ds instead of the fields
he received out of the highway rates a pound a-week instead of the usual
nine shillings. If a working man joined a benefit club it generally met
in a public-house, and a certain proportion of the funds were spent in
refreshments--rather for the benefit of the landlords than for that of
the members. It was not till 1834 that a reformed Poor-law made the
practice of thrift possible. In many quarters law and custom have
combined to prevent its growth among rural labourers who had been taught
to live on the rates--to extract as much permanent relief as they could
out of a nearly bankrupt body of ratepayers and to do in return as little
hard work as was possible. The condition of things was then completely
changed. The industrious man had a little better chance, and the idlers
were put to the rout and, much to their disgust, forced to work, or at
any rate to attempt to do so. Even the best benefit societies remained
under a cloud and, till Parliament later on took the matter in hand,
worked under great disadvantages. Frauds were committed; funds were made
away with, and no redress could be obtained. Thrifty habits were
discouraged on every side.

All England is ringing with the praise of thrift. Not Scotland, for a
Scotchman is born thrifty--just as he is said to be born not able to
understand a joke. And as to Irishmen, it is to be questioned whether
they have such a word in their dictionary at all. No class of mutual
thrift institution has flourished there, says the latest writer on the
subject, Rev. Francis Wilkinson; and mostly our earlier thrift societies
were started by a landlord for his own benefit, rather than for that of
the members. Those were drinking days, says Mr. Wilkinson. The
public-house was not only the home, but the cause of their existence; and
as an evidence of the value of benefit clubs to the publican, we find the
establishment of such advertised as one of the assets when the house is
put up for sale. Then there was the competition of rival houses. The
"Blue Boar" must have its "friendly" as well as the "Black Lion" over the
way; and thus the number of clubs, as well as of public-houses, increased
beyond the requirements of the village or parish, and deterioration was
the natural result; and this was the humorous way in which the past
generation acquired the habit of thrift, of which nowadays we hear so
much.

It is very hard to be thrifty. He who would become