Savine

Savine, or SAVIN (Juniperus Sabina), a low, much-branched, and widely-spreading shrub, with very small, imbricated, evergreen leaves, which grows in Europe, Siberia, Canada, and the northern United States. It bears small black berries, covered with a pale blue bloom. Its foliage has a strong, aromatic, penetrating odour. The fresh and dried tops, and a volatile oil distilled from the former, are used in medicine. Their odour is strong and terebinthinate, and their taste acrid, bitter, resinous, and disagreeable. The therapeutic properties of savine are due to the volatile oil, of which it contains about 2 per cent., consisting chiefly of a body having the chemical composition $C\_\{10\}H\_\{16\}$ and isomeric with oil of turpentine (see JUNIPER).

Savine exerts a stimulating effect on the pelvic organs, and is employed in cases of amenorrhœa and chlorosis. It is best given in the form of the oil, 1 or 2 minims of which may be prescribed in a pill, to be taken twice a day. This drug is sometimes employed for the purpose of procuring abortion; but if given in a sufficiently large dose to produce the desired effect, the life of the mother is placed in the greatest possible peril. Savine in the form of ointment is used as an external application, with the view of keeping up the discharge from a blistered surface. The ointment cannot, however, be kept long without losing its properties.

Savings-banks.—General History.—Savings-banks, for the receipt of small deposits by poor persons, and their accumulation at compound interest, are either (1) voluntary associations, the property and management of which are vested in their trustees and officers, and which are termed trustee savings-banks, or (2) institutions established and managed by the state, such as the post-office savings-banks.

The formation of trustee savings-banks was first suggested by Defoe in 1697. Though, however, the project was revived by Francis Maseres, Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, in 1771, and by Jeremy Bentham in 1797, it was not practically carried out in England till the year 1799. The first savings-bank established in Europe is said to have been that of Brumath in France, established in 1765, which was followed by one at Loire (dept. Rhone) in 1790. In Germany savings-banks were first established at Hamburg in 1778 and Oldenburg in 1786; in Switzerland at Berne in 1787, Basel 1792, Geneva 1794, and Zurich 1805; and in Denmark at Kiel in Holstein in 1796. The first English bank was established in 1799 by the Rev. J. Smith, rector of Wendover, Bucks, who, in order to encourage frugality in his parish, offered with two other inhabitants to receive any weekly sums not less than 2d., and if the amount were not touched before Christmas to add 1s. 3d. to it as bonus or encouragement. In Scotland the Rev.

John Mackay established a friendly bank for savings of the poor at West Calder in 1807, and in 1810 the Rev. Henry Duncan founded a similar institution at Ruthwell in Dumfries, which has served as a model for all subsequent ones. In Ireland a savings-bank was established at Stillorgan, County Dublin, in 1815; and one of the earliest founded in Wales appears to have been that at Brecon, established in 1816. In the same year the first savings-banks in the United States—the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, suggested by Condy Ragnet, and the Boston Savings-bank—were established, and in 1819 were followed by one at New York.

The establishment of savings-banks under government supervision was proposed as early as 1806 by Mr Whitbread; but the credit of first suggesting their formation in connection with the post-office is due to George Hans Hamilton, the Ven. Archdeacon of Northumberland. In 1852 he propounded a scheme to this effect to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Alexander Hamilton, which at the request of the latter he again published in 1858, and which was in many respects identical with that now in force. In 1859 a paper, containing many valuable suggestions subsequently adopted by Mr Scudamore, then Postmaster-general, was read by Mr Sikes of the Huddersfield Banking Company, before a Social Science Congress at Bradford; and in 1860 Mr Chetwynd of the post-office drew up the plan of the present system, which was established by the Post-office Savings-bank Act, 1861 (see below).

The system is now established in India and in nearly all the colonies, as well as in all the principal European states, excepting Germany. Its remarkable growth throughout the world will be seen from the following compendium of a table compiled by the Controller of Post-office Savings-banks, published in the report of the Postmaster-general for 1889. It has also been adopted by the following countries not noticed in the table: Russia, Servia, Norway, Japan, and Hawaii. At Dec. 31, 1899, there were in the United Kingdom 8,000,000 accounts open, the amount deposited, £130,118,605; average £16, 5s. 3½d.

