The sickness and annuity funds are essentially con- | So that a person of the age of 25, for an entry-money nected, and the tables for them are subjoined. It is to be remarked, that two, three, or four shares may be taken in all of these funds. Towards the annuity fund females pay one-fourth additional, in consideration of their lives being so much better than those of men. of 7s. 6d., and a payment of 2s. 2d. a month until the age of 65-or £1, 5s. 9d. a year-may secure an allowance of 10s. a week during sickness for 52 weeks; 78. 6d. a week for other 52 weeks; and 5s. a week during the whole remaining period of sickness until the age of 65, an annuity of £8 a year during life after 65, and a sum of £10 at death. For 4s. 4d. a month, or £2, 11s. 6d. a year, a person may obtain double of these allowances. At an examination of the society's transactions and funds in December 1840, it was found that, after twelve years of business, when the deaths of unfree members, or persons who died in the first year of membership, were deducted, the mortality was within that allowed for the tables; and that all the three funds were in a good condition, each showing a surplus over what is necessary to make good the claims to which it was liable, when the value of the future contributions was taken into account against the value of the promised benefits. For those who find occasion to go deeper into the subject of friendly societies, with a view to founding such institutions, we would recommend a careful perusal of the work which Mr Charles Ansell prepared for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and which was published by that society in 1835. Much benefit might also be derived from Mr William Fraser's papers on Friendly Societies, published in Professor Jameson's 'Philosophical Journal' in 1827. THE LOAN SOCIETY. The modern history of Scotland has proved that advances of money to persons of the trading class, made by the banks under prudent cautions with respect to security, and the personal character of the borrowers, have a beneficial effect, supplying materials on which industry may work, and at once enabling many individuals to thrive, and giving a powerful impulse to the country at large. The well-cultivated face of our northern region bears powerful testimony to this fact. The institution called à Loan Society contemplates the same benefits to be conferred on a humbler portion of the trading class than those who resort to banks. By making small advances to such persons, it enables them to make little ventures in business which they could not otherwise have attempted, and often sends them forward upon a career which leads to their permanent advancement in life. The purchase of a cow or horse, of farm or mechanical implements, the discharge of rent, and the fitting out of a child for service or apprenticeship, are amongst the chief objects for which such loans are desired in the humbler walks of life. One might at first sight dread the effects of such anticipations of income; but, practically, the loan system, when rightly conducted, works well, and is productive of much good. A loan fund,' says a late writer, is a savings' bank reversed, and even leads to the savings' bank, if well managed. For instance, I have before me now the case of a man who, though he has a family, is able to put by at least one shilling weekly. I might have urged him for ever to do so, but it would have been to no purpose. He came to me to borrow 30s. from the loan fund to buy corn to fatten his pig; he paid back this regularly at the rate of one shilling a week; and at the end of thirty weeks I said to him, "Now, you have been owing me money, and have felt no inconvenience in paying it back; why should you not begin to make me owe you?" He had nothing to say to this, and is now a regular depositor in the Savings Bank through my hands.' * Loan societies are not institutions of yesterday; but, until a recent period, there were none upon an equitable or philanthropic footing. Government, sensible of the erroneous principles on which they were generally conducted, obtained an act in 1835 for their better regulation. By this statute certain benefits were held *Prospects and Present Condition of the Labouring-Classes." By a Beneficed Clergyman. T. and W. Boone, London. SOCIAL ECONOMICS OF THE INDUSTRIOUS ORDERS. out to such loan societies as should be formed upon | principles approved of by a revising barrister, and enrolled in conformity with the provision of the act for benefit societies. The principal benefits offered were exemption from stamp-duty, and certain powers for recovery of loans. Enrolled loan societies were forbidden by this act to make loans of above fifteen pounds, or to make in any instance a second loan until the first should be paid off. A scheme of rules for a loan society conformable to law is presented in the pamphlet quoted below.