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

would be held as an offence to them if the office of me-
dical officer was made permanent. The permanent office
would be the one that was most useful to the poor.
After a few words from Sir H. VERNET and Captain
Pxc nem„
Mr. WALTER bore personal testimony to the in-
capacity, in some cases, of parish doctors, without
making any specific charge, who were allowed to remain
to the injury of those parishes to which they were at-
tached. He had also seen several cases where the pari-h
doctors laboured under great disadvantages owing to a
disinclination on the part of the guardians to allow
proper nourishment. He therefore thought that the
medical men should be permanent.
Lord D. STUART suggested the omission from the
resolution of the words " during good behaviour."
Dr. Bowring, Mr. Henley, and Mr. Brotherton having
made a few remarks,
Lord ASHLEY said he would not object to the pro-
posed alteration of omitting the words "during good
behaviour" if it made the resolution more acceptable to
the Government.
Mr. C. BULLER objected to the alteration. He
should not wish to have the removal of the medical men
thrown upon him.
The House divided, when there appeared—
For the resolution
Against it
Majority —62
Lord ASHLEY consented to withdraw the remaining
resolutions.
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 an Act to emend 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 1001.
in the centre, and a capital of 15/. to begin with. Larger
subscriptions entitled the subscriber to proportionably
greater advantages. However a technical objection
had been 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 be insured a farm for a subscription of 21. 12s.
Another objection was that two or three or even five
acres were not sufficient to support a man and his
family But they had 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.) He had pur-
chased 2,000 acres of land in Hertfordshire, on which
he had located 35 families, and 45 on another tract in
Worcestershire, 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 to 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. What was
there in the capabilities of Great Britain to present 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 iu the county of Cork on his
own property, and in the counties of Hertford and
Worcester, on the estates purchased by the company.
That company had a capital of 180,000/, of which
50,000/. 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 than before the amend-
ing statute passed. Already they had expended 3,0001.
in provisionally regiatering 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 ha 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 bad 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 Right 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
be 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, but from the manufacturers ho had
been met by the most deadly hostility. The Hon. Mem.
her concluded by moving for leave to bring in a Bill to
amend the laws relating to friendly societies.
Mr. `'PARLEY 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 be had described,
or of the nature of the Bill which he wished to intro-
duce. Ono 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 Hon. 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 Hon. Member. With respect to
the law on the subject, he believed that all 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 he would say was, that he would never give his sanc-
tion to any lottery scheme. He 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 or, poor houses in Ireland, in order to afford the
means of applying the labour of paupers to their own
support.