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of challenge at the time of the trial to the Crown and the prisoner, was under the consideration of his right hon. Friend the Attorney General for Ireland.

not accepted because it was not consis- | verdicts were in every case returned. He tent, he having stated at one time that hoped that some Act would be passed he had placed the jurymen from the to take away the unlimited discretion to barony of Farney last on the panel be- form the panel that rested in the sheriff cause they would have a great distance and still more in the sub-sheriff, who to come, and in another that he had was very often a small local official who taken the jurors indifferently and put mixed himself up with party politics. them through the panel, in which case He was glad to hear that the plan, of course the names of the jurors from which he had recommended on a former Farney would have been found mixed occasion, of forming the panel in crimiwith the others. The subject was, how-nal cases by ballot, reserving the right ever, one of some importance as affecting the administration of justice in Ireland. Irish Members could not, unfortunately, but acknowledge that the law was not so much respected in their country as they would wish to see it, and though the population generally were not given to crime, there was too frequently a tendency to protect the criminal. This feeling of antagonism to the law arose mainly from the long years in which the law was against the people of Ireland, and when it represented a tyrannical power which was always against and never for the people. This feeling, which was gradually wearing away, was perpetuated by such cases as this, which, in the minds of a large number of the people, gave rise to the suspicion that partiality had been exercised. He fully concurred in the general principle that a man's religion ought not to be considered when calling upon him to act as a juryman; but it must be remembered that, in cases where party or religious prejudices were enlisted, the due administration of justice could not be secured without adopting what would otherwise appear to be an exceptional course. Even in Wales popular feeling ran so strong, at one time, that trial by jury was regarded as a farce; it being generally believed that no jury in that country would convict a Welshman, while a Welshman on the border, and with a border jury, would have stood very little chance indeed. In cases where anything like a selection of a jury on party grounds was suspected all respect for the law administered by the court was gone. He had before pointed out that the Crown could take measures to have the venue changed from a place in which party spirit was rife. Under the direction of the present Chief Baron Pigott, juries composed one-half of Roman Catholics and one-half of Protestants had been empannelled in party cases, and, he believed, the result was that satisfactory

FRIENDLY SOCIETIES-RESOLUTION. MR. E. RICHARDS said, he rose to call the attention of the House to the question of Friendly Societies; and to move, "That this House is of opinion that the Government should introduce a Measure to remedy the present insufficient state of the Law in relation to Friendly Societies." In 1854 a Committee was appointed to inquire into the question, and upon their Report the Act 18 and 19 Vict., c. 67, was passed. It was found, however, that that Act did not remove the evils against which it was directed, and in 1860, another Bill was brought in by Mr. Estcourt to compel the making of returns to the Registrar General of Friendly Societies; but notwithstanding that Act the returns were most irregular and very faulty. In 1861, another Act was passed requiring every society to render accounts to every member, but that Act also had, he believed, been practically inoperative. The evils connected with these societies had forced themselves upon the attention of Members of both Houses of the Legislature, and Lord Devon's Return, obtained in 1857, no doubt did some good by publicity, but those evils still continued. On a recent occasion a case came before Mr. Selfe, one of the metropolitan police magistrates, in which a man named Bohan made a complaint against the West London Philanthropic Benefit Society, which held its meetings at the King's Head, Chelsea. The man had been a member for years, and £7 was to have been paid on the death of his wife. Well, his wife died; but when he went for the money he was told there were no funds, and that the society was dissolved. The magistrate in that case granted a

