Friendly Societies, State Action, and the Poor-law. 163 
hmd-fide societies, the dangers which many run bv means of 
societies which maintain a staff of collectors who suffer the 
member to get behind with his payments till his insurance is 
forfeited, and all payments on it gone, and there can be no 
surprise at our being told that the sharing-out clubs are on the 
increase. The society which leaves prospective insurance to 
the poor-rates, and shares out all or nearly all the fund at the 
end of the year, is about as much as the man can rely upon for 
insurance, and rather more than he understands or can manage. 
With the help of the publican and two or three of his better- 
informed " mates," the leaky craft, to which he entrusts himself 
and his fortunes, sets sail, and he has a passage therein which, 
as the vovage progresses, costs him 80/. to 100/. or more, till he 
is thrown overboard to prevent shipwreck, and falls into the 
jaws of a svstem from which he never emerges with life. 
And yet with these distresses, which it should be the care of 
the State to lessen as far as it is possible, if it cannot remove, 
the Commissioners could decide not to " enter into this contro- 
versv," and thereupon to pay no attention to the practicability 
of " State action " in the due management and supervision of 
those insurances which the labourer most of all needs — that of 
sickness-pay and burial-money. Their resolution has been for 
some years unfortunate for the labourer. How long is help to 
be denied him? 
But I must be allowed to complete a description of the 
Friendly Societies among the farm and other labourers of this 
country, before devoting attention to the assistance which may 
fairly be rendered by the State. 
The position of the member who, under more enlightened 
auspices, joins a society managed by the worthy squire or clergv- 
man, is by no means commonly safe. The committee meet at 
the hall or the public-house, or the school-room, and for years 
everything goes on quietly and well. The society is duly regis- 
tered ; the Chief Registrar is not suffered to grow rusty in his 
duties for want of inquiries on points of law from the magistrate, 
and of morality and social importance from the vicar. The 
annual club sermon shall not lack, with its better teaching, 
something at least of the support of the highest authoritv on 
Friendly Societies. And so the cumbrous Blucrbook finds a 
place on the pulpit-cushion, and portions of the last report are 
read out to the attentive congregation, and duly commented on 
in what the local paper will call an eloquent and practical dis- 
course. Well, time passes on, and the vicar becomes, perhaps, 
a bishop, or is preferred to the world above, and the squire 
grows old, and leaves the management to others, who get everv- 
thing into a muddle. What becomes of the society when it 
M 2 