* It seems here necessary to state, in the most explicit terms, that loan societies formed by interested individuals, are entitled to no confidence, being almost universally usurious and oppressive in their modes of dealing, and a source of great misery to the poor. There are upwards of two hundred loan societies in London, and almost without exception they are of the same character as pawnbroking establishments. On this subject we quote the following passages from a valuable communication which appeared in the Times' newspaper: "They generally originate with a knot of small tradesmen, who, having a surplus over the demands of their immediate business, find in them a profitable employment of their money. A capital of £500 has been known to start such a society-the paid-up capital eventually to be £2000, in shares of £5 each. It is very rare that the whole of the capital is at once paid down. Their rules in the outset describe the name and the constitution of the society; then follow the terms on which the shareholders have taken their shares, and the manner in which they are to receive a return for embarking money, which is the allowance of 4 per cent. interest to be declared per annum on the amount of subscription, while the balance of profit afterwards accruing as a dividend. There are separate rules which apply to the borrowers from the society, which are called the "borrowers' rules." The general place of business is a public-house; some few, but very few, are carried on in offices hired for the purpose. The borrower has in the first instance to call on the secretary, director, or treasurer, all of whom are allowed to sell application papers," (at a profit) what are termed " and purchase one (they are either 2d. or 3d. each), fill in the amount of the loan he requires, and leave it with the name of one or two sureties, according to the amount, for the inspection of the directors. He calls again, and has to pay ls. for his security being inquired into, which goes into the pocket of the director whose turn it happens to be to look after the securities, the emolument of this office always going in rotation. He calls again, and is told whether or not his security is sufficient; if not, he gives another security and another shilling; if it is, he is told to call on a certain evening when the loans are made, and he will be attended to. Should he give half-a-dozen securiWhen the evening ties, and none prove acceptable, he pays his six shillings-for nothing is returned. arrives, he is called in his turn before the secretary, treasurer, and two directors, who form the authorised court for the conduct of the business. He is asked what amount he wishes to borrow. Perhaps it is £5 for six months: the first thing is to deduct 5 per cent. from the amount of the loan, Is. for the book with the "borrowers' rules," in which will be made the entries of his weekly payments (for the loan is repaid in this manner), and the first week's instalment, and then in addition 1d. in part payment of the rent of the office, and Id. towards the secretary's salary, both of which expenses he is obliged by the "rules" to bear in common with the rest of the borrowers weekly. Should he fail to keep up his weekly instalments, he is written to by the secretary calling upon him to pay, and for this *Instructions for the Establishment of Loan Societies. London: Printed by W. Clowes and Sons, for her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1837. + The reader may consult A Guide to nearly One Hundred Loan Societies.' London: W. Strange. letter he is charged 3d., a fee for the benefit of the se- A proper loan society is a modest association of phi- As far as our information enables us to judge, the loan-fund system is nowhere on a better footing than in Ireland. Private, irresponsible, and usurious loan societies exist there, as elsewhere, but apparently in extensive utility of loan funds in Ireland is owing to the less proportion to those of a beneficial character. The In consequence of establishment, by an act in 1836, of a central board of commissioners, with power to inspect the books of all societies formed under the act. this statute, there are now from two to three hundred loan-fund societies throughout Ireland, conducted on philanthropic principles, and said to be producing a great amount of good. In these societies all profits, after paying clerk's salary and other unavoidable expenses, are applied to charitable purposes. It appears that in 1840, 215 such societies were circulating £1,164,046 amongst 463,750 borrowers, and that Mr and Mrs S. C. Hall, in the agreeable work on £15,477 of profit had been realised in three years. Ireland published by them, give the following account of the way in which one of these societies is usually constituted, and the manner in which the business is subsequently conducted:-The resident gentry of some locality in which no loan society exists, perceive that such an institution is required, or would benefit the people in the district. A meeting is called, and as many as are inclined to become depositors state their One party is voted treasurer, for which they receive interest, in some places 5, and intention of taking debentures from the new society, in others 6 per cent. another honorary secretary, and three or four others trustees. Rules for the government of the society are then drawn up, and it is imperative that each set of rules shall contain a provision that