is worth, but at the price which each allotment has cost.
Being also registered under the Friendly Societies Act, the conveyance
costs the purchaser generally from 25s. to 30s.; and thus a plot worth 50
pounds is often put into the fortunate allottee's hands for half that
sum. Of course, different societies have different rules, but they all
aim at the same end, and effect that end in pretty nearly a similar
manner. Thus a member generally, if he subscribes for a share of 30
pounds, pays a shilling a-week, and a trifling sum a-quarter for
expenses. With the money thus raised an estate is purchased. It is then
cut up into allotments, and balloted for. If the subscriber has paid up,
he, of course, takes the land, and there is an end of the matter. If he
has not, the society gives him his allotment, but saddled with a
mortgage. In some societies the members are served by rotation, and
"first come" are "first served." The more generally-adopted plan,
however, is division by ballot. There has been some doubt as to the
legality of the ballot; the Conservative Society have taken the opinion
of eminent counsel upon this matter, and their opinion is, that the
ballot is perfectly legal. The rotation societies offer no inducements
to new members to join them; so division by ballot has come to be almost
the universal rule. In the National, for instance, there was a ballot
daily for all subscribers of three months' standing. This has recently
been altered. A ballot takes place every day, to which all are eligible
whose subscriptions are paid up. If you join the National, you may go to
the ballot immediately.

As the National is the largest of the existing Freehold Land
Societies--last year its receipts being 190,070 pounds--we will briefly
allude to its prospectus as a still further illustration of what a
Freehold Land Society is. The especial objects of this Society are
described as "to facilitate the acquisition of freehold land, and the
erection of houses thereon; to enable such of its members as are eligible
to obtain the county franchise, and to afford to all of them a secure and
profitable investment for money." In the National, all the expenses are
defrayed out of a common fund; consequently, there are no extra charges,
and the net profits, after payment of interest on subscriptions in
advance and on completed shares, are annually divided amongst the holders
of uncompleted shares. In this way last year the Nat