138 Mr W. Fraser cm the History and Consiitutimi of 



his funeral money. He, therefore, to all intents and purposes, has 

 pocketed twenty years' contributions, deprived the society of that 

 amount, and thus placed himself in a vastly better situation 

 than those members who entered in early youth. 



But besides the great loss thence arising from the admission of 

 aged men, the usual method of only contributing for funerals as 

 they occur, is attended with the most destructive consequences. 

 While the members, or a great proportion of them, are young, 

 the deaths will be few, but, with the advance of age, these will 

 necessarily increase. Hence the demands will then also increase ; 

 and thus, in old age, when least' able to afford it, the surviving 

 members will find the contributions perhaps double what they 

 were in youth. At the commencement of a society, too, the 

 members are generally few in number, and where a small sum 

 only, or perhaps nothing, is levied from each member, thebalance, 

 if not the whole, must be taken from the sick-fund. Should the 

 members increase, so will also the deaths, and consequently the 

 contributions and disbursements; so that the accounts for funerals 

 will ultimately equal, if not exceed, those for sickness, while the 

 sums received by the relations will bear no proportion to the pay- 

 ments, or the period which the member may have been in the so- 

 ciety. 



The most pernicious, however, and certainly the most unjust, 

 of all the evils of the old system, is the giving funeral allowances 

 for wives, and annuities to widows, without the payment of ade- 

 quate contributions. Now that the principle of charity is aban- 

 doned, why should the married possess advantages over the un- 

 married ? Where all contribute alike, all should receive alike ; 

 and if double or treble allowances are required, they ought to 

 be paid for in proportion. This is surely but equitable ; for as 

 well might a married member claim sick-money for his wife, with- 

 out contributing for it, as demand funeral-money, or a widow's 

 allowance, under similar circumstances. It has been said, how- 

 ever, let all marry, and then every one will be on an equal 

 footing; but if all were to marry, then the same contribu- 

 tion would not suffice ; and those who are now married, are just 

 as much bound to contribute for their additional allowances 

 as if all the members were married. But the evil does not even 

 stop here. Upon the entry of a member, the society has seldom 

 the means of knowing any thing relative to the health or age of 



