The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-05-14 00:00:00

Alay 14, 1844.

CORRESPONDENCE.

!R:COLVILLE'S MEASURE AND THE LIVER-

POOL BUILDING SOCIETIES.

,21 A people of proprietors may be governed by gentle laws.
Mere n-proprietors compose the greatest part of a nation it
different. They can be governed by harsh laws only."
HELVETII'S.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SIR,—In the point of view from which the remarks in
tuY last emanate, it is impossible to pass by unnoticed
another numerous class of owners—that supplied by
Building Societies. I have no hesitation in stating that
We suffer more from improvidence than has ever been
imagined. What is it that peoples our gaols, swells our
Police reports, and crowds our workhouses?—the lack of
frugality and industry—to what may be traced much of
the immorality and vice which abounds in society ? doubt-
less to the same cause. Improvident youth and strength
'glide away with the velocity of a meteor, and when the
`dream of life is nearly over, the dim perspective of the
future becomes pregnant with portentous clouds, and evil
terminating in crime or the purlieus of a workhouse.
llow many its the evening of life are obliged to revert with
Pain to the sunny days of youth, and to reflect upon what
they might have been—how they might have avoided the
quicksands of life, and secured for old age those comforts
;which were once at their command. They terminate an
Improvident life in sorrow and dishonour. Now the end
of all good government is the promotion of virtue among
the people, and virtue must be encouraged by induce-
talents. And I maintain that Building Societies afford the
bloat powerful inducements to the provident and indus-
trious. The plan of building fonds has not only been con-
ceived, but it has also been tested in practice, and it has
succeeded, and the legislature has endorsed it w.th an act
10 the protection and encouragement of such societies,
aeelaring its the preamble of that act that it was expedient
so to do. How then has this been regarded by the
people—have they availed themselves of its advantages?
rwleert the number of Building Societies in this town an-
soc. • There are in Liverpool upwards of fifty of these
eti
%pies, in the whole of which there cannot be less than
ellasedraerribers, two-thirds of which number are pur-
tcem
bers, and consequently nominal or fictitious
We cannot(24 property, and that of course cottage property.
that then but suppose, nay it is beyond question,
us be habits of frugality and industry to which these
Potent are accessory, must have an almost omni•
, influence upon the condition, moral, social, and
political, of the people. While party spirit has been run-
ning high, political empiricism. rampant and professing
Patriots pouring forth their desolating lava against what
they term the corrupters of the people, these institutions
have, like gentle spring showers, been producing silently
omfort, happiness, virtue, and morality throughout the
land. In them the fondest anticipations of a benevolent
legislature have been exceeded. But let us glance at the
constitution of these societies : the members comprise
chiefly mechanics and labourers, or in other words, the
working classes, who may he divided into two sections,
the tiny capitalist and the one without capital. To
the former, Building Societies afford the best facility for
the acquisition of a little property, and to the latter, they
present all the advantages of a saving bank, as regards
Avscielcplueorsiittys: Proposes with a much greater rate of interest upon
I shall now demonstrate the manner in which Mr. Col-
to frustrate the benevolent intentions of a '
paternal legislature • in fact, the virtual repeal of the 6th
and 7th Wm,e'ap. 32.
11PTonhethsauteeess of a building society is of course dependent
as it is of each individual member. A " break down,"
;vulgarly termed, is not less embarrassing to the '
society than it is ruinous to the individual. Now, upon
lati •
her/ elainlY depends the success of the individual naem-
It is upon the precision aid accuracy of his calcu-
"'
in his undertakings. The points for his conside-
rationp are—the number of shares he will require to com-
wr, his purchase of property, the periodical payments to
'cn he will be liable in respect of those shares, and the
difference between the aggregate amount of the rents of
such Property arid the subscriptoes to the society. These
41Leulations made, the member's purchase. or rather its
extent, is governed by his resources. Well, a member of
on e of these societies has purchased property, and having
borrowed from the society nearly as much as the amount !
° the purchase money, the rents obtained from that pro-
Petty is is of course insufficient for the payments of his '
sptions. The deficiency, however, is not greater
tha_n Ilia means, for his purchase was made to keep within
poeir limits : but then he has nothing in reserve. Sup-
ran, then, a poor-rate upon owners were to become ope-
m.,' e• Alas ! he would then be ruined. An extra and
would demand upon his fund, increasing his deficit,
euhl disable him in his engagements to the society ; the '
ned for
non-payment would increase in geometric pro- ,
s-,,121"; his property would fall into the hands of the
Indus his little capital—the fruits, perhaps, of years of
ustrY and retrenchment—alienated for ever ; and he
becauseaY then mourn over his loss, break his heart, and die,
~,ii he had not brain enough to anticipate Mr. Col-
Philosophy. Silly man ! Upon the faith of an act
°f Parliament, the preamble of which sated that it was
rissed for his encouralemeet and pro•ection. he emharked
f the legislature break their truce, and he is undone
for his unsuspecting credulity. But this is riot all : this
aned m
nd an remains as a warning to others, who will not
be slow to benefit by his history. The purchise of pro-
perty,with that the purchase of shares in the society,
flag, The sources of profit dried up, the society, which
peradventure
tray not have seen its second year, becomes
extinct. This is the Colville mode of repealing parlia-
mentary
entary enactments, without the aid of the old-fashioned
a
troublesome course of royal assent. We are certainly
In an age of improvements! But, independently of its
results, this impost upon owners would be roost unjust in
principle towards the member of a building society who
flight he unfortunate enough to be the nominal owner of
property. A member holds cottage property, say, to the
amount of £5OO, but he has borrowed the amount from
the society for its payment, and having' paid it may be
only twelve months' subscription in liquidation of the
loan, his beneficial interest in the property is a mere
mockery. is that man, so circumstanced, a fit object
for parochial assessment—to be rated as the owner of
property ? It is more than absurd—it is monstrous !

