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amount twenty times as great; e. g. £6 annual payment to become £120. Small fractions are rejected:

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This supposes the payment made at the close of the year; and it is safer to reckon so. A successful society may, perhaps, gain half a year, or three quarters, in consequence of the payments being made monthly.

In all terminating societies, there must obviously be a difficulty in profitably employing the funds towards the close of the period, as the repayments must take place in so short a time. Provision is commonly made for this case by a regulation compelling members, from time to time, to withdraw some portion of the unemployed capital. This, though a needful remedy, of course deprives the invester of a part of the profit he would otherwise obtain. The only effectual way in which this difficulty can be met without loss, appears to be by making the society permanent of this kind of society we will speak presently; but, before doing so, we wish to notice a fault or two in management which may exist in societies of either class.

The practice of leaving to the decision of the managers, who are more likely to be investers than borrowers, the amount to be advanced in respect of shares, seems objectionable. If applications are brisk, there is a temptation to deal hardly with the borrower. And the case is much worse, if, as sometimes has been done, bidding or competition is allowed; especially if biddings are made a second or third time. Members not wishing to borrow, have an opportunity of raising the discount. Even if only one bidding is allowed, and that by word of mouth, the evil is not entirely removed, for those desirous of borrowing may still offer unreasonably high discount to secure the loan. Mr. Scratchley tells us that cases continually occur where discounts for £120 shares are given as high as £70, and even £80 in the first year' (p. 71).

Such instances are disgraceful to any society in which they are permitted to occur. The investers who thus hasten to be rich are not innocent. The proper course, it appears to us, is to register in a table, with the rules of the society, the sum that will be advanced in successive periods of the society's duration. Applicants may then be taken in the order in which they have applied. This seems better than balloting, as being more certain and less exciting.

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The preceding representations tend to show that many building societies are on unsound principles, and cannot realize the hopes held out by their projectors; and also that in the management of some of them there is much that is objectionable. The apparent evidence of prosperity which annual accounts present, is not to be relied on. This our author clearly shows. He adduces balance sheets' in which the discount on shares is entered as profit, and the society is reckoned to be a gainer by that amount, as if already received, whereas it is not actually receivable till the lapse of several years.

What may be the proportion of societies open to the foregoing strictures, we cannot say. Mr. Scratchley anticipates that the 'impartial reader' of his remarks will become satisfied :

That not one in twenty, or even in a greater number, can possibly realize for its members, whether investers or borrowers, the advantageous results originally promised; and that at the various epochs of their expected termination, there will be found such a deficiency of money as must deprive the possessors of unadvanced shares of a considerable portion of the accumulation which they had been led to expect. That, in many cases, so far from receiving £120 per share, they will obtain less than £75, and that, if not disposed to accept whatever sum may be then offered to them, they will be forced to continue their subscriptions for several years beyond the specified time.'—P. 48.

Whether such conclusions are more general than the facts would warrant, we have not the means of ascertaining; but that many societies must fail of fulfilling the hopes that were held out by their projectors, cannot be doubted.

We must now briefly notice the plan of permanent building societies, which our author, not without reason, regards as much to be preferred to the terminating system :

The members are separated, as before, into two classes-investers and borrowers.

The investers pay a certain monthly subscription during a fixed number of years, calculated as sufficient for the realization of their shares, at the end of which time the amount due is paid to them, and they secede from the association as far as such shares are concerned. The investers represent the proprietors of the society. New members can enter at any time, and commence their subscriptions without paying up any arrears or any increase on the original entrance fee, whereas, in terminating societies, the fee on entering is increased without sufficient reason year by year, till from being originally only 2s. 6d., it is in some cases raised to six pounds per share.'-Pp. 51, 52.

Other advantages of permanent societies are specified. Perhaps the most important is, that

A member can at any time become a borrower, and yet have his loan for whatever period is most suited to his means, the amount of

monthly payments required being less as the duration of the loan is extended.'-P. 54.

Rules for such a society are given at length. They appear to have been carefully drawn up-the calculations seem to be well founded, the money arrangements are definite, and no expectation is raised but such as may be fulfilled. To a point or two we are inclined to make some exception. Seven per cent. is rather high for loans on good security, and probably six per cent. would be found sufficient to secure five clear to the investers. It is true the borrower would plainly understand what he had to pay; he could judge for himself-he would not be, as in some societies, led on in the dark. We do not quite like the arrangement that the trustees shall hold office only during the pleasure of the directors (Rule xxiv.) Responsible men acting as trustees might, in some circumstances, prove a useful safeguard between the managers and the members. If judiciously selected, the necessity for removing a trustee could be of only very rare occurrence, and we are disposed to think would be better left to the decision of a general meeting. In permanent societies more than in terminating ones, it is important to have ample security against fraud, and we would suggest that requiring bonds from the manager and treasurer, if not from the directors, and also having half-yearly meetings of the members, instead of yearly, might be improvements.

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In concluding this imperfect notice of an important subject, we commend to those who are connected, or intend to be connected, with building societies, a perusal of Mr. Scratchley's book. is well acquainted with his subject, and treats it in a thorough and luminous manner. The investigations in the Appendix, respecting interest, discount, and annuities, will be interesting to the scientific, and the tables which follow will be useful to the practical man.

