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dience to the rules. There can be no question that it would be vastly better if these clubs could be dissociated entirely from public-houses, and if the members would give up the annual festival altogether, or at least keep such days of rejoicing quite separate and apart from the stern business of life saving. There are some Societies, such as the Kent Friendly Society and the Wilts Benefit Society, the Hampshire Society, the Essex Provident Society, which, as a rule, have no gala days, music, nor feasting. These Societies,—and there are other similar ones in other counties, are old established, safe, properly conducted, institutions, in which a man may invest his savings with the utmost confidence.

*

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But these societies, however well they may fulfil the object of providing temporary support in time of sickness and a certain sum for purposes of burial, entirely ignore the great end of providing a pension or an annuity for old age. The necessity for a provision of this kind has not been recognized by the workingclasses hitherto. They have always looked to the poor rates to support them when they are past work. And it must be remembered that there never has been any sound scheme offered to them for providing for old age. It has been their misfortune rather than their fault that the Village Clubs, and in some few cases the better Friendly Societies, have been the only available media for investments of any kind.

There were savings banks in a few large towns, but these were only suited to those living near such towns, and were simply receptacles for savings with the advantage of a small interest.

* Occasionally in the case of the Wilts Society, the honorary members get up a subscription to provide a dinner for the members of their districts, which is held in a large barn, or room,'if such is obtainable. After dinner, games and rustic sports, dancing and other amusements are held in a meadow. The Kent Friendly Society has had tea meetings and similar innocent entertainments at various times and in various places.

These savings might of course have been withdrawn at any time by the depositors. The Post Office now offers vast opportunities for saving money to all classes, besides granting life insurances and annuities which are within the reach of the better paid labouring classes, but they are unfortunately beyond the saving powers of agricultural labourers. It would be a great boon to these classes if sickness pay and old age pay could be combined in one monthly payment to suit their pockets and meet their requirements. This could be done well very cheaply and at one uniform rate for the whole of England by a central power like the Post Office, which would constitute a huge Friendly Society for the country, whose rates would be based upon the average rate of mortality, the circumstances and condition of the whole body of agricultural labourers, and other essential data.*

Mr. Bailey Denton says:-"The Hitchin Friendly Institution, established in 1828, is perhaps based on as good a foundation as any in the country, as every member who insures against sickness is also compelled to insure for a pension in old age, an object declared by Mr. Hawkins its founder and great supporter, to be of vital importance if the wage-paid classes are to be taught the advantages of respectability in providing for themselves when past work, without application to the parish."

Mr. Hawkins has been good enough to send detailed particulars of this Friendly Institution at Hitchin, which well deserves the encomium of Mr. Bailey Denton. This institution combines the advantages of sickness pay, old age pension and a sum on death, in one assurance. The premium for this assurance may be paid down in one sum, or by monthly instalments as is usually convenient to the working classes. For example, the payment of £5 16s. 6d. in one sum. or of 61d monthly, beginning at the age of 20 years, will insure 2s. a week in sickness until the age of 65,

* See Appendix B.

1s. a week as a pension after 65, and £2 on death. Again, a lump sum of £34 19s., or the monthly payment of 3s. 14d. at the age of 20 will ensure 12s. a week in sickness until 65 years of age, 6s. a week as a pension after 65 years of age, and £12 on death. In this case members do not pay any contribution after they are 65 years of age. Members may insure for 14s., 16s., 18s. and 20s. a week upon the same rates as those given above. Members can also effect these combined assurances up to the age of 70 years according to other tables, as, for instance, by paying a lump sum of £4 18s. 8d., or, by a monthly payment of 54d., a man at the age of 20 may assure for 2s. a week in sickness till 70, 1s. a week after 70, £2 on death; or for 12s. a week in sickness until 70, 68. a week after 70, and £12 on death, by paying down (at the age of 20) £24 13s. 4d., or 2s. 24d. monthly.

14s., 16s., 18s. and 20s. a week may be assured upon the payment of proportionate rates of premium. Thus, by payment of a fraction over 64d. a week, a young man who joins this society at 20 may insure first-class sickness pay until he is 70 years old, and substantial support in his old age.

Beside these combined assurances there are classes for assurances for old age alone. Thus, at 20 years of age a man may assure for 2s. a week, payable at the age of 60, by paying £8 16s. 10d. down at once, or 91d. per month; and so on.

This admirable institution seems to be the very model of what friendly societies should be. It spends no money upon feasting and revelling, and has lately been able, through the recommendation of the late Mr. Tidd Pratt, to increase all the sickness allowances of its members by one sixth, "So that those who insured for 8s. a week now receive 9s. 4d., and those who insured for 12s. receive now 14s. The number of the members of this institution is 290, and the capital is £13,745, or somewhere about £47 per member! This is indeed a useful society; it is to be wished that there were societies like it in every county, for it is fully believed that if

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some such scheme of insurance in time of sickness, and of pay for old age were now offered to the agricultural labourers generally, they would gladly accept it. They are finding out upon what rotten reeds they have been so long leaning. They are learning the principles of common prudence, and as education proceeds they will look back with dismay at the fearful squandering of capital of themselves and their fathers before them, and wonder how they could have been so unwise in their generation.

CHAPTER XII.

CO-OPERATION.

MR. MILL says in his Political Economy that "the relation

of master and work people will be gradually superseded by partnership in one of two forms: temporarily and in some cases association of the labourers with the capitalist; in other cases, and finally in all, association of labourers among themselves." In other words Mr. Mill predicts that the principles of co-operation will finally prevail. There will be at no very distant date, no longer men working for masters but for themselves, and on their own account entirely. This principle of co-operation is by no means a new one. The guilds of workmen in foreign countries in the middle ages, presented some of its leading features and characteristics, mingled curiously with some of the worst points of trades unionism. The elements of the latter finally predominated, and the guilds were dissolved, trade was annihilated, and the workmen had to seek work and a living in other countries. Many came to England, spreading themselves broadcast over the land, bringing their handicrafts with them, and in many cases establishing their trades to the great advantage and profit of their adopted country. Very many flourishing families of England both noble and gentle may be traced back to the weavers and goldsmiths who sought protection as refugees and outcasts.* At the time of the French Revolution in 1848, amid the communistic, socialistic and numerous other theories of the discontented ouvriers, the notion of co-ope

Smiles, Huguenots.

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