which all the funds of the Order are being carried, and then reflect what must be its fate twenty years hence, if the following awful exhibition of facts is permitted-and there is no doubt he will find that his best interests can only be maintained by a speedy removal of the fatal abuses. The following is the state of the case in the fourteen districts just referred to, which contain 297 lodges and 17,059 members. Ratio of Initiation Money to Contributions. 58 per cent. 49 Ratio of Expenses of Management to Amount paid for Funerals.... 138 Allowance 150 99 Expenses of management actually 150 per cent. of that paid away to sick members! To relieve and give assistance to members during sickness ought to be, and is, the ostensible object of the institution; but here we have an example of that great virtue of charity and social refinement being sacrificed to perhaps the idle indulgence and intemperate appetites of a few men, who, when the cause of the sick and the distressed, the widow and the orphan is pleaded, are ready to rise in noisy turbulence to crush the well-intentioned endeavours of those who attempt to sweep away such intolerable abuses. The recent opposition to the Board of Directors is most reprehensible, and no well directed mind can look upon it otherwise than with the deepest regret. There never has existed any social and provident institution of any thing like the importance of the Manchester Unity of Odd Fellows; neither perhaps did there ever exist so gross abuses in any other. The real and essential objects of the Order have been overlooked and rendered secondary to idle pomp and parade; and those funds which were meant to provide for disease and old age have been squandered away on the follies and baubles of youth. Now, however, that the Board of Directors have made a step in the right direction, let them be supported warmly and cordially, and the members must soon come to feel that the real interests and objects of the Unity can be promoted by so doing. This much done, and a second and greater reformation must soon follow, which will place it on a permanent foundation, and render it the most gigantic and useful institution of the day. Few at the present time understand the wonderful operation going on in the social state towards its own regeneration. Poor laws and other nostrums seem as much to irritate as allay the disease; but here we have a self-supporting institution which, although hitherto managed with a total disregard to all science and practical experience, yet contains so many germs of benevolence, love, and social order, that no less than 40,000 yearly of the hard working sons of toil and labour embrace its genial comforts and solacing charms. What then must be its influence, if once guided by the lights of reason, science, and experience, when confidence has inspired the nation in the judgment of its laws and the integrity and practicability of its principles! There is little doubt that thousands for hundreds would join its ranks; and that the national protection against vice and its horrors, which political laws have failed to secure, would be wrought out by the social improvement among the working classes themselves. But to make such an institution permanent and secure, its means must be commensurate with the end in view; its monetary calculations must be correct, and in obedience to those laws of sickness and mortality which are known to influence its whole transactions. Before concluding, therefore, let us examine whether the tables recently prepared by the G. M. and Board of Directors are calculated to meet the objects intended. For convenience in comparison, we shall take the case of a member who provides for 17. during sickness, 207. at death, and 10%. at the death of his wife. According to the scale recently prepared by the Board of Directors, and now recommended to be adopted by the Order, the payment required in No. 1, or Manufacturing Class, is 10d. per week, or 21. 3s. 4d. yearly; but the initiation money under 35 years of age is 17. 1s. Od., which is equal to an anuual payment of from 1s. to ls. 9d., differing with age from 18 to 35. Well then, as the average age of all the members in the unity is said to be 32 years, let us try the case of a person at that term of life, as it will show to what extent the proposed scale may be likely to affect the stability of the Order. It will be found that the annual payment at age 32 for an allowance of 17. per week during sickness, to continue to the extreme of life, is For 201. at death ("Contributions," page 116, age 32) And as the deaths of members' wives in the Order is in the ratio of 1,650 to 2,286 of the members themselves, the payment necessary to provide 107. at the death of a member's wife is Total payment required for the three benefits promised by the order . } £3 8 9 075 0 2 9 £3 18 11 It will thus be seen that the benefits still promised by the Order are much greater than it is possible to provide with their proposed scale of payments. In the above instance there is a deficiency of about 17. 