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£138 13s. of his Assurance, and still the balance of £114 19s. will be paid to his representatives at his death.

We might allude to a variety of modifications of this principle, all of which could be worked out and safely adopted. For instance, the depositor might receive the interest of his deposits during his lifetime, and leave the principal for Life Assurance. An objection, taken against the system, as we have propounded it to Actuaries, is this-Fresh medical examinations would require to be made upon any renewal or increased Assurance, and the perplexities thus occasioned would be insurmountable. This, certainly, is a difficulty, but not, we believe, insuperable. A large business would well pay for additional expenses thus incurred. Nor, upon consideration, would the Deposit office be in a worse position than other offices, if a rather higher premium were charged, and if small risks, comparatively, were successively incurred, even supposing that no medical examinations were made; for as ordinary offices must, by their terms of contract, continue in force their liability to pay, even when the health of the Assurer is obviously deteriorated, so the Deposit office would only, at worst, be in a like position, while, by easily-devised arrangements, it might be placed even in a somewhat better position-always provided that the public would largely patronize the principle. There seems to be no valid reason why the Government should not adopt it in connection with Savings' Banks, for they have all the machinery for raising Deposits already in action, and would only find it necessary to supply the medical examination.

The great majority of Life offices confine their attention to healthy and select lives, and reject such as are diseased or unsound; so large, however, is the proportion of the latter class, comprising, it is said, 20 per cent. of all who apply for Assurance at the various offices, that two companies have been established especially for their Assurance, and one of them, at least, has succeeded to a considerable extent. A few of the other offices will assure unsound lives at a proportionably advanced rate of premium, or by placing the diseased Assurer at a higher age and rate than his true age. But the only proper mode of assuring unsound lives, proceeds upon calculations of the mortality of diseased persons. It is a remarkable and littleknown fact that diseased lives are subject to a law of average resembling that of ordinary mortality in its regularity, upon a large scale, and there is, in truth, little more risk in assuring diseased men than healthy men- the premiums being in due proportion. Unless a man, therefore, be very unsound, and very far gone in dangerous disease, he can obtain a Policy of Assurance, though at a heavy and sometimes oppressive cost. It is even said that, at such cost, the business of assuring unsound lives is more profitable than that of assuring sound lives at the lower charges-since the unsound man will take greater care of his life than the sound and incautious Assurer.

As this is a very curious and little-known branch of the business, we may mention that Mr. Farr has prepared a Decennial Life-Table

from the mortality of perons dying of consumption in the metropolis, from which we extract a specimen :

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According to this Table, a man in average health, at the age of forty, has the same expectation of living as a consumptive man at the age of twenty. It is obvious that, upon such data, enlarged and confident assurance business can be safely carried on; so that no man in good circumstances is excluded from the benefits of Life Assurance simply from ill-health. Various diseases have now been tabulated, and the singular result may be made apparent in the subjoined computation for one age:

PRESENT VALUE OF £1,000 3 PER CENT. CONSOLIDATED
ANNUITIES.

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From which it may be seen that, while a healthy man, age 30, could obtain £586 13s. 7d. for the sale of his Life-Interest in the promise of £1,000, 3 per Cent. Consols when at par, the consumptive man could only obtain £359 6s. 2d.; and men otherwise diseased, in proportion. The great value of such data, in monetary transactions, must be obvious.

We now turn to a different kind of Assurance-namely, that against Sickness; which, however, is invaluable, when safely conducted, on a similar law of average. This branch of inquiry has, unhappily, been neglected until very recently. No attempt was made to ascertain, from registered facts, the quantity of sickness experienced by a certain number of persons of the same age, until the publication of the "Highland Society's Report" in 1834, and that of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (by Mr. Ansell) on "Benefit Societies," in 1835. This latter work is accessible, though now scarce. But the valuable labours of Mr. Neison on "Vital Statistics," have more recently brought this subject within scientific investigation. The result of that gentleman's researches gives the quantity of sickness as much higher than other researches,

and it is now acknowledged that his form the only safe basis for the calculation of Benefit and Friendly Societies. In fact, it was found, at the time of his inquiry, that nearly all the Benefit societies were insolvent. They had proceeded upon very unsatisfactory and indiscriminating Tables, while it is now known that the quantity of sickness in every man's life is much modified by his locality and his occupation. Plumbers, painters, and glaziers, knife and bladegrinders, and the like, cannot be classed with ploughmen and openair labourers, yet they were formerly so classed; and, even now, indiscriminating rates are too common. The injurious pecuniary results of such confusion and commixture will be best seen by an illustra tion. Suppose one Sick-Benefit Society to exist in a rural district, another in a town, and a third in a city district, and that each of the three Societies consists of 180 members; twenty of whom are of the age of 30, and as many of the ages of 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, and 70. The payment is to be £1 per week to each member during illness. In such cases, the probable amounts which each Society would have to pay during the ensuing year would be as follows:

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Such an example at once displays the unexpected difference between town, city, and country, and the necessity for proportionate differences in charges.

