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Darwin Correspondence Project

To Down Friendly Society   19 February 1877

To The Members of the Down Friendly Club.

As one of your Honorary Members who has acted to the best of his power as your Treasurer for the last Twenty-seven years, I hope that you will permit me to address a few words to you, on this important occasion, when you have to decide whether the Club shall be dissolved.1 You founded and joined this Club in order to receive assistance when ill or when permanently invalided, and to be decently buried when dead; and is it not an extraordinary fact that you should now wish to dissolve the Club, for no other reason that I can hear of, except that it is now rich and in a perfectly sound condition? I have been informed that absurd rumours are afloat that the Government intends to unite all the Clubs throughout England into a single one, and then divide their Funds.2 I can assure you that all such rumours are lies, spread for some evil purpose. I am also informed that an actuary has calculated that you may divide £150, but that about £1,000 must be retained in order to ensure the safety of the Club. I suppose some of you think that this is a larger sum than is necessary, but let me beg you to remember that an actuary can have no motive to deceive you, and that he has great means for obtaining accurate information as to what are the chances of sickness and death, about which no ordinary man can form any judgment. No reasonable man will doubt that the above sum is necessary to pay the Burial Fees and to ensure Provision during ill-health, to which every Member of the Club is liable. Remember how many unregistered Clubs, not only in this neighbourhood but throughout England, have become bankrupt, and have left their Members destitute in their old age. Therefore I hope that you will allow me to warn you all in the most earnest manner, to deliberate for a long time before you dissolve the Club, not only for the sake of your wives and children, but for your own sakes, so as to avoid the degradation of being supported by the Union.3 The younger Members should reflect that they will receive only a small sum, and for this they forego all the advantages of belonging to a really safe Club; and the elder Members will find it impossible to join any Club which can pretend to safety. Should you resolve to dissolve our Club, all your officers, including myself, are bound under the penalty of imprisonment to see that every provision of the law is strictly followed, and this will cause much delay and expense; but as far as lies in my power the law shall be obeyed. Finally, I hope that you will admit that I can have no bad motive in expressing my deliberate judgment: it is no pleasure to me to keep your accounts and to subscribe to your funds, except in the hope of doing some small good to my fellow Members, who have hitherto always treated me in a considerate and friendly manner.

I remain | Your faithful Treasurer, | CHARLES DARWIN.

Down, February 19, 1877.

Footnotes

CD had helped to found the Down Friendly Club in 1850 (see Correspondence vol. 4, letters to J. S. Henslow, [7 October 1849] and 17 January [1850], and J. R. Moore 1985, pp. 468–9).
The Friendly Societies’ Act of 1875 established an administrative department to oversee local friendly societies; however, authority over the distribution of funds was retained by each society. For more on the regulation of friendly societies by the state, and the changes introduced by the 1875 Act, see Gosden 1961, pp. 173–97.
After 1834, parishes were grouped into Poor Law Unions that administered poor-relief to local residents. Down village was in the Poor Law Union for Bromley.

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Gosden, Peter. 1961. The friendly societies in England, 1815–1875. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Moore, James Richard. 1985. Darwin of Down: the evolutionist as squarson-naturalist. In The Darwinian heritage, edited by David Kohn. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press in association with Nova Pacifica (Wellington, NZ).

Summary

CD, who has acted as treasurer of the Down Friendly Club for the last 27 years, urges the members not to dissolve the Club, but to continue it and retain about £1000 of the funds on hand to ensure its safety and ability to give assistance to members when they are ill or invalided, or to provide for their burial when dead.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-10853
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Down Friendly Society
Sent from
Down
Source of text
DAR 138: 5
Physical description
Printed circular

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10853,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10853.xml

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