of his country at heart must earnestly wish for. I may here ask if the mind of man can invent any thing more likely than this, to revive and to bring into action that old spirit of abhorrence to receiving parish relief?'

The success [of Banks for Savings] at Edinburgh and Bath; has been very considerable. It is on that experience I rely; more confidently than I should have done upon the theory of the plan, excellent and unexceptionable as it is.'

The following hint deserves consideration.

In Scotland, I believe the pulpit has been found a very efficacious means of giving furtherance to the measure of the Banks, as well in the congregations of the Dissenters as in the Established Church; it being considered as one tending to the advancement of religion and good morals, as well as to great temporal advantages. How far the same practice may be adopted in places in this part of the United Kingdom where Societies are formed, or intended to be proposed, I must leave to more competent persons to decide. In any event, the exertions of the clergy amongst their parishioners may be of infinite use; and in a matter of such moment I cannot entertain a doubt but that they will be made.' Rose's Observations, pp. 23, 33.

The Essay on Parish Banks, by the Rev. Henry Duncan, of Ruthwell, is a publication of great merit; and we heartily recommend it to the attentive notice of our readers. It is excellent with respect both to matter and to style. The observations which it contains respecting the mode in which the business of Banks for Savings should be managed, are extremely judicious; and the rules and regulations of the establishment at Dumfries, are the best which we have seen. Mr. Duncan's history of Banks for Savings, in the establishment of which he has taken so leading and honourable a part, is very interesting, and is narrated in a spirit of the most perfect candour. He notices some facts which are to be classed among those striking coincidences which so frequently occur in the history of new inventions; and he unhesitatingly acknowledges the aids and suggestions he received in conducting the great moral experiment which, in his hands, has been attended with such complete and astonishing success. Following the precept of his Divine Master, he "renders unto Cæsar the things "which are Cæsars ;" and by thus refusing to pirate another's fame, he heightens the splendour of his own.

"

Mr. Taylor's Summary Account of the London Savings' "Bank," is interesting, and contains practical suggestions on the formation of Committees, and the modes of conducting the business of the Bank. which may be of much utility to those who are about to establish similar institutions. The constitution of the London Savings' Bank' is different from that of the London Provident Institution for Savings,' of which

his Grace the Duke of Somerset is patron. The latter is an aristocracy; the former a pure democracy. To form a perfect institution would require a union of the principles of both. It is necessary, in order to give importance to Banks for Savings, as well as to afford a perfect guarantee for the security of their funds, that men of rank and fortune should be induced to become trustees; while, in order to win the confidence of the labouring classes, it seems expedient and reasonable that depositors should have some inspection and control.over the administration of their own affairs. But Mr. Duncan, of Ruthwell, has treated this subject so ably, that it is unneces sary for us to say another word upon it.

Mr. Barber Beaumont's "Essay on Provident or Parish "Banks," contains some useful observations upon the danger of spoiling the simple and cheap machinery which constitutes the perfection of these institutions, by attempting to introduce complicated improvements. Mr. Davis's "Friendly Advice to "industrious and frugal persons," is an admirable little tract, and we are happy to perceive that it has already gone through three editions. Under the unassuming form of a sixpenny pamphlet, it contains lessons of inestimable value. We do not remember ever to have seen so much good sense condensed into so small a compass. This little tract should be universally distributed among the poor.

It would be an unpardonable act of injustice if, in noticing the writers who have contributed to impress upon the public the utility of Economical banks, we were to omit to mention the original author of these admirable institutions. Mr. Bone, in a tract entitled "The Rules and Regulations of Tranquillity," developed, in 1816, the principles of economical banking, which have lately been so extensively adopted. We are of opinion, for the reasons already stated, that he attributes too much importance to annuities commencing at a late period of life. But be this as it may, Mr. Bone's simple and unexpensive machinery, for preserving and accumulating the surplus earnings of labour, is an invention of the highest utility and importance; and his name will go down to posterity as a benefactor of mankind.

Before we conclude this article, we must make a few observations upon one or two points which seem essentially connected with the improvement and extension of the system of Economical banks In the first place, it appears highly desirable that these institutions should, if it can be accomplished without rendering their machinery too complicated, or materially increasing the expense of management, embrace a scheme of insurance similar to that on which friendly societies or benefit clubs are founded, Without some union of this nature, it may frequently happen, that the most industrious and frugal may be left desti

tute by being compelled, on the recurrence of accident or disease, to draw from their bank the accumulated savings of years. But if the banks could be made to combine a scheme of insurance against such casualties, this distressing result would be obviated, and the labourer, by dividing his savings between the temporary deposite, and the insurance funds, would, at one and the same time, be able to accumulate an available resource for the period of marriage, and to make a provision for the various accidents of life. This union of Economical Banks with friendly societies, would complete the system for affording to the people the means of self-support. Should this union, however, be found too complicated and expensive, then it will become expedient that depositors to the banks should also be members of friendly societies.

