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Oct. 25, 1851.J «»* &*«**«? ^ 1015
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THE CAPE TRIUMPHS. Startling is the resu...
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THE PEOPLE'S INSTITUTE IN WESTMINSTER. T...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Progress Of Assurance. The Mutual Flllnc...
nresume the inquiries have arisen . Briefly , then , we might reply , all assurance systems are safe . Unless an office is a palpable swindle—and there is little chance of such a thing in the present day , when so many interested watchers would be ready to expose it—it offers safety to the assured . Should it fail in its pecuniary expectations , —which a ^ ain is scarcely possible except from some villanously bad management , —the announcement would be made that the business of the new office would henceforth be transacted by some other office of standing , and the premiums would
thenceforward be paid to the office making such an announcement . Assurers , therefore , would lose nothing ; they would merely be transferred to another office . But the object of every new office is to obtain what is called its " average . " It is well known that out of a given number of persons the probability is that so many will die within a stated period . An Assurance-office to secure itself , therefore , seeks to obtain its " average , " that is , such a number of premiums on Assured lives as will provide for the agreed payments of those Mrho die . This " average" obtained , an office is commercially safe . When an office on the old system is purely proprietary , the whole ^ of ; t & B profits ^ s » vast as to amount to several inilliorts , are' the
property of the shareholders . The modern Proprietary Companies dilute this monopoly of profits by returning a bonus to the assured ; and it is worthy of observation that when a company proposes to return a bonus it always does business enough to secure its intention . The only question is how much per cent , it will return . Success may be said uniformly to attend Life Assurance , and no wonder when we consider the extent of the field . The more modern Proprietary Companies are termed " mixed , " as they blend the fancied advantages of a Proprietary with those of the Mutual principle . Many of these provide that in a certain number of years the shareholders will be paid off and the Association become Mutual .
But though there are many advantages in the " mixed" principle , theoretically and practically the Mutual principle is unquestionably safe . That popular periodical , Chambers ' s Journal , states : — " We do not hesitate to declare our conviction , that the mutual system is the only one which the public at large is concerned in supporting . " Without quite going the length of this at present , we are certain that eventually all assurance offices will be mutual associations . The whole practice
of assurance has its rise in the mutual principle . It consists in making that which would crush one man , to be borne by a number of individuals . It dilutes the risk till none remains . A fire happening in one man ' s house may prove his ruin . But if a thousand men subscribe together to indemnify him , neither he nor they feel the loss . And this is the principle of all assurance , whether carried out mutually or by a proprietary . In the former case , the assured indemnify each other ; in the latter , ¦ ome one , not of their own body , indemnifies them .
The safety of the mutual system may be further Bhown from its operation . We have the report of an office which started in 1835 on the mutual principle . It had a guarantee fund of £ 200 , 000 : £ 10 , 000 of which were called up and banked . In five years a meeting of its assurers was convened , when a return of fifty-two per cent , of their premiums was declared , the £ 10 , 000 were repaid to the guarantees , and still there remained a sufficient
reserve in the hank . From the day of this association opening its doors , the premiums were sufficient to moot all the current expenditure and liabilities . Not one farthing of the £ 10 , 000 was ever drawn . The association has subsequently , every five yearn , returned fifty-two per cent , of its premium : it has now a reserve fund of £ 800 , 000 , and it proposes henceforward to return sixty-four per cent , on all future premiums .
