ever possessing them. Is it not equally
extravagant to hire our houses? The money we
pay year after year in rent for the mere right
of occupation, is enough, in no very long time,
to buy the houses or the cottages outright,
and make them ours for ever. The landlord,
liable to empty houses, and such accidents,
may not, indeed, get ten per cent.; but ten per
cent. is what we pay upon his outlay. Let us
join together, and contribute from our weekly
earnings little sums that will enable us to
build ourselves cottages; be landlords to
ourselves, and pay into our own purse the
landlord's profit. So thought the villagers who in
the year 1815 formed themselves into a club at
Kirkcudbright, and established the first Benefit
Building Society, under the auspices of the
Earl of Selkirk.

Their reasoning was sound, and their
resolve was prudent; nevertheless, of course,
these villagers are not a type of all house-
occupiers. There are many men whose
pursuits in life, or tastes, may lead them to make
frequent changes of abode; and for all such
men it is cheaper to rent houses than
to buy them. But for any man, whatever
his class in life, who is able to take occupation
of a house or cottage, and remain
permanently in it, there can be no doubt that it
would be a much more economical proceeding
to make the abode his own, than to pay
rent for it. Want of capital alone stood in
the way, and the humble labourers of
Kirkcudbright first suggested the solution of that
difficulty. Their example spread, in Scotland
first, and then to Manchester and Liverpool.
After the year 1830, the increase of these
societies became so rapid, that they forced
themselves on the attention of the Legislature.
No unbiassed man could fail to perceive how
greatly they promoted careful, prudent habits,
and how much more likely it was that men,
who had saved money from their earnings to
purchase a little property, and have a "stake
in the country," were to become orderly and
honest citizens, even if ever they had been otherwise
disposed. Accordingly, in 1836, an Act
was passed for the Regulation of Benefit Building
Societies, because, says the preamble, "it is
expedient to afford them encouragement and
protection." Building Societies were, by this
Act, made legal within certain limits. The
first section enacts that "it shall be lawful for
any number of persons in Great Britain and
Ireland to form themselves into and establish
societies, for the purpose of raising, by the
monthly or other subscriptions of the several
members of such societies, shares not exceeding
the value of one hundred and fifty pounds
for each share; such subscriptions not to
exceed in the whole twenty shillings per month
for each share, or stock, or fund; for the
purpose of enabling each member thereof to
receive out of the funds of such society the
amount or value of his or her share or
shares therein, to erect or purchase one or
more dwelling-house or dwelling-houses, or
other real or leasehold estate, to be secured
by way of mortgage to such society, until the
amount or value of his or her shares shall
have been fully repaid to such society with
the interest thereon," &c.

Pausing now to reflect a little upon this
clause of the Act, we have to observe, that its
terms fail to include visibly, and can only be
strained to imply, the form which had been
assumed by a large number of Building
Societies, even so long ago as the year 1836.
Between 1815 and 1836, as we have said, the
idea spread; and it spread not only by a
multiplication of the number of societies, but
by an extension of their principle. The first
idea was to build cottages; then there was
added the notion of buying them ready built,
and lending money, for the purchase on mortgage
of the property, to members who desired
to buy at once. Such members paid, in weekly
sums, five per cent, interest upon the loan,
with something towards repayment of the
principal; so that their whole debt came to be
wiped off gradually, within a fixed number of
years, at the end of which the borrower
became free master of his little property. This
was as much as the Act recognised; but the
extension of the principle had not stopped
here. By constant investment of the capital
subscribed, it yielded to the subscribing
members compound interest; and many working
men or tradesmen to whom it was not convenient
to buy a cottage or a house, desired to
have the advantage of a Building Society as a
mere place of investment a place for the
increase of scanty savings, or petty sums of idle
cash. Others, who did not wish to buy a dwelling,
saw means of using capital to their advantage,
in trade or otherwise, which they would
like to borrow of those who would take repayment
in the shape of small monthly instalments.
To the wants of such men—the wants
of their own members—Building Societies
had begun gradually to respond, and they had
become, in fact, Mutual Benefit Investment
Societies, already in 1836, as they now all are;
facility for the purchase or erection of buildings
being only one of the advantages placed at the
option of their subscribers, and included in
a much more comprehensive scheme. The
framers of the Act being, perhaps, insufficiently
acquainted with the real nature of the
institution for which they proposed to legislate,
worded their clauses with a view to the wants
of Building Societies, in the strict sense of the
word. Room was made, therefore, for doubts
concerning the legality of a society worked
upon more comprehensive principles, until
several decisions of the judges showed that it
was their determination to assist the spirit of
the enactment, by interpreting its clauses
very liberally. In the same way, from the
wording of the first clause, there arose a doubt
whether it would be legal for the same man
to hold more than one share in a society; and
one of the judges expressed a strong extra-
judicial opinion that he could not.