and the Poor Law. 
101 
before the next meetin"^, when instructions will be given how to 
proceed. The custom is that the club is satisfied of the correct- 
ness of the claim if the board of guardians admit it and afford 
relief. It may be noted that the board, in its turn, attach 
importance to the fact of a member being in receipt of sickness 
pay ; and in societies which give no allowance for anything but 
" total and undisputed incapacity by reason of illness to do any 
work whatever," the man who is too ill to earn his living, but 
not sufficiently ill to claim money from the sickness fund, may 
receive, and occasionally does receive, hard treatment from the 
board. The faulty system of espionage, which, as an adequate 
protection against imposition in sickness, has been strangely 
overrated, is strictly enforced, and falls to the lot of the stewards, 
though all the members are expected to assist by giving informa- 
tion if need be. The rules are strict, and properly so, in the 
case of sickness : — " No member receiving benefit from this club 
shall be allowed to walk more than three miles from home, with- 
out being fined Is. ; if found drunk, to be fined Is. ; if found 
working or assisting in anything of the kind, or if he be out after 
seven o'clock in the evening, he shall be fined or excluded, as 
the majority of members at an ordinary meeting shall determine." 
The weekly contributions of the members are the same in 
amount. Objection has been persistently taken against the 
" uniform contributions," on the score of causing insolvency. 
That it is unjust for a man of 45 to pay the same as a lad of 18, 
both entering at the same time, is beyond dispute. But there is 
no great injustice in all members under the age of 30 years 
paying alike, and the vast majority of the members join on the 
younger side of 20 ; nor will the club admit new members if 
upwards of 35 years of age. 
There is but one instance within our knowledge in which the 
contribution appears to be too low, and in that case there is a 
guarantee in the shape of ample "honorary " contributions. 
There is much in the notion of " all paying alike " which com- 
mends itself to the farm labourer; "all pay alike, and all fare 
alike," he will say ; and if you inform him that equality and 
fairness in contributions can only be secured by a scale of 
payments graduated according to age, the man is puzzled, but 
not shaken in his belief of fair play. 
Be the case as it may, the annual election secures the means of 
relieving the club of the man who becomes too great a burden 
for his friends longer to sustain. The industrious and honest 
old man, who cannot tell the difference between sickness and 
" chronic ailments and mere decrepitude," but who knows that 
he is ill, must go. In order to save the leaky vessel from 
foundering, the unlucky victim is tossed overboard, and falls 
