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The . financial results of this novel application of assurance are most cheering to every wellwisher of the cooperative cause . At the first meeting of the " Professional /* held in 1848 , it was announced that in eleven months from its commencement 101 policies had been effected , giving an annual income . of £ 1015 , By their second meeting , in 1849 , 171 additional policies had been granted , the income ?
having increased to £ 2403 , when it was also announced that the whole of their preliminary and other liabilities had been discharged , leaving the association only its current expenses to provide for . At the third annual meeting in 1860 it was announced that 82 policies had been granted in three months , producing an additional income of £ 1000 ; while at the fourth meeting , held in the
present year , it was announced that the total income of the Company derived from premiums , after deducting assurances lapsed by death , amounted to upwards of £ 1 J , 45 O ; that the total number of policies issued was 1155 , and the total sum assured £ 345 , 513 . It is but an act of justice to reiterate what has been stated b y the Directors at each of the meetings—that to tne indefatigable and wellaimed exertions of their resident manager and actuary , Mr . Edward Baylis , is the Company indebted for the elucidation of principles which have led to so great prosperity .
It was naturally to be supposed that the advances of the younger companies , with their immensely superior and popular advantages , would excite the ire of the ancient corporations ; and one of the most imposing arguments adduced against the juveniles was their want of paid-up capital . But nothing can be more absurd and untenable than such an objection . The want of paid-up capital is absolutely the secret of the power of conferring these popular advantages . Let us see the working of the " Professional . " It has 1400
shareholders ; its capital is £ 250 , 000 ; it calls for 10 s . per share only . Now for the result . The second year of its existence it pays off the whole of its liabilities . The third year—the year when the cholera held its devastating sway—• when life assurance offices were trembling in every direction — it announced that its total losses from the commencement of the company , amounted to £ 3272 19 s- lldf , which claims had all been met and satisfied , still leaving a large credit to the pre - mium account , exclusive of a sum accruing to the company by the death of an annuitant ; and in adtion to this a dividend of five percent , was declared
on the paid-up capital . We here see that not only would the subscription of the whole capita ] have been useless , but that not even that which was paid up \ yas required to liquidate the annual claims on the company . But the paying up the whole capital would have been worse than useless . The interest on £ 250 , 000 at five per cent , would be £ 12 , 500 , and this enormous sum would have to be annually provided for out of increased premiums charged to the assured , and before one atom of profit would have accrued . The " Professional " has , then , all the advantages of a large capital , without having to pay interest for it .
But the fallacy of a large paid-up capital is now placed beyond a doubt . One of the oldest companies in London even now groans under itH plethora in this particular , and is absolutely going to Par- ! liument for new powers to get rid of its surplus money . Six per cent , on a million wholly incapacitates it for competing with the popularised offices of modern times . The advantages of these new features of assurance
it is impossible to extol too highly . They disarm ever y objection which can possibly be urged against life assurance . When vve consider that the payment of Is . a week would insure £ 100 to n man ' s family , it is impossible to admit the objection that they cannot afford to ins are from any but the very poor . People are obliged to provide for their rent , and their tuxes are not to be readily evaded , A very little more perseverance iu economy would secure themselves and their families from absolutu
want . And yet bow many a man lit \ s down upon Him bed and dies , leaving his wife and children not only destitute , but absolutely entailing upon the penniloKH the charge , of his ( sepulture . Nothing than this oan be more horrible to hit ) survivors , nothing more dighonouriiblu and ignominious to himself , llcttoi- would it bis to train your family up to penury and want—bettor to inure thorn to the hitterncHH of povorty—better to treat them with uniform contumely , and let thorn become lined to the iriNiilt and scorn of the world—than to surround them with all thu anplianoeH of wealth , to
make them look upon luxuries as pecessary to their being , to hang their happiness on the slender thread of your own existence , and , when it snaps , to cast them upon the world as beggars !
