148 Mr W. Fraser ow the History and Constituticyfi'of 



some of its members, for payment of no less than fourteen years alleged ar- 

 rears, and in which it was stated, that the circuit court, upon an appeal, had 

 decided against the members to the extent of the first two years' dues, being 

 the period during which they were entitled to benefit. For some considerable 

 time previous to this decision, similar cases had frequently occurred in the Jus- 

 tice of Peace Courts, but thejudgn>ents were often so inconsistent and contra- 

 dictory, that no fixed rule of decision could be said to exist, and prosecutions 

 were by no means general. In consequence of the report of the above decision, 

 however, the question was considered to be settled in favour of the societies ; 

 and, therefore, several of these institutions in Edinburgh immediately came to 

 the resolution of demanding from all who had been at any time connected with 

 them, payment of whatever sum appeared from the books to have been un- 

 paid at the time they ceased to be members, and for the non-payment of which 

 they had suffered the stipulated penalty of expulsion and forfeiture of all pre- 

 vious contributions to their respective societies. 



Numerous prosecutions having next been threatened for non-compliance 

 with these demands, — which were considered to be both iniquitous and ille- 

 gal, and which, if successful, would be productive of the most serious conse- 

 quences to great numbers of working people,— application was made for infor- 

 mation as to the particular grounds of decision on the circuit. From the infor- 

 mation thus obtained, it appeared that the case at Ellon had been decided under 

 particular circumstances, and that it could not therefore be held as a precedent ; 

 and, at any rate, that the equitable principles of accounting applicable to such 

 cases, had never in any question been taken into consideration, but that both 

 societies and judges had acted merely upon the principle, that as long as a 

 member is entitled to claim benefit, so long is a society entitled to compel 

 payment of his dues. It being evident that this general rule had been adopt- 

 ed and indiscriminately applied, without any regard to the particular circum- 

 stances in which each society might be placed, — the conditions upon which 

 the members had entered, — the peculiar nature of societies' operations, — or to 

 their own printed regulations, — a case explanatory of the whole was drawn 

 up and circulated among the gentlemen composing the Law Committee of the 

 Justices of the ^Peace for the county of Edinburgh. In this statement it 

 was shewn, 1st, That the contributions of members are always paid in ad- 

 vance ; 2J, That each member has always a greater interest in the stock than 

 any sum of contribution he is ever allowed to run in arrear, and hence that 

 every society is greatly benefited by each forfeiture that occurs ; 3c?, That 

 such forfeiture was in general the only penalty for non-payment, either sti- 

 pulated or enforced by the regulations or practice of Friendly Societies ; and, 

 4th, That their former members could not therefore be now called upon, at 

 the distance of months and years, to pay what neither the one party nor the 

 other ever before conceived to be due. The Justices, however, stated, — upon 

 a special case being brought to try the question, and to which the above ob- 

 jections particularly applied, — that they could not coincide with the state- 

 ments which had been made, as they held, that when a man became a consti- 

 tuent member of a Friendly Society, his contributions could no longer be 

 considered his individual property ; that, as long as a member was entitled to 

 benefit, he was bpund to pay all the stated contributions; and that having 



