for the working
classes, known as _Savings' Banks_, which have since become so numerous
throughout Europe and the United States of America. The Ruthwell
Savings' Bank was established in 1810. Numerous difficulties attended
the early operation of the system, on its general adoption throughout
the country, but these were obviated and removed by the skill and
promptitude of the ingenious projector. At one period his correspondence
on the subject cost him in postages an annual expenditure of one hundred
pounds, a sum nearly equal to half the yearly emoluments of his
parochial cure. The Act of Parliament establishing Savings' Banks in
Scotland, which was passed in July 1819, was procured through his
indomitable exertions, and likewise the Act of 1835, providing for the
better regulation of these institutions.

At Ruthwell, Dr Duncan introduced the system of popular lectures on
science, which has since been adopted by Mechanics' Institutes. Further
to extend the benefits of popular instruction and entertainment, he
edited a series of tracts entitled "The Scottish Cheap Repository," one
of the first of those periodicals devoted to the moral improvement of
the people. A narrative designated "The Cottager's Fireside," which he
originally contributed to this series, was afterwards published
separately, and commanded a wide circulation. In 1809, Dr Duncan
originated the _Dumfries and Galloway Courier_, a weekly newspaper which
he conducted during the first seven years of its existence. He was a
frequent contributor to "The Christian Instructor," and wrote the
articles "Blair" and "Blacklock" for the _Edinburgh Encyclopaedia_. At
the request of Lord Brougham, he composed two treatises on Savings'
Banks and Friendly Societies, for publication by the "Society for the
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge." In 1819, he published the "Young Country
Weaver," a tale calculated to disseminate just political views among the
manufacturing classes; and in 1826 a tale of the times of the Covenant
in three volumes, with the title of "William Douglas, or the Scottish
Exiles." Deeply interested in the question of Slave Emancipation, he
contributed a series of letters on the subject to the _Dumfries
Courier_, which, afterwards published in the form of a pamphlet, excited
no inconsiderable attention. His most valuable and successful
publication, the "Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons" appeared in 1836-7
in four duodecimo volumes.

As a man of science, t