and Scotland. That the encouragement which the bill had given was real is evident from the fact that more than half the entire number of English banks were first opened in 1817-18. So rapid indeed had been the development of the measure, that it was soon apparent that the increase of deposits was in a ratio far beyond any possible increase in the amount of wages or profit from which small savings could have been made. No doubt that now, for the first time, many hoarded savings saw the light, and began to bring in to their owners a return; but even this does not account for such an increase of business. Towards the close of 1817, 20,000_l._ was deposited in one day, in a town in the North of England where a bank had just been opened, and it was known that very little of this money belonged to the industrial classes.