The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-26 00:00:00

THE

LIFEBOAT SERVICES.—Du • the storms of can it be said that we pay too dm* for such en-
the put year the National Lifeboat by "'" ---wwement of the habits thus exemplified among ,
boat and other means, contributed to thewving of 707 PINSON' "95
from different wrecks on our manta The institution also ek- phg poorest. The Post-office authorities estimate
'waded £41,374 in the same period on its lifeboat establishments.
leaddition to granting 5A,950 for rewards for saving life and that each separate operation of paying in or with-
"Thoerelzbigoommithea.lifebetbLa tau institution ottomtty APPEAL to the drawing money costs exactly what it was estimated
rtZlirc for asr
onaarees, to rob!
tisagen Ureateetttllase"
Ruud to cast when the data of the scheme were con-
Contributions see received by the London and *Country aide red, namely, the sum of sevenpence. In the
Bankers; and by the Bw:rotary, Richard Lewis, Reg ,at tits in- older banks it costs very close upon a shilling.
atitullon, 14, John-street, Adelphi, London.
There is thus, small as the amounts dealt with in
the Post-office banks are, no greater per
centsge of tax on each depositor than there
is in the older banks which dispose of
larger sums with a more costly staff, but which,
nevertheless, are not like their government rivals,
exempt from risk of loss of all that has been
in-
vested. On the whole there seems little reason to
doubt that the new institution, the value of which
as yet has been chiefly recognised only in the
metropolis, but which is now making way with most
rapid strides in the most backward districts of the
country, will ultimately supplant its more ancient
competitor. Nor can we affect to regret such a
result. The old Savings Banks have done an infi-
nite deal of service in the past, but it is no matter
of regret that they should have to yield to new
arrangements, to which our modern facilities of
communication give opportunity, and which we may
expect will do us still better and more widely dif-
fused service in the present and the future.

GOLD CHAINS.—JOHN BROGDEN
to call the attention of the public to the FORM ol'eSt
VOICE which he delivers with Gold Guard Chains purchased at
his manufactory: a. di.
fo workmanship of pattern chain, 64 inches long
To (18) carat gold, weighing ok dirk gra, at
CS Sa. 51d. per ounce, Mint price

Total
Upon this system, the QUALITY, WEIGHT, and VALUE at
the gold are actually defined. and guaranteed to the purchaser
John grogden looking for a Mk remuneration ma the workmanship
only, which is charged according to the Intricacy or simplicity of
the pattern. —JOHN HEMMEN, Goidanith.—Mannfictory, 16,
Henrietta-street, Covent-garden, London. Established Att 1796.
N.B. Tbis establishment Is closed at 6 In the evening, and on
tiaturduys at 1 o'clock.

MSRS. WATHERSTON and SON,
Goldsmiths and Jewelers,
Rave Ready for InepeeDon a Great ety of JEWELLERY,
of the Went Designs, suitable for
WEDDING PRESENTS and NEW-YEAR'S GIFTS.
12, PalLfnall Fast, fLW .

SCIENTIFIC PRESENTS.—P2ement Col-
Motions to Illustrate the New Edition of "Lyell's a.
of Goology." and facilitate the study of Mineralogy and Geology,
can be had from 2, 6. 10, 20, 60, to 500 guineas ; also tingle liliisti-
men" of minerals, rocks, fossils. and recent shells, geological
hammer', all the recent publications, lc., of J. TIN-
11111PT, Mineralogist given Majesty, No. 149, Strsod. London.
Private instruction isin geology and mineralogy by Yr.
Tarrant, PG.S., 149, Strand, W.C.

LONDON must have s SUPPER and MUSIC
ROOM foritantlemen.—Remember, we wait for you at
"iVANS," atter the Careat-garilen Pantomime, tnd the
Theatre.

We invite the attention of our readers to a nar-
rative published in another column, the facts of
which convict the Lambeth authorities of a degree
of negligence or hardihood which is difficult to un-
derstand. The labour shed of their workhouse
bsving been condemned as an unfit sleeping-place
for paupers, these gentlemen or their representa-
tives have quietly relegated half their male appli-
cants to rooms where the overcrowding is so great
that the register has been withdrawn, where not a
single provision for the maintenance of order has
been made, and where the commonest rules of
decency are openly set at nought. When the
police commence their inspection of casual wards
we presume such evils as are described will be
effectually stopped, but meanwhile it has been left
to an independent observer to discover a state of
things so shameful as to be a scandal upon our com-
mon humanity. Knowing the form of retribution
which is most unpopular with local bodies, it is satis-
factory to quote the following extract from the
Poor-law Board's circular of October, 1864 :--1
"If the accommodation provided by the guar-1
" diens should be inadequate, and the guardians'
" should have to provide temporary accommoda-
" tion for applicants, by making arrangements for
" their reception in lodging-houses, the Board
" would not recognise any such lodging-house as
" within the provis:ons of the Act, unless it were
" registered." The house used by the Lambe' `%
guardians became unregistered when it was used
as a succnrsal to the workhouse. It is clear,
therefore, that for the sums expended on casual
payers who have not slept in the certified ward
Lambeth has no claim on the common fund.

(he •rPregitc.

