having increased from seventy-four
thousand pounds in 1850, to three hundred and thirty thousand pounds in
1874.

In 1854, Mr. Sikes published his excellent pamphlet on "Good Times, or
the Savings Bank and the Fireside," to which we have already referred.
The success which it met with induced him to give his attention to the
subject of savings banks generally. He was surprised to find that they
were so utterly inadequate to meet the requirements of the country. He
sought an interview with Sir Cornewall Lewis, then Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and brought the subject under his consideration. The
Chancellor requested Mr. Sikes to embody his views in a letter, and in
the course of a few months there appeared a pamphlet addressed to Sir
Cornewall Lewis, entitled "Savings Banks Reforms." Mr. Sikes insisted on
the Government guarantee being given for deposits made in Savings Banks;
but this was refused.

Mr. Sikes next proceeded to ventilate the question of Post Office
Savings Banks. He was disappointed that no measure for the improvement
of Savings Banks had been adopted by Parliament. The day appeared very
distant when his cherished wish would be realized,--that the Savings
Bank should really become the Bank of the People. But the darkest hour
precedes the dawn. When he had almost given up the notion of improving
the existing Savings Banks, the idea suddenly struck him that in the
money-order office there was the very organization which might be made
the basis of a popular Savings Bank.

He communicated his plan in a letter to his friend Mr. Baines, then
member for Leeds. The plan was submitted to Sir Rowland Hill, who
approved of the suggestions, and considered the scheme "practicable so
far as the Post Office was concerned." The plan was then brought under
the notice of Mr. Gladstone, who afterwards carried the Bill through
Parliament for the establishment of Post Office Savings Banks throughout
the country.

To use the words of Mr. Sikes himself,--when predicting at the Social
Science Association the success of the Post Office Savings
Banks,--"Should the plan be carried out, it will soon be doing a
glorious work. Wherever a Bank is opened and deposits received,
self-reliance will to some extent be aroused, and, with many, a nobler
life will be begun. They will gradually discern how ruthless an enemy is
improvidence to working men; and how truly his friends are economy and
forethought. Under their guidance, househol