Benefit or Friendly Societies, 71 



reasons then assigned, be applicable to the members of Friendly 

 Societies ; and it appears that Messrs Finlaison and Davies are 

 now of the same opinion, for they state, " that this is a rate of 

 sickness which certainly exceeds all estimate of what has hither- 

 to prevailed among the labouring classes, and arises, no doubt, 

 from causes to which the members of friendly societies in gene- 

 ral would not be subject."" But these gentlemen also state it to 

 be their opinion, that the rate of sickness reported to the High- 

 land Society falls short of the proportion that would be experien- 

 ced in the practice of Friendly Societies in England, in the same 

 degree that the .sickness of the army is excessive ; and they have 

 therefore taken a mean between the two, in calculating their 

 rate of contribution for benefit during sickness. As, however, 

 this mean is, under 50 years of age, double that reported by 

 more than 70 Friendly Societies in Scotland, comprising up- 

 wards of 100,000 members, — and, as no reason whatever is giv- 

 en by these gentlemen why the rate of sickness should be so very 

 much higher among the same classes in England, the accuracy 

 of their conclusion may at least be doubted. At all events, as 

 no additional information has been obtained on this subject ,by 

 the last Committee, we cannot but still adhere to our former 

 opinion, — that the law of sickness deduced by the Highland So- 

 ciety of Scotland is the most satisfactorily authenticated of any 

 yet published. 



Law of Mortality. 

 The next, and perhaps the most important, question that 

 falls to be considered, is that regarding the rate or Law of Mor- 

 tality. 



Tables of Mortality, it is well known, are intended to shew how man/ 

 persons, out of a given number at any age, may be expected to survive to a 

 nigher age ; and, consequently, these tables form the basis of all calculations for 

 Health and Life Assurance. Such tables have been hitherto formed from regis- 

 ters of mortality, which usually include the marriages and births, as well as bu- 

 rials— from bodies of annuitants — and from actual surveys or enumerations of 

 the proportion of deaths among persons living at the same ages in countries 

 and in towns. 



Mortuary registers were begun to be kept in Germany about the end of the 

 15th century ; and, in 1538, the incumbent of every parish in England was 

 ordered, by the Privy Council, to keep an exact account of all the weddings, 

 christenings, and burials within his district. This duty, however, seems to 

 have been for a long time very ill discharged; and it was not till about 1690, 

 that the ages were first inserted in the buls kept at Breslaw in Silesia, and 

 not till 172H, in those kept at London. In 1749 the government of Sweden 

 *' established what in this country would probably be called a Board of Popu- 

 lation, but is there denominated Tabclvarkcty for reducing into convenient 

 forms the extracts from the parish registers, and the returns from the magis- 