3

It should never be forgotten, that all the benefits which can be rationally expected from Economical, Banks, arise in consequence of such institutions affording a convenient and secure place of deposite for the surplus earnings of the unincumbered labourer. Now, in whatever degree these surplus earnings are curtailed, in that degree will the utility of Economical banks be destroyed. As wages must ever be sufficient to keep the supply of labour up to the demand, the man who has the average number of children, will be able just to support his family. But when, instead of enabling the married labourer to support his family by apportioning his wages to the value of subsistence, we give him, upon every rise in the price of provisions, a certain allowance from the parish, we depress the earnings of the unmarried man, to whom this aid is not afforded, below their natural level, and, by an act of injustice for which it would be difficult to find a name, deprive him of the means of providing for his future wants. Whoever is interested in the success of Economical banks, should endeavour, as a preliminary step, to correct that most mischievous operation of the poor laws, by which an increase in the parish rate is substituted for a rise of wages. This miserable and unjust system, (for we are told by the highest authority, that the labourer is worthy of his hire,) prevails, to the disgrace of the country, throughout many agricultural districts; and, if it should not be exploded, will, in such districts, present an insuperable bar to every plan for improving the condition of the people.

But it is not merely in the distributing of parish relief, that unenlightened benevolence obstructs improvement, and tends to perpetuate the misery it would remove. In the erection of penetentiaries, enormous sums are squandered in a manner much worse than useless. Whatever the capital and consumption of a country may be, they can create only a given demand for labour. Now, if Government supplies a portion of this given demand, by

means of convicts in a penitentiary, it must necessarily throw a portion of independent workmen out of employment. Thus the labour market will be narrowed, wages will be reduced, the difficulty of obtaining employment and subsistence will be increased, and want will goad fresh victims to the perpetration of crime. Thus it may be feared lest the Penitentiary at Milbank, erected at an enormous expense, for the purpose of training convicts to industry and virtue, should prove the remote occasion of making new criminals in the place of those whom it may reclaim Convicts should be employed and reclaimed in distant colonies, where, from the great productive powers of industry when directed to new lands, they might, with a moderate degree of skilful management, be made, not only to maintain themselves, but to replace the expense of their transport; and where, by opening new fields for commercial speculation, they would enlarge, rather than narrow, the labour market on the mother country. In order to aid the improvement of the people, we should carefully abstain from every thing which might prevent wages from finding their natural level; and should confine ourselves to encouraging the unincumbered man to lay up those surplus earnings which are his due

From the preceding observations it will appear, that much is yet to be done, and not a little to be undone, before we can arrive at a perfect system for affording the people the means of self-support. This consideration should animate us to more energetic exertions in the great cause which has been so auspiciously commenced. Enough has already been accomplished to ensure the success of future efforts. The great events, the astonishing and rapid changes which, for the last five and twenty years, we have witnessed in the political world, become trivial and unimportant when contrasted with that mighty moral revolution, which is now working its tranquil, its noiseless, but resistless way, and which is not we trust to 'cease, until the Millennium come.

CORRESPONDENCE.

There is no part of our critical office, on which we enter with so painful reluctance, as that of discharging our duty to the Public, at the expense of the feelings and interests of a deserving individual. The wish to make reparation for even seeming severity in our Review of Mr. Good's Work on Job, induced us to give a prompt insertion to that Gentleman's letter, in our March Number, although it was impossible to print it without adding a few remarks substantiating the statement of the Reviewer. We regret that we failed in our attempt to

give Mr. Good satisfaction. He complained, in a Note to the Proprietor, of the 'self evident absurdity' of our 'silly com'ment' on his letter, and intimated that three lines of graceful apology would have done more service to the Review than this page of blundering defence.' It now becomes proper to do justice to our Reviewer, who, it is unnecessary to state, is wholly a stranger to Mr. Good, and opened his volume under no unfavourable prepossession whatsoever. At the time of his receiving Mr. Good's Letter, from the Publisher, he was labouring under severe indisposition, and had only an hour allowed him hastily to draw up the few remarks which appeared in the Number for March. As both his competency as a Hebrew scholar, and his integrity as a critic, are deeply implicated in the justness of his strictures on Mr. Good's Work, we think it due to him to give insertion to the following communication, as affording specimens of the data on which he formed his opinion of Mr. Good's qualifications and attainments as a Biblical critic.

Job, ch. iii. 6. "Let it not rejoice amidst the days of the year." "There are two derivations of the Hebrew term (Jihad) here translated rejoice;-the one is from the verb to unite or join together: in which case the phrase must be necessarily rendered as in our common version, "let it not be joined to;" and the other from the verb (hadeh) to rejoice, or exult. The latter derivation appears the more forcible and poetical; and I have followed Cocceius, Mercer, and Schultens, in admitting it into the text, in opposition to the common reading."-Mr. Good's Note, p. 36.

Who would imagine after reading this Note, that the English Translators of the Common Version, ever thought of " rejoice," as suitably expressing the sense of the original ? In the margin of the English Common Version, we find the very rendering adopted by Mr. Good. "Let it not rejoice among the days of "the year!" A less pompous Author, would have said merely, I prefer the marginal to the textual reading of the public ver

'sion.'

Ch. iv. 5. The Hebrew an almost uniformly implies iteration, rotation, turn, or circle,"-for the root is not Ra, but an, which, as a verb neuter, signifies to re-turn; and as a verb active, to re-store, re-cover, and also to re-turn."-Mr. Good's Note, p. 48.

an is not a Hebrew, but a Chaldee word. Every Hebrew scholar knows that an, or n, (for so the word is printed in both Athias's and Vander-hooght's editions,) is from the root x, or x, venire, to come, or go. w, or w, is the origin of an, or an, the win Hebrew being changed for the n in Chaldec.