HAYKARLIT.
TRES IVINDtd, BROTHER 8411. Keen. Sothern, Buck-
dons, and Compton • Wawa Nay Moore. Snowdon, ac
OEPHIUS IN THE HAYMARK BT. Mews farm
Illluses Koala', Howard k Wright, •StY HUSBAND'S GHOST.

PRINCESS'S.
Till vain, QDIET LODGINGS.—After which IT IS
INVER TOO LATE TS MiND. Ninon. Vining, G. llelville,
T. MOOA D. Murray, b. Consains, F. Villias, P. CF. Shore, GI. Nur.
my. sad It Cailmr{ : Misr L. Noon and K. Radian.

LYCEUM.
TM IMMO, THE ILLUSTRIOUS STRANGER. Mr. H.
Widdloomb.—THE MASTER OF RAVENSWOOD. News.
Pechter, Jordin, Veen, Emery, Wlddloomb, Fltapataink, Evans;
Mandamee Twain, Menorah', Livens, C. Impend.

BRITANNIA.
'MN Marais, OLD DADDY LONGLEAS AND SIN REGENT
GUICITEI ; OR, THE GOLDIN APPLE!. —IL and Mods=
Eteetelenbonh.--hlvior BovonL—Olmar.-8110W0T of Golden Bain.
.401GInj Del.—And mai% THE 1101310 NE DAUGHTER.

HIGH WATIA AT LONDON-BIUDGI.
•
T DAY —, Manilas, 91%. Elm—. AllieniaL 101 t. Ora
MIWOLLir -. Marsh& UAL 48IL -...Abirsoes. UL 2Elw

LONDON, FRIDAY. JANUARY 26.

Thu annual Report of the Post-office, which has
just been issued, and which we on Tuesday last laid
before our readers, is so interesting a record of civi-
lization and progress that its compilers probably
think it can well afford to be somewhat in arrear
of the latest information. We are already some
weeks entered into 1866, and the document which
has been furnished ns contains the annals of the
postal services only for the year 1864. One inte-
resting experiment, commenced in the year 1865,1
is thus still unchronicled, and we must, we pre-
sume, wait for another twelvemonth ere we
learn aught of the success or failure of the Post-
office Life Insurance system. But in the Report
before us we have an account of the prior
experiment of Post•office Savings Banks,
on which the Insurance system was in
some measure modelled, and this account COMM
down to a rather later period than that of the other
business of the department., being made up to 31st
March, 1865. From this statement we may mean-
while glean some interesting partioulars, contrasting
them with information respecting the older Savings
Banks which is furnished in a voluminous Parlia-
mentary return published towards the close of last
year. That the Post-office Savings Basks have
filled an unoccupied, or imperfectly occupied, p'.ace
in the public requirements is apparent at once from
the magnitude and the steady growth of the amount
already deposited in them. The total now reaches
above six millions, and it increases annually at
the nearly uniform rate of a million and a
half a year. The number of persons who
take advantage of this species of security
augments, however, in a ratio still more
rapid. It now stands at more than half a million,
and increases by 140,000 a year. It results from
the detailed figures that the average sum at the
credit of each depositor is somewhat under 111.
Contrasting these facts with the experience of the
old Savings Banks, we find that in them the total
amount of deposits was in November, 1864, nearly
forty millions, but the number of depositors only
a million and a half. Consequently, the average
amount of deposit is in this case about 271. There
can be little doubt, considering the low rate of
interest afforded to the holders of considerable
sums which might find better investments else-
where, that this higher average is not brought out
by the occurrence of a few exceptionally large de-
visite in the older banks, but fairly represents the
most usual amount. And it would seem to
follow as an unquestionable conclusion that the
new banks have tapped a stratum of society to which
the old ones, as • rule, did not reach down.l
This is illustrated and confirmed in another
way. The average amount of each single deposit
in the Post-office banks is under 31., and has
rather diminished than increased, while in the
old banks it is 41. 6s. And the positive fact that
these institutions are resorted to by the very classes
for whose benefit they were chiefly intended is made
more abundantly clear by an analysis contained in
the Post-office Report of the position in life occu-
pied by the depositors. It appears that of the
half million of depositors, rather more than • half
consist of the class of females, minors, and
trustees to whom the absolute security offered is
the main benefit ; more than a fourth are of the
working classes ; while the remainder are made
up of tradesmen, teachers, clerks, and farmers,
with an admixture to the extent of only 10 per
cent of persons "of no occupation."
It cannot be denied that these are satisf►ctory
results in an experiment which has as yet endured
so short a trial They show beyond a doubt that
habits of thrift land forethought are spreading
among the population, and that Mr. Chsrierroxs
has had the good fortune and good sense to find
and establish facilities for the exercise of these
virtues, by which they are encouraged where they
are moat needed. When the average at the credit
of each of half a million of persons is only eleven
pounds, and when the amount tendered at each
deposit is only between two and three pounds, it
is obvious what a very large number of persons
must have taken advantage of the new system to lay
up amounts of only two, three, or four pounds, in-
trawled by additions of no more than a few shillings
at • time. Nor, indeed, do we quite fairly estimate
all the advantage when we look only at the results
at a given moment. Though there were only six
millions of money thus invested at the close of
the financial year, there had been three millions
more invested in the course of it, but withdrawn
before its close. As money is after all saved,
except by misers, only to be used, this implies that
• use bad been found for three millions which had
been saved up to meet such contingencies. Nor

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)