ation, except
what was derived from the land under cultivation; and the landowners
were for the most part non-resident. It seemed a very unlikely place in
which to establish a bank for savings, where the poor people were
already obliged to strain every nerve to earn a bare living, to provide
the means of educating their children (for, however small his income,
the Scottish peasant almost invariably contrives to save something
wherewith to send his children to school), and to pay their little
contributions to the friendly society of the parish. Nevertheless, the
minister resolved, as a help to his spiritual instructions, to try the
experiment.

Not many labouring men may apprehend the deep arguments of the religious
teacher, but the least intelligent can appreciate a bit of practical
advice that tells on the well-being of his household as well as on the
labourer's own daily comfort and self-respect. Dr. Duncan knew that,
even in the poorest family, there were odds and ends of income apt to be
frittered away in unnecessary expenditure. He saw some thrifty cottagers
using the expedient of a cow, or a pig, or a bit of garden-ground, as a
savings bank,--finding their return of interest in the shape of butter
and milk, winter's bacon, or garden produce; and it occurred to him that
there were other villagers, single men and young women, for whom some
analogous mode of storing away their summer's savings might be provided,
and a fair rate of interest returned upon their little investments.

Hence originated the parish savings bank of Ruthwell, the first
self-supporting institution of the kind established in this country.
That the minister was not wrong in his anticipations, was proved by the
fact that, in the course of four years, the funds of his savings bank
amounted to nearly a thousand pounds. And if poor villagers out of eight
shillings a week, and female labourers and servants out of much less,
could lay aside this sum,--what might not mechanics, artizans, miners,
and iron-workers accomplish, who earn from thirty to fifty shillings a
week all the year round?

The example set by Dr. Duncan was followed in many towns and districts
in England and Scotland. In every instance the model of the Ruthwell
parish bank was followed; and the self-sustaining principle was adopted.
The savings banks thus instituted, were not eleemosynary institutions,
nor dependent upon anybody's charity or patronage; but their success
rested entire