member proposes the existence of the Order for
another year; and that the members do consist
of——

Mark the advantage of the contrivance. "A
heavy case" has burdened the sick fund during
past years. It is one of the older men. There
is no doubt that although he is now well
enough to attend the festival, he will soon have
another attack. Take his payments into club
during past years in a lump sum, and five-and-
twenty pounds would not cover them,
independently of interest. But he has had nearly
ten pounds for sickness; so his name is left out
of the renovated club list, and the election is
made this time without him. The old man is
kindly treated, every one thinks, for he receives
bonus like the rest, and a dinner ticket gratis.
He will accommodate himself to his position
with the resignation common to men used to
bear the stroke of adversity. He will not spoil
the pleasures of the day by so much as a
murmur.

Another member struck out is a man who
has been always a troublesome customer. He
would be sure to be on the sick fund as long as
the rules allowed/ and is now on superannuation
allowance. He had a narrow escape last year,
but now they tell him he may have his bonus
and dinner ticket for nothing, and may go and
demand the half-crown a week from poor-rate,
or go into the union. "Out-door relief," he
consoles himself by remarking, "is a better
thing than half-a-crown from the Order," which
is subject to the weekly deduction of that
sixpence, which is by rule payable in sickness and
in health. The liability for burial money of six
pounds is dismissed with a joke. Three or four
lads of twenty are admitted, and by this time it
is near the hour for Divine Service. There is a
crowd outside and in the house. The band is
thumping its big drum, and rending the air with
its screams of agony in polka measure. The
flags of the order are unfurled. The treasurers
carry their wands, and wear their decorations.
The farm labourer who is a member of this club,
appears with his brother members in a blue and
white cotton band over one shoulder, tied in
a bunch of red ribbon under the other; and
the procession starts for church. In church,
the regalia, as the trumpery is designated, is
placed in a conspicuous position; it was once
put upon the communion-table. Morning
Prayer is read by the curate, followed by a
sermon from the rector, who always receives,
and generally accepts, the invitation to dinner.

Far be it from our purpose to write one word
tending to lessen any good influence among the
rural poor. The sermon will have been on the
duty of bearing one another's burdens, of the
strong helping the weak, or charity and brotherly
kindness will have been enforced, and so far
well; but we must not forget that the
clergyman's assistance upon such occasions is, in the
eyes of the members of the club, a visible sign
that their scheme has the approval of the Church.

When larger friendly societies were established
in different counties, it was necessary to
consider them to some extent as charitable
institutions. Subscriptions were obtained for the
work, and the co-operation of benevolent men
was secured. Patrons and vice-patrons were
found in the leading men of the county, who
became honorary members, and, with the aid of
the clergy and others, sound societies were
fairly managed. The uppermost notion in men's
minds, however, was that the work was a charity.
There was the same delusion about savings-
banks. The impression is fast waning in
reference to the banks; but it still continues to
array the friendly society in false attire. The
friendly society is as much a matter of £ s. d.
at interest, as are the deposits in the post-office
savings-banks. In the year eighteen 'twenty-
eight, a society, now called the County of Kent
Friendly Society, was formed at Sittingbourne,
in Kent, through the exertions of a clergyman,
since identified with the question of life assurance
among the clergy. Its capital is considerably
above twenty thousand pounds, and its liabilities
are several thousands less. In its earlier career
the Kent Friendly Society elected a great
number of farm labourers. Their employers
looked upon the society as a charity, and paid
for a time the monthly contributions of their
men. The men, in their turn, considered it to
be a charity, and that of a somewhat insidious
kind; and when their employers ceased to pay
the premiums, many of the assured forsook it.
This ignorant proceeding was advantageous to
the society, for the money they left behind them
when they ceased to be members, and returned
to their various "United Orders," was, to some
extent, the foundation of its wealth.

A glance at its tables will show that had a
farm labourer joined such a society instead of the
one above described, when he was, say twenty-
five years of age, he might have secured the
following benefits sickness and burial money, ten
shillings a week and eight pounds at death, for
the sum of twenty shillings yearly; and for
another eight shillings a year he would have
secured four shillings a week superannuation
allowance, to commence at the age of seventy,
when sickness pay ceases. The full pay in case
of sickness would have been given, not for three
months, but for a whole year, had he required
it during the first five years' membership, and
for a hundred and four weeks at a later time.
The directors would, after the second year,
have power to reduce him to half-pay.

This provision may be compared with that of
the three months' sick pay from the United
Order, and witli the cost of that precarious
shelter which does not in the long run secure
anything but pauper's allowance and a final
refuge in. the union. In other words, the farm
labourer thus investing would have been clear
of the weekly half-crown of poor-rate relief. He
would have continued in his cottage among his
family, able like many hale old men on the
wrong side of seventy still to earn a few
shillings from time to time in light labour, which
would be a pleasant occupation to him.

What, then, is the actual case of farm