Benefit or Friendly Societies. ^87 



tables as to sickness ? I am — Are you aware upon what principle they were 

 formed ? I apprehend they are not formed upon any authority that would 

 induce me to adopt them ; they are very vague. They were formed upon this 

 principle, that sickness increases in the same proportion as life advances ? 

 Yes, but I deny the conclusion ; there is a constant and given mortality ope- 

 rating upon life, but no such law exists as to sickness." — *' Are you accjuaint- 

 ed with the Report of the Highland Society of Scotland upon the subject of 

 Friendly Societies ? I am not, further than that since I have been before 

 the Committee, I have looked at the Report from that body — You are 

 aware that the sickness table appended to that Report is formed upon the 

 experience of 70 or 80 societies in Scotland ? Yes — Supposing the returns from 

 those societies to be accurate, do you conceive that Table III. {supra, p. 283) 

 is formed therefrom upon correct principles ? I do not ; because, in the first 

 place, supposing it were possible to conceive that sickness foUoAvs, among 

 particular classes of men, an uniform and constant law, still the returns now 

 shewn to me, and their results, are exceedingly vague, and much too limited, 

 in my decided opinion, to enable any correct inference to be drawn of the 

 rate of sickness to which human life at every age is subject, because it is not 

 clear from the returns, whether the parties were of the ages stated when en- 

 rolled, and whether the sickness grew out of each class enrolled at each age, 

 or whether the ages at which the sickness is stated to have occurred, took 

 place when the parties enrolled at a younger age had attained an advanced 

 age. I may add, generally, that the extraordinary differences of sickness 

 among the societies reported, is the strongest reason with me for doubting 

 the correctness of any conclusion to be drawn from the whole ; besides, the 

 sickness which may prevail in various districts of one country among one 

 particular class of persons, affords no just criterion of that which may prevail 

 in another country, under other circumstances: And, aj^ain, I beg leave to 

 submit my humble but firm opinion to the Committee, that it is totally im- 

 possible, from any observations hitherto formed, to deduce the conclusion, 

 that sickness occurs in any given ratio, the more as this question is not new 

 to me, having been frequently before applied to on the subject, and having 

 considered it very maturely.'* Page 47- 



March 15. — William Morgan, Esq. actuary to the Equitable Assurance 

 Society, and upAvards of fifty years engaged in calculations depending on 

 human life, states, that he has of late been frequently referred to upon 

 the rules of Friendly Societies; that he has always found the tables of 

 Dr Price correct ; and that the opinions he has since given on particular 

 tables submitted to him, have been, as far as the cases were applicable, 

 formed upon the same principles as those tables. — " Have the goodness to 

 state to the Committee the principle upon which you calculate the probable 

 occurrence of sickness ? I take them pretty much according to the degree of 

 mortality ; I suppose about 1 in 40 sick. The table says 1 in 48, and I find 

 that accords more with actual experience." — " Do you think it consistent 

 that there may be a great deal of sickness, and yet that it may not affect 

 life ? No, I estimate from experience in different clubs. I have had a ma- 

 nuscript paper of Friendly Societies, sent me from Scotland, for many years, 

 which confirms the rate we take." — " Plumbers and glaziers, and other ha- 

 zardous trades, are excepted out of the clubs." — " Are you acquainted with 

 the Report lately published by the Highland Society in Scotland, on the 

 subject of Friendly Societies ? They sent me the book, but I have not had 

 time to read it." — Pages 50, 51. 



March 18 — ^]\'Ir Joshua Mibie, actuary to the Sun Life Assurance Society, 

 states, that he has been frequently called on professionally to settle the rules 

 or tables of Friendly Societies, but that in no instance had he been able to 

 give the information wanted, as they could not be reduced to calculation. 

 — " You are aware of Dr Price's tables ? Certainly, but I have never inves- 

 tigated them — You are aware of the principle on which they are formed ? 

 Not very accurately, not from accurate information. I beg leave to state the 

 reason why I have not looked more accurately into the tables in Dr Price's 

 work : it was, that I was satisfied, on looking at the subject, that there could 