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THE ROME OF THE SBIREI . Signor Mazzini has pointed to the Rome of the Caesars , the Rome of the Popes , and the coming Rome of the People . Meanwhile , we have the Rome of the Sbirri ! What a triumph for the Absolutist party and the French Conservatives ! They are the patrons of a wretched Government which is afraid of hats and beards ; and of an army of brave Frenchmen , whose chief ridiculously prohibits " sticks of suspicious forms . " They cannot govern unless their subjects shave smugly j unless " wide-awakes ' * be prohibited : unless the whole population be disarmed ; unless the press be utterly extinguished j unless the people smoke tobacco and dabble in lotteries ! They cannot exist without a strong force pf French janizaries ; and even then they work out their existence in fear and trembling . They declare themselves unable to keep the peace without sbirri or constables ; and the sbirri , by their provocations , are constantly breaking the peace . They and their satellites declare that" a faction * ' exercises a reign of terror over the peaceable population \ to wit , the faction is the Roman people j the peaceable population—the sbirri , t he spies , the Holy Office , and the holv French janizaries . The Unipers , papal organ
in chief , says , that the state pf things exjstipg before the publication of the edicts of Genieau and Antonelli , was " a secret society coming out from its dens , and governing , in the name of the poniard , a terrified population . " Shall we answer with a tu quoque ? Shall we say , that the present condition of things is a horde of public banditti , coming out from its strongholds , at Paris , Naples , and Vienna , and governing , in the name of the stick , the guillotine , and the ba yonet , an enraged , but long-suffering People ? It is so .
The Papal Government is detested at Rome . The fact is patent to all Europe . Smoking seems q small thing to abstain from , but it must be a powerful motive , a strong sense of the duty of de- > votedness , which will make a whole people submit to small inconveniences . Would the Romans cease to smoke if they loved the Pope and the Austrian ? Not a whit of it . The anti-smoking phenomenon is enough of itself to show that the people are hostile to the rule of the Lambruschini , and Antonelli , and Gemeau , and the whole governmental frame of things ; in fact , that the Roman nation has gone over to the Constitutional Opposition , and has reduced the de facto Government to a " faction . "
But they show their detestation in other and less unquestionable modes . The stiletto is a sure weapon , and that the French know by this time . The Roman is a stout antagonist , and he has proved it many a time within these two years . The whole under-current of social existence sets strongly against the Vatican , and down it must go , in spite of the hypocrisy of Palmerston , the faithlessness of Louis Napoleon , and the ruffianism of Austria . Mark ! it is the Papal Government , not the Catholic religion , the Lambruschini and Antonelli , of whom we write . The disenthralment of Rome
from the temporal rule of such men is a necessity for the advance and security of civil and religious liberty , and free and religious developr rnent all over JSurope , us well as all over Italy . The Cardinal party are doing all they can to der stroy the Popedom , as well as the territorial Papal Government . The state of things under their rule is an abomination in the eyes of man ; it must fall by its own weight ; and it j « a disgrace to Kngliuh statesmen that they tacitly tiutfer , —an infamy , if , u « we Huspect , they actively support , the occupation of Rome by the Cardinals and tho Africans oi France .
By their own acts—tho win of the Cardinal r Policemen , the Home of the Sbirri , u rank pago in the unnuls of the nineteenth century , munt moou have nn end . It will di « by its own luuul ; mu \ , like the King in UamM , drink of tl ) ut poison which it bad prepared for nn imsuUed undopprtwqed people .
