INTRODUCTION. 
7 
banks, or with the Commissioners for the Reduc 
tion of the National Debt, as well as in the public 
funds and on real security; and provisions were 
made for the adjustment of the affairs of the 
society hy justices, in the event of a deficiency in 
its funds, and for the enforcement of claims of 
widows and children of deceased members. 
10. After ten years’ trial, however, of this 
system, the law relating to Friendly Societies was 
reconstructed by an Act passed on the 19th June, 
1829 (10 Geo. 4, c. 56), which repealed all the 
previous statutes. The rules were still to be con 
firmed by justices and enrolled hy the clerk of 
the peace, but the only preliminary to such con 
firmation and enrolment was the certificate of a 
barrister, appointed for the purpose, that the rules 
were “ in conformity to law and to the provisions 
of this Act ” (b). 
Upon this certificate being obtained, the jus 
tices were “authorized and required” to allow 
and confirm the rules, without any discretion as 
to whether the formation of the proposed society 
would he useful or beneficial, or any sanction of 
actuaries or other skilled persons. It was pro 
vided, however, that the justices were to satisfy 
themselves that the tables of payments and bene- 
(6) The barrister so appointed was Mr. John Tidd Pratt, 
who held the office from 1829 until his death in 1870. 
During those forty-one years he impressed his personality 
on the administration of the law in a way that societies 
have not yet learned to forget. This is not the place to 
treat of his eminent public services as they deserve, but 
they ought not to pass unrecorded in the history of Friendly 
Societies.