of the districts in which the deposits
were made. The Bill further contemplated the establishment of a National
Assurance Society, by means of which working people were to be enabled
to effect assurances to an extent not exceeding two hundred pounds, and
to secure annuities to an amount not exceeding twenty pounds. Mr.
Whitbread's bill was rejected, and nothing came of his suggestions.

The exertions of Sir Rowland Hill having given great vitality to the
Post Office system, and extended its usefulness as a public institution
in all directions, it was next suggested that the money-order offices
(which were established in 1838) might be applied for the purpose of
depositing as well as for transmitting money. Professor Hancock
published a pamphlet on the subject in 1852. In November, 1856, Mr. John
Bullar, the eminent counsel--whose attention had been directed to the
subject by the working of the Putney Penny Bank--suggested to the Post
Office authorities the employment of money-order offices as a means of
extending the savings-bank system; but his suggestion did not meet with
approval at the time, and nothing came of it. Similar suggestions were
made by other gentlemen--by Mr. Hume, by Mr. M'Corquodale, by Captain
Strong, by Mr. Ray Smee, and others.

But it was not until Mr. Sikes, of Huddersfield, took up the question,
that these various suggestions became embodied in facts. Suggestions are
always useful. They arouse thinking. The most valuable are never lost,
but at length work themselves into facts. Most inventions are the result
of original suggestions. Some one attempts to apply the idea. Failures
occur at first; but with greater knowledge, greater experience, and
greater determination, the suggestion at last succeeds.

Post Office Savings Banks owe their success, in the first place, to the
numerous suggestions made by Mr. Whitbread and others; next to Sir
Rowland Hill who by establishing the Branch Post Offices for the
transmission of money, made the suggestions practicable; next to Mr.
Sikes, who took up the question in 1850, pushed it, persevered with it,
and brought it under the notice of successive Chancellors of the
Exchequer; and lastly to Mr. Gladstone, who, having clearly foreseen the
immense benefits of Post Office Savings Banks, brought in a Bill and
carried it through Parliament in 1861.

The money-order department of the Post Office had suggested to Mr.
Sikes, as it had already done to other observer