The solution given to the fundamental problem of the relations of the Savings Bank with the State, and of which the essential characteristics were:--making the Central Bank a distinct legal entity, whilst at the same time surrounding it with the guarantee of the State;--taking measures so that this State guarantee should not be to onerous,--and the constitution of a reserve fund,--the conception of the complex and diversified system of investing the capital in the best way to suit both the exigencies of its productivity and its disposal;--fixing the rates of interest and the periodic distribution of a portion of the reserve;--the accession of all classes of society to the Savings Bank and the admission of unlimited deposits;--the correctives brought to bear on these principles by the fixing of differential rates of interest according to the largeness of the deposits;--all these elements wisely co-ordinated, give to the work of the legislator of 1865, at once an original physiognomy and a true grandeur. No one of the fundamental ideas of this edifice is attacked by the bill laid before the Chamber. But this work is perfectible and it contains in its constitution even the principles of its perfectibility. In studying the functions of the Savings Bank, the conviction is soon arrived at that the authors of the Act of 1865, conceived them in the most general and simple form possible, leaving it to time to complete their work. Thus it is that the investments are above all things regarded and portioned out with the view of the possible eventual withdrawal of deposits. The great peril which the makers of the law had before them, was that of not being able to satisfy a sudden and simultaneous demand for the repayment of the deposits. As to the various forms which these investments could take, they were thoroughly recognized and pointed out by the law-makers, but there were some which were only mentioned in their explanatory statement, but which must take a more and more important position. This has occurred with regard to agricultural investments, which have awaited a complementary organic legislation. This again is the case with the investments in land, the importance of which in the economy of the Savings Bank, Frère-Orban had seen already in 1850, better than anyone, but which so far has lacked appropriate embodiment by which to give a real satisfaction to the needs of rural property. The Acts of April 15^{th} 1884 and June 21^{st} 1894, with regard to agricultural credit, of August 9^{th} 1889, with regard to working-class Dwellings, the bill of November 19^{th} 1896, with regarded to landed credit only develop the thought contained in the institution of 1865. The much-regretted Mahillon has profoundly said: