ON

PROVIDENT OR PARISH BANKS;

FOR THE

SECURITY AND IMPROVEMENT

OF THE

SAVINGS

OF

TRADESMEN, ARTIFICERS, SERVANTS, &c.

UNTIL REQUIRED FOR THEIR

FUTURE WANTS,

OR

ADVANCEMENT IN LIFE.

CONTAINING A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SEVERAL SCHEMES FOR THE ABOVE PURPOSE; AND DEVELOPING THE CAUSES WHICH HAVE

PROMOTED OR PREVENTED THEIR SUCCESS.

BY BARBER BEAUMONT, ESQ. F.A.S.

Managing Director of the Provident Institution and County Fire Office, and one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace for Middlesex.

LONDON.

AN ESSAY,

&c. &c.

No subject is more deserving of the prompt attention of the statist and patriot than the present habits of the working people of England; and few subjects, indeed, excite more general interest. Parish relief, which was formerly resorted to by the unfortunate with reluctance, and received as a charitable gift with humility, is now too generally thought of among the ways and means of subsistence without shame, and claimed as a matter of legal right without thankfulness.

This altered state of mind and conduct seems to have originated, in a great degree, in the large increase of wages, which, about fifteen or twenty years since, took place in most of our manufactories. That increase begat indolence and expensiveness; and when to these succeeded sudden interruptions in the demand for manufactures, and the enormously high price to which provisions were run up in times of scarcity, applications for relief to the parochial funds on behalf of workmen having large families became indispensable. It was not the custom to reserve the surplus earnings in prosperity for the hour of adversity. The spirit of independence having been thus broken by a descent to pauperism, and the disgrace of that condition being lessened by its frequency, many have been willing to feed on bread which they have not earned, after the pressure of real necessity has subsided; while others, influenced by the force of example, have resorted to the same course in cases where, under manlier feelings, they might have preserved their independence by due exertions and priva

tions.

Large wages are thus à source of injury, so far as they fall into the hands of single men-the earnings of three or four days in the week furnish them with the means of being idle and dissipated during the remainder. But this mischief does not stop with the occasion of it; the habits of early life are not easily shaken off. The idleness, tippling, and other expensiveness which were indulged in with impunity when in a single state, are not always abandoned when the obligation of bringing up a family calls for constant frugality as well as industry. On the contrary, the practice of excessive drinking too generally fastens on its victim, and follows him to his grave. This is the poor man's greatest curse the poisoner of his domestic comforts-the bane of his offspring's well-doing, and the parent of crime in himself, and in all whom he calls his own!

In this varying state between superabundance and destitution, we may see the germs of the greater part of the vices which disturb society. One condition supplies the means of riot and dissipation-the other excites to the commission of thefts and frauds. If we examine the registers of offences, we find the immediate cause of delinquency to be, most frequently, POVERTY; -the remote cause IDLENESS and EXTRAVAGANCE; hence we see young working men and women higher fed and better dressed than formerly; but we also see pawnbrokers in greater abundance→→→ misery in families and in old age more frequent-pauperism extended beyond all bounds, and the calendars of offences increasing every sessions.

This is a very diseased state of society, and the ordinary reme dies are proved to be insufficient to work a cure. New penal laws are enacted, but offenders are not discouraged-additional and extensive gaols are erected, but the public are not less infested with cheats and robbers. Schemes of reform are carried into execution at a great expense, but it is very doubtful whether the sinners brought to repentance equal their daily growth. Poor-houses greatly increase in number and magnitude, but the public ways continue to be disgraced with vagrants; and the numberless charities which have been lately founded, seem but to encourage new claimants on the benevolent sympathies. Seeing then the inefficacy of the various and prodigiously expensive means used for the relief of poverty and the punishment of crime, it is worth while to inquire whether much may not yet be done in the way of prevention. In procuring employment for the poor, and encourag ing their industry, much has been achieved; by such means they have been raised above poverty, but to keep them there, something more is necessary-viz. to teach them the propriety of frugalityof reserving part of their earnings when prosperous, unincumbered,

and healthy, to meet the future claims of a family, of sickness, and of old age. Without this prudential rule, the surplus earnings of most working men are not only not conducive to the supply of their future wants, but add to them by implanting in them habits of expense, drunkenness, and sloth. It is an encouraging circumstance, however, that at present we see the determined industry and frugality of a large portion of the laboring class carry them through the vicissitudes of life independently, in spite of every difficulty and impediment: but if these impediments be cleared away-if the path be made easy and agreeable—if the bright prospect afforded by early economy be clearly shown, many, very many, there doubtless are, of the less thoughtful or less resolute remainder, who will be awakened to a sense of what is necessary for their own interest and comfort, and acquire some liking for the dignity of independence.

