1809s] 
the truism. But if, as I rather suppose, 
they mean, that the act is forbidden or 
punishable by law, I doubt the correct- 
ness of the assertion. For 1 remember, 
that a few years since, a bill was brought 
into Parliament, and received the sanc- 
tion of one House only, to make adal- 
tery punishable as a crime. Now I can- 
not suppose, that our English Jaw, which 
has been said to be “ the perfection of 
human reason,” is so very unreasonable, 
as to punish a man for giving, or for 
receiving, permission to do an act, which 
the law does not regard as a crime, but 
43 a private injury ta the person, who, 
in the present case, consents to the act. 
Besides, if any law existed for punish- 
ing this enormity, how could it so long 
have escaped the vigilance of those zeal- 
ous moralists, the Society for the Sup~ 
pression of Vice? To my apprehension, 
a single act of this kind exceeds in mo- 
ral turpitude the whole aggregate of the 
vices, for which this Society, since their 
first institution, have exacted the legal 
penalties: and, if it has not incurred 
their censure, I must do them the justice 
to suppose, that they have not wanted 
the will, but the power, to punish. 
There is, however, one legal effect 
consequent on this transaction, and to 
which your correspondents do not seem 
to advert; whichis, that the husband 
who thus prostitutes his wife, and whom 
the law supposes to be the only person 
injured, by her cohabiting with another 
man, by this act publicly renounces arid 
precludes the only remedy which the law 
has provided for him. We may, there- 
fore, naturally enough conclude, that 
the practice was invented by some crafty 
adulterer, who knew enough of the law 
to contrive this method of gratifying his 
vicious propensity, in perfect security 
from the penalties of crim. con. 
Your’s, &c. 
Nottingham. SENEX. 
——ia 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIRs 
S an admirer and constant reader 
_ of your very useful and instructive 
Miseeliany, I beg leave to request, 
through its channel, the favour of some 
of your very valuable correspondents, to 
inform me of any well-founded society, 
for the relief of the labouring and mecha- 
nical classes, commonly called ‘* Benefit 
Societies.” Almast every market town, 
- QP principal village, has an establishment 
Benefit: Societies. : 45} 
of this nature; but no one, that I have. 
been acquainted with in the country, 
seem to have been founded on any sound 
calculation, but, unhappily, most of 
them without any calculation at all, co- 
pying their rules, regulations, contribu- 
tions, and allowances, from one another, 
and which must eventually deceive thuse 
who are members of such societies, at a 
period when sickness lies heavy upon 
them, and a long series of laborious years 
have almost worn out their frames. If 
there! is any one society of this descrip- 
tion, that has been so long established, 
as to have lasted out the period of the 
lives of those who were its first promoters, 
and which has still a fund sufficiently 
able to continue, with security undenia- 
ble, to answer the calls of those’ who 
may become dependent for support, even 
to an hitherto unprecedented number, I 
conceive it would be a mefitorious act, 
in any one, to give information, through 
the channel of your Miscellany, where 
such society exists, and what are its pro- 
minent rules and regulations, and parti- 
cularly the monthly contributions neces- 
sary to be paid, to ensure such perma- 
nency of effect. It is lamentable to read 
over the articles of some of those sorie- 
ties which I have seen, and to reflect, 
that their expectations, in a few years, 
will vanish, like a dream, from the ill 
calculated scheme on which they bave 
raised them, and the smallness of the 
contribution paid by those deluded peo- 
ple, not being any ways adequate to 
provide for the numbers that must, in 
the ordinary course of things, after a 
lapse of many years after the foundation, 
become dependent for support. Ifno 
one can be pointed out, which can be 
positively announced, as founded on 
sure and unerring principles, and which 
has stood the test of a period of years, 
sufficient to amount to an indisputable 
proof, I should esteem it a singular fa- 
vour, if some of your ingenious corres- 
pondents would eudeavour to ascertain, 
what weekly or monthly payments ought 
to be made, by the classes of men bee 
fore-mentioned, to allow, in case of sicke 
ness and inability to labour, suthicient to 
support them, equal to what they would 
have gained from their exertions in 
health, and the usual allowance given by 
most of those societies, on a member 
decease, for his funeral expences, which, 
I believe, in common in the couniry, is 
about 41. 
Establishments of this nature are so 
congenial 
