138 
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES NOT REGISTERED. 
An example of the application of these remarks is 
afforded hy trade unions, respecting which some misappre 
hension has prevailed both with regard to the legal status 
of those existing prior to, and of those not registered under, 
the Act of 1871. By 18 & 19 Yict. c. 63, s. 44, any society 
for the purposes authorized hy that Act as those of a 
friendly society, or for any purpose (ejusdem generis under 
stood) not illegal, might, by mere deposit of its rules, have 
obtained the power of settling disputes in the manner its 
rules provided, and that of proceeding against defaulters 
hy a summary method. The cases of Hornby v. Close, 
8 B. & S. 175, and Farrar v. Close, L. B. 4 Q. B. 602, 
established the doctrine that trades unions, not having 
objects analogous to those of a friendly society, were not 
entitled to the benefit of this section. 
These cases did not imply, however, that the objects of 
trades unions were unlawful, in the sense of being criminal, 
or to such an extent as to deprive the members of any right 
they possessed at common law, or by prior statute, to 
combine together. (See remarks of Blackburn, J., in B. 
v. Stephenson, L. B. 7 Q. B. 741.) A trade union, so long 
as it did not infringe the “ Combination Acts,” was as lawful 
as any other voluntary society (a). 
Though an unregistered society is not necessarily un 
lawful, it has none of the facilities and privileges secured 
by registration, and is in law a mere partnership or club (b). 
(a) The Trade Union Act Amendment Act, 1876 (39 & 40 
Viet. e. 22, s. 16), amends the definition of a trade union given 
in the Act of 1871, so as to include such regulation of trade as 
would have been lawful before the passing of the Act. A trade 
■union is now defined to be a “ combination, whether temporary 
or permanent, for regulating the relations between workmen 
and masters, or between workmen and workmen, or between 
masters and masters, or for imposing restrictive conditions on 
the conduct of any trade or business, whether such combination 
would or would not, if the principal Act” (£. e., the Act of 
1871) “ had not been passed, have been deemed to be an unlawful 
■combination by reason of some one or more of its purposes being 
in restraint of trade.” 
(b) There is a distinction between a club and a partnership, 
and a friendly society partakes of the characters of both. In a