staff of assistants, instead of an already overladen country minister. But, cheered with this evidence of the success of his benevolent mission, Mr. Duncan confronted the epistolary torrent, and had an answer for every inquirer. "Happily for himself and his cause," thus writes his amiable biographer, "his readiness as a letter-writer was one of his most remarkable characteristics. Whole days, indeed, were frequently consumed in this laborious occupation; but the amount of work accomplished, while thus engaged, was indeed astonishing. This may be understood when it is remembered that, among his correspondents in a scheme so entirely new, there must have been, as there were, many desirous of minute information and special explanations; many suggesting difficulties, and demanding their solution; many persevering and insatiable letter-writers, making small allowance for the overburdened and weary individual on whom had thus at once devolved the care of a thousand infant institutions. Add to this, that the soundness of some of the principles on which he was most decided was disputed by a few of the warmest friends of the measure, and that he had to maintain on these topics a tedious controversy, not the less necessary because those with whom it was carried on were among his best friends and coadjutors." While thus engaged he also published, at the beginning of 1815, an essay "On the Nature and Advantages of Parish Banks; together with a Corrected Copy of the Rules and Regulations of the Parent Institution in Ruthwell," for which production a new and enlarged edition was in demand in the following year. Thus it will be seen that Mr. Duncan was no mere benevolent dreamer, even as a savings bank was no mere "devout imagination." He was a man of fearless daring and incessant labour, and therefore, in his hands, the theory became a great, substantial, and national reality. And well was his benevolent disinterested heart rewarded in its own best fashion. To few of those who would teach truths "to save a sinking land" is the happy lot accorded to witness these truths in full operation, and producing their happiest results.
After the general adoption of the principle of savings banks throughout the three kingdoms, from which it gradually diffused itself throughout the different countries of Europe, where it was adopted as the true "cheap defence of nations," it would have been contrary to all past experience, since the days of Triptolemus, if Mr. Duncan had been allowed to sit down as a public benefactor, and no angry wind had blown to shake the laurels that grew around him. Carping questions rose as to the fitness of his scheme either in whole or in part; and when these were satisfactorily answered, attempts were made to bereave him of the honour of its paternity. A more difficult as well as more important step was to obtain for it the advantages of legislative protection, and for this purpose he repaired to London in the spring of 1819. After much negotiation with some of the leading financiers and statesmen, whom he converted to his views, the measure was introduced, and successfully carried through parliament. "You may carry with you," said a friend to him on that occasion, "the satisfaction of knowing that the Savings Bank Bill would not have been carried except by your visit to London." During the same year, and while the political discontent of the lower orders was daily threatening to merge into French infidelity and republicanism, Mr. Duncan published his "Young South Country Weaver," a tale admirably suited to the times, as well as the classes for which it was especially written, being full of Scottish humour, and vigorous descriptions of such popular meetings and noisy demagogues as were in vogue among the rabble during this stormy period. In 1823, the degree of D.D. was con-