Trustee Savings-banks.—The first two savings-banks acts were passed in 1817, and authorised the formation of banks in Ireland and England for the benefit of depositors, deducting thence only sufficient to provide for the expenses of management, but 'deriving no benefit from such deposits or the produce thereof.' In 1818 the rules, like those of friendly societies, were made subject to confirmation by justices at quarter sessions, and in the following year the system was introduced into Scotland. In 1828 it was, however, enacted that the rules should be submitted to a barrister appointed by the National Debt Commissioners, who was to certify that they were in conformity with law; and in 1844 it was provided that one of the two copies of rules thus certified was to be returned to the institution, and the other transmitted to the commissioners, while the barrister was also empowered to settle all disputes between the trustees and the depositors. In 1863 the law was consolidated by an act which repealed all previous acts, and enacted that the rules of all banks should contain regulations providing for (1) the attendance of at least two trustees, managers, or specially appointed paid officers on all occasions of public business; (2) the comparison of the pass-books of the depositors with the ledger on every repayment, and also on their first production at the bank after each 20th November; (3) the audit half-yearly of the books of the bank by a public accountant, or one or more auditors appointed by the trustees and managers, but 'not out of their own body;' (4) a book containing an extracted list of the depositors' balances made up every year to the 20th November, to be kept open at any time during the hours of public business for the inspection of the depositors; (5) meetings of the trustees and managers half-yearly at least, and the keeping of minutes of their proceedings in a separate book. The trustees and managers were required to transmit weekly returns, showing the amount of the week's transactions, to the National Debt Commissioners. Lastly, the interest payable to depositors—which, together with that payable to the banks, was, until 1828, 3d. per diem, or nearly 5 per cent.—was reduced to £3, 0s. 10d. per annum, that payable to the banks having been previously reduced to £3, 5s. per annum by the Act of 1844.

Post-office Savings-banks were established in 1861 by an act designed to grant additional facilities for depositing small savings at interest, with 'the direct security of the state' for the repayment of the deposits. It empowers the Postmaster-general, with the consent of the Treasury, to authorise 'such of his officers as he shall think fit to receive deposits for remittance to the principal office and to repay the same,' under such regulations as, with the consent of the Treasury, he may prescribe, paying the moneys so received to the National Debt Commissioners. It provides for the transfer of deposits to and from ordinary savings-banks, and fixes the rate of interest on deposits at £2, 10s. per annum. The Act of 1861 was amended in 1863 by one which provided for the transfer of the accounts of minors, and also for the closing, under certain conditions, of trustee banks, and the transfer of their funds to the post-office banks.

Since 1863 several acts relating to savings-banks have been passed, three of which apply to trustee banks only, the others to both classes of banks. In 1876 the Savings-bank Barrister Act transferred the powers of settling disputes and certifying rules vested in the barrister appointed by the National Debt Commissioners to the Friendly Societies Central Office. The Savings-bank Act of 1880 reduced the interest payable to the trustees of savings-banks to 3 per cent., and that payable to depositors to £2, 15s.—or to within 5s. of that payable to depositors in post-office banks—viz. £2, 10s. per cent. Its most noteworthy provisions, however, were those authorising the investment of deposits in post-office and trustee banks in government stock, to the amount of £100 in any one year, and to a total amount of £300. Regulations issued under this act in 1881 were amended by those of 1888, which fixed the minimum amount of stock purchasable at one shilling. The act thus doubled the original limits of investment, which now amount to £130 in one year instead of £30, provided the £100 be for investment in stock, and to a total of £300 plus £200 deposit. The Savings-bank Act of 1887, while extending the powers of the Postmaster-general to make regulations, conferred a similar power on the Treasury as respects trustee savings-banks, and three important sets of regulations have been issued under it. In the same year the failure of the Cardiff Savings-bank, through a deficiency of £37,000 in the funds due to the frauds of the actuary, led to the passing of the Trustee Savings-bank Act, 1887. Similar failures, chiefly caused by the negligence of trustees in controlling the work of the paid officers of banks, have been of frequent occurrence, one of the earliest being that of the Mildenhall Bank (Suffolk) in 1825. Between 1842 and 1857 there were twenty-three in England and four in Ireland, the loss to the depositors in some cases being very heavy, while in others it was made good by the trustees, and since 1857 there have been fourteen cases of defalcations by paid officials, eleven of which resulted in the closing of the bank. Prior to 1828 the trustees and managers appear to have been personally liable for any deficiency unless they protected themselves by their rules. The Act of 1863 has now provided that no trustee or manager of any bank in the United Kingdom shall be personally liable except (1) for moneys actually received by him on account of or for the use of the bank, and not disposed of as directed by the rules; (2) for neglect or omission in complying with the regulations prescribed by the act as to the maintenance of checks, the audit and examination of accounts, the holding of meetings and keeping minutes of proceedings; (3) for neglect or omission in taking security from officers as required by the act. The 50 and 51 Vict. chap. 47 empowers the Treasury, if satisfied, on the representation either of the depositors or of the National Debt Commissioners, to appoint a commissioner to hold a local inquiry with regard to any trustee bank and to report thereon; while it also provides for the winding-up of trustee banks as 'unregistered associations' under the Companies Acts. The Savings-bank Act, 1891, takes a further step in the same direction by providing for the appointment of an Inspection Committee of Trustee Savings-banks, charged with the duty of ascertaining, by means of inspectors, whether the banks are duly complying with the law, and are keeping their expenditure within due limits. If the committee, on the report of any inspector, are of opinion that a bank has made default in either of these respects, they are to report the matter to the National Debt Commissioners, who may, in their discretion, either close the account of the trustees, or report to the Treasury, with a view of an inspection being made of its affairs under the Act of 1887.

