The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-17 00:00:00

SAVINGS' BANKS.

Copy of a Letter addressed to the Chancellor of the
Exchequer by John Finlaison, Esq., dated June 17,
1844, relative thereto.

Before submitting Mr. Finlaison's able letter in
connexion with minor details (very important ones,
however) as to the appropriation of certain portions
of the capital referred to, the reader may be well
pleased to have one or two preliminary facts brought
under his notice, which may forcibly demonstrate the
extent these institutions have attained, and the
enormous aggregate of the annual deposits confided to
them. In the year 1841 the individual depositors
were 824,162 ;in 1842 they were 856,484. Their
deposits amounted, in 1841, to the sum of 22,915,940/. ;
in 1842, to 23,693,6181. Including charitable insti-
tutions (of which there were, depositors, in 1841, no
less than 8,778 ; in 1842, 9,450) and friendly societies
(8,264 in the former year, 8,781 in the latter), there
were in all, in 1841, depositors, 841,204; their de-
posits, 24,447,689/. ; and in 1842, depositors, 874,715 ;
their deposits, 25,319,3361.
The letter of Mr. Fialaison is as follows :
" National Debt-office, June 17, 1844.
_ _

" Sir,—Understanding from Mr. Higham that it was
your pleasure that I should make any statement that
might be necessary for your information, in reference to
Mr. Hume's motion on the subject of the life annuities
granted by this department through the medium of
savings' banks, I have the honour to acquaint you that
the machinery of savings' banks was resorted to for
annuities for the humbler classes, in consequence of the
report of a Committee which sat under Lord Milton,
and was printed 4th June, 1829. (No. 284.)
" The spirit of that report, and the Act 3 WilL IV.,
cap. 14, which gave effect thereto, clearly evinced a dis-
position to encourage those classes to make a provision
for old age by means of deferred life annuities, to be
purchased by annual savings. The Act, indeed, would
have been totally unnecessary, if no such facility nor
any encouragement were contemplated, seeing that the
Act or 1829 enabled this department already to grant
deferred life annuities, when purchased at the current
rates of interest of the day, as well as immediate life
annuities, and those for terms of years, which are always
purchased in one capital sum. It is probable that this
persuasion Influenced the Treasury in rejecting the
advice, which I felt it my duty to offer as under, in my
repot accompanying the tables, which were necessary
for the execution of the Act of 1833 (June 10th).
"That report was dated on the sth of October, 1833,
and most distinctly considered the annuities to be granted
to the poor under two special heads : Ist, those which
were to be immediately payable, whether on lives or for
terms of years ; 2dly, those which were to be payable
at periods, more or less remote from the date of pur-
chase, whether on lives or for terms of years.
" With regard to the first class, I took it for granted
that my Lords would make no change in the ordinary
conditions under which such annuities were granted to
the public at large under the Act of 1829, which of course
contemplated a variable rate of interest according to the
current prices of stock•. It would seem, by Mr.
Steuart's letter of the 28th October, 1833 (No.
1,998 1-2-21-10), that my Lords did not concur in
this view.
" With regard to the second class viz., the deferred

* I moreover solicited from their Lordships a declara-
ion to that effect.