left destitute of other support than parish pay, or a home in the workhouse. Baron Mazeres, so early as 1773, who published a work on Annuities, succeeded in getting a bill introduced and passed through the House of Commons--though unfortunately it was lost in the House of Lords--which would have made the legislation of 1833 less necessary. _Lord Althorp_ now stated that the object he had in view was simply and solely to benefit the working classes. The lowest sum which could be granted as a Government Annuity was 30_l._ a-year. He would propose to make the sum 20_l._ The annuity should not be assignable, or transferable, except in cases of bankruptcy or insolvency; and in the case of the purchaser, either through necessity or choice making default in the annual payments, or dying before the annuity commenced, the whole of the money subscribed should be paid to him or his executors. The tables would be calculated at the rate of 3_l._ 15_s._ per cent. and this rate being less than the ordinary Savings Bank rate, would enable the Government to introduce the clause for returning deposits. To no class, it was thought, would these proposals be of more service than to members of Benefit Societies, who would thus be enabled to secure superannuation on Government security, and confine the objects of the society in which they might be members to relief in cases of sickness or death. Lord Althorp calculated that a person at the age of twenty-five, paying six shillings a month as a deposit into the Savings Bank, would be entitled at the age of sixty to an annuity of 20_l._ a-year. He contended, that, from the calculations which had been made, Government could not lose by these arrangements, and he thought the principal feature of deferred annuities for a small amount, with money returnable in the cases above stated, might be made,--if the working classes would only avail themselves of the measure,--to tend greatly to their worldly comfort and advantage. _Mr. Thomas Attwood_, the member for Birmingham, who made some remarkable speeches in the House on matters of finance, but especially with regard to Savings Banks, objected not only to this proposal, but to legislation of any sort with regard to them. The money deposited in Savings Banks might as well be put into the country banks, for the average amount of each deposit, he was sure, was over 10_l._ and 10_l._ was the minimum sum which country banks would take. He "did not believe in paying so much to keep up such establishments, especially when they were not wanted." To such lengths will intelligent men go, and to such an extent will they shut their eyes! Mr. Attwood put his views before the House quite mildly in this instance, as compared with subsequent speeches. _Mr. Brotherton_, a member greatly respected in the House, who had once belonged to the ranks of the people, and who might therefore be supposed better to understand their requirements, felt sure that Savings Banks had been