The mind of this class was less cultivated and less cared for then than now, and wherever they got high wages, they spent them recklessly. They regarded the workhouse as their natural refuge, and claimed its privileges as their inalienable birthright. We owe the presentation of many facts concerning them to Mr. Beaumont, who after ten years’ trial, finding that his association failed in its purpose, interested the inhabitants of Covent Garden and the neighbourhood, in the establishment of a savings bank. To compass this he presided at various public meetings, where he spoke with much energy, addressing the poorer class in an easy familiar tone, and speaking to them as only one who understood their wants could have spoken. He necessarily won their confidence by his zeal, and all which he wrote on the subject evinces a spirit of benevolence, being evidently the production of an acute and energetic mind. He was the first to point out the various objections to benefit societies, and his exertions in the cause of savings banks, though now almost forgotten, were productive of good; nor is it too much to add, that habits of industry and frugality were excited, or that the happiness of the working class was increased by his exertions. That which has hitherto been related of Mr. Beaumont was but the result of his leisure hours; for he was the originator of an office, to the service of which he gave the principal part of his time, and in which he found his reward. There was, indeed, something very significant in his resolute, earnest spirit, and there must, too, have been something very honest in the man; for in the outset of his own pet office, when the members were excited by success, he told them that the early accounts were not to be relied on, that they were flattering from the nature of the business, and that they showed more success at the beginning than the future would confirm. He was an open foe to all fraudulent offices, and did all he could to stay the progress of the concocters of the West Middlesex. He called attention to their proceedings in the “Times;” he proved that the enormous commission they offered, argued a foregone conclusion of swindling; he attacked them in a Scotch paper, and drew their wrath upon him, in the shape of an action for damages, which cost him 100_l._, and for which an additional claim of 600_l._ was made on his executor.