It was seen from the commencement of Savings Bank operations that the first and most imperative element should be complete and unquestionable security. When Government undertook to legislate for Savings Banks it did so with a view to their protection from those frauds which must necessarily overtake some of a great number of semi-private undertakings. In 1817 the Banks were rapidly increasing in number and importance, and it was only natural to suppose and assume that abuses would creep into the management. To meet the probability of a misapplication of the funds, Government agreed to take all the money deposited with the trustees of Savings Banks, and to guarantee a certain fixed rate of interest for it, even above that which the fund directly obtained for itself. This was at once an encouragement to the frugal and a perfect security for such sums as were paid to the National Debt Commissioners. In the interval, however, between the payment of the sums by the depositors and the second payment by the trustees, no safeguard was provided beyond the vigilance of the same voluntary and unpaid trustees. Those trustees were completely irresponsible after the year 1828. Before that time we can only assume their responsibility, not from the ordinary reading of the enactment, but from a decision which was given in a court of law. That decision was to the effect "that deposits are made by persons, not on the faith of the person acting as cashier or actuary, but upon the faith of the gentlemen who act as trustees.... If, therefore, the clerk or other person employed by them (the trustees) is guilty of peculation, they are themselves liable for any defalcation which may ensue." Whether this decision was right in law or not matters little now, inasmuch as the Act of 1828 released the trustees from any such obligation entirely, declaring as it did that "no trustee or manager should be personally liable, except for his own acts or deeds, or for anything done by him;" and even this was again limited "to cases where he should be guilty of _wilful neglect or default_." The valueless character of the safeguards granted to those who of all classes most needed ample security for that for which they had pinched and economized soon began to be seen. Having limited the period of our survey in this chapter to the year 1844, we cannot here introduce the case of the great frauds in Savings Banks which created such painful sensations all over the country as one by one the most monstrous iniquities practised on the most deserving of the poor came to light. Our only reference here will therefore be to one such case in Ireland, and the first instance of the kind in England.