14s. to each person yearly, or in other words, his payments are about 43 per cent. too low for that term of life. After the recently proposed augmentation of the scale of payments, this may seem to be still a remarkable deficiency, but the facts of the case bear it out. For No. 2, or Agricultural Class, the deficiency is still greater. In fact although the recent step taken by the Glasgow A. M. C., and acted on by the Board of Directors, is to be applauded, still it should only be regarded as a mere shadow of coming events. Any one who will take the trouble to investigate the subject will soon discover the inadequacy of the scale proposed to provide for the benefits promised to the members. But there is another error connected with the scale, which it is to be hoped will be soon remedied; and that is, that no distinction is made for difference of age. It is in part compensated for, but that to a most trifling extent, by a difference in the initiation or entry-money after 35 years of age. These improvements, however, with others, must soon be effected, if the Board of Directors persevere in the course on which they have so laudably entered. The average age of the members is 32; and if the benefits for which the members provided were of the preceding amount, it will be seen that the deficiency in the contribution of each will be 17. 14s. yearly. But let us suppose that the amounts provided for are only one-half of those, (which is about the actual average) that is 10s. per week during sickness, 107. at the death of a member, and 57. at the death of a member's wife; then the deficiency in the contribution, instead of being 17. 14s., will be only 17s. yearly. The present value of an annuity on a life of 32 is 19·98129 (see "Contributions," p. 112), or nearly twenty years' purchase; so that if the contributions are to continue on the scale now proposed, each member would need to pay down at present the sum of 167. 19s. 8d. (16-984,) to make up future deficiencies in his annual payments. But as there are 251,727 members in the Unity, those two last items multiplied together will produce the sum of 4,275,1817. From this subtract 700,000l., the present capital stock of the Order, and 3,575,1817. will be the payment that should at this moment be made in order to place Odd Fellows on a secure foundation, with their proposed scale of contributions. This shows a much smaller deficiency under the proposed rates of contributions than appeared uuder the former rates, which is stated at page 67 to be 5,748,8277.; because the deficiency to each member was under that estimate much greater than under the recently proposed scale. The members, however, must keep in view, that should no such donation be now made to the Society (and it is not likely that such donation will be made,) then the ultimate deficiency under their proposed rates will be much more than 3,575,1817.; for in order to enable that sum to meet all the demands on the Society, it should be invested to yield 3 per cent. compound interest; but as there is no chance of this being done, the ultimate deficiency will be about ten millions. It is evident that the Order of Odd Fellows stands in need of much improvement; and considering that thirty-three Members of Parliament, and between six and seven hundred of the Clergy, as well as many other elevated names, are said to be enrolled as members, it is remarkable that some gentleman of influence and scientific attainments should not before this have given attention to the lamentable condition in which his too confiding brethren of the Order are placed, and have done something to raise the Unity to the common level at least of the Friendly Societies throughout the kingdom. There is another class of Societies which attempts to carry out the general principles of Friendly Societies; but they are, like the Odd Fellow Societies, modelled after the very rudest shape in which Benefit Clubs were formed fifty years ago: and so far as relates to their contributions and benefits, almost nothing further is necessary to be stated. "Rechabite" is the name by which those Societies are known; and every member has to come under an obligation to abstain from intoxicating liquors, and to discountenance by every lawful means in his power the drinking usages of society. The terms on which members are admitted are according to the following scale :-entrance money at age 16 is 5s., and at 40 it increases to 27. 10s.; the monthly contribution for all ages is 1s. 4d., or 17s. 4d. annually. The benefits promised are an allowance of 10s. per week in sickness and a deferred annuity of 5s. weekly after 70 years of age. To young members entering the Rechabite Societies, or Tents, as they are termed, at the age of 16, the actual premium for the above benefits, making allowance for entry money, should be 17. 2s. annually; at age 40, also allowing for entrance money, the annual premium should be 27. 10s. 2d. It will thus be seen, that by the youngest member at 16 there is an ultimate loss of 4s. 8d. annually, and by the member aged 40 there is a loss of 17. 