The progress of other associations of more modern date exhibits similar advantageous remiltN . In IH-Io , " The United Kingdom Temperance and ( Jeneral Provident Institution" was established on the- Mutual ' Principle . Temperance Societies had been formed , and it wan thought by many enli ghtened individuals that total abstainers were free from tho influence of many causes which operate unfavourably to health and long life among th « general population . Collected data proved , that peculiar advantages with respect to the HHHuranco of life might bo offered with safety to those who had pledged thmnsclvcn to abstain from intoxicating beverages . Tho result has shown the data to bo correct . Among 4866 policies issued in ten years , only bO deaths have taken place . The
office applied itself to the general business of Life Assurance , and the comparative mortality between the Temperance and General sections has been rather more than 5 per cent , in favour of the former . Here , then , is anotherMutual Office which started without sixpence , and after ten years' operation has a capital of £ 50 , 000 . There was , indeed , a guarantee fund of £ 10 , 000 , which still exists . But not one farthing of it has been touched , and it has only entailed upon the Society the expense of the legal document securing it . The class interests of the Association in its earlier career necessarily restricted its operations , and these soon found a more extended field by entering also upon general
Life Assurance business . The Temperance departments are , however , still kept distinct from the general . In this Association no probate or legacy duty is chargeable where sums are handed to a widow or children , and all disputes are settled by arbitration . Ah investigation of the affairs of the company has lately been made by Mr . Hardy , the eminent actuary , who , in his report , states : — " The society is now , in my opinion , established on a secure and permanent basis , and I can conscientiously pronounce it to hold out every reasonable prospect of affording great advantages to those who join it . "
It is most gratifying to know that these are the results of prudence and forethought , and that the attempt to introduoe among the humble classes of society the blessings of life assurance , haa proved so eminently successful .
Oct. 25, 1851.J «»* &*«**«? ^ 1015
Oct . 25 , 1851 . J «»* &*«**«? ^ 1015
The Cape Triumphs. Startling Is The Resu...
THE CAPE TRIUMPHS . Startling is the result of the Kafir war up to the 12 th of September . Sir Harry Smith occupies British Kafraria , and the Kafirs occupy the Colonial Frontier ! The process of holding British Kafraria is simple . Governor Smith scours the territory in all directions , by proxy , with patrols of troops . These patrols are a kind of ' ^ military promenades , " with fighting , but without concert . Sometimes , as on the 29 th of July , under Lieutenant-Colonels Michel and Evre , they capture a few hundred
head of cattle , and catch some small band of Kafirs in the bush , killing the same . On another occasion , as the 9 th of August , Lieutenant-Colonel Michel , with a large force , traverses an extensive bush for five days , with what result?—Two of his men killed in an ambush . Major Kyle leads forth 152 men of the Forty-Fifth Regiment , engages in a sharp conflict with a body of Kafirs and Hottentots : result , one of the troops killed and three wounded , and considerable loss believed to
have been inflicted on the enemy . Lieutenant Burne , with a detachment of the Second Royals ( new to the work ) , in marching along near Committee ' s Drift , on the 1 st of September , encounters a strong body of Kafirs who will not get out of the way . A dashing conflict ensues—the Second Royals desperately charging several times : result , troops said to be repulsed , four men killed , and twenty-seven wounded ; detachment inarches back to King William ' s Town , the Kafirs attacking them again on the march .
In the latter part of July , Major-General Somerset made an effort to expel Macomo from the Waterkloof , and failed . Reports state that Somerset has been " moving between Somerset and Albany districts , " with little or no result . So it is everywhere , with the exception of a few small fights ; great inarching and counter-marching , " sweeping round the Arnatola , ' provisioning forts , driving off cattle , traversing the Bush , running into ambushes and escaping therefrom ; soldiers fighting like- devils—but the war making no advances towards a satisfactory conclusion . In fact , if reports are true , the net . result of all is , that Governor Smith has written home for 10 , 000 troops .
In the Orange River "Sovereignty " ' —a new district on the north-cast—matters are still worse . Major Warden held a meeting of chiefs on the 2 J ) tn of June . The natives had been quarrelling very much , and robbing one another . Major Warden was called on to intervene . He did ho ; resolved , that the next morning the oflrnrtei'H , Moshcsh and Molitnune , « hould he attacked . Attack made on the . 'JOth of June ; result—Major Warden and his forceB repulsed with loss .
