that would all sorts of persons but duly attend upon these instructions, they would reap a more substantial benefit by them than from those other exercises which have, I know not how, so universally crept into the place of them." In the recommendation of a once famous catechism, by Forty English Divines, headed by Dr. Owen, we meet with the following

statement:

"No knowledge is so necessary as that of the grounds and principles of the Christian religion, and no way is so apt to convey it to the minds of men, as that which is called catechistical. More knowledge is ordinarily diffused, especially among the ignorant and younger sort, by one hour's catechistical exercise, than by many hours' continued discourses. This way helps the understand ing, while it provokes the attention; many elaborate sermons being lost through the inadvertency of the hearers. Thus not only ignorance is cured, but error also is prevented; too many being misguided, because they are not at first well grounded in the principles of the doctrine of Christ."

The following is the judgment of Vincent himself, one of the first catechetical writers of any age or country. solemn views merit consideration.

His

Too many, even in our nation and city, perish and run blindfold into hell for want of knowledge; and the most are without knowledge for the want of instruction. And no way of instruction doth convey clearer light of distinct knowledge in the principles of religion, than the way of catechising; so the neg

lect of this, in ministers and masters of families, is such a sin of unfaithfulness unto the souls of them that are under their charge, that all of us should take heed we have it not to answer for at the appearance of our Lord. It is not suf ficient for you to bring your children and servants to receive public instruction: but it is your duty also to instruct them privately, and at home to examine them in their catechisms."

Christian parents, there can be no doubt of the accuracy of these sentiments, and if they have taken as deep a hold on your judgment our end is accomplished. The great thing we are full of anxiety about, is-HOME! All that has been said in this address is intended to bear upon home-upon domestic rule and the domestic constitution. Let parents lead; let pastors and teachers follow. If we shall, in the fear of God, and in humble dependence on his blessing, with daily supplications for the same, carry out the principles which have been laid down; our families and congregations will assume a new appearance; they will become what they have never been, and what no existing churches at present are; they will become as the garden of the Lord. What change might be thus effected in the space of a few years! Who does not desire it? Who will not pray for it? Who will not labour for it? Who will suffer the work to languish for want of pecuniary aid? Who?-Not one! Who will come to the help of the Lord against the mighty? Who !—All !—will you not? The Lord help you-bless you—stablish you! Amen and Amen. J. C.

SINCE the publication in our pages of the Rules and Tables prepared by the Committee appointed by the Union, we have had an important communication from a very able member of the Society of Friends, regarding certain items in some of the Tables which require to be reconsidered. Our attention has likewise been called to "Contributions to Vital Statistics being a development of the rate of mortality and the laws of sickness, from original and extensive data procured from Friendly Societies; showing the instability of Friendly Societies, Odd Fellows,' Rechabites,' &c. With an inquiry into the influence of locality on

health. By F. G. P. NEISON, F.L.S., &c., Actuary to the Medical, Invalid, and General Life Office. Read before the Statistical Society, March 17, 1845." This work lies before us, and, after a careful examination, we cannot but consider it an invaluable addition to the literature of the subject. The work is one of incredible labour, by a man of eminent mathematical powers and attainments, and which throws much additional light on the entire question. Mr. Sherman has had repeated interviews with Mr. Neison on the subject of the Tables aforesaid, and the conclusion that has been arrived at is, that the doctrines

of both the eminent actuaries, Messrs. Griffiths and Ansell, by whom they were The constructed, require correction. subject will, therefore, be forthwith resumed by the Committee. The whole of the Tables will be submitted to Mr. Neison, and the results, as early as possible, laid before our readers. We therefore recommend the postponement of the formation of societies till that result be known. We could have wished that this momentous discovery had been earlier; but it is a matter of no ordinary satisfaction that it has been made at all, and made so soon. We especially recommend the great work of Mr. Neison, which has not yet had time to be generally known; and as its price, being one guinea, must necessarily preclude its circulation in many quarters reached by the CHRISTIAN WITNESS, we have pleasure in extracting his practical deductions as affecting Friendly Societies, the Odd Fellows, &c.:

