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Leader (1850-1860), 14th April 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Supplement to no. 525, Page unpag., , :¦ . . SIJFP^ TO THE mut

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    • ^a^tl ^atoit^ag ^naJpt ,
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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.

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      , :¦ . . Sijfp^ To The Mut

      , : ¦ . . SIJFP ^ TO THE mut

      ^A^Tl ^Atoit^Ag ^Najpt ,

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      J?±Jp\Eit1l. 1--4, I860.

      j ? ± JP \ EIT 1 L . 1--4 , I 860 .

      Ber Of Witnesses Were Examined, Not A Si...

      ber of witnesses were examined , not a single instance could be adduced of a policy-holder ever losing a farthing by £ i Company being unable to meet its peouriiai-y engagements . In fact , among commercial undertakings , Assurance Companies form a singular excep'tiou , in ¦•/ haying been uniformly enabled to meet every legitimate demand upon them . -Banking companies , and hosts of otlier respeetablo commei-cial adventures , have , from time to time , failed , andstill wo one attempts to write them down in a wholesale manner as a class . Notwithstanding this , Assurance . Institutions , from which the public has never suffered , are in this pamphlet spokm of in a way which , if true , would render them a scandal to our commercial system , and a disgrace to the country . Companies arc placed by the writer in all sorts of false lights , and in so outrag eous a manner as to render it almost impossible to assign the misrepresentations to accidental errors . One Company is said to be winding-up in Chancery , although it is actually doing a thriviMg and profitable business ; others arc given as in existence which have been long defunct , and departed Companies are made to appear as still pushing the trade ; while , with the view to convince the public that most of our b < st Companies are incurring fearful responsi--bilities , no end of them nre represented as having " absorbed " a whole shoal of small fry . This is an unfair and most culpable way of putting tho case , and cannot , under any circumstances , be justified . The iustiUnoes are very few indeed in which the Companies said to have been " absorbed" by others , will bear the interpolation attempted to be forced on the transactions referred to . Inmost instances there has heen no legal junction or amalgamation of the Companies . As a rule , smaller Companies , after a certain period of experience , finding they could not command a sufficient amount of revenue to make the business safe and remunerative , have prudently sought to transfer tho liabilities under their Policies to some other Company , in which the aggregate revenue will be subject to a reduced rate of workin ^ expenses , be more remunerative , and , from the risks being sp ? ead over a larger surface , bo less liable to those adverse , perturbnfing intiuenees which are « t all times dangerous whon a limited number only of Fire or Life transactions are iticluded in the Company ' s books . No Assurance Compnny can be safe unless its risks are sufficiently numerous to realise average results ; the wholes theory and safe practice of the science rest on this , and yet the pamphlet seeks to draw disparaging conclusions from a proceed ing which creates several strong Companies by the combination of the risks of many weak ones . In genor » l , shareholders live led to sanction such transfers by the most sterling and prudent consideration * only—often making large pecunia r y snerinces themselves , that the intends of the public m \ d the ' Policy-holders may be maintained ami improved . Ihe avowed object of the author of tho pamphlet is to strengthen Assurance ' Institutions and no more-effectual means could be fiwggcHlcd for that purpose tlinu those very transfers ; but still , his real object having another aim , he must denounce them as everything ' that is vicious and bad , thereby placing in favourable contrast his own imnuieiilnte creation of a Model Assurance Coiii | muy . AnotUor favourite topic diHeussed comes under ' the hond . " . Delusive Kulunco Sheets , " and the figures presented arc , m senrcely a . single instance , those which form tho real balance shoots of the respective Comptmics , but a re more garbled statements , selected possibly from the balance shoots themselves , but

      " ' . — ' ! IT is to be regretted that Assurance Companies should re-: sort to pamphleteering in order to traduce the character of their competitors and raise the value of . their ' own schemes . The : present pamphlet furnishes strong internal evidence of having been published with this twofold object . In fact , one of our contemporaries does not hesitate to declare that it is the direct pro- . ductipu of the manager of the very Company the merits of which j are puflWl up in it in so extraordinary a manner , and that the ostensible author has done little more than lend his name to | screen the Company , from a proceeding which is nt once so i unseemly and devoid ' of taste and prudence . However correct our contemporary may be in his opinions , we shall ourselves treat the pamphlet and the scheme of Assurance recommended on thenown merits . The great interest we have uniformly taken m these , the most beneficent of all commercial institutions , suggests this as tho only proper course , lira critical pamphlet , dealing with n grave financial subject , ono . of the first and most important qualities we have , a right to look for and expect is jiocimioy in the statement of alleged facts , And not Jlngrnnt and libellous | errors and , what some nre willing- to believe , intentional mi & vr-r , presentations . One of the first fruits of the publication we find | by tho advertising columns of the Tium , & c , to be proceedings j taken by one of the moat respectable Assurance Societies in tho j city against tho author and the publisher . It is scarcely to bo doubted that other Companies will also institute proceedings agninst the author and the new publisher , , as the first hundred pages teem with personal abuse and the most injurious misrepresentations of the proceedings and financial condition of what are known to be thu soundest u-ml most sub- , Btantitd Life office's . The history of the Parliamentary Committee j of 1853 is given in such a manner as to lend tho inexperienced to conclude that Assurance Companies hnd been little short of pnlpnblP swindle *; mid yet , during a prolonged sitting , extending over nearly a whole session , and before whom a lurgo nurffc-* The Perils qf Policy-Holders , and the LhbUjties of Wo Officcs .-A FirstLottciv ftddreased to tho Kight Hon .. William , ffi t " Gladstone , M . P . Oha ^ ellov of tho Exchequer . » j W" . lum Oaki'jswtjjk , " a Polioy-holdev nncl SlmrehoWcr , Second Mition ,

      The Secubity Afforded Bt Life As8ueance:...

      THE SECUBITY AFFORDED BT LIFE AS 8 UEANCE : - . ¦ ' . . ¦ . .. ¦ . . ¦¦ ' ¦ ¦ . - ' ¦¦ ;¦ .. - . ' j '" ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ ' being an . ¦ ¦ ' .- ¦ ¦ : EXAMINATION OF THE STATEMENTS ¦ . . ¦ " made in ; - : - ¦¦ ' ¦ ' ¦ !¦ . '¦¦ - . i A PAMPHLET j EXTITLED ' . ; " THE PERILS OF POLICY IIOLDRRS . 35 * . ! - ¦ ¦ ¦ !

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 14, 1860, page unpag., in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/sxldr_14041860/page/1/