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On tlie History and Canstitnthn of' Benefit or Friendly Socie- 

 ties. By Mr William Fkaser. (Concluded from former 

 Number, p. 313.) 



OiNCE the publication of the former number of this Journal, 

 Mr Courtenay has brought into Parliament the bill which we 

 then alluded to, for consolidating and amending the laws rela- 

 tive to Friendly Societies. The benefits offered to these s(x;ieties 

 in England, by this statute, are (except the power of settling dis- 

 putes by arbitration, which is to be rei^ealed) nearly the same as 

 those which they formerly enjoyed ; namely, that their money 

 may be paid into the Bank of England, to account of the officers of 

 the National Debt Office, at a certain high rate of interest, — that 

 both principal and interest shall always be at the command of 

 the office-bearers of the societies, — that they may sue and be sued, 

 and their property invested, in the name of their office-bearers, 

 in the same way as is done by incorporated bodies, — and that 

 no bond or other security given to or on account of any socie- 

 ty, shall be chargeable with stamp-duty. It is further pro- 

 posed, that all former acts regarding these institutions shall be 

 repealed, — that before any new society, or any old one re- 

 quiring alterations in its rules, shall be hereafter entitled to the 

 benefits of this act, its regulations and tables must have been 

 submitted to, and approved of by, the officers of the National 

 Debt Office, and the Quarter Sessions of the Justices of the 

 Peace of the county wherein the society is situate, or intended 

 to be established, — that persons, assessed to a certain extent for 

 the relief of the poor, must be nominated trustees, in whom all the 

 society's property shall be vested, who shall not be removeable, 

 nor obliged to find security for their intromissions, without 

 their own consent, and who shall have the sole appointment 

 of the treasurer, — that societies shall periodically transmit to 

 the National Debt Office, through the clerks of the Peace, 

 returns of their accounts and affairs, — that no alterations on the 

 rules or tables of any society shall be lawful without the consent 

 of the trustees and approval of the Justices, — that the Quarter 

 Sessions shall have liberty to make such alterations as they may 

 APRIL— JUNE 18S8. I 