"One of the difficulties in the way of obtaining information was the fear, on the part of the members, that its publication might prove hurtful to particular societies; and it was therefore necessary to come under a promise that whatever use was made of the information, no individual society would be referred to. But that a general idea may be formed of the condition of Friendly Societies, in respect to the adequacy of their contributions for the benefits held out by them, fifty societies have been selected at random; and in order to make the illustration more simple, one period of life only, age thirtyfive, has been fixed on, and the rates in each of the fifty societies in question examined and graduated to represent an allowance of £1 per week during sickness, up till age seventy-an annuity of £13 per annum for life after seventy -and a sum of £10 payable at death, whenever that may happen. The corresponding rates having been determined in each society for the above scale, they were found to average only £1 11s. 5d.; but in many of the societies an entry money is paid, and for the same age it was found to average £1 18. 9d. As the value of the Temporary Annuity at the same time of life is 17-88172, the above entry money will be equivalent to an annual contribution of about 1s. 3d., which, added to the other item, will render the whole annual contribution £1 12s. 8d. The entire inadequacy of such a contribution to provide for the benefits offered must be apparent: page 121 will show that for the single benefit of £1 weekly during sickness, the annual contribution should be £2 7s. 94d.; and on examination of the respective Tables it will be seen that the contribution adequate to provide for the three benefits offered is £3 7s. annually, or more than double the actual amount collected. It is a most lamentable condition in which to find societies aiming at designs so benevolent and praiseworthy. It may seem strange that they should endure for even a year or two; but if the amount of sickness at page 98 be examined, and the young period of life at which members generally

enter borne in mind, it will appear that they may survive at least twenty-five or thirty years before their insecurity may become evident to an ordinary observer. Members are generally satisfied, in the first periods of a society, to find that the income has exceeded the expenditure, and left a respectable balance; losing sight of the great accumulations which are necessary to meet the future liabilities incidental to their increasing years and infirmities. As a society advances, its income will invariably, in connection with a given number of members entering at a particular age, decrease with the increase of its expenditure. Suppose a society to commence with a given number of members, all thirty-five years of age; in twenty-five years afterwards, the income from those members, through the deaths that take place in that period, will have decreased to seven-tenths of its original amount, while its expenditure on sickness will have trebled, and the members fast approaching a time of life at which the expenditure will be ten times the original sum. This is a state of things for which the contributions of a society should make ample provision; but, unfortunately, few have so considered the subject as to protect themselves against such vicissitudes.

"But perhaps the most simple and correct mode of looking at the liabilities of those societies is to consider the most improved class of them, in which separate contributions are made for each benefit offered; and in this instance also the contributions answering to age thirty-five only will be spoken of.

"No doubt societies may seriously err by having badly graduated Tables, and it might happen that the contributions at one period of life are abundant, while at other periods they may be quite inadequate; but as a very general view only is to be taken here of the subject, reference is made to the Tables themselves for information on the graduation of rates.

"A distinction in the contributions for the various benefits offered is a valuable improvement in the management of such societies, and accordingly collateral improvements do also progress with it; for in this class of societies it is found that the annual contribution for a sickness benefit only is nearly equal to that of the other group of societies referred to for the whole three benefits. To secure £1 per week during sickness, the contribution is £1 10s. 10d. yearly, which is only 1s. 10d. less than the yearly contribution in the other societies for all the benefits combined; but it has already been shown that the real risk incurred from sickness would, from members entering at age thirty-five, require a payment of £2 78. 94d. annually.

"No doubt many societies are on a much better foundation than the above statement would seem to indicate; but it has been thought the better course to refer to the societies as a class. A sub-division, however, of the same group was found in a better condition, and the annual payment was about £2 for £1 per week in sickness. No society had its sickness contributions equal to the rates in the preceding table; but the payments in one society were much more than in the others, having been £2 6s. 11d. annually. The necessity for a general revision of the sickness rates and contributions in Friendly Societies is therefore obvious.

"With respect, however, to those societies distinguishing the rates of contributions for sums

of money payable at death, or what is generally termed assurances at death, a better state of things is found to exist. The contribution on the average of those societies is 48. 7d. annually for £10 payable at death, while the exact risk, according to page 117, requires a payment of 48. 4d. This latter sum does not include anything for expenses of management. If it were the practice for those societies to keep distinct funds for each of the benefits offered, and never to allow the contributions for assurances at death to be mixed up with the monies arising from other sources, little danger need be feared by those making a provision for death; but, unfortunately, such a separation of the funds is rarely observed, and the general result is, that the assurance fund is absorbed by the deficiencies in the other business of the society. It may be here necessary to remark that although the preceding sum is quite adequate to meet the contingencies from death on the average of all societies, yet there are societies in particular localities the members of which follow unhealthy occupations, and such a sum would not in those instances be sufficient to meet all the liabilities from death. "The most remarkable deficiency yet observed, among even those societies having graduated rates as well as distinct contributions for the various benefits offered, is in the contributions which provide for an annuity after attaining a given age. At page 113 will be found the values of Deferred Annuities, to commence at age seventy; and the annual premium for the same annuity may easily be obtained from the expression,

