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.
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