The foregoing tables were prepared by two eminent actuaries for one of the western counties, and a committee of magistrates modelled the various sections of the late Act, 59 Geo. III. into a body of rules, to accompany the same, and required them to be adopted in that county by all Friendly Societies bringing rules to the Sessions for enrollment and confirmation. They are given here merely as specimens of calculations; and although it might be very easy to make society articles conformable to these tables, yet other tables of calculations might almost as easily be framed, by consulting a table of life annuities adapted to the particular tenor of the articles. The clerk or steward of the society should be careful to note in his occurrence book the age of the several members on admission, the amount of their respective contributions, and what allowance they were severally to receive. The members also should sign the society articles in the following manner : "A. B. aged twenty-five, agrees to contribute eleven pence per month according to No. 1 of the tables hereunto annexed, and to conform to the allowances therein provided for." [Or as the case may be.] The original rules, together with the memorial and tables of contributions and allowances, should be written or engrossed on parchment, in order for their enrollment and confirmation at the Sessions: another copy thereof must be fairly transcribed in a book, and the whole given to the Clerk of the Peace, or his officer, as early as possible during the Sessions. The book, with a certificate or exhibit of the enrollment, signed by two Justices, will be returned to the trustees of the society, which will be evidence of the existence or formation of the club, in the event of any dispute, to be settled by Magistrates at a Petty Sessions. The rules should be signed by the members before they are offered to the Sessions. By the 33 Geo. III. c. 54, no fee is allowed for the confirmation of the rules at the Sessions. Persons preparing rules and articles of Friendly Societies should be careful not to insert any clause for referring differences amongst the members, or officers, to the arbitrament or umpirage of any individuals of the society, or to any other person, the Justices alone having this power vested in them by the statutes before referred to; and no articles ought to be confirmed containing such a clause. By the case of The King v. the Justices of Staffordshire, it seems that the general objects of Friendly Societies must be P confined to the charitable relief and maintenance of its old, sick, and infirm members, their widows and children, so as to bring them within the meaning and provisions of the 33 Geo. III. cap. 54, otherwise Justices in Session cannot be required to allow and confirm them. 12 E. R. 280. The following is the mode and form in which the editor has caused rules and articles of Friendly Societies to be confirmed and enrolled at the Sesions: One part of the rules is engrossed on parchment, and the other fairly transcribed in a book: the former signed by a majority of the members. Two parts of the memorial, with the consent of the trustees, according to the form No. 1, the one on parchment being attached to the rules, and the other on the fly sheet of the book, the memorial being signed by three of the members and the three trustees, and the consent by the trustees only. Two parts of the following table, the one on parchment is attached to the rules, and the other written in the book, both signed by the actuary and accountant, were prepared, and the whole left with the Clerk of the Peace early in the Sessions week without motion of Counsel. Tables of contributions and allowances, &c. [As in the precedent last given.] [From the age | Seven pounds towards/1s. 6d. on ad- The foregoing table of contributions and allowances have been duly considered by us the undersigned, who, having carefully perused the rules of the said society, do approve of the said table of contributions and allowances, as the most correct calculation of which the nature of the case will admit.-Dated this 18 day of JAMES HARWOOD, Actuary. CHAPTER IX. BRIDGES. By Magna Charta, 9 Hen. III. c. 15, "no town or freeman shall be distrained to make bridges but such as of old time and of right have been accustomed.' If a bridge being of public utility, and situated in a public highway, and the right to repair it cannot be brought home to any corporate body by prescription, or to any individual by reason of tenure, it may be considered a county bridge, notwithstanding that the occasional repairs may not as yet have been made by the county. In some instances, corporate bodies, by reason of prescription, are liable to repair and maintain particular bridges; but there is a difference between bodies politic or corporate, and natural persons; for bodies politic or corporate may be bound by usage and prescription only, having a succession perpetual; but a natural person cannot be bound by the mere act of his ancestor, without a lien or binding. 2 Inst. 700. Individuals may be bound by reason of tenure. Ibid. If a man make a bridge for the common good of all the subjects, he is not bound to repair it; for no particular man is bound to the reparation of bridges by the common law, but by tenure or prescription. Ibid 701. This principle has been recognized by many recent adjudications of the Court of K. B. Parishes and individuals are frequently fixed with the burthen of repairing bridges without seeking for legal advice. There are few instances, indeed, where a parish can be legally liable to the rebuilding or repairs of a public bridge as the law now stands; and if such parish is likely to be presented or indicted, they have a very easy remedy of being released from this incumbrance by going before a Grand Jury, at the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, or Assizes, with proof that the bridge is out of repair, and then prefer a bill of indictment against the inhabitants of the county; and if such bill be found true, the onus of proof as to what persons in particular are liable, will be thrown upon the county. Should the bill be found true by the Grand Jury, the Justices in Sessions will cause an inquiry to be set on foot (by the clerk of the peace, county surveyor, or some other person whom they may think proper to appoint) as to the original building and repairing of the bridge; and if it should appear on such inquiry that no corporate body, by prescription, nor individuals by reason of tenure, have hitherto done the repairs, they will acknowledge it to be repairable by the county. It is doubted whether immemorial usuage can fix a parish (unless it be a corporate borough) with the repairs of a public bridge, where evidence can be traced of the original construction of such bridge, and the parish having, time out of mind, repaired it, can (it is presumed) be the only case (if any) where a parish is liable, except they be bound by an inclosure, drainage, or other award of commissioners appointed by Act of Parliament: the immemorial usage would be defeated by proof of its original erection. It has been resolved, that it is not sufficient for the defendants to an indictment for not repairing a bridge to excuse themselves by shewing that they are not liable, without shewing what other persons are so. 1 Haw. c. 77 No inhabitant of a county ought to be a juror for the trial of an issue, whether the county be bound to such repairs or not; and thererore the jury must come from some adjacent county. Ibid. And the same objection may lie as to the Justices where they are all interested; in which case, the trial ought to be in the next county, that is as near to the same as may be. 2 B. 859. Defendants to these kind of presentments or indictments cannot remove the same by certiorari, but prosecutors can. 6 T. R. 194. By the 22 Hen. VIII. c. 5, three hundred feet in the highway from the ends of bridges shall be repaired as often as necessary. Commissioners of turnpikes and other persons about to erect bridges which are intended thereafter to be maintained and kept in repair by the county, would do well to attend to the Act 43 Geo. III. c. 49, whereby it is enacted, "that no bridge thereafter to be erected or built in any county by or at the expense of any individual, or private person or persons, body politic, or corporate, shall be deemed a county bridge, or a bridge which the inhabitants of any county shall be compellable to maintain or repair, unless such bridge be erected in a substantial and commodious manner, under the direction, or to the satisfaction, of the county surveyor, or person appointed by the Sessions, (by the Justices of the county of Lancaster at their annual Sessions,) and which surveyor or person so appointed, is thereby required to superintend the |