The Members for Berkshire, and many of the gentlemen of
the county, attended a public meeting on Saturday, called to assist in founding a County Friendly Society for Berks.. The object of this society is to supersede the petty benefit clubs established among the labourers by a county club, which can be managed more cheaply and can be relied on to avoid insolvency. The main idea is that a labourer should pay a shilling a week when in work, and in return should receive a maintenance in sickness or old age, a maintenance which Guardians have agreed not to reckon as against aid from the rates. The scheme is a very good one in itself, and answers in Hampshire, but involves this difficulty. It limits the labourer's power of emigration, as if he quite the county he loses all his back payments. Perhaps it is intended to- do that, pensions being of all methods of defence against strikes at once the mildest and the most effective.
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