The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-08-16 00:00:00

, .
the dishonest mar

raised benefits at rates which could never be
hence bankru

was the c

Every ten of these societies

There were yet other great

evils, though apparently. lesser, working much mischief
I refer especially to what was called ," spending money ;'

when a member

mthly payment he

11941, as af4ed rule, to part with threepence for drink.
Thousands upon thousands of artizans knmi that this

money Ras not limited to the ,
In hedge ale-houses, wi
ensued, the brain got fevered, anti
short" waa'snPeradded, to give double action to the du
beer, with wl

ce sj

eeified. Orgies
ere the beer was bad, squabbles

drop of somethinl

the members were much " bemus,

" sometbiu g short" being lipid poison made in unentered
honses—skros, in the lanes and alleys of WhitechapeL
Such places still exist, but. it is not to my purpose at pre-
sent to _describe them. The stuff imbibed by the now
reckless member of the benefit society—more reckless
by a pious recollection, even in crapulence, that be had dis-
charged his duty to his wife and family, in keeping clew
with the, box hox."—the treasury chest of the society.
murders foul, thoigh unpremeditated, have arisen out o
the threepence " spending money." When T. P. Conn-
TENA Y'S bill passed, several thousand societies complied
with its.provisions ; the rates of payment were somewhat
assimilated to the benefits expected, and the spending
money 15718 abolished in most. So, things (cent on for

`many Years. " Hearts of Oak Benefit Society !" " The
Jolly Good Fellows Friendly Society !" and others, with
equallY. inviting names, sprang up like toad-stools, and
died- lii lieu of the actuaries or per.o,-g skilled in
Trxnewhat
,calcu-
lations, TIDD PRATT, a thinking autv
shrewd barrister, was appointed the great regenerator,
under Government, for all Benefit Societies. PRATT did,
and does some good. He is. only a half-and-half man.
The cancer, the monster poison, is still in the system.

Cunnhig,_ lazy, no-workmen art
advantage of JoIIN TIDD PRATT, fur
eunning,lazy, knaves will establish a society—get monies
"--- become dissatisfied ;

11 his i

—go on—and_ get mor

ilia fault with•worthy men, hard-up, but paying mem-
bers, who would fain stick to the club : a row is kicked up
--divide—divide—divide the funds. A knot of such per-
sons a benefit society is to be shunned as a bag
full of vipers. A break-up is the consequence ; the
good members having been get rid of. Mr. TIDD
old boy, I know you well know there should
funds
no power to break up a society and divide the
" smOng the remaining members; when such a pro-
POsition is made and carried, let the funds go to the com-
missioners for the payment of the national debt. Ha, ha
Yoliwould-sery soon hear little of the breaking-up cl •

'lousing

I could give many melancholy examples of tin
Ti,(llllti-of dividing even in highly educated associations
0" but one lately, a literary one, it was a semi-benevoleni
,„1"-PArtly self-supporting was the dodge. Great name(
'..cuseribed ; that merry and well-conditioned.old man, the
taCI Mace of CAMBRIDGE," posthumously and not mis•
named,—LYNDICUB.ST the LORD CITARCELLOR
novi:calGUm also,--Nsided---.---
onuANnY, a
'46 in turn pre

ter man then that
donations. Hug

sums
mark t4203.e
—Rue oi

+ was a fund for. Met
n certainly wrote

_ poetry for those
girdlote'l44"-rtise-s who are of that turn ; the poets referrer
ing a I,it blacking poetry might begin thei
label of Japan

When
-4, Day star rises, then the Martin sings."
Poetry,
the bye, which, I have been told, has cheered
to 14 a ,
g the solitary and parched European in
en
the •
d 'Lahore ! Such litterateurs came in at the
_of
ion—Benefit Society—not_ very

Wll eAsr.soc
ICientlt ow_
about bein„ The good, the true, the real, th(
and heat a'fe Promoters, who had borne the burder
help themselves thehe ere " scratched " and couldn't
funds ; newfangled clique, the divide the

.; one whisper'd his coin
wbisper'd another, and%nion, who _
us it went round,
And then into a hoarse ill'
An ominous and wild andujins ur
AndWiren his comrades thoUg grew
nd
pe:ltete_i3
nt each—each plunder knew ;
2Twas but his own suppressed, tiltacnow he found,
And out they spoke—divide 1 divide !" •
My dear BYBoN, whose lines came athwart my fancy
would,
have excused the liberty
I have taken in altering a
Ford or twos to Stet my Purvose, and the reader* of the