gh, working world, conducted on common principles, such as
will wear. To some it may seem vulgar to associate beer, tobacco, or
feasting with the pure and simple duty of effecting an insurance against
disablement by sickness; but the world we live in is vulgar, and we must
take it as we find it, and try to make the best of it. It must be
admitted that the tendencies to pure good in man are very weak, and need
much helping. But the expedient, vulgar though it be, of attracting him
through his appetite for meat and drink to perform a duty to himself and
neighbours, is by no means confined to societies of working men. There
is scarcely a London charity or institution but has its annual dinner
for the purpose of attracting subscribers. Are we to condemn the
eighteenpenny annual dinner of the poor man, but excuse the guinea one
of the rich?

A vigorous effort was made by Mr. Akroyd of Halifax, in 1856, to
establish a Provident Sick Society and Penny Savings Bank for the
working men in the West Riding of Yorkshire. An organization was set on
foot with these objects; and though the Penny Bank proved a complete
success, the Provident Society proved a complete failure. Mr. Akroyd
thus explains the causes of the failure: "We found the ground
preoccupied," he says, "by Friendly Societies, especially by the Odd
Fellows, Druids, Foresters, etc.; and against their principles of
self-government, mutual check against fraud, and _brotherhood_, no new
and independent society can compete. Our rates were also of necessity
much higher than theirs, and this was perhaps one of the chief causes of
our failure."

Low rates of contribution have been the principal cause of the failure
of Friendly Societies.[1] It was of course natural that the members,
being persons of limited means, should endeavour to secure the objects
of their organization at the lowest cost. They therefore fixed their
rates as low as possible; and, as the results proved, they in most cases
fixed them _too_ low. So long as the societies consisted, for the most
part, of young, healthy men, and the average amount of sickness remained
low, the payments made seemed ample. The funds accumulated, and many
flattered themselves that their societies were in a prosperous state,
when they contained the sure elements of decay. For, as the members grew
older, their average liability to sickness was regularly increasing. The
effects of increased age upon the solvency of benefit clubs soon