all future charges. If our tradesman has no
capital, at first, it will be necessary that he
should subscribe his monthly payment, as
invester in a Building Society, until his share
has acquired the value necessary to make up
the difference between the value of his house,
and the amount that he can borrow for it
upon mortgage. The house which he would
buy for four hundred pounds, he would
probably be occupying at a rent of thirty-two
pounds yearly. By the payment, in instalments,
of forty-four pounds a year to a Building
Society, the house would in fourteen years
become his own freehold, without further
payment of any kind. He would in that case
have paid his rent as usual for the fixed term
of years, and one hundred and seventy pounds
more; so that he would, in fact, by a process
spread over those fourteen years, have become
possessor of his own house at less, to him, than
half its value. In the case of cottages, of
which, on account of greater risk, the rent
bears a much higher proportion to the actual
value, the advantage resulting to the working
man or labourer is even greater than that
enjoyed by a professional man or tradesman.
The same principle that we have applied to
the purchase of a house, already built, would,
of course, apply equally to the erection of a
freehold.

Purchase of house property, however, not
being the only use to which men put their
money, Building Societies, as we have said,
are made available for the supply of other
wants. Perhaps an opportunity is seen in
trade, or otherwise, of obtaining out of capital
more than the per-centage paid for borrowing.
Then, if the borrower can give the requisite
security, upon real property, he can obtain an
advance from the Building Society, which
will not press in a great lump upon his
future, but be repaid insensibly by small
instalments. Again if a man's—he can pay
the small instalments due upon a share in
a society of this kind. Since every penny,
from the moment it is paid, will begin to
increase at five per cent, compound interest,
a sum of money can in this way be laid up
for the future. Nor, in such investment, is
there risk of any forfeiture at all. If ever a
day comes, when the servant out of place, or
the mechanic out of work, is unable to
continue payment, she or he may, at any moment,
stop and receive all that has been paid up to
the time of stoppage, with the compound
interest to that date, upon giving a short
notice. The money can be used when
earnings cease; and then, directly earnings
recommence, subscriptions may again be paid
into the Building—or, as it should be allowed
to call itself, the Mutual Investment Club.
Men who desire to lay by sums for the
apprenticing of children, the portioning of
daughters, or for meeting any future debt, can
do so with the greatest ease by making such
periodical deposits in a Building Club, as shall,
at the expiration of the desired time, attain,
with compound interest, to the desired amount.
To the provident of all classes, in fact, whose
circumstances oblige them to deal with money
on a small scale, these societies, when well
conducted, are a resource of the most valuable kind.

When well conducted! But we now desire
to draw the attention of those who have, or
propose to have, a money interest in these
establishments, to a few words of necessary
explanation. Advertisements extracted from
a Sunday newspaper by Mr. Scratchley, into
his book on Building Societies, herald the

"Immense success of Mr. So-and-So's Building
and Investment Societies. £70 for every £30
subscribed in a Fixed Term of Ten Years.—NOTICE.
The Members of the——BUILDING AND INVESTMENT
SOCIETY may now (the second year having
terminated) receive the whole amount of their
subscriptions with 18¼ per cent, per annum interest
thereon. By order of the Board."

Another is headed:—

"Important to Persons desirous of Purchasing
House Property.—£1000 will be offered for sale at
the second Meeting of the——— BUILDING AND
INVESTMENT SOCIETY, on THURSDAY Evening, the
9th of May, 1850, at half-past 7 o'clock. Interest
payable by the Borrowers from 1 to 5 per cent.
The whole amount of the purchase-money and law
charges advanced by the society. No arrears to pay.
Fixed to close in Ten years certain. Subscription
5s. per share per month."

Absurd as this proposal will appear to
many of our readers, it is one made in
sincere good faith, and there are hundreds more
or less like it constantly advertised. Under it
lies some of the most dangerous fallacies attendant
upon Building Clubs. In the first place,
this advertisement proposes that members,
who contribute to the Society five shillings
a month, or three pounds a year, for ten years,
shall receive seventy pounds for their thirty
at the expiration of that period, being interest
at about eighteen per cent. This society is of
the kind called "terminating;" it is the old
form of Building Society now falling, most
properly, into disuse. Its defects are great.
The above club, for example, is to terminate
in 1860, for all members. Members who
enter at the beginning, pay five shillings a
month, but after two or three years, any new
members who would enter, must pay, of
course, more than five shillings monthly, or
else buy a share by payment upon entrance
of the following in one sum; namely, the
money that they would have paid in
instalments from the opening of the club
to the date of their admission, together with
the eighteen and a quarter per cent.
interest. Few can afford this; few, therefore,
enter. In the same way, every year that
passes, makes the time shorter which remains
for those who would borrow to repay in.
Repayments, after the first year or two, must
be by large sums; they also then cease to be
convenient. The money of the club, therefore,
is not borrowed. It lies at the bank,
or elsewhere, getting three-and-a-half per