The system of savings banks had been established for forty-five years, during which they had had every description of speculation, the severity of a com- 2196 Mercial Crisis, the pressure of a dreadful famine, and almost every trial that could befal a new system, and although holding a great amount of money at call, there had been but a small pecuniary loss—and, in comparison with that loss, the establishment of such a system was immeasurably of greater value.