KKIKNHI.V S()( I I. III.- 



a species of thrift institution already in e\i 



since we tin. I il l,nll.|oll society founded ill KiST 



mining the do/en known survivors of benefit chilis 

 buRhed during tin 1 la>t quarter of the 17th anil 

 tin- first half of tilt; istli century. The Ancient 

 t h.ler ol Free ( lardener* is of considerable antiquity 

 in Scoil.iri.l, tin- oldest known lodge being that of 

 Dunfermline, the Charter of whicli dates from 171"). 

 Tins form of provident insurance is peculiar to 

 the Knglish speaking race, and is tin- invention of 

 tlie industrial classes of ( Ireat Britain, as the means 

 \v herd iv they have sup|ilied their economic needs 

 for themsd\e> liy themselves, 'no man showing 

 them the way, not hy prescription of law, not hy 

 influence of superiors.' In 17 ( .W the legislation 

 lir-t recognised the expediency of protecting and 

 encouraging friendly societies, and enacted 'that 

 it should lie lawful for any nuniher of persons 

 in (Ireat Britain to form themselves into and to 

 establish one or more society or societies of good 

 fellowship, for the purpose of raising from time to 

 time, liy subscriptions of the several members, a 

 stock or fund for the mutual relief and mainten- 

 ance of all and every the members thereof, in old 

 age, sickness, and infirmity, or for the relief of the 

 widows and children of deceased members '( Rose 

 Act). And a parliamentary committee of 1825 

 excellently gives the raison d'etre of the mutual 

 friendly society as compared with the individualistic 

 savings-bank : ' Whenever there is a contingency, 

 the cheapest way of providing against it is by 

 uniting with others, so that each man may subject 

 himself to a small deprivation, in order that no 

 man may be subjected to a great loss. He upon 

 whom the contingency does not fall does not get 

 his money back again, nor does he get for it any 

 visible or tangible benefit ; but he obtains security 

 against ruin, and consequent peace of mind. He 

 upon whom the contingency does fall gets all that 

 those whom fortune has exempted from it have lost 

 in hard money, and is thus enabled to sustain an 

 event which would otherwise overwhelm him. The 

 individual depositor, not the contributor to a 

 common fund, is really the speculator. If no sick- 

 ^- ness attacks him during his years of strength and 

 activity, and he dies before he is past labour, he 

 'has been successful in his speculation; but if he 

 fall sick at an early period, or if he live to old age, 

 he is a great loser, for his savings, with their 

 accumulations, will support him but a short time 

 in sickness." What the Rose Act of 1793 was 

 to societies that existed in the last decade of 

 the 18th century the enabling enactment of 1829 

 (10 Geo. IV. chap. 56) was to societies which 

 belonged to a more developed period of history. 

 Much of the efficiency and good working of this 

 act was due to the new departure taken by its 

 sponsor. Lord Portman, then M. P. for Dorsetshire, 

 in putting himself into communication with repre- 

 sentatives of those bodies for which he purposed to 

 legislate. The Act of 1829 ' forms the transition from 

 the system of local to that of central registration,' 

 and the supplementary Act of 1834 carried central- 

 i-ation a step further. Prior to the date of the 

 tinnier act a provincial system of registration 

 and returns prevailed, each clerk of the peace hold- 

 ing the office of registrar for his several county, 

 the rules bein^ certified and the scales of contribu- 

 tions passed by the county magistrates. But 

 henceforth three registrars of co-ordinate authority 

 for Kngland, Scotland, and Ireland were appointed. 

