486 Remarks on Friendly Societies. [May, 



The utility of these associations was quickly perceived by the people 

 (indigence, and the anticipations of want, are powerful stimuli to grasp 

 at benefits which will diminish such impending evils). In 1802, the 

 number returned to Parliament was 9,672; in 1815, the number of 

 members embodied was enumerated at 925,429 ! So great a body of 

 people having united to mutually support each other, and this by the 

 savings of their industry, called for greater attention. There was a 

 glaring defect in the law — a defect which placed nearly a million of the 

 industrious jwor in a condition which threatened them with the loss of 

 all that they had saved from the hard earnings of years I This was, 

 the want of sufficient security against eiTor in the calculations, which 

 determined the sum that should be paid by each individual for a 

 specified benefit. The intention of Mr. Rose was good — the privileges 

 granted were important: but with this defect, they were only glittering 

 lures, which led the poor to the brink of danger so great, that no reflect- 

 ing man can think of it without feeling it a duty to use exertion to prevent 

 those around him, who constitute a society, from suffering, by warning 

 them of the threatened ruin, and pointing out the means of avoiding it. 



The calculations required for these purposes are profound, and can 

 only be made by those who are deeply skilled in calculation, and have ob- 

 tained data from observation and experience. Few clerks of the peace or 

 justices are capable of deciding on the accuracy of the calculations, 

 brought to them by a society consisting of labourers and mechanics. 

 The tables of Dr. Price, though calculated at the desire of Parliament, 

 never received parliamentary sanction, and do not extend to the cases of 

 widows or childi'en of deceased members, and could not embrace the 

 consideration of sums lavished by the members in feasting and other 

 ways ; and to these only were the justices in the habit of referring, if 

 they referred to any. 



The next defect, though not fraught with the same extent of evil, 

 equally proves the ignorance and inefficiency of the persons who enacted 

 it. On the dissolution of a society, the act required the consent of a 

 great proportion of the members : but this majority was only numerical. 

 Thus those members who had, for a series of years, subscribed their 

 savings, might be outvoted by the younger members whose expectations 

 of relief and support were more distant! Tlie old and infirm so treated, 

 were not likely to obtain redress, though the law was inexpensive, as 

 the money might have been divided and spent before they could avail 

 themselves of legal protection. Even if they had received their 

 share, and then discovered the error, their case would be equally hope- 

 less. 



Among the many abuses to which the friendly societies are liable is 

 one, the full effects of which persons unskilled in calculation cannot ap- 

 preciate — tHe contributions from fhejundjbrjeasting : this abuse, with the 

 original insufficiency of the sum paid by each member, have placed at 

 least five-sixths of these societies in a condition xvJiich must end in insolvency. 

 Let tlie younger members of them, who are looking forward to contribute 

 fijr j-ears to come, consider this ; let tln.se who are verging to old age, 

 and its attendant, sickness, think that their hard earnings may be of no 

 avail, and that in the days of pain and weakness the}"^ will have the 

 galling remembrance tliat their contributions have been consumed, and 

 that they have thrown their means to the winds. Lest any of our readers 

 should suppose that the associations of individuals for mutual support, 



