FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. IN proportion as the human mind is cultivated and improved, are forethought and providence increased in it, as well as the range of their prospective application enlarged; and there is, probably, no more satisfactory evidence that knowledge is becoming largely diffused among the labouring classes in this country, than is to be found in the fact of the present widely extended and extending disposition they evince to make such provision, by their own honest efforts, through the medium of Friendly Societies, as will avert the misery which poverty adds to the bed of sickness, to the infirmities of age, and to the hour of death. It is with the intention of giving a safe and beneficial direction to a disposition so honourable and useful, that the following Treatise is prepared. There are few institutions capable of being rendered more generally useful than Friendly Societies, provided they are founded on correct principles, and are conducted with prudence and economy. They are beneficial alike to the individuals of whom they are composed, and to the community at large. Whatever substantial advantage the members derive, from such societies, in the form of allowances during sickness and in other natural misfortunes, are greatly enhanced in value by the consciousness that such advantages are the fruits, not of benevolence or of the charity of others, but of the members' own frugality and providence. This feeling must be consoling in the highest degree, and must tend very much to soothe the mind in the severest afflictions, when, of all times, tranquillity is most desirable, and even necessary. Indeed, few things can be conceived more gratifying than the enjoyment of benefits we feel conscious are the result of our own well-doing.-It raises us in our own B estimation-it makes us feel that we are of some value in society -that we contribute to its welfare by our labour, without being burdens upon it in our misfortunes. Frugality and providence give to a man a moral independence, and a happiness of which a mere pauper can scarcely form an idea. But this is not all: so good a beginning can hardly fail to induce general good conduct and habits of carefulness; because the advantages of them will become almost self-evident. A man with such habits is a better husband, a better father, and a better servant; he is, therefore, more likely than others to be employed where confidence and trust are to be reposed; and his services will necessarily be of more value to others, and more productive to himself. He will be pleased at passing his hours of relaxation in the midst of his family; because he will know that he has done his duty to them, and, consequently, has a right to look for their approbation; and the instances will be rare in which he will not possess both their affection and their confidence. All the foregoing appear to be natural and direct inferences; and the truth of them, in their fullest extent, will not be questioned by those who have had the most extensive experience on the subject of Friendly Societies: such persons could not hesitate to confirm that the members of Friendly Societies are generally the most intelligent, sober, steady, and trustworthy men of their class in their respective neighbourhoods. It is scarcely necessary to insist on the benefit the community must derive from the labouring classes becoming sensible of their true interests, and depending for support in sickness and old age on the savings they may be enabled to make out of their earnings while in health and in their years of vigour; whether the same be appropriated as contributions to the funds of Friendly Societies, or deposited and accumulated at interest in Savings Banks. One of the most obvious and immediate advantages that would result to the nation at large from the extensive establishment of safely-founded Friendly Societies, would be a sensible diminution in the poor rates. The first effect on such rates would necessarily be to relieve them from a portion of those claims which are now largely made on them by labouring individuals who may be visited with sickness; who, having no other resource, at such a time, are obliged to seek parochial aid for themselves as well as for their families another, not trivial, although certainly a more distant, effect would be produced by parishes being relieved from the support of all such old and infirm persons as should have become members of solvent Friendly Societies. The poor rates would also be relieved from a great part of those charges now incurred in every parish for the burial of the poor. These are direct benefits, and not insignificant ones. But it can scarcely be doubted, that the moral effect capable of being produced by the societies in question would be even more beneficial to the community than the direct pecuniary advantage through the poor rates: there is good reason to hope that the wide diffusion of such institutions might partially bring back that manly old English feeling, which formerly made the British peasant and artisan regard the receipt of parochial bounty as little short of a stain on his character; and degraded him in his own estimation, as well as in that of his neighbours. If such result should be produced, it would go far to destroy one of the most demoralizing evils of the times, and probably one of the most fruitful sources of crime, namely, the widely-spread system of pauperism which now unhappily exists. It may be mentioned to the honour of almost all the Friendly Societies established in England, that, by their rules, any member who may be convicted of felony, is excluded the society to which he may belong, and the whole amount he may have contributed to its funds becomes forfeited. As there is no reason to believe that such a rule may hereafter cease to be as general as it now is, the community must, from this cause alone, be deeply interested in the success of institutions wherein men voluntarily make their dependence in sickness and in old age contingent on their continuing, throughout their lives, untainted by any serious offence against the laws of their country. From these considerations it seems obvious, that all due and prudent aid should be offered to men who may be disposed, by their frugality and providence, to benefit themselves as well as the political body of which they form a part. Those who have taken much interest in Friendly Societies, and in the effects produced by them on the habits of the labouring classes, have had frequent reason to lament that unsound calculations, bad management, and fraud, have, with a deplorable frequency, caused such institutions to fail. The number of societies that have existed long enough to bring the sufficiency of their |