while the patrons of the latter wished to be left at liberty to manage their affairs in their own way, and only to call in the help of the Legislature when real grievances needed redressing. With the exception of a short Act[34] passed in 1820, by which it was provided that charitable institutions might deposit a whole or a portion of their funds with the Commissioners, no further legislation on Savings Banks was attempted till 1824. In this year the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Robinson) took up the matter where Mr. Vansittart had left it, and carried a Bill through Parliament still further to amend the law.[35] With a view to remedy still more completely the evil of classes, other than the industrious ones, investing their money in Savings Banks, this Act provided that the sum which could be deposited during the first year should be limited to 50_l._ and should stand at 30_l._ for any succeeding year. To provide against anything like evasion of these regulations, a form of declaration was introduced,--which we scarcely need say has existed up to the present time,--stating that the subscriber to it had not contributed to any other bank than the one at which he made the declaration. The Chancellor of the Exchequer endeavoured to carry a clause which required that this declaration should be subscribed by the proposed depositor in his own name, "and own handwriting," in place of a mark or initials, but this was wisely discarded. This absurd proviso would have put an educational test in the way of those very classes whom, to the exclusion of all others, it was desirable to attract to Savings Banks. Another important clause succeeded better, and was plainly proper to the object meant to be served by it. No depositor could by this further clause invest more than 200_l._ excluding interest, in any Savings Bank. The case of the funds of Friendly Societies was the subject of another clause. It was only four years since these societies, as we have seen, were allowed to deposit their funds through the medium of Savings Banks; but the Act of 1820 had given rise to so much abuse, or to so much that seemed like abuse, that some alteration was necessary. The high rate of interest which had been guaranteed by law to these banks induced, not only individuals of rank and property, but large charities to place their funds in them: the result was a great burthen to the public, inasmuch as the excess over the ordinary rate of interest for public securities was thrown in by the Legislature with the object of increasing the provident disposition of the poor. As it was seen that, if this state of things continued, the original object of State assistance and countenance to Savings Banks would be defeated and the public in some degree prejudiced, it was proposed that no friendly society or charitable institution of any kind should deposit their funds in any bank. If the alterations now proposed did not suffice to preserve