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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
During the formation of this library , frequent meetings were held among its promoters , for the purpose of devising the best and most extensive mode of working so powerful a moral and religious engine . It so happened that Mr . Robert Martineau , of-Birmingham ,-h . earJngLoLtiimiipro ceedings , forwarded them a copy of the rules of the Old and New
Meeting Brotherly Society there , which had been established in 1799 , and continued to flourish ev ^ r since . It immediately occurred to them that a similar society might , with great advantage , be established on a smaller scale in Norwich ; and accordingly the year 1824 was commenced with
receiving weekly subscrip tions of a penny each from twelve or more of the elder Sunday scholars , who associated with the teachers at weekly meetings according to the Birmingham plan . It , soon appeared , however , that some of the parents of these scholars became anxious to join so promising a society ,-and begged to know if they could not be
comprehended within its objects . The case was referred to Mr . R . Morgan , actuary of the Norwich Union Office , and Mr . W , Morgan , of the Equitable Office in London , who constructed the following graduated scale of benefits for every penny per week subscribed , according to the member ' s age on admission , viz .
Member ' s age Weekly allow- Allowance on on admis- ance in sick- death , sion . ness . under 25 3 s . ll . 16 s . 30 2 s . lOd . \ l . 14 s . 35 2 s . 8 cl 11 . 12 s . 40 2 s . 6 d . \ l . 10 s . 4 $ 2 s , 3 d . 11 . 7 s , 50 2 s . ll . 4 s .
The benefits having thus been adapted to various ages , and the members being allowed to subscribe from a penny to sixpence per week , according to their circumstances , and thereby to multiply the above benefits , the society soon increased and amounted to sixty during the
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- first year . It then became necessary to frame permanent rules for enrolment according to Act of Parliament , which enrolment took place under the then Act in January , 1825 ; but it has since been necessary to revise and re-enrol them under the new Act , which \ yas accordingly done in April ,
1831 . I shall therefore refer to the latter rules only , which are * in strict conformity to the existing law , and of which the following is a brief outline . The declared objects of the society
are ; 1 st , To promote a friendly and improving intercourse among its members as Christian brethren , by frequent meetings for the purpose of moral and religious instruction ; and 2 dly , "To raise a fund for the mutual relief of certain of its members
during sickness or infirmity , and ( so far as sucK fund may hereafter allow . ) for their maintenance in old age , and for the benefit of their widows and orphans -after iheir . decease ; Members are admissible at any ^ age between twelve and fifty , and those who subscribe for their own benefit
are called funded members , while those who subscribe only in aid- * of the general objects of the society are called unfunded members . There is also a distinction between the senior and junior members , according as they are above or under twenty-one years of age , the former of whom have the entire management of the
funds and proceedings of the society . The officers are , a president and vice-president , a secretary and treasurer , two auditors , four visitors , and four or more trustees for the investment of the fund . The society meets in the above chapel every Sunday , during the winter half year , for an
hour or more in the evening , and during the summer half year at the close of the afternoon ' s service . The winter evening meetings are devoted to reading and conversation on a series of moral and religious works selected by the society ; but the afternoon meetings are confined to the
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52 - UNITARIAN CHRONICLE .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1833, page 52, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2607/page/20/
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