FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. (Hansard, 16 March 1848)

§ MR. FEARGUS O'CONNOR

, on rising to move for leave to bring in a Bill to alter and amend the existing law with respect to friendly societies, said, he did not come before Parliament to ask for an extension of any law now in existence that would prejudice any vested interest in the kingdom, but to obtain its sanction to a scheme for securing the additional comfort and contentment of the working classes of this country, who had been baulked of the promised fruits of all the great political changes which of late years had led to so much agitation in the public mind. The working classes were now suffering under an unprecedented amount of privation; and with the view of permanently and substantially ameliorating their own condition—which all political reforms had hitherto failed to accomplish—100,000 of them had established a plan for a great social change—social, he meant, in a sense totally unconnected with Socialism or Communism—in 1845, since which political trials and incarcerations had ceased. The principle of this plan was, that every man who subscribed 2l. 12s. should be entitled, by ballot, to two acres of ground, a cottage built thereon, and 15l. of capital to commence with. By subscribing 3l. 10s. he would have three acres, a cottage superior to the last, and 22l. 10s. capital; by subscribing 5l. 4s. he would have four acres, a still better cottage, and 30l. capital. The Attorney General and Solicitor General had considered this desirable project—a project by which the only durable basis for the well-being of the nation, and for a sound and satisfactory representative system could be laid—did not come within the scope and protection of the existing laws. He (Mr. O'Connor) thought it was only by a strained construction of the Act that this plan could be considered as not embraced within its provisions; and he wished emphatically to impress upon the 693 House, that nothing could be more just and equitable than that the protecting arm of the law should be extended to shield the savings of the poor and industrious classes; and he had only to ask the House for that protection to the property of the poor man, which hon. Gentlemen would consider hard if denied to themselves. There was nothing exorbitant or extravagant in his demand—nothing that would trench in the slightest degree upon the rights of others; and because the project was a novel one, he could not believe they would withhold their sanction from it on that account, or refuse to legislate in its behalf. Railways were at one time new, but still they had enacted laws for their advantage; and he only asked for a similar privilege for a scheme no ways less important to the best interests of the country than these had been. When one channel was closed against the working classes, it was necessary that another should be opened for them; and where, he asked, could a better means of support be found for the people than that of apportioning out the land for their productive industry to be exercised thereon? If it were the primary duty of Government to cultivate the natural resources of the country to the highest perfection, it was for them to discover the exact amount of land a man and his family could exist upon. He had purchased, with the money of the people, over 2,000 acres. He had located in Herefordshire thirty-five occupants, and in Worcestershire thirty-five, and they had converted a farm, which was neglected for three years by the previous occupier, into a paradise. Believing that the working class were more anxious to educate themselves than the Government, with its numerous vocations, could possibly be, there was in the centre of each location a splendid school for boys and girls, and houses for the master and mistress. They should also consider the benefits which his plan would confer on other branches of society. While they had to look to America and to Russia, and to other places for subsistence, he asked any man to point out to him fifty acres of land in all England that was cultivated to one-fifth part of its ability. Why, therefore, had not the Government applied before now the resources of the country to the cultivation of the land? He would impress on the minds of hon. Gentlemen in that House that he asked for no aid, countenance, or support, beyond the protection of the law. He conceived that the land- 694 lords of the country were in such a position as left them no resource for the purpose of making up their incomes but to bring a portion of their land into the retail market. He could show the difference between the wholesale and retail management of land. He could show that where a tenant paid 5s. an acre too much on a thousand acres of land, it pressed hardly upon him; whereas the man who paid even 10s. or 15s. an acre for that which was just enough to occupy his own labour and that of his family, was in a situation which enabled him to meet the demands of his landlord. He contended that a great evil as regarded the land was the distance of the homestead from the farm in the cases of large farmers; and that a man with a few acres, with his house in the midst of it, could do more with it in proportion than could be done with a large farm where the homestead was at a distance. He had no other object in view than the legalising of this plan. He had purchased land for 30l. per acre in the wholesale market, and had disposed of it for 67l. 10s., for the benefit of the company, to parties who were not members of the company, and had not entitled themselves to all its privileges. He had tried the system which he now advocated in his own country, on a portion of his own land, where he employed a hundred and thirty labourers each day. [Mr. MORGAN JOHN O'CONNELL: Where?] In the county of Cork, within nine miles of Baudon, and within four miles of Enniskeane. With regard to the persons who were located on these farms, the farmers in the neighbourhood thought them extremely well conducted. They were neither Whigs, nor Tories, nor Chartists, but working men, who, finding all other channels of industry were closed, were satisfied to turn their labour to a profitable purpose. As to the transfer of those farms, he might observe that a man who was located on four acres, and paid 5 per cent on the capital expended in the purchase of the land and the building of the house, could get another man to undertake to pay the same rent, and give a bonus of 160l. for the possession. There never had been a question mooted in this country to which the working classes of the country attached so much importance as to this question. When they heard of the English labourer being a dissipated man, or an unthrifty