s;
for it is a true saying that "a penny in the purse is better than a
friend at court." The first penny saved is a step in the world. The fact
of its being saved and laid by, indicates self-denial, forethought,
prudence, wisdom. It may be the germ of future happiness. It may be the
beginning of independence.

Cobbett was accustomed to scoff at the "bubble" of Savings Banks,
alleging that it was an insult to people to tell them that they had
anything to save. Yet the extent to which savings banks _have_ been
used, even by the humblest classes, proves that he was as much mistaken
in this as he was in many of the views which he maintained. There are
thousands of persons who would probably never have thought of laying by
a penny, but for the facility of the savings bank: it would have seemed
so useless to try. The small hoard in the cupboard was too ready at
hand, and would have become dissipated before it accumulated to any
amount; but no sooner was a place of deposit provided, where sums as
small as a shilling could be put away, than people hastened to take
advantage of it.

The first savings bank was started by Miss Priscilla Wakefield, in the
parish of Tottenham, Middlesex, towards the close of last century,--her
object being mainly to stimulate the frugality of poor children. The
experiment proved so successful that in 1799 the Rev. Joseph Smith, of
Wendon, commenced a plan of receiving small sums from his parishioners
during summer, and returning them at Christmas, with the addition of
one-third as a stimulus to prudence and forethought. Miss Wakefield, in
her turn, followed Mr. Smith's example, and in 1804 extended the plan of
her charitable bank, so as to include adult labourers, female servants,
and others. A similar institution was formed at Bath, in 1808, by
several ladies of that city; and about the same time Mr. Whitbread
proposed to Parliament the formation of a national institution, "in the
nature of a bank, for the use and advantage of the labouring classes
alone;" but nothing came of his proposal.

It was not until the Rev. Henry Duncan, the minister of Ruthwell, a poor
parish in Dumfriesshire, took up the subject, that the savings-bank
system may be said to have become fairly inaugurated. The inhabitants of
that parish were mostly poor cottagers, whose average wages did not
amount to more than eight shillings a week. There were no manufactures
in the district, nor any means of subsistence for the popul