2IO PAST AND PRESENT OF ceased members, and for other good, noble and patriotic purposes. A noble society exists in many places that is doing a great work amongst Englishmen, namely, the St. George's Society. But are Englishmen, it visited by sickness or distress of any kind, to be compelled to solicit char¬ ity? No man of fine feeling and high prin¬ ciple can receive charity without feeling hu¬ miliated. Why should not Englishmen, lov¬ ing their country and countrymen, have a so¬ ciety from which they can, when in sickness, or distress, claim aid as their right and not as a charity—a society from which they can re¬ ceive assistance without feeling under obli¬ gation to each other? Providence has not given to any man an indemnity from affliction, and it is a duty all owe to themselves and their families to provide against the distress which inevitably attends its visitation. No class in society is exempt, but the more humble are particularly exposed to misfortune and sickness, as disas¬ trous in their consequences as they are diffi¬ cult to avert. It is a good and noble principle in man to try by frugality and prudence to lay up a store for old age and to provide against calamities. Such considerations as these led to the formation of the Sons of Benevo¬ lent Society, in which members can meet as brother Englishmen and from which they can demand relief, not as a charity, nor as a gift, but as a right to which they are justly en¬ titled, from having when in health and pros¬ perity provided against adversity. There is a charge—and to some extent a truthful one—that Englishmen will not unite for their mutual good. Men of other nationalities have been greatly benefited by so uniting, and it is thus certain that Eng¬ lishmen, united, shall derive mutual benefit and increase in strength, prosperity and use¬ fulness. Where is the Englishman, afar from his native land, whose heart does not warm when he meets one of his countrymen ? The idea of a purely English society of a benevolent character originated at a Christ¬ mas charitable distribution of food by the Toronto St. George's Society. That Christmas the distribution was made in a vacant store at the corner of King street and ; and a large number of men, women and children, presumably English, attended and had meat and groceries doled out to them. The scene was watched for some time by an Englishman, not himself an applicant for relief. Two things connected with the dis¬ tribution pained him. First, the haughtiness with which the goods were given in several cases; second, the fact that Englishmen in Toronto were thai the only people out of all nationalities who had to parade their wants and sufferings to the gaze of others and be made the recipients of charity in a public manner. These incidents set the watcher thinking. Surely, he thought, Englishmen are the equals in manliness and self-respect of any other people; and that some of them, probably through no fault of theirs, should be publicly degraded once a year, no matter how excellent the intention, was both a pity and somewhat a scandal. How to ameliorate this state of affairs and implant the desire to be provident induced much thought, the out¬ come of which was the idea of a purely national benevolent society open only to Englishmen and their descendants—the society to be in no sense a charity, but to be made self-sup¬ porting, and from the funds of which every member would have a right to demand his portion should misfortune visit him. At the very outset difficulties, never contemplated, were met. The average Englishman was