The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-03-06 00:00:00

PRA.CTIC kL j.GiSLA

Although we are still some distance from the
Easter Recess, one after another of the measures
fore-shadowed in the Royal Message at the opens
in of Parliament a month ego has been 1)1'40(10-
u:der the attention of the Legisla,are. For
many yeqrs, when the Liberal Adminiqration
wa:: in power. it wgs a chronic cornplaiut with
the House of Lords that. metaporically eplakiug
they went about seeking work and finding none,
until the fag end of the Session, when bills came
crowding up to' thew from the House of Commons
and then hurried through without due consider-
ation. For weeks early in the Session they met
but to adjourn. The Liberal Government re-
plied that it was all very well for the Lords to
grumble at having no work to do, but experience
had taught the Mininistry that if a bill was in-
troduced into the Upper Chamber before it Ind
been sanctioned by the representative assembly,
the peers invariable torn it to nieces, mangled it
in a manner which left it totally unrecognisable
by its author. and convertedfinto a helpless mass
upon the floor of the House. The Government
of Mr. Di6raeli has, however, more flirl in the
Lords than had the Cabinet of his predecessor.
Three measures of the first order have been
already brought in by the Lord Chancellor, their
objects being respectively the Amendment of
the Patent Laws, the completion of the Judica-
ture Act, and the simplifying of the statutes
regulatinr, the Transfer of Laud. The discus-
sion of these in committee wiii keep their lord•
ships pretty well occupied until after 14-lister, by
which time some of the bills now under debate
in the Commons will, in all probability, have
passed that assembly.

.• Of the measures introduced into the House of
Commons, one which has attracted as much at-
tention as any is that providing for the volutary
registration of 'Friendly Societies. This is a
matter in which deepinterest is felt by the work-
ing classes whose humble contributions towards
the funds of these organisations represent an
enormous sum. ['he primary object aimed at in
registration is to ensure such publicity for the
liabilities and assets of a society that the mem-
bers may at any time satisfy themselves that
their financial position is good. Life assurance
companies are compelled to pnblish perieJical
accounts, and no complaint is made that the
compulsion is a mistake, or that it operates in-
juriously to the interests of policy-holdees. The
Royal Commission, of which the pressnt Chau-
cellor of the Exchequer was chairman, found
that many friendly societies were in an unsat-
isfactory condition, owing to errors of manage-
ment, which would have been avoided had there
been a provision for the periodical inspection of
their financial status by those wlo .1,0r3 inter-
etel in their prosperity. There wes it if rill V-
wank perversioe, jeeeel
over inee over again th.a, a Seciety com-.
ini.;..ton to a cou;se which would le.l to iesol•
vency had not the power to pull itself up. Un-
til the Royal Commission already alluded to was
appointed, the actual position of many of the
benefit societies was concealed frera the public,
notwithstanding the suspicions of unsoundness
and incapacity that might exist respectting it.
Compulsory registration was advocated as the
proper remedy for the evils then bronght to light
it being assumed that the better class of friendly
Societies would for their own sakes be glad to
adopt it. The scheme of the Government does
not, however, embody the principle of compul-
sion. It provides a chief registrar who shall
have one or more assistants for England, a sin-
gle assistant for Scotland, and the same for Ire-
land. Any benefit society numbering seven
members can claim to he registered on comply-
ing with certain specified conditions. The most
important of these are that it shall nominate
trustees, have its accounts audited yearly, make
an annual return of its audited accounts to the
public registrar, and once in five years furnish
to the same official a statement ef the assets and
liabilities, with the amount of sickness and mor-
tality which have been recorded in the ranks of
its members during that period. The bill, we
may add, touches the interests, directly and in-
directly, of eight million persons, whose invest-
ment amount to about twelve millions sterling.
It, therefore, requires very careful consideration
Fortunately, the present is a.season free from
Political excitement; aid there is, consequently
no reason to suppose that the attention of Parlia-
ment will be diverted from that social legislation
which is now so much needed.

The Friendly Societies' Bill is, however, only
one out of the list which has been brought be-
fore the House of Commons. There is, for in-
stance, the Artisans' Dwellings' Bill ; the object
of which is to remedy a very great evil, and to
supply the industrial classes with better nolnes.
It is true that something has been done in this
direction by private enterprise, but this is a mere
drop in the ocean. Besides, the working class
complain that in too many cases where philan-
thropic effort has thus been put forth, the tenure
of these dwellings is hampered with harassing
restrictions, in which men are treated more like
children. They must be in their houses by a
hoyr at night, they most abstain from
and retraeco, and mmst 10 or to 'l,;s. tint.
the'otar petty reguLAion. vb ,
best inteutiuLs on the part of hoipro.uoi,ers,
vi:ry ofteci def Pat thernselvos. Workieg,weo
like to be treated like responsibl b,ings, and do
not see why, because they are po;,r, their very
few enjoyments should be curtailed, wide those
above them in the social scale are perfectly free
to take their pleasures when and how they will.
The Home Secretary's measure seeks to trans-
act a b9siness matter in a business way, and it
is framed in the interests of morality, which
never can be promoted in the taco of such over-
crowding iu the houses of the humble as is too
often to be seen now. The protection of the
public from crimes of violence is also a question
which has of late commanded an increasing
amount of public attention, and the members of
the jai:lickl bench have been almost unanimous
in recommending greater severity towards
those of the predatory class who, not content
with their perpetual war against society, add the
offence of brutality to the crime of robbery—an
offence with which, by common consent, the law
has hitherto too tenderly dealt.