12s. 10d. annually, provided that it were possible to sustain such losses; but it is needless to add, that permanence is not to be expected with Societies so constituted. Not only do the Rechabite Societies, in common with Odd-Fellow Societies, perpetrate an injustice on the younger members by the above disparity in the payments; but that injustice is further augmented by levying a uniform tax of 3s. yearly, without distinction of age, for funeral money, the sum of 107. being payable on the death of each member. The discouragement given to drinking usages, and the practice of temperance enjoined by Rechabites, is deserving of every support, and is well calculated to increase the comforts and elevate the moral and political condition of the working classes; but it is to be regretted that the monetary foundation on which the Societies are built should be destined to effect their overthrow at so early a period. A class of Societies, of which there are about two thousand in the kingdom, pass under the name of the Courts of Foresters, and their object is also to provide against sickness and death; members are admitted between the ages of 18 and 38, on the same terms, and participate to the same extent in the benefits offered. It is therefore unnecessary to add any thing to what has already been remarked of Odd Fellows and Rechabite Societies, as the same observations are equally applicable to all. The illustrations of the condition of the various grades of Friendly Societies, given in the preceding pages, have been made as general as possible, in order to insure their being readily understood by the members to whom they were more particularly addressed. It will be necessary, in every instance where any practical application is made of the facts presented, to use every caution in the selection of those examples which strictly belong to the case in point; and it is to be hoped that the marked differences which have been shown to prevail between the rates of mortality and sickness, under the many modifications as to condition and peculiarity of employment and rank in society, will be a sufficient guarantee against the indiscriminate use of the general results for the government of individual classes whose circumstances differ widely. Should the present contribution in any degree advance the science of Vital Statistics, and place the provident and self-supporting institutions of the people on a more permanent foundation, the highest wish of the writer, in venturing on so important a subject, will be consummated. On the Number and Increase of the Jews in the Prussian States, and their Distribution in the Provinces and Towns. Translated from a Paper by M. HOFFMANN. By C. R. WELD, Barrister at Law. THE number of Jews in the Prussian States amounted at the end of 1840 to nearly 195,000, the census of 1822 gave a return of nearly 145,000, showing an increase of 50,000, or 35 per cent. during the space of 18 years. The Christian inhabitants at the end of 1822 were computed at upwards of 11,519,000, at the close of 1840 at 14,734,000, showing an increase during 18 years of 3,215,000, or nearly 28 in 100. Thus the Jews during this space of time increased more rapidly than the Christians. The increase both amongst Jews and Christians consisted principally in the excess of births over deaths. This during the above 18 years amounted amongst the Jews to 29 in 100 living; amongst the Christians to 21 in 100 only. These numbers undoubtedly denote an increase of population not to be accounted for, except by supposing that immigration has exceeded emigration, or that the last census was more accurately taken, so that in the later lists individuals are included who were overlooked in the earlier. The apparent increase arising from the imperfection of the earlier censuses decreases of course in proportion to the space of time taken for comparison, because in a succession of years, part of those at first omitted, die or emigrate. The actual increase produced by excess of immigration will, on the contrary, ever increase with the time when a series of favourable circumstances conspire to attract more individuals into a country, to leave it. than Such has been the case with respect to the Prussian States since 1822, as they have offered greater advantages and facilities for profit and enjoyment than the neighbouring kingdoms. Thus it is highly probable that the greater proportion of the increase not consisting in an excess of births, is to be attributed to immigration. This probably amounts among Christians to somewhat less than 6 in 100; among Jews to somewhat more. It is desirable at the same time to state, that the population of the Prussian States was increased in 1834 by the acquisition of the Principality of Lichtenberg, which at the close of that year contained 34,846 Christians. 35,256 These figures are too insignificant to cause any important difference in the foregoing proportions, whilst the increase in the population of the Prussian States, obtained by this acquisition, does not amount to more than one-fourth in 100. But the influence of change of Religion must not be wholly overlooked. During the 18 years under consideration 22,000 Jews inhabiting the Prussian States went over to Christianity, whilst on the other hand there is no record of any Christian having embraced Judaism. The decrease of Jews thus produced, amounted to nearly 14 in 100, but this will have no essential influence on the proportions under examination, as the total number of Christians will not be |