The Express.
London, England, 1863-12-15 00:00:00

TO THI lIDITOZ OF TEO rxramis.

Ste,—lf you could permit oop of us to give
seem aeosent in your colossus, whiels meet the eye of so
mew piectical hisedo of the wcwiriag dem, it would pa-
tit =of your readers Moor Non eserrocime.
Moe amongst the weeklies* bas become a great
hat. or the last twenty years it bas gradually extecideg,
slowly at first became the pm* did not understand or ap-
preciate its power to elevate them in the social scale, or
perhaps because they suspested the co-operative ides se
=and delusive. But steadily and surely it has roads
tit enmities and worked its way into their coati-
deuce, in proof of which there are sow more thee live hun-
dred societies of working moo in England, Wake, sad Ire-
land registered under the Industrial and Provident Societies
Acts, and probably sixty sr seveoty to add to the above
cumber for those in Scotland.

These societies for the most part cony on the businesses
of grocery and provision dealers, which artists they supply
to their members and divide the profits each wailer of a
year amongst them in proportion to their purchases of
goods from the society.
The mOtal needful to carry on the business is raised by
the members, mostly in shares of the value of one pound
each : the number of shares which any one member may
take varying in different societies from one, two, or five, to
one hundred, and in no society is a member allowed to ex-
ceed 2001, in invested shares. These shares may be paid at
one or by instalments of 3d. or more per week, to suit the
convenience or circumstances of the subscribers. Thu it
will be seen that these societies become the wirings banks
for such of the working dames as join them. Lancashire
sad Yorkshire have more of these societies than any other
two enmities in the United Kingdom, there being upwards
of 130 societies in the former sod 90 in the latter county.
Also some of the largest societies are to be found in these two
counties.
_ _

J. Mad Pratt, Esq., the Registrar of Friendly Societies,
has published, by order of parliament, the regime of 332
societies for the year coding December, 1862. From theme
returns, which include rather over half of the societies now
is operation, we gather that the societies enumerated had
90,458 members, a subscribed sod accumulated capital of
425,3151., does business, oriretisived for goods sold during the
year, 2,331,650 f., and had maimed a profit on the above
transactions of 165,770/.
These profits, as a general rule, are disposed of sa follows :
—To domination of plant or filed stock, at the rate of ten
per coat per annum. Interest on puri•up shares at the
rate of five per cont per annum, if left in the society from
the beginning to the end of the quarter ; and is a few
Noeletiss 2{ per cent quarterly from net profits to the
support of newsrooms sod library in connection with the
society' and the balance or remainingremainingprofits divided, as
before stated, amongst member, in proportion to their trade
with the society.
In the year 1857, G. J. Holyoake wrote a book called
" Self Help by the People
and History of Co-operatioa in
Rochdale." It was bought read by • few working men
in nearly every town in the United Kingdom. Not fewer
thee lye or sax hundred copies were sold in Rochdale, for
the members of the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society
were both instructed and amused by reading the history of
their society; and it produced fruit of a most valuable
character, fora meat number of newspapers, reagarinea
reviewed the hiatory, and cam co-operative sometime
to the working classes.
Of the 3.12 societies in the registrar's return, 261 have
been established since the year 1857, end I have heard
several persona ascribe the origin of their now prosperous
society to having read the history.
The Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society was established
in the year 1844. discs its commencement it has benefited
its members in • pecuniary sense—that ia, in the form of
profile or dividends, 93,0001. It devotes 2i per cent of its
profits to educational purposes, by which it supporta three
news-rooms, and has a library of upward. of 6,000 volumes,
all of which are free to members and their families,

I need sot say that such institutiolis give the working
'lames opportunities of self•improremest. At present the
before-named society has 3,750 members, sod a capital sub.
scribed and accumulated of 44,8761. Ifs. 10 I am, &a,
WILLIAM COOPER.
Oldham-road, Rochdale, Dee ,1843.

ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL, GRAY'S-INN-
ROAD.