all about Savings Banks already?"—"Not a
bit. That's why they have to make these
huge blue-books to tell 'em. This one is on
the 'Savings of the Middle and Working
Classes.' As secretary to our shop-savings'
club, I was examined as one of the witnesses."

Inquisitive Shop-mate. Don't you think it
is a blest hardship that if a man saves enough
to buy a bit of land he is not able by law to
do so?"—"Why, for sums between one
hundred and five hundred pounds it's shockingly
difficult to get good and safe investments of
any sort from the present state of the law."

"If you want to buy a bit of land you can't,
—especially if it is mortgaged,—can you?"
—"Not by no means. Why it costs more
than the land is worth to what they call
'investigate the title.'"

"Then people can't club small sums and
be partners in an enterprise, can they?"—"Oh,
bless you, no! If they do so without a
Charter or an Act of Parliament, every one
of them is responsible to no end of money."

"And people who know what they're about
don't, eh?"—"No, indeed. If a man has fifty
pounds, he can't say he will subscribe five to a
concern and lose so much if it fail. He must
be ready to lose all his fifty if it fails. People
with five hundred pounds to invest, can't
invest fifty as a share in such an enterprise
and go no further. They must risk all their
five hundred on the venture, though they are
sure of only getting profit on the five. So
they don't invest in that way when they 're
prudent; but the reckless do."

"What is the cause of that?"—"The Law
of Partnership."

"But does not that affect the rich as well?"
—"Yes, but a larger enterprise, with money
at command, affords to buy an Act of Parliament
or Charter, but that luxury is too
expensive for a little undertaking."

"What do you call a little undertaking?"—
"A Society for the Improvement of Dwellings
of the Poor; or a Society for Building Baths
and Washhouses, or anything of that sort—
any local improvement of a humble character
is too small to afford a Charter."

"Why, what then does a Charter cost?"
—"Some hundreds. The Charter of the
Metropolitan Association for Improving the
Dwellings of the Industrious Classes cost
one thousand one hundred and thirty-nine
pounds, seven shillings, and eightpence; out
of which seven hundred and twenty-four
pounds, ten shillings, and eightpence went in
pure fees to the Crown officers. Here it is all
down in the blue-book."

"Indeed! Well, well, what next?"—"Why
the next thing was that six or a dozen similar
societies in different parts of the country,
finding the cost of a Charter, abandoned their
benevolent designs."

"What good would a Charter have done
them? Why couldn't they go on without
it?"—"A Charter would have placed them
out of the law of partnership, and enabled the
projectors and supporters of the charity to
contribute to it according to their means.
Without it they would be responsible for its
success with all their property."

"Is that the law of partnership?"—"Yes.
By the English law of partnership, all partners
are answerable with their whole substance
for the acts of any one."

"You say by the English law; but does
not the same law exist in other countries?"—
"Certainly not. All civilised countries differ
from England in the law of partnership.
They have either partnerships in which the
responsibility is altogether limited, the limit
being in each case known; or they have a
kind of partnership called commandite."

"And what is commandite partnership?"
—"Here you have it: The partnership en
commandite allows any number of men to
subscribe money to an undertaking in a
limited amount; they are the commanditaires,
and they are not allowed to perform any act
of management; the managers of any
partnership en commandite become responsible
with all their property."

"Is not that the same as if the managers
of an English partnership borrowed the money
supplied else where by commanditaires?"—"No,
it is not. The lender is a creditor with other
creditors, but the commanditaire can have no
claim until all other creditors are paid. A
firm that borrows, multiplies its liabilities;
monies advanced en commandite multiplies
strength."

"Does the English law deter people from
speculation?"—"Quite the contrary, it
perverts wholesome enterprise into a gambler's
risk, and converts numerous undertakings
into speculations which would otherwise be fit
for prudent men to patronise, to an extent
suited to their means. It filters out sensible
people, and lets the reckless pass through into
the management of valuable projects."

"How does this act upon us handicraftsmen
and operatives?"—"Not directly, in this
latter point of view. His labour is his capital.
It is not much to him to lose his all of cash.
But it deters people of the middle class—people
with three hundred pounds or four hundred
pounds capital, and others of a higher class
than that—from sharing in a great number of
small undertakings which are of true value to
the poor. The law of partnership in England
needs revision, and will be revised; but the
direct wants of the poor man can be met
without revising it."

"How does it act directly on the poor?"—"It
is a rich man's law. If working-men combine
for any purposes of industry, one may defraud
the rest of all the common stock, or any part
of it, and there is no redress for the defrauded
parties—no redress of any certain kind, or of
a kind cheaply attainable."

"What sort of law ought we to have,
then?"—"An extension of an Act that they
already have to protect Friendly Societies,
which should protect also Industrial Associations;