It is not here supposed that this important subject has hitherto remained unattempted; the pens of the ablest writers and the eloquence of the pulpit have advocated the expediency of timely frugality; innumerable schemes have been proposed to render the surplus earnings of early life available for future deficiencies; ingenious and scientific persons have aided the cause by numerous calculations; neither zeal nor perseverance has been wanting to carry the object into complete effect, but hitherto nothing extensively useful has been done, and pauperism has continued to increase. The endeavours, however, have not been useless. By reducing many plausible and seemingly infallible theories to the test of practice, we have discovered what modes are inapplicable to real life, and learnt what is wanting to meet its conveniencies. A subject of such vast importance is not likely to be achieved upon abstract reasonings, or at once. It is after repeated failures, and among various experiments, that we ascertain the best way of reducing operations to practice, and elicit the true principle on which utility hinges. A short account of the principal schemes which have engaged public attention, and of the success or difficulties which followed them, will, therefore, be necessary to clear the way for a discussion of what remains to be done.

T

AN ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS SCHEMES

For rendering the Savings of early Industry conducive to future Support.

In 1773 a bill was brought into the House of Commons for enabling parishes to grant deferred annuities to their poor and industrious inhabitants. It was brought in by Mr. Dowdeswell,

and was supported by Sir George Saville, Edmund Burke, and many other eminent persons; it passed the House of Commons with a decided majority, but was thrown out in the Lords. The preamble to this bill stated

"Whereas it often happens that persons engaged as journeymen in manufactures and handicraft trades, and, likewise, household servants, laborers, and divers other persons, get more money, as the wages of their labor and service, than is sufficient for their present maintenance, and might easily, if they were so minded, lay by, out of their said gettings, a sufficient sum to provide for their support in their old age.

"And whereas, it would be highly useful both to the said persons themselves, and to the nation in general, that they should endeavour to make such provision for their support in the latter periods of their lives, as they would thereby become more sober and virtuous in their ordinary course of life, and more industrious in the prosecution of their several callings and employments, which would tend to the increase of the riches and the manufactures of this kingdom.

"And whereas it is probable that many of the said persons might be induced to lay up some part of their earnings in their youth and middle age, in order to make such provision for their old age, if a convenient opportunity were offered them, of employing the money they should so lay up in a safe and advantageous manner.

"And whereas the most safe and advantageous way in which the said frugal and industrious persons can employ the several sums of money which they may be able to save out of their wages, for the support of their old age, seems to be to purchase therewith annuities for their lives, which should commence at soine remote period, when their strength and ability to work will be considerably impaired; and the poor's rates of the several parishes in England or Wales seem likely both to be, and to be thought by the said industrious and frugal persons a sufficient and convenient fund to secure, at all events, the payment of such life annuities as aforesaid, to the several persons who shall have purchased them, in case any deficiency shouldhappen in the fund created for the payment of the said annuities by the monies that shall have been paid for the purchase of them."

The operative part of the bill provided that the poor rates should be liable, in case the fund raised by the deposits failed; that the minister, church-wardens, and overseers should be the managers of these annuities; that no annuity granted to a man should commence before he were fifty years of age, nor to a woman before she were thirty. The annuities were computed on a money interest of 31. per cent.; the grants were to have been restricted to the inhabitants having legal settlements in the parish; impedinients were imposed against the alienation of grants; and it was provided, that the scheme should not be opened in any parish unless a majority of the rated inhabitants in number and value should agree to it, at a meeting duly convened for the purpose.

In 178, an attempt was made to give effect to a plan for enabling the laboring poor to provide support for themselves in sickness, as well as old age, by small weekly savings from their wages. A bill for establishing a plan of this kind was brought in