Returning to the Rep. of the Commissioners, the following details are given regarding the numbers and location of F. Sos. in 1872-—that is, such of them as made returns to the Registrar. 23 English and 3 Welsh Counties had Sos. exclusively for burials. Of a total of 211 Sos. enumerated, only 4 counties had more than 10, viz. Lancashire 89, Cheshire 24, Kent 18, and Middlesex 12. Lancashire thus had 422 p.c. of the whole number; and Lancashire and Cheshire 53'6 pc. These returns, however, were known not to be complete. Mr. Stanley remarks: "We can trace to a common ancestry similar Sos. in remote towns. Thus in Coventry and in Derby, Burial Sos. are to be found, brought thither by silk-weavers from Congleton; and thriving with all their Cheshire peculiarities, though planted in a foreign soil. Sometimes the origin of a So. is lost; but we cannot doubt from similarity of rules that there has been a connexion, the tradition of which has disappeared." The Commissioners say: “Amongst Burial Sos. the great distinction is between the Local and the General." They accordingly divide all the Sos. into 3 distinctive classes, under which we now proceed to examine them.

1. Local Burial Sos., and Local Sick and Burial Collecting Sos.Mr. Stanley says: "The Local Burial Sos. alone really have something of the character of F. Sos. The others, working under the F. Sos. Ácts, are really Ins. Offices, started without any capital, and under the control of no shareholders: conducted principally for the benefit of the office-holders, and only incidentally for that of the assured;" and further:

The Burial Sos., in so far as they have an elaborate machinery of paid collectors, tend to degenerate into the same condition as the large General Sos. The best are those which are most primitivewhere the collectors are ordinary members, and have least of the professional character. Again, Local Burial Sos. for adults are better managed than those which include children: as all the members are capable of conducting the affairs of the So. Where women and children, or lads, are admitted to transact bus., there is more chance of packing a meeting, and less chance of serious discussion: to say nothing of the mischief of public-house meetings, where often a certain amount of liquor out of the funds has to be consumed for the good of the house.

The Commissioners consider the same observations apply to Local Sick and Burial Collecting Sos. The number of important Burial Sos. which do not employ collectors is very small.

Mr. Stanley's Rep. furnishes the materials for the following T. of Local Burial Sos. with more than 1000 members-but this is exclusive of other groups of Local Sos. to be mentioned afterwards :

These figures, we presume, relate to a period earlier than 1872, although it is not so stated. The Registrar's returns for that year show a considerable increase as to several of the Sos. The following are the local " groups " of Burial Sos. referred to: 1. Manchester District-including Salford, Hulme, and Ardwick.

Of this group of 19 it was found that 14 were regis., and 3 had deposited their rules. 2. The Preston group of Burial Sos. :

The Commissioners thus speak of the extraordinary development of F. Sos. in Preston: 439. But the Regis. Returns for 1872 give an add. for the above-named Sos. of 4794 numbers and £3177 funds; and if we add to the list the three large Sos. already referred to from the Regis. Reports for 1871 and 1872-the Operative F., United Catholic, and Independent Odd Fellows' Family, with 4328, 4707, and 2022 members respectively-we shall have a total of 108,120 members of Burial Sos. for a town, as Mr. Stanley observes, with about 80,000 pop., and its neighbourhood. There must therefore be a large amount of re-insurance [double or triple ins. ], which, he says, the Sos. take no efficient steps to stop. But it is clear that, allowing for the agencies of general Collecting Sos., nearly the whole pop. of Preston must, practically, be connected with Burial Sos. of some kind or other.

Of this group of 10 Sos. 7 are regis. The pop. of the town is 40,000. An "Amalg. Asso. of Burial Sos." had been formed, to watch the carrying out of the provision of the F Sos. Act limiting the amount to be paid on the death of a child. [INFANT MORT.] Medical aid is granted by all the regis. Sos. in cases of sickness.

It is the characteristic of some of the Macclesfield Sos., as well as of some of the best of the Local Collecting Sos. in other places, that the collectors are sent out in pairs— the "Book Collector" and " Bag Collector" (vulgo "Bookman" and "Bagman"); the one being a check upon the other. The Commissioners say:

443. The Burial Sos. of the 4 Northern Counties of Eng. offer some peculiarities. In the Glendale Union, Northumberland, amidst a scattered pop. of 13,211, Mr. Culley found 4 Burial Sos.-2 regis., with 373 members, and £600, and 2 unregis., with 441 members, and £96; 3 of the 4 being now over 45 years old. He observes: "The rules of these County Burial Sos. are very interesting: amongst other things showing the probable origin of the Collecting system, by laying on the stewards the duty of collecting."

444. In the Chester-le-Street Union there is a curious development of Burial Sos. for women alone, termed "Life boxes," of which Mr. Culley reckons 10, besides it would seem 1 yearly one. These we will revert to in speaking of Female Sos.

Some details are given of Local Collecting Sick and Burial Sos. in the Manchester District, almost peculiar (so far as Eng. is concerned) to E. Lanc. "These appear gen. to be worse conducted than the pure Burial Sos., and tend to merge into the latter class." In Wales, Mr. Daniell found small Local Burial Sos. "of rare occurrence." Scotland (say the Commissioners) supplies, on a much smaller scale, a curious parallel to England as respects Burial Sos., and the practice of collecting from door to door. "Local Burial Sos. appear to be scattered, though sparsely, all over the kingdom; but apart from the General Burial Sos., Ayrshire seems to be for Scot. what Lancashire is for Eng.-the special domain of the collecting form of So." Mr. Culley, speaking of the Ayr District, as well as of the town of Girvan, which lies to the south of it, says (p. 35): All the Sos. in this district, as well as in the town of Girvan, employ collectors, whom they call officers, to "uplift" the contributions; and the payment of these officers or collectors (one for each So.) is the chief item of man. expenses. There is a fashion in these things, as in many others and the promoters of the Ayrshire Sos. are persuaded that they could not get on without collectors." The following T. shows, however, that these Sos. are conducted with economy: