MIGRATION OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 75 



within the range of practical politics. According to 

 Mr. Charles Booth — who dealt with the subject in a paper 

 recently read before the Royal Statistical Society — a 

 ' universal pension list," which would provide an annuity 

 of £13 per annum (5s. per week) for every person over 

 the age of sixty-five years, would amount to £13,000,000, 

 and he estimates that an ultimate saving of £3,000,000 in 

 poor relief might be set off against it, thus making the 

 net extra cost to the nation a round £10,000,000. 



I do not propose to discuss this scheme, but there is 

 one point bearing slightly upon it to which I would refer, 

 as it is brought out in a recent Parliamentary return. It 

 is said that old-age pensions would tend to discourage 

 thrift, though Mr. Booth — whose opinion certainly carries 

 weight — thinks otherwise. But there is one thing which 

 certainly does discourage thrift, and that is the insecurity of 

 some benefit societies. In a return made by the Local 

 Government Board to an order of the House of Commons 

 in 1891, details are given for every union in the kingdom 

 of the number of indoor paupers who had been members 

 of benefit societies. The total number was 14,808, and 

 of these no less than 4,593 had ceased to be members 

 owing to the breaking-up of the society. Presumably, 

 in most of these cases they had lost part, at any rate, of 

 their savings, and it is scarcely surprising if in districts 

 where this has occurred the virtue of thrift should be 

 rather discounted. 



Attention has lately been directed to the possibilities 

 of the profit-sharing, or co-operative principle, as applied 

 to farming. There are far abler and keener critics 

 than I can claim to be of the details and results 

 attained by Mr. Albert Grey x during his five years' 

 experiment. Generally speaking, I believe, it is fair to 

 say that though, as a landlord farming his own land, his 

 enterprise was sufficiently successful, it does not appear 



' fc Now Earl Grey. 



