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 subscrip 
tions 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 indivi 
duals 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 regula 
tions, 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 pro 
minently 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.