Benefit or Friendly Societies. 139 



his wife. Should she be old or in a bad state of health, her fu- 

 neral-money will probably be very soon required. The member 

 may again marry, pay a small sum, and in a short time claim a 

 second — nay even a third — wife's funeral allowance ; — and all 

 this chiefly at the expence either of the young and the unmar- 

 ried members, or of the funds of a poor bankrupt society. 



But, heavy as this burden certainly is, it is nothing in compari- 

 son with widows' allowances. It should be particularly observed, 

 that a widow's provision is not the light burden generally suppos- 

 ed, or one which may be added to a scheme without an adequate 

 contribution ; on the contrary, it will of itself inevitably soon 

 bring a society to ruin. The same, if not stronger, objections 

 are therefore applicable to those allowances as to funerals ; but 

 as such benefits are now seldom promised by these societies, it 

 seems here unnecessary to do more than allude to them. It is 

 still to be regretted, however, that many institutions, under the 

 denomination of Widows' Schemes^ are still in existence, upon 

 the most erroneous principles, and which will therefore be pro- 

 ductive of nothing but loss, disappointment, and misery. 



Such, then, being the opinions by which Friendly Societies 

 have been guided, and the system of management which they 

 have very generally adopted, it is not surprising that they should 

 have so frequently failed ; " their errors, however, are matter of no 

 reproach, for the spirit is to be admired, which, revolting at the 

 humiliation of depending upon chanty, led their founders, seek- 

 ing for the means of independent support in sickness and in old 

 age, to endeavour to attain the desired end, regardless of the 

 dangers of miscarriage*," — but their experience having now laid 

 the foundation of a more correct system, by affording data for 

 computation, which could not otherwise have been obtained, every 

 means should be used to found them on a more secure basis in 

 future. 



(To he continued.) 



* Highland Society's Report, p. 9. 