man, here was a proof to the contrary; for it appeared that where the market was open to him, he was thrifty and industri- 695 ous. But he (Mr. O'Connor) was in a novel position. He came to the House for protection against himself. As the case stood, the whole of the money of those people was placed in his hands, and vested in his name; and what he asked of the House was, that he should he made amenable to the subscribers. A sum of above 80,000l. had been already subscribed, and he asked the House to give those men who had subscribed a protection against him and against their officers. The right hon. Gentleman might probably think that the refusal to allow the introduction of the Bill would arrest the plan in its progress. He begged to assure the right hon. Gentleman that he was in error if he thought so. They would still go on. But the mode they were at present obliged to adopt was very expensive. He wanted to avoid the expense of complete registration. When by the refusal of the Attorney General they were prevented from being enrolled under the 9th and 10th Vic., c. 27, they had recourse to provisional registration. The deed cost them above 3,000l., and it required such a vast number of signatures, that it was found it would have to be sent all over the country, at an expense that would have amounted to some thousand pounds more. He complained that some companies ejusdem generis had been certified by the certifying barrister, whilst this one could not be enrolled, and had been put to all that vast expense. He only wanted to have the existing law so altered as to include it. But if no such law existed, he thought he would be entitled to ask the House to pass a separate one for such a useful purpose. He had prepared a brief analysis of the laws bearing upon the question. They were originally passed for the benefit of friendly societies. The existing Acts were the 10th Geo. IV., c. 56; the 4th and 5th Will. IV., c. 40; and the 9th and 10th Vic., c. 27. But the 4th and 5th Will. IV., sec. 2, provided in those friendly societies for the maintenance of members during sickness, and the scales were arranged by way of average. It was upon that hitch that the Attorney General refused to assent to the Land Company, because he said it was a sort of lottery, and that the chances were not susceptible of calculation by way of average. But he maintained that they were. Let him have an actuary, and he would prove that a regular scale of chances could be prepared with much more certainty than a life insurance could be calcu- 696 lated at present in Ireland, or six months ago in England. It was true, it might take some time to prepare. But all tables should necessarily vary, and it would be no argument against any plan that it required tables different from others in existence. Mr. Tidd Pratt thought that such a company as the Land Company might be enrolled; but he would not venture to enrol it, after the dictum of Mr. Justice Wight-man. But he depended upon the disjunctive effect of the conjuction "or" in the expression "ejusdem generis, or that is not illegal." Upon the disjunctive effect he based his claim, for he contended that it was not illegal if it were not ejusdem generis. He should next proceed to state some of the advantages of the society. Firstly, the rules were binding, and might be legally enforced; secondly, protection was given to the members in enforcing their just claims; thirdly, the property was invested in the trustees or officers, or other selected individual, who was liable to and might be sued; fourthly, fraud against the society or members was punishable by the justices; fifthly, application might be made to the Court of Chancery without the payment of the enormous costs and the heavy counsel's fees which would be otherwise incurred. He thought it might be agreeable to the right hon. Gentleman to be informed that 50,000l. of their money was at present lying in Exchequer-bills. Sixthly, all documents were exempted from stamp duty when the amount did not exceed 200l. He had thus shown some of the advantages of the plan, and the expenses which the members would be saved from by their not being compelled to go to complete registration. They sought only the same protection that was given to the society of Odd Fellows and others. But instead of extending the advantages of the law passed for the benefit of such societies, the narrow construction put upon it by Mr. Justice Wightman, and the narrow view taken by the Attorney General, had left them worse off than they would have been had the law never been passed at all. One objection taken to the plan was, that it was like the Irish small-farm system. But the difference was, that the Irish small farmers were destroyed by their own industry. The want of security of tenure made their holdings the more insecure and the less valuable the more they improved them by their industry and labour. An Irish holder of four or five acres would probably have five or six landlords 697 over him, all of whom had some profit out of the holding. Or, if he had only one landlord, he soon found out that a landlord of straw could break a tenant of steel. As soon as he had improved his holding, so as to make it worth more than it had been worth previously, the landlord ejected him, and let it to another. He might be told that the plan he advocated would encourage the squatting system; but to meet that objection he was prepared to introduce a clause into the Bill to prevent the subdivision of any of the allotments. With the society he had projected he was resolved to persevere. He would not he prevented from so doing by the difficulties or intricacies of the law. No power on earth should make him abandon the land plan which he had expended so much time and toil in maturing. He had created too many ardent hopes in the minds of those who had adopted his views ever to surrender them. He would adhere to his plan to the last, for he saw what good it would effect by rescuing the savings of the poor man from the gin-palace and the beer-shop. The farmers and landlords had received his project most favourably; but from the manufacturers it had had to encounter all that deadly hostility with which it was the custom of those classes to visit every effort made by the poor man to ameliorate his condition. He implored of the House to accede to his request, and grant permission for the introduction of the Bill, lest it might go to the country that the poor had in vain applied to the Legislature for the means of protecting their little savings. The hon. Member concluded by moving for leave to bring in a Bill to alter and amend the Act 9 and 10 Victoria, cap. 27, entitled "An Act to amend the Laws relating to Friendly Societies."