Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-11-17 00:00:00

[ADVERTISEMENT.]
FRIENDLY SOCIETY REVELATIONS.

A meeting of the officers and friends of the Royal Philan-
thropic Society was held on Monday night, at the office
of the societr, Finch-street. The Secretary, in opening
the proceedings, said that the present meeting was
called to inquire into certain false and malicious state-
ments which had been circulated with the view of
injuring the society. Placards had emanated from
another society, and were two in number. The follow-
ing are the main facts of the first case as set forth in
the placard. Michael McHugh entered his father-is-law
as a member of the Philanthropic Society; and accord-
ing to the rules was entitled to the sun of £3 is twenty-
six weeks from the time of his entrance. The father-
in-law died on the very day twenty-six weeks after he
had entered the society. The son-in-law thinking himself
entitled to the funeral allowance, made application to the
secretary, who told him that he was not entitled to the.
allowance, as his father-in-law was two days short of being
a half member. Sack was the subject of the first document,
to which was appended the son-in-law's mark. There
was also a postscript to the effect that, after belonging
to the society for some twelve or thirteen years, not one
penny was received on the present occasion. The
secretary, after reading the placard, proceeded to ex-
plain how the case really stood, which, he said, was as
follows :--The father-in-law' J. Hutt, was entered into
the society three years ago by his son, and was again
entered by the daughter some twenty-weeks previous to
his death. The claim of the son beings uat one, was
paid; that of the daughter not being valid, was refused.
He produced the books of the society, by which
it was apparent that the twenty-si,x weeks • were
not completed at the tune •Of Hutt s death. The
second placard related to Barbara M'Coombe, and
bore her mark. It stated that the society had
thees
refused to pay a just claim of £l2, giving instead only
Le., Mrs. M'Coombe was
.present at' the meeting,
and, in reply to the secretary, most distinctly denied
having affixed,re her mark to the document, and adds.
thate time the
of one
man'sad to
entrance
nature. The secretary said that by the entry made at
th
tweouald,at differenthis
be fifty, in which case £6 was the
proper
allowanee. Even now, if Sufficient evidence could be
brought to show that the man was younger, he was
,her wa
his of
age quite
quite willing to pay the balance: He thought it was
most unjust and dishorresefor any society to take advan-
tage of a woman's ignoranceby making her sign that which
she did not believe. The placards having been published
'he thought it but justice to the society and the public
that the refutation should be published also. He
thought that such infamous documents could only have
originated from spite, and he would warn the public to
ho tai their guard against any society which recourse
to yich schemes for blackening tho tolaraeter of an
houeBt, society like the prezert. After r ouc further dis-
clugion,-. a refutation of the -plueards ma., drawn up,
Ligned by Barbara M'Coombe.', after which the meeting
separated. nl6