o

INTRODUCTION.

the  Industrial  and  Provident  Societies  Act;  1876
with  notes  and  forms,  is  entirely  new.
2.  Before  proceeding  to  state  the  effect  of  the
present  Friendly  Societies  Acts,  it  may  he  useful
briefly  to  trace  the  course  of  past  legislation  with
respect  to  such  associations.
The  first  Act  “For  the  Encouragement  and
Relief  of  Friendly  Societies”  (33  Geo.  3,  c.  54),
passed  on  the  21st  June,  1793,  defined  them  to
be  “  societies  for  raising,  by  voluntary  subscriptions ­
  of  the  members,  separate  funds  for  their
mutual  relief  and  maintenance  in  sickness,  old
age,  and  infirmity/’  The  preamble  affirmed  that
the  protection  and  encouragement  of  such  societies
would  be  likely  to  be  attended  with  very  beneficial
effects,  by  promoting  the  happiness  of  individuals ­
  and  at  the  same  time  diminishing  the  public
burthens  (a).
The  enacting  part  of  this  statute  designates  the
objects  it  proposed  to  encourage  as  “  societies  of
good  fellowship,”  and  authorized  them  to  make
proper  and  wholesome  rules,  orders,  and  regulations, ­
  so  as  not  to  be  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  the
realm,  nor  to  any  of  the  express  provisions  of  the
Act.  That  it  might  be  ascertained  whether  such
rules  were  conformable  to  the  Act,  they  were
to  be  exhibited  in  writing  to  the  justices  in

(a)  It  is  interesting  to  see  the  usefulness  of  Friendly
Societies  in  diminishing  the  public  burthens  placed  so  prominently ­
  forward  from  the  very  first.  A  recent  writer  has
boon  so  much  impressed  with  this  that  he  has  eloquently
advocated  the  establishment  of  a  National  Friendly  Society,
to  which  every  one  should  be  compelled  to  subscribe.