no manager or trustee shall directly or indirectly derive any profit from it. Another rule must ascertain the limit to which the managers shall be at liberty to go in expenses of management; and a third, that the treasurer shall become bound with solvent sureties in a reasonable amount for the faithful performance of his duties. These rules are then transmitted to the secretary in Dublin Castle, for the approval of the Board, who make any alteration in them they may deem expedient; and the transcripts may be made and sent up for certification. copy is then returned to the society, that three fair On their reaching the secretary, he submits them to the the acts, attaches his certification and signature that certifying barrister, who, if they are in accordance with 537 in the office of the secretary to the Board, another with such is the case. One of these transcripts is then lodged the clerk of the peace of the county in which the society | persons who carry their instalments, and also the fidelity is situated, and the third is transmitted to the treasurer of the society, as a voucher that his society is entitled to the privileges conferred by the act. The society is then in legal existence, and commences operations. A person is appointed clerk, and to him the intending borrowers apply for application-papers, which are according to the form printed in the subjoined note, and for each of which a penny or a halfpenny is generally charged. This being filled up, and returned by the applicant, his solvency and general character, with those of his sureties, are considered by one or two of the trustees in council met for the purpose; and if approved, the full loan applied for, or such portion of it as they may think proper to grant, is paid to the borrower, stopping, at the time the loan is issued, sixpence in the pound by way of interest. The borrower then receives a card, on which the amount lent to him is entered, and the instalments he pays are marked off. A duplicate of this, or a proper account of the transaction, is of course booked by the society. The borrower, and his sureties for him, bind themselves to repay the amount of the loan in twenty weeks, by instalments of one shilling in the pound per week. Thus, if a borrower applies for a loan of £5, which is approved, the society hands him £4, 17s. 6d., retaining two shillings and sixpence as interest. He then pays five shillings for twenty weeks, and the £5 is paid off. Should the borrower run into default, he subjects himself, in most societies, to a fine of one penny for the first week, and threepence for the second and every succeeding week, on each pound lent him; and should he remain two weeks in default, his sureties receive notice that they will be sued for the amount, together with the fines incurred; and unless the borrower comes in, this is immediately done. But in the very great majority of cases no such steps are necessary, the poor borrowers being generally very punctual in their repayments. It has been objected by some, that the borrowers lose their time in repaying these instalments, but in practice the personal attendance of the borrower or his sureties is seldom given. The instalments of a whole neighbourhood are frequently brought in by a child, or some old person, fit for no other employment, who goes, per vicem, for two or three town-lands. "Indeed," remarks the Rev. Mr Nixon, of Castle Town," it is quite delightful to see the confidence reposed by the borrowers in the and accuracy, nay, even the tact, that these latter evince in the discharge of the duty they have undertaken." In some places the amount of interest charged is less than that above stated, and in others the fines are higher. There is no uniformity in these matters, nor have the central Board any power of enforcing it, though it is evidently desirable.' Mr Hall, adverting to the Third Report of the Loan Fund Board to Parliament, says, It appears by this return-and the circumstance is so remarkable as to appear at first incredible-that out of an amount of £1,164,046 circulated in small loans amongst 463,750 individuals, so small an amount as £360, 18s. 8d. only should have been lost, or about 49. in the pound. We were very sceptical on this point, and consequently directed vigilant attention to the subject; when, what was our surprise to find that even this £360-this 49. in the pound-is considerably more than has been really lost, or left deficient by the poor borrowers! From the "list of societies whose accounts show a loss on the transactions of the year 1840, after paying interest to depositors and expenses of management," we took the first-namely, Mitchelstown, where the reported loss was £43, 2s. 6d., when we ascertained that this society lent during 1840, £5420 amongst 3070 borrowers, who paid £135, or sixpence in the pound, for its use, besides £11, 10s. 10d. for the price of their applicationpapers and cards. The society paid in interest for money lent to it, and expenses of management, £190, 3s. 4d., and the difference between its receipts and disbursements constitutes this £43, 2s. 6d., not one penny of which was lost from defaulters. We are informed by a