A. D. 1793. 279: 



minifter fpeedy juftice to the focieties againft any of their officers who 

 withhold their funds ; and the efFedls of deceafed officers of the focieties 

 are made Uable for debts due to them in preference to the claims of all 

 other creditors. The courts are alfo directed to appoint council and 

 aeents to manage their caufes, who, as well as the officers of the courts, 

 are required to do their duty without fee or reward : neither is any 

 ftamp duty chargeable upon the proceedings in fuch caufes. To pre- 

 vent the members of fuch focieties from defrauding thofe who have a 

 right to be relieved by them, they are debarred from dillblviiig them- 

 felves and dividing the funds, unlefs they have obtained the confent in 

 writing of all entitled to relief, and of five fixths of the fociety. The 

 members of the focieties are exempted from the hardfhip of being driven 

 from the pariili wherein their choife, or their interelt, induces them to 

 live, unlefs they or their families adually become chargeable without 

 having obtained a legal fettlement in fuch parifh. [^;^ Geo. Ill, c. 54] 



Mr. Colquhoun reckons i ,600 friendly focieties m London and its 

 neighbourhood in the year 1799, of which 800 had enrolled themfelves 

 agreeable to this ad. He eftimates the number of members to be 

 80,000, and their annual contributions to be /^i from each member. 



Sir Frederic Eden illuftrates the beneficial effeds of fuch focieties 

 upon the labouring clalTes by ' comparing the condition of thofe who 

 ' are members of them, and of thofe who, in the fame village, are con- 

 ' tented to rely on the parifh for relief. The former are, in general, 

 ' comparatively cleanly, orderly, and fober, and confequently happy, 

 ' and good members of fociety ; whilfl the later are living in filth and 



* wretchednefs, and are often, from the prefTure of a cafual ficknefs, or 



* accident, which incapacitates them from working, tempted to the 

 ' commiflion of improper ads (not to fay crimes], againfl which the 

 ' fure refource of a benefit club would have been the befl: prefervative.' 



Both thefe benevolent gentlemen recommend a prohibition of the 

 purchafe of lottery tickets, or any other gambling adventures, by the 

 focieties corporately, or the members individually. [^Police of the metro- 

 polis, pp. 575, 157, ed. 1800. — State of the poor, V. i, pp. 615, 603] 



June 17"" — ^The war having raifed the price of fugar, the regulations 

 for the allowance of drawbacks and bounties were altered as follows. If 

 the average price of mufcovado fugar in the fix weeks preceding the 

 23"* of June 1793 fhould not exceed 65/ per hundredweight, and in 

 Augufl, Odober, and February, following not exceed 6of, exclufive of 

 duties, the drawback and bounty fhould be allowed ; deduding one 

 fhilling per hundredweight on refined fugar exported in foreign veffels. 

 [^.65] 



The rent of tobacco allowed to remain in the cuflom-houfe ware- 

 houfes above eighteen months, which had been fixed at fix pence per 

 v.-eek for every package from the day of lodging it, was reduced to 



