The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-06-15 00:00:00

MR. GLADSTONE ON FRIENDLY
SOCIETIES.

At Hawarden, on Tuesday, the Right Hon. W. E. Glad-
stone, M.P., presided at a public meeting of the Order of
Ancient Shepherds. The meeting followed a banquet,
which was attended specially by the delegates of the
Shepherds' Order, and a number of sentiments were pro-
posed after the manner of toasts. Mr. Gladstone, in pro-
posing the "Success of the Royal Order of Ancient Shep-
herds, after some preliminary remarks, said :
I will speak a few words about your order—about those
societies in general which are massed together under the
name of friendly societies. (Cheers) 1 venture to say that they
have become so important and telling in the constitution of
English society in its broadest and most fundamental part
that any account of this nation—of those people to whom we
rejoice to belong—would deserve no attention as a really
comprehensive account it it excluded the element of friendly
societies. (Cheers.) I attach value to these societies because
they have been so thoroughly and absolutely spontaneous.
(Cheers.) They represent the character of the people, and in
one of its best and most lasting aspects. I would almost say I
do not wish to use any language of flattery, or any language
of exaggeration; but still I must venture to say—that, as
long as societies of this class, justly constituted and honestly
worked, continue to form a broad and marked feature in
English society, the country is not likely to go very tar or
hopelessly wrong. (Cheers.) Now, if I speak first of their
bearing upon the virtue of thrift, do rot suppose that I
assume the title to lecture you or others, or that I suppose
that so narrow a view ought to be taken of friendly societies
as to assume that they contemplate the virtue of thrift and
that alone. But this I will venture to say, that the point of
thrift is one of those points in which the people of this
country compare less well than in most other points with the
people of some other countries of Europe. lam sure you
would not respect me or feel that I was doing my duty
If I shrunk from saying things which were less acceptable
while I believed them 'to be true, any more than things
which I have believed to be acceptable. It is not
for those to whom God has blessed with more abundant
things to lecttp;e_thkmass of the people, and I am not going
to undertake ,khe authority of doing so. There are, however,
large portiow aour population still, with regard to whom
the wonder is how they contrive to make both ends meet.
We are not to wonder how they cannot contrive to lay
up sufficient for a rainy day. (Hear, hear.) However, it
still remains true that to some extent if you were to com-
pare England with Scotland, and undoubtedly to a greater
extent if you were to compare England with France, you
would find that the people there understand the true art of
thrift rather better upon ,the whole than a considerable
portion of the working population of England, a consider-
able portion of whom undoubtedly have the means of
making provision for the accidents of the future. But I
, wish to point out what may be called the weaker point in
English habit in order to strengthen it, hold it up, supply
what may be wanting, and confirm what exists in these ad-
mirable societies. And do not let us suppose that these societies
are societies of a few select individuals. They are societies so
large that they may be truly called national. (Cheers.)
They count their numbers, not by thousands, nor by tens of
thousands, nor by, hundreds of thousands, but already they
count their numbers by millions; and where a man performs
his duty by becoming a member and remaining a faithful
member of a society of this kind, I think we must all feel
that he, at least, is manfully—aye, and perhaps it would