The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-06-16 00:00:00

Expectation of Life in

F. S rural dis. F. S. town dis. F. S. city dis. Eng. & Wales.
20.. .. 45.35
30.... 38.40
40.. .. 30.97
50.... 23.47
60.... 16.65 ...... 13.76
From these data a man who has become a mem-
ber of a Benefit Society at the age of 32, may
expect to live 36 years, if in a rural district; 32
if in a town district ; 301 if in large cities; and 32
years is the mean for England and Wales. Taking
the latter as the basis of our calculation, such a
member, on his death, will have paid into the funds
of the society £36 Bs., out of which £l5 is to be re-

paid for the funeral expenses of himself and wife,
thus leaving £2l Bs. towards sick allowances. To
determine the sufficiency of this amount we give the
following table, exhibiting the amount of sickness to
which each person is liable at several ages, as calcu-
lated by Mr. Neison from actual facts derived from
the working of Benefit Societies throughout the
kingdom, and also the calculations of the Highland
Society and Mr. Ansell, those chiefly in use amongst

such societies :

Annual amount of sickness to each person in weeks, days,

and hours

Neison. Per cent. above

H. So.
20.... 4 0 5 10 5 21 31.5 7.6
30.... 4 8 6 1 6 9 31.8 5.4
40.... 5 7 1 0 19 1 1 6 358 5.9
50.... 1 2 13 1 4 22 1 6 17 30.5 13 2
60.... 2 2 10 3 2 1 4 1 4 43.6 20.9
70.... 10 4 22 11 5 13 14 0 6 23.7 23.0

It is clear that societies, which adopt either the
calculations of the Highland Society or of Ansel],
are very far below the result of actual experience,
and must eventually be "nought into difficulties.
Taking the sick allowance during the 32 years of
life, laid down in this scale as the expectation of life
for such a member, we find that up to the period of
his death he will have received, at various times, as
sick allowance, £25, in round numbers, towards
which amount, without taking into consideration
any expenses of management, which will undoubtedly
absorb the accruing interest, there will only be left
a balance from his contributions of £2l Ss.

Every effort should be made to add to the pros-
perity and permanence of institutions which, well
managed, are calculated so materially to ameliorate
the social condition of the people. Mr. Neison
shows, in the following table, and his comments upon
it, that the establishment of Friendly Societies has
actually contributed to lengthen the duration of life
amongst those contributing to them :
Expectation in Difference in favour of
Friendly England and Friendly Societies.
Societies. Wales. In Years. Per Cent.
. 43.77... ..... 40.69 .. 3.08 ..
. 36.60 ....... . 34.09..
.29.33
.22.19 20.84 l. 3
15.69. 14.53. l. 1

7.5
7.3
6.7
6.4
7.6

" A very important distinction is here found to prevail
between the value of life in the two tables. The circum-
stances in which the humble and working population of
the country is placed have generally been thought adverse
to a T.rolonged duration of life; but the healthiest life ta-
bles hitherto formed have not shown anything so favour-
able as the present results, even among what are generally
considered the select classes of society."
And he continues:—

" The blessing thus bestowed on the frugal and indus-
trious workmen of the country, composing Friendly Soci.
eties, in having granted them, as appears by the present
inquiry, a prolonged duration of life, must really be re-
garded as a true and distinctive feature of that cl iss of
persons, and is, no doubt, the result of their simple and
uniform habits of life, and the more regular and natural
physical exercises to which they are habituated."

There can be no doubt the habits of saving and
of temperance induced by the necessity imposed
upon the working classes to keep up their contri-
butions, tend materially to the preservation of health;
and the gratuitous attendance of the club doctor, in
cases of sickness, is an important boon to the poor
man, who might otherwise he led to neglect incipient
disease, or driven to the employment of unskilful
quacks. The ease of mind, too, arising from the
reflection that comparative comfort in old age is se-
cured, tends greatly to retard the necessity of resort-
ing to the Benefit Societies for temporary aid, and
to prolong the life of the member.
One important fact arrived at by Mr. Neison we
cannot refrain from bringing before the attention of
this great commercial community, in the hope of
urging forward an attempt to provide a remedy :
" The rural labourer of thirty years of age," he says,
" may expect to enjoy forty more years of life ; but the
miner of the same age can look forward only to thirty-
three years of life, the baker thirty-two years. the plum-
ber or painter thirty years, and last and lowest, the poor
clerk twenty-seven years—the latter period being thirteen
years below the expectation of life of the rural labourer,
seven years below that of the community in general, nine
years below that of the general body of the members of
Friendly Societies. We trust this appalling condition of
the clerks will stimulate themselves, those who are exert-
ing themselves in their behalf, and those who have power
to aid them, to renewed efforts to improve their condition,
and rescue them from that early grave to which the class
has hitherto been consigned."

The fact here disclosedis truly a melancholy one.
The class whose dull and dreary labours regulate
the wheels of the great commercial machine--who
are doomed, from year's end to year's end, to count
the wealth that flows in to increase the already
abundant store of the capitalist, and who seldom
dares even to hope for a better lot as the reward of
his attention and fidelity; possessed, from the ne-
cessity of his position, of an education which leads
to the acquirement of tastes above those of the mere
mechanic, by our cruel parsimony, and the exaction
of an amount of sedentary labour above their power
to bear, we are dooming to penury in life, and a
premature old age and death. This unhappy class,
we fear, have seldom the opportunity, enjoyed by
other more fortunate classes, of making use of the
means afforded by Benefit Societies of providing for
the approach of sickness, or for interment after
death. Their whole career is one of toilsome
struggle—that worst of all struggles, the attempt to
make appearances belie the actual poverty of their
lot. Were it for this class alone, it would well he.
come the mercantile body in Liverpool to originate
and aid the establishment of some society upon a
safe and substantial basis, by means of which they
might be drawn to make a provision for the future.
The poor clerk is not to be allured into habits of
saving by gaudy frippery. He might, however, be
encouraged by receiving the countenance of his su-
periors in wealth; and could he even be brought a
little nearer to them in the exchange of the ordinary
amenities of life, he would be rendered a happier
man, and none the less valuable and faithful ser-
vant.