are not on a satisfactory footing as between
the Government and depositors, or as between
the latter and the local managers; yet, on the
whole, the system is so well contrived, that no
good reason has lately been revealed for the
public to withdraw their confidence from
them. The cure of the more glaring defects is
now under the consideration of Government,
and this paper will be best concluded by a
sketch of the proposed remedy. The bill
introduced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer
deals with all the defects we have pointed
out: perhaps it introduces some new ones, but
these it will be purged of probably in
Committee. One of the chief evils is that
exemption from liability which was extended to
trustees in 1844: and it is proposed, for wilful
or neglectful losses, to restore this liability.
These officers are now unpaid; and it is
proposed to pay them, Government being
responsible for their acts, and having the privilege
of appointing. To prevent fraud,
occasioned by the treasurer or actuary receiving
monies at his own house, it is intended
that the treasurer alone shall receive money,
and that he shall attend at certain stated times
for that purpose. A local banker is to
fill the office, who will not be wholly
unremunerated. For any other person than the
treasurer to receive money as a savings'-bank
deposit, will be a misdemeanour. Daily
accounts are to be rendered to the
Commissioners of the National Debt; and those
Commissioners will appoint auditors, who
shall exercise a constant revision of the
accounts, subject to supervision by special
inspectors despatched at discretion. These
arrangements will necessarily entail greater
expence, and to meet it, the rate of interest
allowed to depositors, is to be reduced to
£2. 15s., and deposits limited to £100. Above
that amount, Government will either hold the
money without interest, or, at the
depositor's option, invest it in the funds free of
charge.

THE SUMMER SABBATH.

THE woods my Church, to-day—my preacher
       boughs,
Whispering high homilies through leafy lips;
And worshippers, in every bee that sips
Sweet cordial from the tiniest flower, that grows
'Mid the young grass, and, in each bird, that dips
Light pinions in the sunshine as it throws
Gold showers upon green trees. All things around
Are full of Prayer! The very blush which tips
Yon snowy cloud, is bright with adoration!
The grass breathes incense forth, and all the
       ground
Is a wide altar; while the stillest sound
Is vibrating with praise. No profanation
Reaches the thoughts, while thus to ears and eyes
Nature her music and her prayer supplies!

NEWSPAPER ANTECEDENTS.

THOSE in whom the appetite for news on
which we have already commented is very
strong, must wonder how our forefathers
existed without newspapers; for so it happened
that the lieges of these realms did get on very
well without them up to the days of the first
of the Stuarts. But although they had no
printed newspapers, they could not and did
not do without news; conveyed orally in the
form of gossip, or by means of manuscript
intelligencers. Friendly communications
containing the gossip of the town for the
enlightenment of cousins in the country are as
old as pen and ink, and much older than
paper; for many, still extant in the British
Museum, were written on vellum. By-and-
bye, the writing of such letters became a
profession, and every country family of
pretension could boast of "our own correspondent."
These writers were generally
disbanded military officers, younger sons very
much "about town," and, not unfrequently,
clergymen. Shirley in his "Love Tricks"
draws the portrait of one of these antecedents
of the present race of Editors.

"Easparo. I tell you, Sir, I have known a gentleman
that has spent the best part of a thousand
pounds while he was prentice to the trade in
Holland, and out of three sheets of paper, which
was his whole stock, (the pen and ink-horn he
borrowed,) he set up shop, and spent a hundred
pounds a-year. It has been a great profession.
Marry, most commonly they are soldiers; a peace
concluded is a great plague upon them, and if the
wars hold we shall have store of them. Oh, they are
men worthy of commendation. They speak in
print.

"Antonio. Are they soldiers?

"Eas. Faith so they would be thought, though
indeed they are but mongrels, not worthy of that
noble attribute. They are indeed bastards, not
sons of war and true soldiers, whose divine souls
I honour, yet they may be called great spirits too,
for their valour is invisible; these, I say, will
write you a battle in any part of Europe at
an hour's warning, and yet never set foot out of
a tavern; describe you towns, fortifications,
leaders, the strength of the enemy, what
confederates, every day's march. Not a soldier shall
lose a hair, or have a bullet fly between his arms,
but he shall have a page to wait on him in quarto.
Nothing destroys them but want of a good
memory, for if they escape contradiction they
may be chronicled."

By the time James the First began to
reign, this employment had so completely
moulded itself into a regular craft, that news-
writers set up offices and kept "emissaries,"
or reporters, to bring them accounts of what
was going on in various parts of the metropolis.
These reports were sifted, collected,
and arranged by the master of the office, or
"Register," who acted as Editor. To
Nathaniel Butter, a news-writer of that period,
was the British public indebted for the first
printed newspaper. Ben Jonson in his