e defects which are mixed up with them are to be regarded as
but the transient integument which will most probably fall away as the
flower ripens and the fruit matures.

CHAPTER VIII.

SAVINGS BANKS.

"I wish I could write all across the sky, in letters of gold, the one
word SAVINGS BANK."--_Rev. Win. Marsh_.

"The only true secret of assisting the poor is to make them agents in
bettering their own condition."--_Archbishop Sumner_.

"Qui a vingt ne sait, a trente ne peut, a quarante n'a,--jamais ne
saura, ne pourra, n'aura."--_French Proverb_.

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which
having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer,
and gathereth her food in the harvest."--_Proverbs_ vi. 6.

It is said that there is a skeleton in every household. The skeleton is
locked up--put away in a cupboard--- and rarely seen. Only the people
inside the house know of its existence. But the skeleton, nevertheless,
cannot long be concealed. It comes to light in some way or another. The
most common skeleton is Poverty. Poverty, says Douglas Jerrold, is the
great secret, kept at any pains by one-half the world from the other
half. When there is nothing laid by--nothing saved to relieve sickness
when it comes--nothing to alleviate the wants of old age,--this is the
skeleton hid away in many a cupboard.

In a country such as this, where business is often brought to a
standstill by over-trading and over-speculation, many masters, clerks,
and workpeople are thrown out of employment. They must wait until better
times come round. But in the meantime, how are they to live? If they
have accumulated no savings, and have nothing laid by, they are
comparatively destitute.

Even the Co-operative Cotton-mills, or Co-operative Banks, which are
nothing more than Joint-stock Companies, Limited,[1] may become
bankrupt. They may not be able, as was the case during the cotton
famine, to compete with large capitalists in the purchase of cotton, or
in the production of cotton twist. Co-operative companies established
for the purpose of manufacturing, are probably of too speculative a
character to afford much lasting benefit to the working classes; and it
seems that by far the safer course for them to pursue, in times such as
the present, is by means of simple, direct saving. There may be less
chance of gain, but there is less risk of loss. What is laid by is not
locked up and contingent