INTRODUCTION.

7

banks,  or  with  the  Commissioners  for  the  Reduction ­
  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1829  (10  Geo.  4,  c.  56),  which  repealed  all  the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  confirmed ­
  by  justices  and  enrolled  hy  the  clerk  of
the  peace,  but  the  only  preliminary  to  such  confirmation ­
  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  justices ­
  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  provided, ­
  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.