"No public servants, I think, more deserve our sincere sympathy and support than the guards of our railway trains. It is obvious to all of us who have to travel constantly on railways how much our safety depends on their industry, their vigilance, their sobriety, and their discipline; and it is very gratifying to know that we may confidently rely on finding these qualities in them. Knowing what they have to go through, their exposure to all weathers and to risks of all kinds; remembering how much they have to be away from their homes and their families, it seems to me that we have hardly the right to expect to obtain from them their valuable services unless we in some measure mitigate their sufferings in sickness and from accident, and unless in case of death we do something for the maintenance of their widows and orphans. The Society was founded in June, 1849, and is one of the oldest societies in existence designed for the benefit of railway _employés_, and may be said to represent every line in the United Kingdom. It consists of forty-eight districts at the present time, situated at the principal railway stations throughout the country, from London to Inverness. In addition to the usual advantages offered by friendly societies--the ordinary sick and death benefits--this society possesses two special features adapted to the requirements of railway guards, who are exposed to very great risks from accidents. These objects are: 1st, a liberal provision for life for all those members who may become permanently disabled, either from injuries or constitutional causes; 2nd, annuities for the widows and orphans of deceased members. Other institutions, if they attempt to provide these exceptional benefits, only do so to a limited extent, and the members to whom they are granted are elected as vacancies occur; but the policy of this society has always been to provide these great blessings for all who are so unfortunate as to require them; and, notwithstanding that statistics show that guards run greater risks than other classes of railway servants, the contributions of the members themselves have been so largely supplemented by the generous support accorded by the public generally, that the society up to the present time has been able to carry out this fundamental principle."