same date 55,085 depositors held stock of the nominal value of 5,087,7661., or on an average 921. 78. 3d. each. We have already mentioned that one person in six in England and Wales is a depositor in the Post Office Savings Bank; in Scotland and Ireland the proportion is one in twentytwo, and for the United Kingdom it is one in seven.

This enormous business, which is necessarily centralised in London, absorbs the services of a small army of men, women, and boys, numbering together nearly 1,900 persons, or about twice as many as are employed by the Bank of England in Threadneedle Street, so that Alderman Sidney's prophecy is more than fulfilled. The army includes 572 men clerks of all grades, 546 female clerks, about 420 boy clerks and boy copyists, about 210 sorters, porters, and boy messengers, and 150 female sorters. These figures do not include any persons employed in the actual receipt and payment of deposits, but at many of the more important post offices one clerk at least is required for this business. The total amount provided in the Civil Service estimates of the current year for the Post Office Savings Bank, including every possible expense-as, for instance, 1,4501. for loss on light gold is 365,9711. This amount, divided by the probable number of transactions, i.e. of deposits and withdrawals, brings the cost of each transaction to a fraction under sevenpence, the estimated cost at the time of the establishment of Post Office Savings Banks. During the whole period of their existence this estimate has proved substantially correct, and it redounds greatly to the credit of those who were responsible for the arrangements that they were able to forecast the cost so accurately. In 1861 the cost of each transaction in the Trustee Savings Banks aver+aged one shilling, and many persons of experience doubted whether the Post Office Savings Banks could be managed more economically. At the present time, owing chiefly to the absorption of many of the smaller banks by the Post Office, the average cost of each transaction is a little more than ninepence. In some of the banks it is as much as two shillings and sixpence, but in the large and well-managed savings banks of Liverpool and Glasgow it is as low as fourpence.

According to the latest return there were, on November 20, 1890, only 324 trustee savings banks in the United Kingdom, with 1,535,782 depositors and a capital of 43,614,055., besides 1,280,0691. invested in Government stock. No lessthan 331 Banks, with a capital of 9,851,5327., had been

closed, and the greater portion of the deposits were transferred to the Post Office. A large number of banks have been closed since the date of the return, and the absorption of the older banks by the Post Office has been accelerated by recent legislation. It is, perhaps, a matter for surprise that the trustee savings banks have been able to maintain their position in face of the rivalry of the Post Office and the closing of more than half the number in existence in 1861. In a few instances the business has more than doubled during the last thirty years, and many of the trustee banks are still in a condition that may be fairly described as prosperous. The Glasgow Savings Bank, with 157,340 depositors and a capital of 4,668,7517.; the Liverpool Savings Bank, with 92,578 depositors and a capital of 2,425,8611.; and the Manchester Savings Bank, with 85,242 depositors and a capital of 2,383,0617., are certainly flourishing. In these cities, and in other places, the savings bank is looked upon as a valuable local institution. Men of position readily act as trustees; the banks are well managed, and the accounts are properly kept and properly audited. In some of them withdrawals within certain limits are allowed without notice, and though we think the practice is somewhat foreign to the nature of savings banks it probably adds to their popularity. So long as these banks continue efficient their existence is not to be regretted, but the smaller trustee savings banks cannot afford sufficient accommodation to their depositors, the management is too often very indifferent, and unless they can be greatly improved it would be well to close them and to transfer the deposits to the Post Office.

Before we conclude something remains to be said as to the financial position of the Post Office Savings Bank at the present time and in the not very distant future. According to the balance sheet published in the last report of the Postmaster-General, the total value of the securities held by the National Debt Commissioners on account of the Post Office Savings Bank fund, at the current price of the day, was 71,750,9021. To this sum must be added 1,109,125l. for dividends accrued but not received, cash in hand, and the value of the Central Savings Bank premises, making a grand total of 72,860,0271. The total liabilities were 71,618,445l.—viz. 71,608,0021. due to depositors and 10,4431. for expenses remaining unpaid. The surplus of assets over liabilities was, therefore, 1,241,5821. We think the actual liability to depositors is overstated, for, if we

