128 
Report on the Farming of the 
as might make them most generally advantageous, that the contri- 
butions of the poor are often wasted in needless display, and that 
their number interferes with the establishment of such a benefit- 
club for the Riding as, by securing the patronage of the landowners, 
might give the labouring classes the advantages of their co-ope- 
ration. 
The objects to be kept in view in such an institution would be 
twofold — first, security to each individual that he shall receive 
an equivalent for his deposit ; and, secondly, such provision against 
the risks of life as may enable those whom Providence favours to 
assist their less successful brethren. The first is to be mainly 
attended to in a society which proposes to assign pensions after a 
certain age ; the second, in one which gives relief in sickness : and 
these objects must necessarily interfere with one another. A well- 
constituted society for the first purpose should be founded on 
accurate calculations, and might have the same security as those 
insurance offices which are resorted to by the wealthier classes. 
It is to be feared that some societies in this Riding either require 
a disproportionate payment for such a return, or else are not sure 
of acquitting themselves of their engagements : for the terms of 
admission are not founded on an exact calculation of the age of 
those they admit, and can scarcely lay claim, therefore, to exact- 
ness. But most of those which have been mentioned aim at giving 
relief in sickness, an object of great importance, but very difficult 
to make accordant with the principle of security, because it can 
hardly be founded on accurate data. 
The only expedient that could be adopted by way of blending 
the two objects would be, that, while the provision for age was 
regarded as a debt which the institution incurred, the safety of 
which must on no account be compromised, the scale of payments 
might be made somewhat higher than if this object only were 
contemplated, and a fund might thus be raised, out of which the 
society might act as a benefit-club for the relief of the sick, in ad- 
dition to its main function as an insurance office. It might be 
wise, too, to give the poor every facility in borrowing, on the credit 
of the right they had gained by past payments, in case sickness 
should render it imperative upon them to anticipate the provision 
made for their age. 
A society which aimed at such objects, and which had the sup- 
port of persons of property in the Riding, would not only give 
security to the providence of the poor, and thus encourage habits 
of frugality, but it would augment the interest which binds toge- 
ther different ranks of society, and thus contribute to the security 
and happiness of the nation at large. 
