180 Friendly Societies, State Action, and the Poor-law. 
recognise, in granting relief, the weekly income received from 
the club ; others do so only to half the amount of the sick pay ; 
others treat it as property, and diminish the relief given accord- 
ingly. Medical relief only is allowed in some Unions ; in others, 
the sickness-pay is regarded as specially intended for the head of 
the family, and the ordinary amount of relief is given to the wife 
and children. They believe that so far from habits of providence 
being encouraged by the Guardians making a distinction between 
sickness provision and other property, " the opposite effect is 
more likely to be produced." " If two cases similar in every 
other respect presented themselves (the one that of a man in a 
club, the other not) it would no doubt be advisable to draw a 
distinction in favour of the provident man," but they " think it 
impossible to lay down any rule in the matter which should 
not conflict with the principle of the Poor-law, that every per- 
son has a legal right to have his necessities relieved, without 
regard to his deserts." They think that " relief cannot depend 
upon any such adventitious circumstances as a membership of 
a Friendly Society." The Commissioners also note that the 
favour shown to members of one kind of Friendly Society must 
be shown to all, for the Guardians have no means of discrimi- 
nating between good societies and bad. 
Surely, as a means of aiding the Guardians in deciding on 
the kind of relief to be given, the information about the in- 
surance of the applicant and the description of club to which 
he belongs, are important. They have a right to know what 
sort of applicant they are dealing with, fully conceding that 
he is to have relief in accordance with the principle of the 
Poor-law. Shall it be out-relief, or the House, for instance? 
If he is a worthless fellow, who lets his wife and children starve 
while he has been drinking or gambling, the Guardians will 
not be likely to give him assistance other than the House. 
The treatment is different of an applicant who is under the visi- 
tation of illness in his family or other distress, and who is known 
to be a respectable man. The Board would not order him the 
House. In either case the relief is given, but it is one of the 
advantages of local administration that some discretion as to 
the mode of relief is vested in the Board. It is greatly to be 
regretted that, in the case of applicants who are members of 
benefit clubs, no information to enable Guardians to discrimi- 
nate between good and bad societies has been forthcoming in 
consequence of the labours of the Commission. No greater 
encouragement could be given to the establishment and man- 
agement of good clubs, and to the discouragement of unsound 
ones, than the knowledge on the part of the applicant that it 
would not be in his favour if he came before the Board as 