Progress of the System.—The first trustee savings-bank in the United Kingdom was established in 1799. By the end of 1817, when legislation on the subject first began, upwards of 135 were in existence, of which 122 were in England, 4 in Wales, 5 in Ireland, and 4 in Scotland. The establishment of the post-office system in 1861 almost immediately caused a decrease in the business of the older institutions, and by the end of 1869, 145 of the 638 trustee banks open in 1860 had been closed, and capital amounting to £1,816,335 transferred to the post-office banks, the number of which has risen from 2535 in 1862 to 9681 in 1890. The average of the deposits in each seems to show that the latter class of banks benefit a lower social stratum than the former.

In 1829, after the passing of the Act of 1828, the number of savings-bank accounts in the United Kingdom was 409,714, amounting to £14,314,192. In 1845, after the passing of the Act of 1844, it rose to 1,062,930, amounting to £36,748,868; and at the introduction of the post-office system was 1,585,778, amounting to £41,259,145. At the close of 1890 the total number of depositors in the trustee savings-banks was 1,535,782, and the total amount due to them was £43,614,055, an average of £28, 7s. 11d.

The following table shows the progress of the system:

The percentage of depositors to total population throughout the United Kingdom was 2.9 in 1840; 4 in 1850; 5.4 in 1860; 8.1 in 1870; 10.5 in 1880; and in 1890 it was 19.1 in England and Wales, 13.5 in Scotland, and 5.2 in Ireland.

The total amounts due to depositors in trustee banks and post-office banks was as follows:

The amount of stock standing to the credit of depositors in savings-banks was as follows:

In addition there was in the trustee banks £4,587,376 in special investment accounts.

The Government Annuity and Insurance System.

The government insurance system, though in itself distinct, has by recent legislation become so closely connected with the savings-banks system that it cannot be left out of consideration in treating of the latter. Its foundations were laid in 1833 by the 3 and 4 Will. IV. chap. 14 (extended to Scotland in 1835), which allowed the purchase of annuities, immediate or deferred, through the medium of savings-banks or of societies authorised to be established for the purpose in parishes where there were no savings-banks, and the system was further developed in 1853 by the 16 and 17 Vict. chap. 45, and in 1864 by the 27 and 28 Vict. chap. 43. The latter act is embodied in the Government Annuities Act, 1882, the one now governing the subject. Under these statutes a 'savings- bank annuity' may be of any amount not exceeding £100 a year, and may be granted to any person not under five years of age, while a 'savings-bank insurance' may be granted for not exceeding £100 to any person between the ages of fourteen and sixty-five, or for not exceeding £5 to a person not under eight years. 'Annuity and insurance regulations' under the acts are made by the National Debt Commissioners as respects trustee, and by the Postmaster-general as respects post-office savings-banks.

Taken in conjunction with the Savings-bank Act, 1880, these acts extend the limits of investment in any one year to £230—viz. £30 ordinary deposit, £100 for investment in stock, and £100 for an annuity or insurance; and to a total of £200 ordinary deposit, £300 stock, £100 insurance, and an annuity of £100.

The Savings-Bank Act of 1893 raised the limit of ordinary deposit which may be made in one year to £50, and the total of stock to £500.

In the United States the 'Philadelphia Savings Fund Society,' founded in 1816, received a state charter in 1819; between 1817 and 1846 twelve states had granted charters; fifty years later there were 684 savings-banks in the United States. These do not belong to any connected national system, each being regulated by the legislature of its own state. Before 1870 there were very few failures of savings-banks; but in the seven years that followed no less than twenty-nine failed in the state of New York alone, not by reason of fraud, but mainly on account of commercial depression, the panic of 1873, and injudicious investments. In 1874 the constitution of the New York state was modified so as to prevent the legislature from sanctioning any savings-bank that did not strictly conform to rigorous conditions, fixing the duties and responsibilities of trustees, prescribing the rate of interest (never to exceed 5 per cent. until a surplus of 15 per cent. of deposits as security has been accumulated), and specifying the stocks in which such banks may invest. These regulations have been adopted by other states. Most of the states have endeavoured, ineffectually, to prevent the savings-banks from becoming rivals to other banks, so as to reserve their privileges for the poorer classes. The following table shows the progress of savings-banks in the United States:

See Lewins, History of Banks for Savings in Great Britain and Ireland (1866); Keyes, History of United States Savings-banks (2 vols. New York, 1878); Scratchley's Practical Treatise (2d ed. 1863); The Law relating to Trustees and Post-office Savings-banks, by the present writer (1878-84); the reports of the Select Committees on Savings-banks of 1857 and of 1889; the annual reports and returns; also the articles BANKING, CO-OPERATION, FRIENDLY SOCIETIES, SCHULZE-DELITZSCH, &c.