summons against the secretary of the members the cost of management was, society, and said that these Burial So- in the St. Patrick's Society, 168. 3d. cieties were a perfect pest, that a week For every pound expended by the Vicnever passed without his having some toria Legal Society, established in Bircomplaint against a landlord or a se- mingham, in the relief of members, they cretary; that those societies took the spent £3 on the management. The hard-earned pence of poor people for average was taken by Mr. Tidd Pratt of years, and refused to meet their engage- the amount each member had in the ments when the deaths occurred. But various societies, and it appeared that in complaints of this kind were not confined St. Patrick's the amount of funds availto the metropolis. They were heard able for each member was 2s. 4d., in from every part of the country. In another 58., and in the Victoria Legal speaking of Friendly Societies he wished Society, where they spent £3 to give to divide them into two classes. There away £1, the amount available for each were the Burial Societies and there were member was 7d. Mr. Tidd Pratt stated such societies as the Odd Fellows, the that when the poor people, who had inForesters, the Druids, the Shepherds, sured, wanted to recover their money and others of a similar character. The they must go to Liverpool or BirmingBurial Societies were conducted in an ham to get it in case of any dispute. entirely different manner from those very The Royal Liver Society in Liverpool large associations. Mr. Tidd Pratt stated have in benefit 401,320 members; out that, at the time of the passing of the of benefit, 52,602; and arriving at Act of George III., the Legislature had benefit, 75,996. The funds amounted to in view Friendly Societies the members £117,930, or 48. 5d. for each member. of which knew each other and managed They spent 158. 9d. in expenses for every their own business without the interven- 20s. in relief. Each of the committeetion of paid officers. But the difference men received £520 per annum, and it between these old societies and the new appeared that no governor or committeeBurial Societies was very great. The man of any life insurance office in Engmembers of the latter were generally land received salaries equal to those poor persons, and were spread all over paid to the committee-men of the Royal the kingdom. These persons never par- Liver Society. The Victoria Legal in ticipated in the management, which was Liverpool was established in 1843; the conducted by a few individuals over yearly receipts were £28,000; members, whom the secretary generally had com- 127,000; payments for funerals, £12,000; plete control, and it was said by Mr. and nearly 20s. were expended for every Tidd Pratt that the only means by which 20s. paid for benefits. It appeared these societies, known as Burial Societies, that the whole of the assets of Burial could be regulated was by exceptional le- Societies, consisting of more than gislation. Mr. Tidd Pratt gave certain 1,000,000 insurers, and with £3,000,000 statistics of ten societies from the Re-insured, including value of property turns made to the other House, which and money in hand, amounted only to showed that the number of insurers £181,000. In one of these societies the amounted to 486,612; but it was stated secretary's salary was raised to £400 a that the number of subscribers to those year, and a Judge decided that he had Burial Societies was altogether not less misappropriated nearly £4,000, and orthan 1,000,000. The gross receipts for dered it to be refunded; he had no the year amounted to £94,323, the ex- power to do more, and the secretary set the penses of management came to £36,301, law at defiance. A collector occasionally and the payment on deaths amounted went from an old society to a new one to £64,386; so that the payments on on being allowed to keep the receipts to deaths and the expenses of management himself for the first six weeks. He told amounted to £6,364 beyond the total re-insurers in the old society that their only ceipts for the year. The amount of the funds in hand was about 28. 10d. per member; it was estimated that the whole amount insured was £1,500,000, and to meet the liabilities to insurers the assets were £67,267. Mr. Tidd Pratt showed that for every 208. spent for the relief of

safeguard was to go with him to the new society, and the consequence was that those who took his advice got out of benefit with the old society, and were not at once in benefit with the new society; and in case of a death within the period of six weeks they had no claim

upon the society they left, and no claim regular periodical valuations should be upon the society they entered, and were made of each lodge in the kingdom. without any remedy at all. That was a The objection hitherto was the cost. But state of things that ought to be re- this was a difficulty which might be remedied by the House. They had done too moved. It would be well to consider much by legislation or too little, because whether the Board of Trade could not poor people joined a society under the sanction the appointment of a compesupposition that because the rules had tent actuary to make these valuations. been certified by Mr. Tidd Pratt all was Stability would be secured to these soright and legal. But when Mr. Tidd cieties by compelling them to make a Pratt certified the rules, all he said was quinquennial or a septennial valuation that the rules were not contrary to law of their assets. He was happy to say as put before him, and Mr. Tidd Pratt that the Friendly Societies themselves did not mean to intimate that he was were becoming sensible of the importsatisfied that the tables of those societies ance of these valuations. Every rewere correct. Mr. Johnson-referring port from the head-quarters of those to the Liverpool societies in a pamphlet societies for the last four or five years, -stated that the extravagant expendi- he believed, insisted on the necessity ture was without parallel. The tables for a valuation. He hoped the Sewere in many cases drawn up by actu-cretary of State for the Home Departaries who never saw the rules, and who certainly would not have certified to the tables if they had known that so large an amount of the receipts went for management. It had been announced that Government would bring in a Bill to allow insurances of small amount to be effected in the savings bank department of the Post Office, but from the returns of the expenses already incurred in managing that business he doubted whether it would pay. Next, he would refer to such large societies as the Odd Fellows and Foresters. The Odd Fellows Association consisted of 412,000 members, and the receipts last year amounted to £499,000. The expenditure was £326,000, and the gain on the whole of the operations of the year was £172,000. The valuation of their property was £2,600,000, or more than £6 per head for every member. The Foresters had altogether over 300,000 members last year; the receipts amounted to £366,840; expended, £273,000; gain on the operations of the year, £93,000. It was said by the secretary that £40,000 ought to be put to another account, but after so doing the gain by the operations of last year would be more than £50,000. The total assets of the Foresters were over £1,000,000, so that each of the 300,000 members had £3 9s. 9d. to the good. Much might be said in favour of these societies, but still there was an obverse to the picture. The members, for instance, had not yet become sufficiently alive to the necessity of a valuation of their property, and it would be necessary in legislating on the subject to provide that

