TRANSACilONS OF SECIION F. 839 



compelled to accept relief in the woikbou.^e. The cost would not be formidable 

 — not more than from 5,000, OOOi!. 



The principle might be extended to all permanently incapacitated from earning 

 llieir livinof. 



The nation now endows destitution. What is required is that thenalio;i should 

 endow thrift. 



2. The Poor-law : can it he Maintained ? By Rev. T. W. Fowle, M.A. 



The Poor-law of 18.34 is on its trial, serious humanitarian, political, moral, 

 and economic difficulties arising out of it. It was a sharp remedy for evils now 

 passed awav. Impossibility of jilterinir it upon less stringent lines without destroy- 

 ing the scientific basis upon which it stands, and to which it owes its \alue. 

 Hence need and opportunity for a new system. Analogy of educational system 

 and of uncommon English methods. 



Proposition to do away with out-relief and co-operate with friendly societies, 

 making them responsible with State subvention for the relief of all disabled 

 persons being members. Club test instead of liouse test. Improvement in friendly 

 societies much needed, and would follow. 



3. OM-ftge Pensions ayid Friendly Societies. 

 By Rev. J. Fkome Wilkinson, M.A, 



I. Provision for old age through the friendly societies. 

 II. Pensions for old age through Poor-law relief. 



III. State insurance schemes examined, with a special view to their relations to 



friendly societies and Poor-law relief. 



IV. State endowment schemes. 

 V. Conclusion. 



4. The Better PTousinfj of the Wage-earning Classes in Eural Districts. 

 By Rev. J. 0. Bevan, M.A., F.G.S. 



After a review of the past the writer enlarges upon the tendency of the evils 

 of insanitary dwellings to become permanent, and enforces the necessity of taking 

 instant and active steps to abate such evils. He touches upon certain requisites in 

 the location and building of a house on right principles, and shows how many of 

 these requisites are persistently lacking in ordinary dwellings for the labourers in 

 rural districts, whose health is aflected, whose morals are vitiated, and whose wage- 

 earning capacity is lessened in consequence of the state of things universally prevalent. 

 He calculates that six-and-a-half to seven millions of pounds are lost to the labouring 

 and artisan class year by year in England in wages by reason of sickness. Further- 

 more, he considers the matter in respect of the migration to the towns, which has 

 assumed considerable proportions of late years. He goes on to point out what 

 may be done by voluntary means and educational effort on the part of landlords, 

 medical officers, and clergymen, and proceeds to touch upon the efforts recently 

 made by the Legislature to bring the force of law to bear in such wise as to effect a 

 useful and healthful reformation, to inaugurate a new period, and to mark a new 

 advance alike in national comfort, happiness, and prosperity. 