in which represents the terms found at the respective ages in page 113. Accordingly, at age thirty-five, the annual contribution or premium for an annuity of £13 a-year after attaining the age of seventy, is 18s. 10d.; but the rate in some societies is as low as 8s 11d., and an average of a number of the best societies is 128. 2 d., while the most favourable rate in any individual society in the same group was 14s. 44d. The nature of this risk has already been referred to at page 126; and the remarks there made should be carefully considered by every one interested in the progress of Friendly Societies, as no error carries with it such distressing and melancholy consequences as that which aggravates the cares, anxieties, and infirmities of old age, and in the decline of life throws destitute those whose youthful industry enabled them to live in comparative independence.

"Another feature of Friendly Societies, particularly the older class of them, deserving of attention, is a want of graduation in the premiums or rates of contribution. This feature, although generally associated with inadequate rates, is not of itself evidence of instability, but is rather a principle which is non-equitable to the members. The better constituted Friendly Societies have long discontinued such a plan, and have now tables graduated according to age; but as there are still many societies not so improved, it is proposed to add a few observations on the nature of this error, which is most strikingly developed in the management of Odd Fellow Societies.

"Odd Fellow Societies, although not numerically of the same importance with Friendly Societies, are still by no means an insignificant

body of the community. What is termed the Manchester Unity contains at the present time, in its various ramifications over the kingdom, about 400,000 members, and its income is about a quarter of a million annually. The members are stated to have increased, during the last few years, at the rate of 25,000 per annum.

"Odd Fellow Societies are peculiar in their constitution, and differ in some respects from Friendly Societies; but so far as the subject of life contingencies is concerned, they present the most objectionable features of the worst-conditioned Friendly Societies, and generally the preceding remarks will apply with greater force to them, so far as the question of stability relates. Every lodge under what is termed the 'Order of Odd Fellows,' is, by the thirty-second general law, compelled to exact the following rate of initiation or entry money from all members on admission, who must not be under the age of eighteen, nor above forty:

Under 35 years of age Above 35 and under 36

Between eighteen and thirty-five years of age, individual lodges sometimes vary the entry money, but they must always be within the limits here assigned; (see the Laws and Regulations of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, as revised and corrected agreeably to the Resolutions of the Grand Committees, and adopted by the A. M. C. held at the Isle of Man, June, 1841.) Of late some lodges have proposed improvements in the relation between the contributions and benefits; but the following are the rates as abstracted from the regulations of several lodges, and may be regarded as the general scale adopted. In addition to the entry money already quoted, each member must make a weekly contribution of 4d., or a monthly contribution of 1s. 4d., being at the rate of 17s. 4d. per annum. In lieu of those payments the members are promised, in addition to many other privileges, the following benefits:

An allowance of 10s. per week during sickness.
A sum of £10 at death of member.
And a sum of £6 at the death of a member's
wife.

Assuming that the allowance to the member's wife is thrown out of the question, and also that the allowance during sickness should be discontinued after attaining seventy years of agewhich is to view the liabilities at a very reduced rate at the age of eighteen the preceding tables would make the annual contributions 18s.; but the actual contribution is 17s. 4d., to which has to be added one shilling, the value of the entry money, in yearly payments, making the total contributions 18s. 4d., and differing but little from the true amount required. But take the case of a member entering at thirty-five years of age, and the non-equitable character of those societies will immediately appear. The entry money at that age is equivalent to an annual payment of 1s. 9d. yearly; to this add the contribution of 17s. 4d., and the full yearly payment will equal 19s. 1d.; but the preceding tables show that the contribution required at the

age is £1 88. This striking disparity places the injustice of the regulation beyond all sanction. To render the preceding scale of entry money equitable, those admitted at age thirty-five should pay £10 58. 2d., instead of £1 138.; so that, in fact, the practice of Odd Fellow Societies holds out a bribe or bonus to one class of members of £8 128. 2d. A similar remark is applicable to the admission at all other ages between eighteen and thirty-five; and notwithstanding the obvious injustice of such a system, Odd Fellows seem to possess a peculiar pertinacity to adhere to the false and insecure plans of old Benefit Clubs, and which have long since been abandoned by every Friendly Society of any pretensions or importance. Although many lodges and districts have taken up the subject, very little improvement is to be expected till the near dissolution of the societies excite serious attention; but that the danger of their position, and the non-equitable mode of payment, is already known to a considerable extent, is evident from the following extract from a report recently made by a sub-committee of a district containing 5000 members:

