Post-Office Insurance for Labourers. 
77 
Commission of Inquiry into Friendly Societies was urged in the 
pages of this Journal, in March, 1870. The Commission was 
obtained in the course of the following summer, and, under the 
presidency of the Right Hon. Sir Stafford Northcote, Bart., is 
now occupied with its arduous and responsible duties. Evidence 
has already been taken on abuses which could not be properly 
dealt with by other than a court of enquiry ; and, if we may judge 
from what has already transpired through the newspapers, such 
evidence may not improbably furnish another and a powerful 
argument in addition to those which have of late enlisted the 
efforts of persons who are anxious to better the condition of 
the labouring classes, and who desire to see the plan stated at 
the head of this article, and partly discussed in a former paper,* 
considered on its merits, and, if approved, sanctioned by the 
Legislature. 
In a memorial f which emanated from the Friendly Societies' 
Committee, in 1869, and which asked for the issue of the Com- 
mission, it was stated that an investigation was required " into 
the bearing of the Poor Law on Friendly Societies, the means of 
providing insurances suited to the ' wage-paid ' class, and pro- 
viding, for their due supervision." I shall treat the question 
under review in connection with the points noticed by the 
memorialists. It is one which will be found of great importance 
to those who are taking an active part in efforts for the moral 
and social advancement of the lower classes of the community, 
and not destitute of interest to the general reader. 
The problem to be solved is, how to discourage and deter 
labourers, whose means are sufficient, if properly invested, to 
raise them above the condition of paupers, from common resort 
to the poor-rate, and induce them to secure their own provision by 
prudence and self-help. The solution of that problem is, I sub- 
mit, to be found (1) in a strict administration of the Poor Law, 
and (2) by giving to labourers the means of safe investment 
for sums which, owing to their present view of the poor-rate, are 
* Vol. vi. p. 87 : ' Farm Labourers, their Friendly Socief es, and the Poor Law.' 
t The memorial was reprinted in this Journal, vol. vi. p. 119, which see. 
The memorialists agreed to try for a Royal Commission of Inquiry, by whicii 
their subsequent duties would be lightened. In case tliey did not succeed 
— and their struggle would form no uninteresting chapter in the history of 
Friendly Societies — they agreed to collect evidence as best they could, and draw up 
a digest," or report, of the same, by which means a tolerably good basis for legis- 
lative measures, if such should be needed, would, it was thought, have been secured. 
The advantage of obtaining such a basis from tlie report of the Royal Commission 
18 admitted, and the Committee may still render good service by helping to 
initiate or to carry through Parliament measures for the improvement or develop- 
ment of insurance suited to the labouring classes, when the forthcoming Report 
shall enable them to proceed. 
