The Express.
London, England, 1861-09-05 00:00:00

TO OUR MILDER.%

SPURTING INTELLIGENCE.

A !we e•litioa of the Esrprt ss is published every
evraik.: Turin; the racing swam, contaluiag the
raeult...4 the Liar's races.

of the Post-office Savings
]tanks promises great social am well as financial
Hitherto, with • few respectable ex-
ceptions, we have had no Savings Banks deserving
the appellation ; yet, despite the utterly incon-
gruous character of the regulations affecting the
old establishments, more than forty malaise of de-
limits have been lodged with them. It is not II
if a score or two of new Banks were about to be
added. Three hundred new places of depait are
to be opened on the 14;th Mat., and it is in con-
templation to extend the system hereafter, so as
to embrace every postal Money Order-office in the
kingdom. When it is remembered that there are
already 2,500 of these, and that the number is
constantly increasing, a conception may be formed
of the extent and value of the new machinery for
the promotion of providence and discouragement
of waste. In these matters the question of con-
venience and of ready access is a very important
one. The system will be far more fairly tested
when th, re are two or three thousand of the new
depositorim open than it will be at first, when
there will be only a tithe of that number. The
old Savings Banks were open in many instances at
unfrement or inconvenieut intervals. If a man
could only deposit his money once a week, once a
fortnight, or once a month, and then within a
fixed period of • couple of hours, the probability
was that he would not deposit it at aIL But now
the Post-office is open to him every day, and nearly
every hour—in some cases from 10 till 4, in
others from 9 till 6. On Saturdays, the artisan
may put a portion of his weekly wages out of
harm's way until as late as 8 o'clock in the even-
ing. Day by day the official printed invitation to

Tu►

economise and to accumulate will stare him in the
face. lie will see it as he goes to his work—to his
meals—and as he returns. He cannot post a
letter without being warned to lay some-
thing by for a rainy day. What is aa powerful an
inducement as any, he will be fired by the example
of friends and neighbours who, from smell begin-
nings, will accumulate a pretty purse, and who
will have too natural • pride in their thrift to
abstain from showing their deposit-books. We
are convinced that if the Post-office will stretch
their regulations to the greatest possible degree of
liberality, these institutions will be found to con-
tain the germ of great social advancement.
The main attraction held out by the Poet-office
Savings Banks consists, of course, in their giving
the depositor what he has never had yet—the as
prem security of Government for the due repay-
ment of principal and interest. He may ask for
his money at any time, and be perfectly
sure of receiving it. There is not the
slightest room for doubt upon this sub-
ject—sit lomat, there will be none if the
Past-office authorities will obviate one point on
which some doubt may arise. The official regula-
tions stipulate that, by return of post, or the next
day, the depositor will receive at his own resi-
dence, direct from the chief office, an official ac-
knowledgment of the sum which he has lodged at
the local post-office. Should this acknowledgment
fad to arrive within ten days, or should it on arriv-
iftg be found inaccurate, the depositor must no-
tify the fact to " The Controller, Savings Bank
" Department, General Post-office, London ;" and
if he does nut then obtain the regular acknowledg-
ment, he must apply to the Poirrisseraa-Gcxesiat
until he gets it. The object of these provisions is
of course to protect the Past-office from dishonesty
on the part at the local postmasters, by setting
up an independent communication between
the heal-office and each depositor ; whilst the
difficulty consists in the fact that that communica-
tem passes really through the medium of the local
postmasters, who have the handling of the letters
as well as the deposits. The point which requires
clearing up is—when the depositor has ones
lodged his money in the postmaster's hands, and
obtained the receipt of that functionary for it in
his deposit-book, has he a complete and indefeasi-
ble claim upon Government for the money f We
trust this point will be resolved in the affirmative,
in order that complete security may be felt by the
depositor in every transaction with the local post-
office. The semi-official explanatory statements
which have appeared in the press distinctly aver
that " the depositor, the moment he possesses this
" book, duly filled in with the amount deposited,
" the dated stamp, and other particulars, poetesses
" the security of Government for tho due repay-
" meet of the principal and interest." But
we have looked in vain through the
" official regulations" for any similarly explicit
undertaking; sad as it is agilely by the latter,
end not by mere newspaper paragraphs, that
Government are bound, it is to be hoped that the
practice to be observed will be plainly stated in
the printed notices which will be affixed in every
office where deposits are receivable. The Post,
office must be liberal, if they wish the new ar-
rangements to work as they ought. When the de-
positor lodges his money with the local postmaster
he feels that he is trusting an agent of the Pierr-
e isree-GINIZAL, and the act of the agent ought,
of course, to bind the principal. It may be objected
that, if the responsibility of Government is held to
be completely pledged directly the depositor's book
is signed, be may be careless about getting the
formal acknowledgment from the head office. But
it must be remembered that the Poeresersa-
tl • is dealing with the well-ordered and
provident classes of the community, who alone '
will be disposed to save, and who will feel it a
matter of duty to apply for the acknowledgment
The only real danger, therefore, will consist in a
frauduleut collusion between a depositor and the