may judge from the experience of the older savings banks, there must be a large amount of money nominally due to depositors who have died, or who have forgotten their accounts, which will never be claimed. It would be premature to attempt to ascertain how far our assumption holds good, but at a future date a needy Chancellor of the Exchequer may make the enquiry and discover an unlookedfor windfall. In estimating, however, the present financial position of the Post Office Savings Bank we must bear in mind that since 1876 the excess of interest accrued upon the funds held by the National Debt Commissioners has been paid into the Exchequer, and under this arrangement no less than 1,481,6621. has been derived from the profits of ! the Post Office Savings Bank. The largest annual payment was 147,1167. in 1878, and the smallest 36,050l. in 1889. This reduction is, of course, accounted for by Mr. Goschen's conversion of the 3 per cent. stocks into 23 percent. stock, and, in view of the future reduction to 2 per cent., it is evident that in a few years the interest allowed to Post Office Savings Bank depositors must be reduced, or the Post Office Savings Bank funds must be chiefly invested in some other securities than consols. The present rate of interest allowed-2 per cent.-is not extravagant, and has the great advantage of being easily calculated and easily checked. It is, of course, sixpence a year, or a halfpenny a month on every complete pound, and, as the Post Office does not allow interest on amounts less than one pound or for less than a complete calendar month, the calculation is very simple. When, however, consols only yield 2 per cent., the Post Office will not be able to pay interest at that rate to the Savings Bank depositors, unless Parliament should see fit to enlarge. the powers of the National Debt Commissioners as regards their investments. It has been suggested that the Savings Bank funds, or some part of them, should be lent to local authorities, who are always borrowing money, and are generally willing to pay rather more than 3 per cent. by way of interest. At present nearly 9,000,000l. of the Post Office Savings Bank funds are invested in the Local Loans 3 per cent. stock, created by Mr. Goschen a few years ago. The suggestion we are considering would be an extension of what has already been done, and would meet the objection that has been urged-without, perhaps, much reason that the Post Office Savings Bank withdraws money from the provinces and locks it up in London. But the question is too wide and too intricate to be fully discussed at

the end of this article. Happily, it does not press for immediate solution, and it may well be left for the present. To some persons the liability of the Government to repay the whole of the Post Office Savings Bank deposits in ten days is an element of risk in our financial system. In many countries provision has been made by law that in times of national danger savings bank depositors shall only be entitled to a fixed proportion of their deposits on demand, repayment of the balance being spread over a considerable period. No such arrangement has ever been proposed in this country, and we may hope the need for it may never arise. We presume that in the event of a general panic among depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank the Government would not hesitate to suspend the operation of the law regulating withdrawals, as they have suspended the Bank of England charter on some occasions, and would afterwards ask Parliament to indemnify them. Hitherto commercial panics have not affected the Post Office Savings Bank, although the trustee savings banks felt, to some extent, the disasters of 1826 and 1866. In the latter year large sums of money, withdrawn by timid persons from the trustee savings banks, as well as from ordinary banks, were tendered for deposit in the Post Office Savings Banks, and in some instances, where the amount exceeded the authorised limit, intending depositors expressed a wish to leave their money for safe keeping without interest, and were much disappointed on being told that this could not be done. But a panic affecting depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank seems so improbable, and could only occur at a time of such general confusion as, happily, has been unknown to many generations of Englishmen, that the risk may be prudently neglected. We believe the Post Office Savings Bank is so well managed and so firmly established in the confidence of our fellow-countrymen as to be out of danger in times of the most serious commercial depression or of any other trouble that can be reasonably anticipated. It presents, therefore, a most favourable contrast to the numerous popular banks for small deposits and building societies, several of which have recently failed, and half of which are said to be insolvent. The Post Office Savings Bank alone affords absolute security for investment, and is the best form of provision for old age, due to the thrift of the people, without the intervention of the State.

ART. IX.-Original Letters of the Duke of Argyll to Lord Godolphin relating to the Debates in the Scottish Parliament on the Union with England, 1705-1706.

THERE are some among us even in Scotland who would now repeal the British Union, in so far that they desire again to see a Scottish Parliament. It may be of interest to take a glance at some unpublished papers of the time of the Union Conferences. These are letters from the young Duke of Argyll, Queen Anne's High Commissioner to the Scots Parliament; and from the old Lord Leven, one of the bravest and most astute of the Melville family. Of this correspondence we see only one side, for the two servants ' of Her Majesty' write to her, or more frequently to her Prime Minister, Lord Godolphin, and we have not the replies sent from the head-quarters in London. 'Head-quarters,' indeed! How could patriotic Scotsmen allow London to become the centre of government for the ancient kingdom in which they gloried? Simply because their best men believed, as it has turned out most correctly, that these same Scots would guide and do much to govern England as well as Scotland, if a legislative union could be accomplished. Their country had had a glorious history, but glory can be worn in wealth as well as in poverty. Scotland had been glorious, and gloriously poor. She was now able to contemplate an increase in fortune, with a greater scope for glory. Did the majority of her people 'grasp the situation'? Certainly not. If the men whose chief desire at the present day is to get measures passed which will not stand the gaze of a wide public opinion, had their desire, the narrower 'patriotism' which made Scotland poor and sparsely populated would have the success now which was denied them in 1707, because power was not then in the hands of the vain and the ignorant. The northern kingdom had statesmen who knew when to take occasion by the hand, and stop the vain outflow of blood and treasure which had signalised the old jealousy and hatred between the two countries-a jealousy unfortunately inherent in separate national, although neighbouring, systems of government. The peoples God had made one in blood from Aberdeen to London were no longer to be kept apart by feudal divisions. These had ripened into separate political existences, honourably maintained against all odds indeed, but most expensive and needless. The weaker and lesser power had fought so well that any