The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-17 00:00:00

FRIENDLY SOCIETIES BILL.

Mr. F. O'CONNOR rose to move for leave to bring
in a Bill "to alter and amend the Act 9 and 10 Vic , c.
27, intituled en Act to amend the laws relating to
friendly societies." He said, he trusted that the Go-
vernment would allow him to bring in the Bill, seeing
that the subject had been advocated in petitions signed
by 203,000 persons, all of that class most likely to be
interested in its operation. His object was to legalise a
social plan, of which he had been the founder. The
principle of the plan was this:-100,000 persons had em-
barked funds in it under his guidance, and each man
who subscribed 21. 12s. per annum was entitled in his
turn to two acres of ground, with a cottage worth 100/.
in the centre, and a capital of 151. to begin with. Larger
subscriptions entitled the subscriber to proportiona!ily
greater advantages. However a technical objection
had bsen raised which shut out this association from
the protection given by the law to friendly
societies. The principal objection made was that
the system was a sort of lottery, and that no man
could he insured a farm for a subscription of 2/. 12s.
Another objection was that two or three or even five
acres were not sufficient to support a man and his
family But they bad it on the records of the House,
in the Gregory clause, that a man holding a quarter of
an acre was considered to be self supporting, and not
entitled to workhouse relief, and that was his answer to
the insinuations which had been thrown out against the
feasibility of his plan.—(Hear, hear.) Hu had pur-
chased 2,000 acres of land in Hertfordshire, on which
he had located 35 families, and 45 on another tract in
‘Vorcestershire, and in neither case had there been an
instance of drunkenness or riot since the location. His
opinion was that five acres were amply sufficient to sup-
port a family. He asked for the support of the landed
interest, seeing that the landed proprietors of this coun-
try paid 6,000,0001. annually for the relief of the poor.
Besides, and he begged attention to that fact, it was the
first attempt es bring the land of the country into the
retail market—the only means, as he believed, of restor-
ing the land to its true value. It was well under-
stood and generally admitted that the man who had a
small holding, and who cultivated it himself, could afford
to pay a much higher rent than the man who held a
large farm, and cultivated it by the expenditure of his
capital. Any one who had travelled through Belgium
would remember that tracts worth 1001. had been sold
for 9001. when subdivided among peasant proprietors.
The fact was that the man who had a small farm, with
his homestead in the centre, could do as much with a
boy and a wheelbarrow, as could a farmer with six men
and four horses when living at a distance. Wbat was
there in the capabilities of Great Britain to prevent the
labourers of this country from effecting that which the
Belgians accomplished with a worse soil ? He had no
other object in view than to legalise the plan which he
had carried out successfully in the county of Cork on his
own property, and in the counties of Hertford arid
Worcester, on the estates purchased by the company.
That company had a capital of 180,0001, of which
50,0001. was vested in Exchequer bills, the whole of
which at present stood in his name ; and he came
to the House to ask for this Bill, by which the company
should be protected against his acts and those of the
officers of the company. The enrolment of the com-
pany under the statute he sought to amend had been
refused, on a technical objection raised by Mr. Tidd
Pratt, on a dictum of Mr. Justice Wightman ; and
though the statute in question was intended to extend
the benefit of the law to such societies, they were, under
this dictum, in a worse situation then before the amend-
ing statute passed. Already they had expended 3.0001.
in provisionally registering the company, but it would
cost many thousands more to effect complete registra-
tion. It was under these circumstances that he came to
the House for relief, and he was willing, after the intro
duction of his Bill, to submit it to the Attorney-General
before he asked for a second reading. He was aware
that it had been objected to his plan, that
it resembled the Irish small farm system. So
it did, with this difference, that here there
was no want of tenure, while in Ireland the holder of a
small farm had no certainty of tenure. To provide
against the other evil that had been anticipated—
. namely, of too minute a subdivison of the land, a clause
was inserted in the leases, whereby any subdivision of
allotments was prohibited. He had many other topics
connected with the subject to bring under the notice of
the House, but as he had already to thank them for the
tolerance extended to him, he should abstain from say-
ing more than to assure the Itight Hon. Baronet that if,
by the refusal to pass the Bill, he should be driven to
complete the registration of the society, he should not
he stopped at that obstacle, but would persevere in the
plans by means of which he had created such lively
hopes in the minds of the labouring classes who had
confided in him. He had met with no opposition from
the landed classes, bnt from the manufacturers he had
been met by the most deadly hostility. The lion. Mem-
ber concluded by moving for leave to bring in a Bill to
amend the I,ws relating to friendly societies.
Mr. WAKLEY seconded the motion.
Sir G. GREY said he would not follow the Hon.
Member through the various topics of his speech, but he
must observe that he had not been able to get any de-
finite or clear idea of the plan which he had described,
or of the nature of the Bill which he wished to intro-
duce. One thing he must however, say—namely, that
there was no such indisposition on the part of the-House
to afford all the facilities that were required to place
the investments of the savings of the working classes
as the lion. Member appeared to think existed.
Mr. F. O'CONNOR said that he had attributed no
such motive to any party.
;sir G. GREY was very happy to find that he had
misapprehended the Hun. Member. With respect to
the lew on the subject, he believed that ali the Attor-
ney-General meant to do was to oppose any society
which was based on a lottery. But he would not
raise a discussion upon that point at the present moment.
All lie would say was, that he would never give his sanc-
tion to any lottery scheme. lie would not oppose the
introduction of the Bill, with the distinct understanding,
however, that he expressed no opinion upon its merits.
Leave was then given to bring in the Bill.
PETTY BAG OFFICE BILL.