"So long as an influx of young members shall continue, the funds may appear to maintain a position which, to the eye of the inexperienced, may be altogether delusive. But when the original members shall have passed the meridian of life, and have begun to experience the infirmities of old age, the demands made upon the funds will then necessarily be so much larger. The stability of the institution will come then to be fairly tested.' And again they say, 'If the present system is permitted to continue, which seems not only to involve within itself the elements of dissolution, but is constructed on principles which act unfairly towards the younger portion of the members-thus, for example, a young man of eighteen years is charged as much for his initiation as a man of thirty, while all the time the entry money of the former has been accumulating at compound interest; thus evidently showing that the entry money at eighteen is in reality nearly double of what it is at thirty, though undoubtedly it ought to be the reverse. . . . That it is unjust, and likewise unsafe, to the well-being of a Benefit Society, that each member should pay an equal sum, whatever his age may be at the time of his entry.'

"It has been stated that to render it equitable to members entering at ages eighteen and thirtyfive respectively, those at the latter age should pay £1 88. annually, instead of 198. 1d. as at present; but it is not to be supposed that even this sum would render Odd Fellow Societies safe, for it makes no provision for sickness after seventy years of age. But an inspection of the Table on page 105 will show that the amount of sickness after that period of life is equivalent to about 43 per cent. of permanent sickness; and on reference to Appendix Note IV., this will be found, at age thirty-five, to require an additional contribution of 17s. 3d. yearly, making the whole £2 58. 3d., instead of 19s. 1d., or considerably more than double. The inevitable dissolution of the Order of Odd Fellowship, under such circumstances, is certain. Presuming that no change in the contributions and benefits should take place, and assuming the average age at admission to be thirty-one, which is near the truth, and taking the total number of members

in the Manchester Unity at 400,000, a donation or gift of no less than £9,135,000 would be required to enable the Order to meet all its liabilities; and that is taking it for granted that the affairs of those societies are conducted with proper regard to economy, and the funds invested to yield at least three per cent. compound interest. But there is much reason to fear that neither one nor the other of those conditions is fulfilled (see an able address by Mr. Thomas Barlow to the West Mendip Friendly Society); and the following Abstract from the Report of the Sub-Committee of the Glasgow District of Odd Fellows, M. U., September, 1843, will show that even in a place proverbial for its economy in other matters, there is a lavish expenditure in the management of those societies. In reading the following quotation it will be necessary to bear in mind that the number of members in the district being 5000, the annual income must be about £4,330.

"The first thing to which attention is called is the expense of opening and of regalias-an expense of, on the average, £16 8s. 44d., to which may be added £7 for dispensation, lecture-book, &c., and lodge chest, making £28 88. 44d, the average of opening a lodge.

"The district and delegate expenses being, as shown, 18. 6d. per member, which, in the Glasgow district, with its 5000 members, is 'at the rate of £375 paid for district expenses and delegates in each year.

"The sum of 2s. 6d. paid for the surgeon to attend members is, over the whole district, at the rate of £625 in the year. Current lodge expenses is returned on the average of 28. per member, being £500 paid in each year for lodge room rent, &c.; being in all £1500 paid in the Glasgow district for the working of the Order→→ a sum which will soon convince the most incredulous that the benefits of the Order will soon cease if such an expenditure is allowed to continue.'

"Recently a change has been proposed in the rates and contributions of the General Order of Odd Fellows by the Glasgow A. M. C. And although those terms would be about 30 per cent. under what are necessary to secure the stability of the society, still the opposition offered to such innovation seems to threaten a more immediate dissolution to the society than even that which the inadequate nature of the contributions would effect.

"It would seem that each lodge, by a set of by-laws, can regulate its own weekly contributions; and as an example of the curious errors into which those who are not thoroughly acquainted with such subjects will occasionally fall, it may be mentioned that one of the lodges referred to in the preceding report, apprehending the danger of its position under the general scale adopted by the Order, proposed new terms with a view to greater safety; and it oddly enough happens that the new rates produce a greater deficiency than the old, to the extent of 58. 8d. annually to each member at the age of thirtyfive; and proportionate deficiencies are found at other ages.

"It is evident that the Order of Odd Fellows stands in need of much improvement; and considering that thirty-three members of parliament, and between six and seven hundred of the clergy, as well as many other elevated names, are said to be enrolled as members, it is remarkable that

some gentleman of influence and scientific attainments should not before this have given attention to the lamentable condition in which his too confiding brethren of the Order are placed, and have done something to raise the Unity to the common level at least of the Friendly Societies throughout the kingdom.