person in every way competent to judge, it is his firm belief that out of this £1,164,046 lent, not the odd £46, or not one-tenth of a farthing in the pound, was unpaid. This fact alone speaks volumes for the honesty of the people, and their appreciation of the benefit which the loan funds confer on them. It has been argued that this security from loss has arisen in consequence of the powers which the law gives for the recovery of the loans; but the observation is equally applicable to societies more strictly private. For example, in New Ross a society has been established upwards of forty years, for the lending small sums to the poor; and the sum lost during the whole of that period is within five pounds. This fact we give upon the authority of the Rev. George Carr; we could adduce others equally strong, and we have no doubt might receive similar statements from nearly every institution of the kind in Ireland. We rejoice greatly at the opportunity thus supplied us of bearing out, by unquestionable proofs, our own opinions in favour of the honesty of the Irish peasant. It is indeed a subject upon which satisfactory evidence is especially necessary; for it has been too frequently and too generally questioned in England, where, upon this topic particularly, much prejudice prevails, and where it has been far too long the custom to "Judge the many by the rascal few." We therefore, from the very minute inquiries we have instituted, have no hesitation in arriving at the conclusion, that the loan funds in Ireland will speedily become, nay, are already, mighty engines either for good or evil, according as they may be worked and superintended. Where properly managed, they cannot fail to exercise a vast influence on the moral and social condition of the people; where conducted carelessly, or by parties endeavouring to force business for their own gain, they may be indeed considered a moral pestilence, blighting the energies of the surrounding population, and fostering habits of improvidence or , of which the Petty Sessions dishonesty.' are held at the value of at least £ of which the Petty Sessions possessed of property in -to THE ANNUITY. The purchase of an annuity is a mode of providing for the latter part of life, which may be the most appropriate in some instances, especially where a person is unconnected with wife, children, or other near relatives, or where these have been otherwise provided for. When the case is different, such a mode of provision is liable to the charge of selfishness, in as far as it concentrates the benefit upon the purchaser alone; it has also been thought to tend to encourage improvident and careless habits, seeing that, once assured of a competent provision for life, the stimulus to further saving is in a great measure destroyed. There are numerous companies which grant annuities on the principle of making a profit by them; and sometimes this branch of business is carried on in connection with that of life-assurance. There are also associations of individuals for obtaining annuities and endowments to widows and other nominees on the mutual assurance principle; and one large class of these, at present flourishing in various parts of the United Kingdom, are said to be based on unsound calculations, and fraught with disappointment to those relying upon them. There is indeed one circumstance generally unfavourable to annuity business-namely, that the ordinary tables of mortality present views of the expectation of life somewhat below what is at present the truth in England. Hence what makes life-assurance business everywhere so prosperous, is precisely that which tends to make annuity business a source of loss. It is obvious that, where individuals unite for annuities, and too low charges are made, those dying first will secure an over-proportion of the benefits, and leave those who come behind nothing but an empty purse. With a view to encourage persons of the humbler classes to provide of themselves for their latter years, the government obtained an act (3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 14) to enable trustees of the legally-established savings' banks to sell annuities of not less than four or more than twenty pounds upon the security of the national credit. The same act provided that, in parishes where there was no savings' bank, a society for granting such annuities might be formed, provided that the rector or minister of the parish, or a resident justice of peace, should be one of the trustees. Any person above fifteen years of age was entitled to purchase such an annuity, which might be to commence immediately, or at a future period of life, or for a limited term of years, at the pleasure of the party, and might be paid either in one sum or in half-yearly sums, convertible into quarterly by dividing the annuity, and commencing the two parts at different periods of the year. The whole arrangements of this act were dictated by the most considerate benevolence towards the classes designed to be benefited. To quote an authoritative document: Provisions are made for enabling the party to make his annual payments, or receiving the annuity, at any other society than