134 Mr W. Fraser ori the History and Constitution qf 



dental inequalities. When this fund is lost, it is not much 

 that is lost ; if a small additional sum is subscribed by each 

 member, or, instead of this, if the allowances are suspended, 

 or only reduced, the society is placed in its former situa- 

 tion.*" Not the least hint, however, is given by this writer, 

 of the way by which correct calculations may be obtained ; 

 and how he could suppose that, even were such calculations 

 once procured, a society could afterwards act upon them with- 

 out accumulating a capital, it is certainly very difficult to con-^ 

 ceive, — for, as the rate of the yearly contribution continues the 

 same for life, while the rate of sickness (or disability) increases 

 yearly from youth to age, a society must either always be pos- 

 sessed of a capital in proportion to the number and ages of 

 its members, or be unable to meet the heavy demands of old 

 age ; the sickness between 60 and 70 years of age being at least 

 tenfold what it is between 20 and 30. Mr Finlayson, however, 

 the actuary for the National Debt Office, when first examined, 

 in 1825, before the Committee of the House of Commons, gave 

 it as his opinion, that " there is a constant and given mortality 

 operating upon life, but no such law exists as to sickness." He 

 therefore, likewise, " when applied to by the members of 

 Friendly Societies, advised that which appeared to be quite suf- 

 ficient, without any such calculations. I have advised them to 

 separate their project into two parts, the one embracing that 

 which was susceptible of calculation, the other that which was 

 not ; it so happens, that sickness^ and the other events to which 

 I have alluded, are of immediate and temporary occurrence, and 

 may be provided for by immediate means. Not so the other 

 benefits, which usually require a long period of time before they 

 be realized ; and therefore a simple mode of attaining the ob- 

 jects of those societies occurred to me, which was, that they 

 should have two chests, as it were, one for the temporary pur- 

 pose of sickness, to be supplied by a trifling contribution, and 

 augmented as occasion might require ; the other to be entirely 

 distinct, and kept as their permanent capital." That this opi- 

 nion, however, with regard to the rate of sickness, was erroneous, 

 will be afterwards fully shewn, by the most unquestionable evi- 

 dence ; and that the system of management recommended, and 

 hitherto almost universally acted upon, is the most ruinous that 

 could have been suggested, has been already sufficiently demon- 