"There is another class of societies which attempts to carry out the general principles of Friendly Societies; but they are, like the Odd Fellow Societies, modelled after the very rudest shape in which Benefit Clubs were formed fifty years ago and so far as relates to their contributions and benefits, almost nothing further is necessary to be stated. 'Rechabite' is the name by which those societies are known; and every member has to come under an obligation to abstain from intoxicating liquors, and to discountenance by every lawful means in his power the drinking usages of society.

"The terms on which members are admitted are according to the following scale :-entry money at age sixteen is 5s., and at age forty it increases to £2 10s.; the monthly contribution for all ages is 18. 4d., or 17s. 4d. annually. The benefits promised are an allowance of 10s. per week in sickness, and a deferred annuity of 5s. weekly after seventy years of age. To young members entering the Rechabite Societies, or Tents, as they are termed, at the age of sixteen, the actual premium for the above benefits, making allowance for entry money, should be £1 28. annually; at age forty, also allowing for entry money, the annual premium should be £2 10s. 2d.. "It will thus be seen that by the youngest member at sixteen there is an ultimate loss of 48. 8d. annually, and by the member aged forty there is a loss of £1 12s. 10d. annually, provided that it were possible to sustain such losses; but it is needless to add that permanence is not to be expected with societies so constituted. Not only do the Rechabite Societies, in common with Odd Fellow Societies, perpetrate an injustice on the younger members by the above disparity in the payments, but that injustice is further augmented by levying a uniform tax of 3s. yearly, without distinction of age, for funeral money, the sum of £10 being payable on the death of each member. The discouragement given to drinking usages, and the practice of temperance enjoined by Rechabites, is deserving of every support, and is well calculated to increase the comforts and elevate the moral and political condition of the working classes; but it is to be regretted that the monetary foundation on which the societies are built should be destined to effect their overthrow at so early a period.

"A class of societies, of which there are about two thousand in the kingdom, pass under the name of the Courts of Foresters, and their object is also to provide against sickness and death; members are admitted between the ages of eighteen and thirty-eight, on the same terms, and participate to the same extent in the benefits offered. It is therefore unnecessary to add anything to what has already been remarked of Odd Fellows and Rechabite Societies, as the same observations are equally applicable to all.

"The illustrations of the condition of the various grades of Friendly Societies, given in the preceding pages, have been made as general as possible, in order to insure their being readily understood by the members to whom they were more particularly addressed. It will be neces

sary, in every instance where any practical application is made of the facts presented, to use every caution in the selection of those examples which strictly belong to the case in point; and it is hoped that the marked differences which have been shown to prevail between the rates of mortality and sickness, under the many modifications as to condition and peculiarity of employment and rank in society, will be a sufficient guarantee against the indiscriminate use of the general results for the government of individual classes whose circumstances differ widely.

"Should the present contribution in any degree advance the science of Vital Statistics, and place the provident and self-supporting institutions of the people on a more permanent foundation, the highest wish of the writer, in venturing on so important a subject, will be consummated."

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BUILDING AND INVESTMENT SOCIETY PRINCIPLE.

We have received the following statement, in illustration of the subject referred to in our last Number. The subject admits of much further illustration and enforcement, especially as applied to chapels. To this we may return: in the meantime this may excite attention, and pave the way for a fuller discussion :

STATEMENT.

The following statement of facts in connection with the operation of Building Societies are mentioned for the purpose of showing the advantages derived by members who have borrowed money for the purchase of property; and will clearly show that those persons, who are sometimes referred to by opponents of Building Societies as parties paying a very high rate of interest are in reality more benefited by borrowing from the society than they would have been had they remained as depositors in the same to its termination. From a large number of transactions which have come under my notice I select the following as an illustration:

The first case is that of a journeyman baker, who, at the instigation of his employer, took two shares in a Building Society at its commencement, with an intention to purchase property when he might have an opportunity. It was not long before an eligible investment presented itself, when he applied for, and obtained from the society an advance of money sufficient to purchase three houses, which, according to the rules, he mortgaged to the society as security for the repayment of the money, by monthly instalments, until the society should terminate. He now receives the rent from the property; and this, with the addition of a small sum monthly from his own pocket, pays the subscription to the society and the ground-rent. He will thus, by this simple method, become in about ten years, or less, the proprietor of the houses for thirtyfive years afterwards, subject only to a small ground-rent.

The second case is that of a small tradesman, who, by the instrumentality of a Building Society, has purchased nine houses, having a long