Mr. ROMILLY obtained leave to bring in a Bill for
abolishing certain offices in the Petty Bag in the High
Court of Chancery, and for regulating the Petty Bag
Office.

POOR HOUSES (IRELAND) BILL.
Mr. S. CRAWFORD obtained leave to bring in a
Bill to extend the powers given by former Acts for pur-
chasing or hiring land in connexion with, or for the
use of, poor houses in Ireland, in order to afford the
means of applying the labour of paupers to their own
support.
TREATY OF ADRIANOPLE.

Mr. ANSTEY moved that the order of the day for
the resumption of the debate on this subject should be
discharged.—(Hear, hear.)
Lord HOTII.IM condemned the practice of founding
serious charges against the Minister of the Crown on a
mere motion for papers.
Lord D. STUART said he was anxious to have ad-
dressed the house on the main question, but he would
not oppose the discharge of the order.
The order was then discharged.
ELECTION RECOGNISANCES BILL.

On the motion of Sir W. HEATHCOTE, the order
for further proceeding o❑ this Bill was discharged.
'lnc House adjourned at a quarter after One o'clock.

PARLIAMENTARY ENFRANCHISEMENT OF S fALY-
rutioaE.—A memorial to Lord John Russell, praying
him to bring a Bill into Parliament, to confer the pri-
vilege of electing a Member to serve this town in Par-
liament, and a petition to the House of Commons, which
were agreed to at a public meeting a short time ago, are
in course of signature, and have now received nearly two
thousand names, including several of the largest and most
influential manufacturers and tradesmen of all parties.—
Manchester Courier.

THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF MONTPENSIER.—A
morning paper says—" The sudden departure of the
Duke and Duke and Duchess of Montpensier for Ger-
many, on Thursday, has naturally enough caused
considerable surprise ; more particularly as it took place
before the expected arrival of the Duke of Ahumada,
who had been commissioned by the Queen of Spain to
invite her sister to Madrid. It is now, however, stated
that their departure was caused by the discovery of a
correspondence, in the Tuileries, la hich, being commu-
nicated to the British Government, rendered the resi-
dence of those august personages in this country as dis-
agreeable to the Cuurt of St. James's as it would have
been unpleasant to themselves. It is added that they
left in conformity with an intimation from the Foreign-
office.

EXTRAMIDINAWY FACT.—A gentleman, named
Dutton, aged eighty, of the Brynne, near Wrexham,
Flintahire, was listening in bed to his clock striking the
hour of twelve at midnight, when, to his surprise, the last
six strokes sounded much louder than the former. The
old gentleman naturally supposed that a door had been
opened. Upon harkening, he heard the jingling of
keys, and to his astonishment, he was but too fully con-
vinced that an intruder had entered his bedroom, and
was about to take the contents of his bureau. He im-
mediately jumped out cf bed, and clasped an individual
having on a fustain coat. He held him tightly, and
called lustily fur assistance. The thief carried the fear-
less old gentleman through two rooms, when his son-
in-law and wife arrived, who succeeded in capturing
the burglar, who is now safely lodged for trial in the
county gaol. It appears the scoundrel had only been
dismissed from the service about three weeks.—Zentish
Gaze*.