§ 59. It will be seen from the following table that the “Friendly” Society’s premium (11_s._ 1_d._) is rather more than double the average of the Northampton (5_s._ 2_d._), and the premium by the Northampton rates for ages 15 and 45 are 3_s._ 10_d._, and 7_s._ 9_d._; the premiums of the “Friendly” Society, therefore, according to their own average, ought not to be more for these ages than about twice these amounts, or for age 15, 7_s._ 8_d._; age 45, 15_s._ 6_d._; but members between these ages pay alike (11_s._ 1_d._), the younger member therefore pays 3_s._ 5_d._ _more_ than he ought, and the older member 4_s._ 5_d._ less than he ought. ─────────┬───────────────────┬───────────────────┬─────────────────── │“Friendly” Society │ Average Premium │ Premium according Age. │ Premium. │ according to the │to the Northampton │ │ Northampton Rate. │ Rate. ─────────┼───────────────────┼───────────────────┼─────────────────── │ _s._ _d._ │ _s._ _d._ │ _s._ _d._ 7–45 │ 11 1 │ 5 2 │ 15 │ │ │ 3 10 45 │ │ │ 7 9 ─────────┴───────────────────┴───────────────────┴─────────────────── And by the Northampton rate (upon the principle adopted by the society), the younger member would have to pay 1_s._ 4_d._ more and the elder member 2_s._ 7_d._ less than he ought. As an exemplification of the instability of such societies, Mr. Tidd Pratt mentioned to me that at a recent election of a poor man to a vacancy in the Metropolitan Benefit Societies’ Asylum, a condition of which is that the candidate must be above sixty years of age, and have been a member of a benefit society more than ten years, there were 32 candidates, from whose documents it appeared that the societies of no less than 14 out of the 32 had been dissolved, and that some of them had belonged to two societies, and that both had failed them. Such societies are nevertheless constantly renewed on the old and unsafe foundations; and so intense is the prevalent feeling on the subject of respectful interment, that to secure it, a large proportion of the working population pay the same extravagant premiums to several of these clubs, in the hope that one, at least, may at the last avail them. On the death of a mechanic, the first business of an experienced undertaker is to ascertain of how many societies the deceased was a member, and to arrange the funeral accordingly. I am informed that it is not unfrequent that such sums as fifteen, twenty, thirty, and even forty pounds’ expenses are incurred for a mechanic’s funeral under these circumstances. When two or three of the undertakers of different clubs meet on the same search, and when they cannot agree to “settle” between them their shares in the performance of the funerals, very complex questions arise, which, it is stated, the