ment would carry into effect the wishes of the conductors of those societies in that regard by introducing a Bill to require that such returns should be sent, and that such valuations should be made. It was too much the fashion of writers to assert that all Foresters and Odd Fellow Societies were insolvent. Mr. Neison, the late actuary, gave his opinion some years ago that the Odd Fellows Societies were insolvent to the extent of £9,000,000; but his son, Mr. Neison, actuary, now estimated their liabilities at £2,000,000, and stated that the bulk of that amount was due from the Odd Fellows Societies in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Cheshire. With the exception of these four counties, Mr. Neison believed that the Odd Fellows Friendly Societies by means of increased payments might be placed on a sound basis. He (Mr. Richards) was confident that by the aid of proper legislation and the enlightened management of the gentlemen who were at the head of them, these societies, instead of being insolvent, would become one of the great institutions of this country. A great deal of laughter was frequently occasioned by the regalia and processions of Odd Fellows Societies. It must not be supposed that all who joined those societies approved of all they did. At one of the late gatherings of Odd Fellows Societies, one of their leading men, Mr. Fletcher, said that during the twenty-five years he had been connected with them he had not expended 1d. in decorating himself for a procession, and he hoped the time

would come when the Odd Fellows So-pointment of a Commission for the purcieties would sweep away from them- pose of obtaining further information as selves that which other people looked to Odd Fellows and Foresters, and more upon as humbug. Again, on the ques- particularly with respect to Burial Societion of remunerating the landlord for ties? the hire of a lodge-room by purchasing MR. BONHAM-CARTER said, that beer instead of paying in cash, Mr. for the last twenty years, with the assistKennedy, of Dublin, lately addressed ance, and under the guidance of Mr. the Foresters in indignant terms against Sotheron Estcourt, he had taken a deep that practice, and stated that, in Ire- interest in this question. While agreeland, no court would dare to have ing with most of what had just fallen beer on the council table, much less to from his hon. Friend (Mr. Richards), he enter in their accounts a charge for the could not quite coincide in the opinion payment of it, and he trusted that this that the existing evils were all susceptiimprovement would soon extend to all ble of an easy and immediate remedy parts of England. These were the opi- by legislation. He looked with satisfacnions expressed by members of those so- tion on the great progress that had been cieties. He (Mr. Richards) hoped that made by Friendly Societies of late years. the societies would, ere long, clear them- A very startling attack had been made selves of these abuses, and take up the on the solvency of the Odd Fellows position which really belonged to them some twenty-two or twenty-three years -that of being the great insurance so- ago, which had very much to do with cieties of the working classes. It might the reform of that body; and it was be said that it would be much the readier greatly to the credit of the working-men way for working men to go to an insur- that, in spite of evil report, they had rance office at once. But that was not gone resolutely on until they had reached his view of the matter. He thought it a a position in which they were trusted matter of great importance that they and perfectly solvent. He looked upon should themselves have a share in the these institutions as splendid examples management of their own business. He of the foresight and self-denial of the believed that it was just that feature in better members of the working classes; these societies which had constituted and if hon. Gentlemen had followed the a great element in their success, and efforts of those men they would have which gave them a special value. It been sensible of what an up-hill fight made them, in fact, a great means of they had to make in order to reach that teaching the working classes the duties position, and how they had gone on year of citizenship, and he believed that the by year endeavouring to improve those future of this country would be a great with whom they were associated. He deal better than its past, by the edu- did not deny that there might be a case cation which a great many men re- for legislative action, but with respect to ceived in the Odd Fellows and societies the great societies, he would say let them of that description. As an honorary minimize their legislation. The Commember of one of them he might state mittee which sat upon the subject of that the order and decorum with which Friendly Societies had, in the first intheir meetings were conducted, equalled stance, thought it would be possible to the order and decorum in that House. apply stringent remedies to the abuses Every member who entered the room which were formerly so rife; but furhad to make the same acknowledgment ther consideration had satisfied them of the authority in the chair as was that it would be better to trust to the made by Members entering that House. good sense of the working men themThere was no swearing, and neither po- selves. It had given great satisfaction litical nor religious questions were al- to Mr. Sotheron Estcourt himself, and lowed to be introduced. He called upon other friends of the societies, to find that the Secretary of State for the Home De- the men who belonged to them had repartment to assist these men in making sponded so completely to the confidence their savings safe. He wished to be in- that had been placed in them. There formed whether the Government were was nothing that the great clubs more prepared to legislate on this subject, dreaded than that this feeling of confiand if not, whether they would assent dence should be broken into by any into a Committee of Inquiry, or the ap- terference. They were, and would be VOL. CXCV. [THIRD SERIES.]

