The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-26 00:00:00

The Government Annuities Bill,

A public meeting was held last night at the
Whittington Club, Strand, to consider the best way
of opposing the Annuities Bill, lately introduced by
the Government. In the absence of Mr. Thornton
Hunt, who was unavoidably prevented from attend-
ing the meeting, the chair was taken by Mr. Faulk-
ner, the editor of the News. In opening the pro-
ceedings, the chairman said that a meeting of
working men had been convened to express their
opinion on the subject of this bill, which aimed at
the destruction of all industrial benefit and assurance
societies. He denied that those institutions were
failures, and he was sure that he carried the meeting
with him when he;said that working men knew per-
fectly well how to take care of their own savings. He
would introduce to the meeting several working men,
who would give their opinions on the subject. Mr.
Worley moved the first resolution, to the effect that
the princip.,e of Government interfering with com-
mercial enterprise was a most mischievous one, and
deserved the strenuous opposition of all classes of
the community. He believed that the bill origi-
nated in a desire on the part of the Government to
exercise a monopoly in these matters, and on that
ground he objected to it. He thought the Govern-
ment suspiciously kind to working men lately, but
he was sure the less they had to do with them the
better. The greatest objection to the bill was that
the business matters of the society were to be taken
out of the hands of the men who were best fitted
to transact them. The motion was seconded
by Mr. Wheeler, of the Friend-in-Need Benefit
Society, principally on the ground that the Govern-
ment always failed when they undertook any class
labour, and that if the bill passed a similar failure
would take place. He looked on the measure as
the thin end of the wedge for the introduction of
Government interference in all trades. The bill
had been brought in in indecent haste, and the very
name of it was a blind. If the working.men, whose
greatest interest it was to carry on these societies,
sometimes failed there was still less probability
of the efforts of the Government being crowned
with success. The motion having been car-
ried, Mr. Shrubb desired to state, in correction
of a statement made by the last speaker, that the
largo insurance societies had not taken up this
matter, and that the representatives of nearly all
the old and now offices had already met and passed
resolutions condemnatory of the measure. In mov-
ing the next resolution, to the effect that the second
clause, giving power to the Government to com-
pete with benefit societies and insurance com-
panies, was uncalled-for, Mr. New made use of
most of the arguments advanced by the previous
speakers. He thought if the Government
proposed to take life assurances into their hands,
they should also take under their protection the
sick funds throughout the country. He feared,
however, that the profits were toe, small, and the
trouble too great, for the Government to touch this
portion of the business of benefit societies. Mr.
Nash seconded the resolution. If, as had been
stated, working men's benefit societies were badly
managed, it was the business of the Government to
reform them, and not to destroy them. Ho sug-
,;ested that a deputation should be formed to wait
on the Chancellor of the Exchequer; also, that a
petition to Parliament should be adopted and signed
by all those present. Other resolutions condemning
the bill and its prieciples were then inseed, and the
I meeting separated.