dent and judicious men should be particularly cautious on these points. We have constantly among us a large body of strangers willing to assist in good works, and yet altogether unacquainted with our local circumstances. These two conditions render their charities not only a power for good, but a power also for harm, according as they may be directed by us who are residents in the place. Thus, for instance, by promiscuous alms-giving a system of mendicancy may be set up, and by the constant development of new associations with new objects – unobjectionable and laudable as they may be in themselves – the working of our established and necessary charities may be crippled. It is, therefore, not without anxiety that we may regard the new project for forming a fresh Friendly Society, leaning on that suspicious support so indicative of essential weakness – an overwhelming influential patronage. It is true that the names are those of gentlemen the majority of whom are permanently connected with the place; but as there is reason to suppose that a large proportion of these have not as yet compared the organization of the different local societies with each other and with the suggestions of the Government Officer, they have not so far availed themselves in this matter of their local opportunities as to render the remark above made with regard to visitors inapplicable to them also. If these gentlemen merely mean – as is probably the case – to declare publicly their conviction that we should have Friendly Societies sound in principle, and that they are ready to co-operate with such societies, they are asserting that which will be generally accepted as true, and for which the public will owe them thanks; but should any of them be bent on founding something new, then there may be respectfully suggested to them the following considerations, which should in justice be weighed by them before they embark in a course which may be attended with serious results to those classes whom they are volunteering to serve. For, it must be remembered that however much those projectors may banish from their minds the idea of competition, it is impossible but a new society should exercise the effects of competition on those already in existence. To the honour of the humbler classes it is to be remembered our benefit societies have been founded by them, worked by them, and supported by them; and as they are also intended for their use, it is only with the greatest hesitation and as a last extreme course that we should now admit an interference which could hardly be otherwise than aggressive on them, and which also seems not in accordance with the spirit of the laws on the subject. If the oldest of those societies exhibits some -