OOFl'Mll ! AND TKA . What mysterious principle- is it which regulates tho conduct of Government towards the nhopkcepf ing interest ? Thin is a question which we have tried to solve , but hitherto our researches have been utterly ineffectual . To hoar Sir Chnr ]«» Wood or Karl Grey dilute upon the wisdom mid humanity of allowing 1 coffeo dealens to sell chioory or burnt
parsnips instead of the genuine berry , any one would fancy that Ministers had heartily adopted the laissez-faire principle , and that , henceforth , ho tradesman would be hindered from adulterating hjs wares as much as he could risk doing with impunity . " The buyer must protect himself , " aaid Earl Grey , a few days ago , when speaking of the chicory adulterations . "Of course he must , " said Mr . Edward South , of Clerkenwell-green , a public-spirited individual , who had s « en with 4 < Jlight the success which had attended the benevolent schemes pf enterprising ehopkaeper * for supplying the publiq with * ' Real Mpcha Coflfet >} at » lw price , manufactured from ehieory afld , other nameless substances ,
Unfortunately for Mr , South , the Excise authorities have net yet extended Earl Gtey ' fi rule to the tea ; trade . They allow any groear to sell any sort of poisonous rubbish he way choose under the name of coffee ; in the purchase of tkvt article •? the buyer must proteot himself ; " but , as regards tea , the Excise authorities are sternly opposed to the slightest attempt at adulteration . Having heard that Mr . South was engaged in manufacturing large quantities of cheap tea from sloe leaves , and used-up tea leaves purchased from coffee-house keepers , they took steps to have him apprehended ip the midst of his manufactory . The officer dispatched for that purpose found him and his wife busily at work :-r ™
? ' There was an extensive furnace , before which which was suspended an iron pan containing sloe leaves and tea leaves , which they were in the practice of purchasing from coffee ^ shop keepers , after being used , Qn searching the place they fou nd an immense quantity of used tea leaves , bay leaves , and every description of ppurious . ingredients for the purpose of manufacturing illicit tea , and they were mixed with a solution of gum and $ quantity of copperas . The heat of the place was so excessive that the officers could scarcely remain in it , but the prisoners did not seem at all oppressed by it . The woman was employed in stirring about the bay leaves and other compositions with the solution of gum in the pan , and in one part of the zoom there was a
large quantity of spurious stuff , the exact imitation of genuine tea , In a back room they found nearly J . QO lb . weight of xe-dried tea leaves , bay leaves , and . sloe leaves , all spread on the floor drying . The inspector told the prisoners that he was a police officer , and also an inland revenue officer , and he rnust teke them into custody , together with the whole of the ingredients and apparatus for making the spurious tea . Mr . Brennan added that the prisoners had pursued their nefarious traffic most extensively , and were in the habit of dealing largely with grooers , chandlers , and others , especially in the country . The various articles produced , prior to their completion , for disposal , had the most disgusting appearance , and were evidently prejudicial to health . "
And so Mr . South and his wife are to be visited with all the pains and penalties which the merciless Board of Kxcise can infliot for merely doing that with tea , which any man may do with coffee with the most perfect impunity . We have it—the moral ! If adulteration only poisons the sources of life , the buyer must " protect himself ; " but if it poisons the sources of
revenue , then there must be more formidable protection . For the Christian poisoned with * " coffee " Sir Charles has no bowels of compassion , but when herb " tea " makes Taxes poorly , he has a perfect stomachache of anxiety , and there is no more cool philosophy of laissez-faire . Yet the same thing ought to cause some anxiety for coffee drinkers , if not as Christians , yet as taxpayers . He cannot have viewed the subject in that light .
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K I H fl 8 I , !• : Y ' 8 IiBCT V Jt H . Ciiaiilkh KiNusXiRV delivered a gigantic lecture on Wednesday , to the Christian Socialists and others , —vast in extent , running- to the preposterous length of two hours and a half ; most Interesting from beginning to end—heard with unabated desire to lluten , down to tho last word . Its aubjeot was the application of the Associative principle to agriculture , —and of agriculture to the Associative princip le . We do not subscribe to all bin interpretations j but , umjueslionably , if landlords would act . an he advises , —be the exemplars and trainers
of the true " gentleman" ; if property , with its duties , were held as he advises , houently in trust 5 and H \ ull clergymen would teach thp law of God as he teachon , not to jar ngainat the law of Nature ; unquestionably then apme of our institutions would be all the n » frr . To his nuin to |> i « wo mu « t advert next week j only flaying now that ho it t'xoplk'nt for dealing with tho primotftfo M lh « essential thing , with the nvatem by winch it way l )
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614 fl&ft * ***••*? [ SAfUllDA * ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 31, 1851, page 514, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1885/page/14/
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