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quite satisfied with the law as it stood, though there might be some little points of detail which might call for a slight remedy. The question of Burial Societies, however, stood on a totally different footing. They speculated in the most cruel manner on the affection, grief, and ignorance of poor people, whom they induced to make great sacrifices, and whose money they took, and then when the time for meeting the claim came they would say they could only give this or that small sum, and the poor people in the time of their distress had often no alternative but to accept what was offered them. He thought his hon. Friend had, at all events, made out a case for inquiry. An immense body of men, many of them the flower of the workingclasses, were interested in the question; and there were but few who really knew what great credit was due to these poor people for the self-denial they practised weekly, monthly, and yearly, and what a cruel thing it was for them to find in the end, perhaps after twenty years' subscription, that there was nothing to depend on after all. Great credit was due to the Earl of Lichfield for his attempt at legislation, and if his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department should not hold out a hope that he would himself take up the question, he had no doubt that the Earl of Lichfield would press the matter again in "another place." In the county in which he (Mr. Bonham-Carter) resided a large proportion of the inmates of the poorhouses were persons who had belonged to Friendly Societies that had broken down. What he would urge on the Government was not to allow that the unsound societies, which brought so many to destitution, should go on without legislation. He was not sanguine that the Government could do anything by legislation on the subject this year, or, indeed, that anything could be done upon it at all by way of legislation; but if, by means of inquiry or otherwise, they could help the people to distinguish between good and bad institutions of that kind they would render a most valuable service to the numerous class interested in that important question.

MR. BRUCE, having long known the earnest and practical interest taken by the hon. Member for Cardiganshire (Mr. Richards) in all that concerned the well-being of the working classes, was

not at all surprised at the mastery of his subject which he had exhibited that evening; and he only regretted that there was not a fuller attendance of hon. Members to hear the hon. Gentleman's masterly, though maiden, speech as a Member of Parliament. It was quite true that the importance of that question could hardly be exaggerated. It affected millions of the working class, and affected them in a manner that was of the greatest possible interest to the House and the country. What they wanted to do was to increase the habits of providence and forethought among the working class; and whatever gave them a security that their savings and sacrifices should not be lost to them was a matter of vital importance not only to that class, but to all other classes whose prosperity so greatly depended upon theirs. That being so, Parliament had not been unmindful of its duty; for, during the last thirty or forty years, its attention had been from time to time occupied with the question of these societies, and occupied with it not quite in vain, because, as was clear from what they had heard that night, where the working men availed themselves of the power offered them by law they had succeeded in establishing societies on a firm and solid basis. That had happened as publicity had brought home to them the knowledge of what constituted the security of those societies, and almost every year it was found that that which had been the shame of those societies was gradually disappearing. Larger masses of the working people were seen attaching themselves to the larger and more stable societies, and leaving those small and unsound societies which had wrought so much misery and ruin. Knowing how strong the love of independence and the jealousy of Government interference were among the working classes, he greatly doubted whether Parliament or the State could do much more than it had done in that matter. What had been done had been done mainly in the preparation or sanctioning of rules on the part of the Government, and alsothough not very successfully, he admitted-in giving publicity to the accounts of those societies. The hon. Member for Cardiganshire suggested that an actuary for these institutions should be appointed-[Mr. RICHARDS : Sanctioned.]well, sanctioned by the

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