278 



A. D. 1793. 



June 17"' — The commlffioners, appointed to iflue exchequer bills for 

 the fupport of commercial credit, were authorized to lend the bills on 

 fecurity of the property of perfons willing to depofit it for the relief of 

 their friends, and to admit applications for fums as low sls j[2,ooo, on 

 receiving fatisfadory fecurity to double the amount. Many other reg- 

 ulations for the management of the bufinefs were alfo enaded, which 

 being for a temporary purpofe, the detail of them could not now be in- 

 tereftlng. [^;^ Geo. Ill, r. 51] 



Friendly focieties, or benefit clubs, have been eftablifhed among the 

 working people and others for about a century * ; and the experience 

 of the advantages derived from them has extended them to almoft every 

 part of Great Britain. It is perhaps unneceflary to inform the reader, 

 that the purpofe of thefe inflitutions is to put it in the power of the in- 

 duftrious many to relieve the wants of the induftrious few, who may be 

 difabled by ficknefs or age from gaining their bread, out of a fund cre- 

 ated by their own periodical contributions. Therefor, when they arc 

 judicioufly eftablifhed upon equitable and fcientific principles f , they 

 muft be of great moral and political advantage in giving a check to that 

 abandoned, and too general, propenfity to wafle, and difregard of char- 

 adler, which induce many of the lower clafs of people to throw them- 

 felves upon the parifh rather than work ; to introduce, or rather reftore, 

 an independence of fpirit, a reliance upon their own exertions, and an 

 honourable pride in placing a dependence upon funds created by their 

 own induftry ; and to counteradl the heavy and growing oppreffion of 

 the poor's rates, which, it has been well obierved, find funds for the poor, 

 and find poor for the funds, and by which the indujirious and meritorious poor 

 -cue cojnpelled to maintain the idle and pro^igate poor, as well as the helplefs 

 poor, the only proper objeBs of gratuitous fupport. 



June 21" — The legiflature, thinking the protedlion and encourage- 

 ment of fuch focieties likely to promote the happinefs of individuals 

 and diminilh the pubUc burthens, inverted them with the powers and 

 privileges of corporations, on condition that their rules be fubmitted to 

 the infpedion of the juftices in quarter fellions, and confirmed by them, 

 which gives them great advantages in the management of their funds, 

 and defends them from depredations. The courts are required to ad- 



* Sir Frederic Eilen finds a ftrorig refcmblance of, or, in the words of Doctor Price, ' lay the 



between the modern friendly focieties and the gilds, ' fonndation of prelent relief on future calamity.' 



which fubliiled in England before the Nonran But it cannot be expefted, that every parifh, or 



conqueft. [^Sfate of the poor, V. i, p. 590. J every village, can have in it a Price or a Webiter : 



•|- Unlefs their fchemes arc drawn up by men and therefor the benevolent fuggeftion of Sir Fred- 



who have lludied that particular branch of calcul- eric Eden, that a fct of tables, regulations, forms 



ation as a fcicnce, there is the grtatell danger of of certificates, &c. calculated to tacilitale and di- 



their deceiving themfelves from the profpcct ot the reifV the operations of fuch v^iluable cllabliihir.cntK, 



fpccdy accv.mulation of their funds in the early pe- fliould be publifhed, is well worthy of the atten- 



riod of the fociety, which may difappoint the long- tion of a philanthiopic calculator, or a phikin- 



ell livers of the relief they will moll 'land in need thropic government. 3 