ART. VIII.-In Memoriam. Second Edition. London: Edward Moxon. 1850. Fcap. 8vo. Pp. 210.

A HIGHER Contentment exists for the student of poetry, than the enjoyment of consummate art itself. It is the revealment of greatness in the spirit of the artist. After receiving large draughts of delight from the fair idealisms of the Shaksperian world, after standing face to face with nature and reality ideal

ized; what keener delight, what farther elevation remain for us? what, but the realization through these avenues, of the might and beauty of that imperial spirit itself, which speaks to us across the ages, in many voices, but to one intent-the expression of its own large self; vaguely, yet with growing intelligibility, commensurate to our growing capability of sight. 'Dear is man to man,' truly; above all dear, seen in such full light; through such transfiguring media; in noble represented stature, by these sovereigns of the world.

Indestructible, is the natural faith in the unity of the high poetic nature. Instinctively, we look to see the true man; wherever stands the true poet. In many, to a certain extent endowed, the gift has been a thing apart; the poet or artist but the vehicle of an inspiration not penetrating his being, the apostle of a reality to which his life was a stranger; the owner of a splendid talent, yet the essential inferior of crowds of unknown of high capacity of soul, who, not endued with the lesser gift, have lived a silent life in every generation. Yet does the old belief stand firm. It has animated every true age, every earnest poet speaking on the matter,—a Ben Jonson, as a Coleridge. By the greatest, it is not disappointed; above all, if we look to the inner spirit, rather than outward guise of the poet's being. Gifted narrow minds, and vitiated wills occur. But Miltons, Spensers, Schillers, Shaksperes, Goethes, occur also. The greatest heights are the fairest; the most universal minds the serenest, most healthful. Power at its fullest, and gentleness' of spirit, in the old true sense, mingle. Wisdom, mastery, sight, are but the correlatives of truth of being; their union, greatness, in the high sense. Whatever the particular seeming or actual violations, the union is by the lover of the poet, ever seen to be the general law of nature.

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Such content the present volume affords. That Alfred Tennyson's was an eminently elevated, pure nature, sympathizing, genuine, refined, was recognizable by every admirer of the Poems,' and Princess.' It was felt likewise, to be a reserved and fastidious one. In the perfection of his skill, his objectiveness, the purely artistic character of every line and image, he seemed removed and distant. Rarely was a direct sentiment or sympathy, the central influence of a poem; as in the lyrical ballads and the nature-pieces of Wordsworth. All wants are now amply compensated by one continuous revealment of our poet in his spiritual individuality; one exclusive outlet of personal feeling and sympathies. Their expression is enlarged into relevance with universal humanity. And the evidence of personal nobility is indirect; coming as a tribute of love, animated by the self-abnegation of love.

To commemorate a holy tie, in testimony of a dear 'vanished life,' the poem was undertaken. It solaced the bereavement of the poet's youth. During after years of grief matured into calmness, it was continued; affectionately perfected, during still further years of finish. It has since been kept back, till clothed with a secure reputation, he could send it forth,-a meet honour to his friend, full satisfaction to himself.

This personal interest of the volume ranks first, in importance. We have the history of past inward life; in the poet's or thinker's case, the all significant, the large sequence of outward accident. Emerson has shown, how Shakspere, of whom biographically we learn almost least, is really most fully known-in his intellectual and spiritual relations to life, and to all about which it nearly concerns us to hear,-of any, merely human, who have ennobled this earth. So, now, one of the most reserved of poets is known to us, in far deeper sense-than would apply to any external biography. Here, we have the revelation of the man himself, the picture of his soul during years of trial and aspiration; with distant glimpses of its glad past, forshadowings of its earnest future. Hereby, we are made privy to its inner truth. We learn here, its struggles, yearnings, difficulties, likings; its relations to those cardinal topics having interest for the thoughtful of all time, its views of many pertaining to the present stage of social and intellectual change.

This brings us to the second great value of the book: the expression of a cycle of experience common to thoughtful humanity, a world of universal aspiration, yearning, trial; the poetic solution of every-day problems of thought. In his large sorrow, his many sided thought, the poet speaks for others. Sincere feeling is necessarily a deep matter. On a basis of such feeling the poem developed itself. Nay, intensely earnest feeling is its superstructure. In the depth of the emotion and of the poetry, the book is eminently serious in influence. Deep poetry, depth of any kind, is inevitably serious. At the first reading, the elegies are subtilely, ineffably pathetic. We feel as our own, this loss of Tennyson's, the wasting of his youth in grief. The poetry connects itself with the deepest life of the reader. Vague cherished aspirations come flitting by; and the sense of the might of love, and the glory of Nature, and the majesty of life, and our human affinities with greatness. The poet arouses this sense of affinity with himself, by the truth of his speech. Whatever is true in our nature responds. It has affinity, this inarticulate part of us, whereon he casts his strong light. He brings the latent ore from its hiding place, into the region of consciousness.

The sorrow of the song is not turbulent and wild. The emotion it arouses is such as we may well cherish; stirring the depths of

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