the one at which the contract was originally entered into. Upon the death of the person on whose life the annuity depended, a sum equal to one-fourth part of the said annuity (over and above all half-yearly arrears thereof respectively) will be payable to the person or persons entitled to such annuity, or his, her, or their executors or administrators (as the case may be), provided such last-mentioned payment shall be claimed within two years after such decease, but not otherwise; provided also that the fourth part of any expired life annuity, payable under the provisions of the said act, will not be payable, nor be paid upon, or in respect of any deferred life annuity, unless one half-yearly payment of such deferred life annuity shall have been actually paid or become due at the time of the decease of the nominee. Independently of the advantages which are thus afforded to the industrious classes to obtain, by small payments, a certain provision in old age, or at any other stated period, secured by government, and of which they cannot be deprived on account of miscalculation, the tables of contributions have been so calculated, that if the purchaser of a deferred life annuity die before the time arrives at which the annuity is to commence, the whole of the money he has actually contributed will be returned, without any deduction, to his family. And if it does not exceed £50, | it is not necessary that probate or letters of administration should be taken out. But if he has left a will, or administration is taken out, no stamp or legacy duty is payable in respect of the sum so returnable, if the whole estate, &c. of the member is under £50; and again, if a purchaser is incapable of continuing the payment of his yearly instalments, he may, at any time, upon giving three months' notice, receive back the whole of the money he has paid. No annuity granted will be subject or liable to any taxes, &c.; nor can the same be transferred or assigned, but must continue to be the property, or be received for the benefit, of the party by or for whom it was purchased; but in case of the bankruptcy or insolvency of the purchaser of an annuity, the same is to be repurchased by the commissioners at a valuation according to the tables upon which the annuity was originally granted, and the money will be paid to the assignee for the benefit of the creditors. From the above statement it will appear that any deferred annuity, purchased by annual or other payments, from a society established under the stat. 3d, Will. IV. c. 14, will entitle the purchaser (if he live to the age at which the annuity is to commence) to receive an annuity equivalent to the value of all his payments, with the accumulation of compound interest; if he be unable to continue his yearly instalments, he may have back all the money he has paid, exclusive of interest; and if he die before the commencement of the annuity, his family will, in like manner, receive the whole of the contributions he may have actually made previous to his decease, exclusive of interest.' The tables on which the government annuities are granted have been formed, as might be expected, on the soundest principles, and are entitled to the greatest respect. They relate to four kinds of benefit-deferred annuities upon the continuance of single lives, immediate annuities upon the continuance of single lives, deferred annuities to continue for a certain term of years, and immediate annuities to continue for a certain term of years. The whole are presented in a brochure quoted below. We extract only one specimen-namely, the terms of an annuity of £20, payable after twenty years from the time of its purchase : *Instructions for the Formation of Parochial Societies for granting Government Annuities.' London: Printed by W Clowes and Son, for her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1837. BENEVOLENT PAWNBROKING. 6thly, Using every precaution against receiving stolen goods in pawn.' The plan meeting with a hearty approval, a capital of above £15,000 was quickly subscribed, partly by the gentry, and partly by persons in the humbler walks of life. An active and intelligent person, who had himself been a pawnbroker, was placed at the head of the establishment, which had no sooner commenced business than it became largely supported. The following view of the transactions, from March 1837, when it commenced, up to December 1840, is given by Mr and Mrs Hall in their work on Ireland : The necessities of the humbler classes have given rise to the trade of pawnbroking, which, even when conducted, as it often is, by respectable persons, certainly forms a severe punishment upon the poor for their poverty. On this subject some exaggerated views have of late years gone abroad; but there can be no doubt that the poorest class, in pledging small articles for short periods and the greater part of pawnbroking business appears to be of this kind-are subject to enormous extortions, calculated most materially to keep them in a depressed condition. It has been said that £3000 is annually lent by pawnbrokers in Ireland in one shilling loans, and that this sum actually produces to the Years. lenders in a year not less than £19,500. To a poor person in want of a shilling for a week, it appears no great hardship to pay a penny for the loan of it; but when we consider that this is, in reality, borrowing money at 433 per cent. per annum, the hardship of the case is presented in its true light. Nor is the licensed and ostensible trade of the pawnbroker the worst of the case. Wherever a large horde of very poor people is collected in our large towns, there rises an unlicensed and clandestine species of the trade, conducted upon principles still more ruinous to the needy. It has been shown that there are in Glasgow many hundreds of small unlicensed pawnbroking establishments, whose extortions from the poor infinitely exceed the legal rates to which the licensed traders are restricted. The saying of Solomon, that the destruction of the poor is their poverty, was never perhaps shown in a more forcible but melancholy light than in the losses which they endure in consequence of the necessity they are occasionally under of raising money by pledges. 1837, 14,130 1 6} £ s. d. 9,668 11 103 £ 8. d. 335 2 7 1838, 1839, 1840, Total, 3940 10 21 There is no charge for tickets at this establishment; consequently if those pawns were pledged at a pawnbroker's, the poor would have to pay for each pawn a sum of one penny; if the amount borrowed amounted to 10s., twopence; if it amounted to 40s., fourpence: therefore (not at all taking into account the low rate of interest) the saving effected by the very poorest persons is most remarkable. For instance, say that 360,000 of those pledges were under 10s., at 1d. each, £1500 0 90,000 10,895 do. do. under 40s., at 2d. each, or a sum saved in four years on the bare item of tickets, to the very poorest people, of 0 750 0 0 181 11 8 £2431 11 8 On the continent, the system of lending upon pledges has been practised for several centuries upon a benevolent principle. The establishments where the business is carried on are called Monts de Piété (mounts If to this be added the saving in interest, we may safely being a terin applied to heaps of money, while the word calculate that nearly as much in addition is saved as piété expresses the religiously benevolent views in which the establishment is realising-as the following table the plan originated). In this case an association of will show the difference in the rate of interest, for difbenevolent persons, possessing a little capital in com-ferent sums, to 10s. and £1. mon stock, are the pawnbrokers, and the objects they keep in view are to make the evil of pledging as light to the poor as possible, and to apply the profits to charitable purposes by which the poor will be benefited. Here there is no extortion, no punishment for poverty, and the poor, as a body, may be said to lose nothing. In France, some abuses are said to have crept into the system; but these are not essential to it, and we have had experience nearer home how much good may be done by a well-conducted Mont de Piété. The first establishment of the kind in the United Kingdom was set up at Limerick in 1837, through the exertions of a gentleman named Barrington, for the purpose of supplying funds to an hospital which he had founded out of his own fortune. The required capital was raised by debentures (or joint-stock shares) varying in amount from one to five hundred pounds each, upon which interest was to be allowed at the rate of 6 per cent. These might be withdrawn at three months' notice, or money would be advanced upon them as pledges. Mr Barrington described the following as the advantages proposed by his scheme : 1st, The raising a capital by small debentures at a certain interest, and lending it on a greater interest, and applying the profits to the purposes of charity. 2dly, Receiving the debentures in pawn, thus giving to the depositors an advantage which they do not possess in the savings' bank. 3dly, Lending money at interest to poor persons of unimpeachable character and industrious habits, on personal security, as is done by the loan banks. 4thly, Lending money on goods, as is now done by the ordinary pawnbrokers. 5thly, In case of deserving objects, to restore the article, such as implements of trade pawned in the hour of real want, without interest or charge. The Mont de Piété of Limerick having been attended with success, insomuch that it supports the hospital for the sick poor of the city, similar establishments have been opened at Belfast and Tandragee, and the example will doubtless be followed in time on this side of the Irish Channel. In September 1840, at the meeting of the British Association held at Glasgow, an interesting paper on the subject of the Irish establishments was read by Mr H. J. Porter, from which we make the following extract : At the close of the first nine months of the operations of the Tandragee Mont de Piété, I was able to show that the borrowers from the loan fund department, on personal security, had in their possession 1189 looms, of which 612 (more than half the number) were hired at 10s. per annum. One man had at that period *The total number of pawns received since the establishment opened, to March 19, 1841, was 460,895, |