THE SECULAR SOCIETY, Limited.
Registered Office: 62 Farringdon Street, London, E.C. 4.
Secretary: Miss E. M. VANCE.
The Memorandum of Association sets forth that the Society's Objects are:—To promote the principle that human conduct should be based upon natural knowledge, and not upon supernatural belief, and that human welfare in this world is the proper end of all thought and action. To promote freedom of inquiry. To promote universal Secular Education. To promote the complete secularization of the State, etc. And to do all such lawful things as are conducive to such objects. Also to have, hold, receive, and retain any sums of money paid, given, devised, or bequeathed by any person, and to employ the same for any of the purposes of the Society.
Members pay an entrance fee of ten shillings, and a subsequent yearly subscription of five shillings. The liability of members is limited to £1, in case the Society should ever be wound up.
The Society's affairs are managed by an elected Board of Directors, one-third of whom retire (by ballot), each year, but are eligible for re-election.
Friends desiring to benefit the Society are invited to make donations, or to insert a bequest in the Society's favour in their wills. The now historic decision of the House of Lords in re Bowman and Others v. the Secular Society, Limited, in 1917, a verbatim report of which may be obtained from its publishers, the Pioneer Press, or from the Secretary, makes it quite impossible to set aside such bequests.
A Form of Bequest.—The following is a sufficient form of bequest for insertion in the wills of testators:—
I give and bequeath to the Secular Society, Limited, the sum of £—— free from Legacy Duty, and I direct that a receipt signed by two members of the Board of the said Society and the Secretary thereof shall be a good discharge to my Executors for the said Legacy.
It is advisable, but not necessary, that the Secretary should be formally notified of such bequests, as wills sometimes get lost or mislaid. A form of membership, with full particulars, will be sent on application to the Secretary, 62 Farringdon Street, London, E.C. 4.