saying, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, that the Government ought to make good the loss.[81] If he had not proved that point, he left it to a Committee of Inquiry to take up. "In the name not only of justice, but of mercy and compassion," he besought the House "to agree to his motion, and to save many poor persons from utter and total ruin." The member for Dublin University (Mr. Napier) seconded the motion for inquiry, and discussed many of the details of the failure from a legal point of view. In one remark, he gave expression to a very general feeling: the course of legislation on Savings Banks had plainly been to reduce, for strong reasons doubtless, the responsibility of trustees; in proportion, however, as that responsibility was reduced, so he, Mr. Napier, thought the moral responsibility of the commissioners increased. "Precisely in the same degree as the trustees were relieved, should the vigilance of the other body have been awakened." Nor was it less unfortunate--though this is a matter which was not alluded to--that at a time when it was thought most fitting that the interest on deposits should be reduced, steps should also be taken to make them less secure as well as less remunerative. _Mr. H. A. Herbert_, the member for Kerry, proposed an amendment, extending the inquiry to this Tralee and Killarney banks, and also to the single case of failure in Scotland, at Auchterarder. Mr. Herbert dwelt upon the case of these frauds in an able manner, but we reserve the consideration of them to the next chapter. The reference to the Scotch case doubtless called up Mr. Cowen, the member for Edinburgh, who was sorry to hear of the necessity for any such inquiry in Scotland; he "had been accustomed to think that they were above suspicion in Scotland with reference to their banking matters." _Mr. Cowen_ said that he regarded all discussions on Savings Banks as most momentous, and as involving the consideration of the most important national questions. "It was of the greatest importance that Savings Banks should be placed on a solid foundation, and cleared of all those injurious anomalies which now attached to them," for he "believed that they might be made the means of aiding in a great measure to stem that flood of pauperism which was now overflowing the land." Much warm discussion followed. The _Chancellor of the Exchequer_ alleged that the proposed inquiry would be both a useless and an expensive one; and Mr. Goulburn, the ex-Chancellor, who was equally committed to the same course of legislation and the difficulties which that legislation had brought upon the Government, rendered prompt assistance by saying exactly the same thing. On a division, it was carried by a majority of three in a House of 100 members, that a Committee should be appointed; and by a majority of eight, that the inquiry should extend to the three Irish and the Scotch defaulting bank.[82]