Meanwhile the Kafirs within the frontier rush about in marauding bodies , surprising eattle here , burning farms there , seducing the Tnnibookiq HervantH who help to " lift" their rmiffter ' s cattle , laying ambushes , and , on the whole , leading a very exciting life .
This is not a very encouraging state of things for the noble gentlemen in Downing-street ; nor for the tax-payers ; nor for the financial reformers , whom it must make insane in the prospect of a deficit ; nor for the Colony . And to whom do we owe this bloody imbroglio ? To Earl Grey , to a Ministry infirm and purposeless , to the lack of good sense and good faith in the men who float on the surface of affairs . And what will be the cost to England of this Ministry ? Let England look to it—Will she lose the Cape , or keep the Ministry ?
The People's Institute In Westminster. T...
THE PEOPLE'S INSTITUTE IN WESTMINSTER . The proposal to erect a new institution for popular discussion at Westminster is one of the most auspicious plans that we have seen for advancing Social Reform among the working classes ., Nor needs it be only among the working classes . The object is , to erect a hall for public discussion of " those great questions of morals and politics which so deeply concern the welfare of
society "; the site is to be a plot of ground in Upper Tachbrook-street , near the Westminster Improvements ; the ground being already in possession of working men . The cost is estimated at £ 1000 ; the money to be raised in shares of £ 1 each . The trustees are persons of the highest respectability , comprising Mr . Charles Lushington , M . P ., Mr . Lawrence Heyworth , M . P ., and Mr . Thomas Duncombe , M . P . ; the treasurer is Mr . Vansittart Neale , with whose high-minded sentiments our reader are so well acquainted .
It will be observed that the plan has in it nothing that is . sectarian or exclusive—it does not smack of the bigotry of " Progress" any more than it does of the older bigotries . For the information of closet men , who will smile at promiscuous " discussion" of subjects that still await further elucidation at the hands of accomplished investigators , we may remind them that discussion has two functions—the elucidation of the truth
and the dissemination of the truth . Learned men discuss the truth to discover it ; it then needs a discussion , as it were , in the public market place , where the " nobility , gentry , and public in general , " exchange old ideas for new ; and the marketers will not part with old notions until they have gone through a good deal of chaffering . There are always political salesmen and marine storedealers for the purchase of old ideas .
The various institutions which have sprung up among the working classes have done much to familiarize their minds , not only with new ideas , but with the process of accepting progressive ideas and developing their own faculties . Many an audience in London and the provinces exhibits a candour and activity of mind winch would do credit to professional inquirers . Hut many of these institutions keep up a precarious existence for want of sufficient support or a sufficiently broad basis in the original plan : others are too small for the real wants and capabilities of the districts to which they belong . Even large provincial towna are in this predicament—nay , even the largest , Manchester , for example , or Birmingham .
Now it occurs to us as a beneficial plan , that the supporters of mere local institutes should combine for the construction of district institutes , like that at Westminster . London might be surrounded with district institutes , which would absorb the smaller local institutes . The Mechanics' Institutes of Yorkshire arc united on a plan which leaves each free , and yet secures many advantages of combination . They exchange suggestions of improvements . They offer uncommon facilities for the engaging of superior lecturers who can make a round of lecturing at more profit to themselves and loss cost to the institutes , than where the engagements are separate and . scattered . The same plan might be adopted for these discussion
institutes in London , and it might even include the provincial inntitutea . To take the example of Westminster , there is more than one institution in the district that might very well convey its forces to the Westminster liiKt . il . nte , if the promoters of the new Hcherue could n ^ vco upon a fair and liberal basis of union . The little association in Upper George-street , Chelsea , a host of highly intelligent peiMonH , ought to find a place more suitable to its requirement ** in the new building . We are aware tliat the idea already exists among the Social Reformers , both of London and the provinces it in distinctly enunciated in the proflpectus of the project now before us , we have heard it diweuesed in Manchester and Birmingham ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 25, 1851, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25101851/page/11/
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