Corporal Trim said to my Uncle Toby, " This man
shall surely die." That is the laneuage of Mr. Cobil e's
Measure as respects building societies. But. let us caange
the point of view from the landlord to the tenant. It may
be said in reply to what I have advanced, that the effect:
',hid' I have stated would he materially qualified by an
increased rental, that Vie owner would reimburse himself
tl;•raiSing his rents. Now without committng myself to
ls argument, I shall enquire what it is worth. Why, if
u assertion be true, the measure would be a mere farce,
!Ore it would be inoperative ; and in the next place, the ar-
gllrient amounts merely to a reoval ft he burden The
°°Jectional chara,ter of the scmhemeo is increased .if the
2,uer shift the burtl,n from his own shoulder to that of
t" Poor tenant—its effec,s would be intensified, as the
rc'ssure would descend upon those least able to bear it ;
Dr" for tLy own part, however, I think it much nearer to
tahability to say that the owner would attempt to raise
whic')
tagerent• doubt that he could obtain it. Rents in cot
the rent h 1-d+h it maximum point, beyond
ThPertY have reac
increase
71' cannot go. The effects of an effort to..
Phv • rent
• uPon the domicile of the poor would be injurious
herd
-slet and morally. They would be compelled to
reittee s Lier several fainil,es in one hous_e.: health cnm
for ft: s would then be snecures, and budding acts passed
Doe" heilth of th, people a dead letter. lam a tyro in
te'ites or I should have made soaie observations upon
ue franchise, which would he materially affected by the
tr',Pfraton of this measure. I can, therefore, merely make
tn inu:-nclo. Thus have I endeavoured (feebly it is true)
to expose the mischievous tendency of this proposed mea-
; and in the language of the present First Lord of he
_ reasury I would ask "Where is the necessity for such
Measure—where its pacy ?—in principle partial and
"Just—antagonistic to the British Constitution in ope-
tatiou—a drag upon the wheel of industry, sacrificing
classes but benefitting none—a measure engrossing into
itself all that is unjust and odious io principle, with pau-
perism and misery in its train; virtue and morality, and
all the noblest sentiments of humanity, join in its condem-
nation."