The quantity of sickness experienced by any man during life is now reducible to a Tabular computation upon an average of large numbers, and also his expectation of sickness at any given age. For instance, at age 70, the experience of the Scottish Friendly Societies would lead to the expectation of ten weeks and five days of sickness in the ensuing year; the English Benefit Societies would give eleven weeks and six days; and the "Vital Statistics" of Mr. Neison, fourteen weeks. The difference of the authorities is considerable, but there is no doubt that the last is the nearest to the truth. It is manifest, therefore, that there is no chance-work in this matter; but the whole is capable of being placed on as sound and safe a basis as Life Assurance itself. Every Benefit or Friendly society should have its rates and rules certified by a competent Actuary, and no man should join one without satisfying himself of such certification. Moreover, unceasing vigilance should be exercised with reference to all officers connected with such Societies. Nothing should be taken for granted. Vouchers should be given for every item of expenditure, and the Banking pass-book regularly and frequently compared with the books of the bank. With such precautions, no failures can take place. The remedy for all doubts and defects lies within the power of the subscribers themselves. If they wish to reap pecuniary advantages, they must not only pay, but watch; they must watch while they are well, that they may not want when they are ill.

In all that we have said, we have had one or two important practical objects in view. We have shown, as well as our limits will permit, that Life and Sickness Assurance proceed upon sure and undoubted experience and science, when these are called in for counsel; that the whole is the result, not of conjecture or of chance, but of mathematical certainty. Let us now, in a few sentences, place the principle clearly before our readers, as regards a LifeAssurance Company. The Assurer may inquire: How do I know that the Company can perform its part of the contract? We reply: It depends upon the truth of several postulates, which may now almost take the place of Assurance axioms. The principal of these are-1. The average duration of human life is correctly estimated by the Company; experience has confirmed it. 2. The rate of interest assumed by the Company, for its investments, will be actually realized, and often exceeded; and the rate assumed is that which can always be fairly expected. 3. The annual surplus accumulated shall defray ordinary expenses of management, and contribute something to a Reserve Fund. 4. The lives assured shall be of average health and soundness, and enough shall be secured to obtain an average. 5. An equal, or nearly equal, amount of risk shall be distributed over all the lives assured. 6. Periodical and particular investigations, and valuations of the Company's liabilities and assets, shall place the whole state of affairs in a clear light; and the future shall be governed by such light.

These postulates being complied with, no man can have any good ground for doubting the stability of a Life office, and for abstaining from assuring his life on that plea. There are offices which will meet his views in almost every particular-either as to low premium at first, or high profits afterwards, or reduction of premium after a certain number of payments. We do not like to name offices, because we are strictly impartial; but we may affirm that there are in London at least fifty good and sound offices, in any one of which any man may assure with advantage. His particular wants can only be satisfied by either personal inquiry or friendly counsel-the latter being hard to obtain, apart from bias and inclination towards a particular company. What is most wanted of all things in this direction is a Public Adviser or two, who should be fully competent to advise on each case, and receive a moderate fee for a conscientious and carefully-founded opinion. The same things may be said— mutatis mutandis-of Assurance against sickness and incapacity.

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The next main object, in our view, is to show that no man can do for himself what a good office or society can do for him. This will be admitted, when attention is paid to the main principle of Assur-the law of average. An individual is never sure against death for an hour; the office assures the loss which this uncertainty may render, at any hour, a melancholy fact. Numerous little books and tracts have been printed, which are full of instances of sudden death, and the painful consequences of a lack of pecuniary provision; and, on the other hand, of certain cases where the benefits of Assurance

VOL. III.

Y Y

have been derived after the payment of one or two premiums. It seems strange that such narratives are needful in a dying world; but the old line is still applicable

"All men think all men mortal but themselves."

Certain it is, that any family man who neglects to assure his life, and yet has no provision ready for his offspring, is chargeable with a social delinquency which, were it less common, would be publicly reprobated.

Then, again, as to the individual's becoming his own Assurer, on the assumption that he does live the usual term of life—at all times, and in all cases, an unwarrantable assumption-and that he does save: Will he always leave his savings untouched? Will he invariably and regularly put them out at compound interest? the consciousness of their existence and ready accessibleness lead to a sudden draw upon his banker, or drain upon his secret hoard? Lastly, can the individual obtain compound interest upon small sums as the Life office can upon large ones? Can the man with ten or twenty pounds put out to interest as well as the office with ten or twenty thousand? On no assumption whatever can the husband and father, who lives upon precarious income, be excused from the incumbent duty of assuring his life; and-what we especially have in view as a consequent duty-on no ground can the said Assurer excuse himself from the pains of making himself acquainted with the principles and practice of Life Assurance, so as to secure the best office for his purpose. At present, he can hardly do this by proxy; and, therefore, he must needs do it personally. Had some of us ourselves followed the advice we now give to others, we should have been, pecuniarily speaking, happier men. It is very remarkable that the affairs of institutions, guaranteeing at this time about £200,000,000, should be, for all practical purposes, totally exempt from public check and inquiry, and by no means intimately known to their own constituents. Confidence is good when well founded, but not when it verges upon mere credulity.

All the arguments employed to induce men to assure their lives will bear, with redoubled cogency, upon working-men with reference to the assurance of their health. These men stand in the same relation to Benefit societies as those above them, in the social scale, stand to Life offices. The working man, indeed, is rather the more bound to enter a Benefit or Friendly society, because his health is his only capital, while the Assurer may continue his Premium after he has once paid it, whatever his health. But he who does not make any provision against sickness, is living daily upon a diminutive and diminishing capital. Nor does he know how soon he will ex haust it. An accident; a cold, long neglected; a contagious disease; any one of the thousand contingencies upon which bodily vigour and capacity depend, may, at one moment, make him bankrupt and beggar. Can any rational, much more religious man, dare to tempt the future so recklessly? Ought friends and families to suffer for this neglect?

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