§ LORD BEAUMONTbegged, pursuant to notice, to ask the noble Lord near him whether it was the intention of Her Majesty's Government to take any steps in the present Session to legalise the societies called the Societies of Odd Fellows?
§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNE, before answering the question of the noble Lord, begged to observe that those societies to which he had referred were composed in general of persons extremely respectable, extremely well disposed, and extremely loyal, and were in every respect entitled to the favourable consideration of the House. At the same time, there was something in the constitution of those societies which took them out of the range of the Acts relating to the general class of friendly societies. Now, the mode which he thought would be found most convenient for giving relief to those societies would not be by a peculiar Act intended for themselves alone, but by some extension of the Act relating to Friendly Societies, and which was now the law of the land. He found, on inquiry, that a Bill had actually been introduced into the other House of Parliament by an individual Member of the House of Commons, with the consent of Her Majesty's Government, for the purpose of effecting some amendment in the law on this subject. The first clause of the Friendly Societies Act provided that societies enrolled for any other purpose, which should be certified to be legal by the Attorney General or the Lord Advocate, and allowed by the Secretary of State, should come 893 within the provisions of that Act. That clause could not be extended to these societies, owing to there being some peculiarities attached to them. At the same time, he was not prepared to say that it might not be desirable to give these bodies, at all events, the benefit which was now derived to other societies under the existing law, by removing the illegality that at present attached to them. But the most convenient way of doing so, he thought, would be by the Bill which had been already introduced into the House of Commons for extending the provisions of the law relating to benefit societies; provided, nevertheless, that this could be done upon principles consistent with justice to the parties themselves.
§ LORD BEAUMONTwas glad to hear that Her Majesty's Government entertained so good an opinion of the respectability and loyalty of these bodies, and were willing to assist them in carrying out their objects. He would not, therefore, as he had intended to do, lay a Bill on the subject on their Lordships' table, but would wait to see what would be the result of the Bill which had been introduced in the other House.