 The provision requiring justices to be satisfied 

 that the tables of contributions and benefits might 

 be 'adopted with safety to all parties concerned" 

 was repealed ; but, in view of existing imperfect 

 and inefficient data in the matter of vital statisiii -. 

 societies were under the obligation of making 

 quinquennial returns of their sickness and mortality 



e\p.-li.-||.-c. 'I'll-- following privilege- of tli.- Act 



of 1703 were conliimed : |Kwfi to recover funds 

 from defaulting officers by Hiimmary proceeding* ; 

 priority of claims for moiiey.* on the anneta of any 



decejt-1-d or bankrupt ollic.M ..I liu-l.-,-; j,,iv..[ |,, 



determine disputes by arbitration, and of justice* 

 to enforce compliance with the ruling of the 

 ai I. it i a i.. i- ; exemption of stamp duty on bond*. 



The Victorian era was contemporaneous with the 

 financial period in the history of the friendly MKriety 

 system. Hitherto societies had been rather benevo- 

 lent than benefit, more convivial than financial, in 

 their status. But with Mr Charles Ansell came 

 the dawn of actuarial light on the friendly society 

 world. The purely scientific principles laid down 

 by Mr Anself were rectified and extended by Mr 

 Neison the elder, in his magnum opus, Contribu- 

 tions to Vital Statistics ( 1 845 ). Five years later 

 appeared Observation* on the Rate of Mortality m,il 

 Sii-lcncmi amongst Friendly Societies, &c., with a 



series of tables showing the value of annuities, sick 

 gifts, assurance for death, and contributions ' to 

 be paid equivalent thereto, calculated from the 

 experience of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows, 

 by Henry Ratclifle, corresponding secretary. The 

 outcome was the famous ' Ratclifle Tables,' subse- 

 quently corrected by the compiler, and endorsed by 

 the Royal Commission of 1871-74 as the soundest 

 and most reliable tables extant. Thus twenty-five 

 years prior to the Friendly Societies Act of 1875 

 (which embodied the recommendations of the com- 

 missioners), making a valuation of assets and 

 liabilities compulsory, the late secretary and 

 actuary of the Manchester Unity laid down the 

 true principles of financial security, and prepared 

 the way for a process of self-reform in the society 

 which it would be difficult to match in the history 

 of any other public and corporate body. The 

 classification of the various trades of members 

 occupied Mr RatcliHe from 15 to 17 hours per 

 day, and 1,321,048 years of life were brought 

 under observation. It was not until 1850 that the 

 affiliated class of friendly society received legal 

 recognition under a temporary act, which l>ecaine, 

 five years later, a permanent measure ( 18 and 19 

 Viet. chap. 63). Prior to this date they had been 

 illegal combinations, coming under the clauses of 

 the Corresponding Societies Act (39 Geo. III. chap. 

 79) and of the Seditious Meetings Act (57 Geo. III. 

 chap. 19). The legal recognition was, however, of 

 little use to the affiliated societies, since the then 

 newly-appointed registrar, Mr J. Tidd Pratt, in oppo- 

 sition to the spirit as well as the wording of the 

 act, refused to allow the registration of branches of 

 the orders, except as separate and isolated societies 

 a misruling which was not corrected, so far 

 as branches registered under this act and not 

 registered under the Act of 1875 were concerned, 

 till 1886 (Supreme Court of Appeal : Scholfield and 

 others v. Vause and others). The only other altera- 

 tions of importance were the requirement of an actu- 

 arial certificate in the case of societies granting an 

 annuity or superannuation benefit, and the abolition 

 of all fees for registry. The Act of 1855 failing to 

 bring about the oeneficial results hoped for by its 

 promoters, in 1871 a Royal Commission of Inquiry 

 was appointed, with Sir Stafford Northcote (the 

 late Lord Iddesleigh) for chairman and J. M. 

 Ludlow, Esq., secretary. The labours of the Com- 

 missioners extended over a period of four years, and 

 the recommendations of their final report (1874) 

 were embodied in the act now in force ( 38 and 39 

 Viet. chap. 60 ), which, owing to the above-mentioned 

 ruling of Mr J. Tidd Pratt, had to be supplemented 

 by a short Amendment Act (1876), under which 

 societies with branches (i.e. affiliated orders) could 

 be registered as such. The following are among 

 the principal alterations effected by the Acts of 



