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Untitled Article
PROGRESS OF ASSURANCE . INDUSTRIAL LIFE ASSURANCE THE DESTRUCTION OV PAUPERISM AND A BOON TO THE EMPLOYER . In a former article on Assurance we referred to some of the features of the Industrial Branch of the " National Provincial Life Assurance Society , " remarking how admirably they were adapted to the wants of the working classes . We therein showed how peculiarly important Life Assurance is to them at the present time . Most of the Local Associations , and Benefit Clubs , and Friendly Societies , on which they have hitherto relied , have either fallen through from very rottenness of foundation , or have been shown , on examination by competent actuaries , to be based on such falsely assumed data that they will sooner or later totter and fall . There are some instances where the probe has been courageously applied . Some societies have thought it better to learn the worst at once . Such have lost members , but they no longer work in the dark . If their members have to pay far more than they ever designed , they at least have attained additional security . But then it hecomes a commercial question , how far it is prudent to continue to do that expensively on a small scale , which can be done inexpensively on a large , secure , and still more advantageous system .
In the various tables of Assurance will be found a means of meeting and providing for almost every risk and contingency of life . For the trifling sum of tenpence monthly a man may secure twenty pounds to his survivors , even though his death were to accrue a moment after his first tenpence was paid . By another table , he may become entitled to the same amount on arriving at a certain age , or it will be paid to his survivors , should he die
sooner . By another , he can assure the same amount in the event of his death , or on his being rendered by any disease or accident incapable of pursuing his avocation . By another , he can secure a similar amount to his children for their education or their apprenticeship . And by a combination of these tables he may , for about three shillings weekly , educate his children , apprentice them , set them forward in life , and be the means of securing a thousand pounds to his grandchildren .
The German traveller Kohl remarks that , having visited all the civilized world , he has found one characteristic peculiar to the English : that they despise small savings —• " they never save small sums . " A man for one moment is in an economical vein , lie would save . But what ? A couple or three shillings a week ! Yes , he can do this ; but what will it amount to in the course of the year ? Seven pounds sixteen shillings ; and all the time Ik ; will have been pinching and denying himself many a comfort ! ISesides , what can he do Arit . Ii seven pounds sixteen shillings ? " It is not worth tin : trouble . " lie will " enjoy himself , and let others that come after him work as he has
done . " But such a man talks us if be . were sure of living till his children should be able to support themselves . lie reckons as though lie were . sure of being able to work as long as he lives . Are there , then , no casualties to maim and disqualify him— -no accidents which may in a moment , put , an ciu \ to his existence ? Has he never seen , even in imagination , the arm of his fellow workman caught , in ( , 1 a : shaft , or his head pounded by the remorseless wheel ? Docs lit : not : know how many sink while plying their unwholesome , trade , or become , valueless from overwork and exposure ? Why , for this despised £ 7 . Mis . a man may secure £ 100 to his survivors , even though he : were to lull dead on the threshold alter once paying it . And is t . here a man in possession of ' 2 . r > s . weekly who could no ! , save this ? Let , it , he remembered that on a guinea weekly under free trade and ( , he new tarill' a man can live , as well as he could on JSs . a , few years ago . What , does he
( . hen do with the Is . ? It goes , its Kohl says , m adding to his creature comforts . The more he : gets , the more he spends , lie finds ways for all his means . Well , it is human nature . Uvery one will seek to enjoy the good things ol life . Hut why not divide the matter ? Let ' 2 s . go t . o the body and its creature comf'oits , and with tin : remaining 2 s . buy peace of mind ! Hut if you do not assure to this extent , vet , do something- Invest a shilling
even sixpence . I ) o not go down like a , pauper to your grave wliile you have the power to show you Irive done your duty . Do not bequeath poverty and degradation to your family , and curses to your own memory , the more hitter , and deadly , and deserved , because , you have the power ( , o avert , them Sixpence a week will assure to your survivors inoi " e
than £ 50 . Yet men will drop into dishonourable graves , and leave the first duty of their life undischarged . But the extension of the practice of Life Assurance is not an interesting q uestion solely to the assured . The capitalist , and the landlord , and the householder , have not only a general interest in the Avelfare of those by whom they are surrounded .
They have a special interest in the Assurance of all these classes . Where would be the poor ' s rates in the next generation if Life Assurance were universally adopted in this ? Pauperism is the nursery of crime . And if crime were even partially reduced , how vast a sum would be saved to the country in county rates , and police , and prisons , and transportations !
To the employer , however , it is that we would now appeal . He has an immediate and vital interest in the welfare of those in his employ . There are some merchants in the city who will give no engagement to a man unless he assures his life . It is a system no less advantageous to the assured than to his employer . Of course , a man requires and hopes to obtain his full money ' s worth from those whom he engages . To obtain this , he must engage one whose heart and interest lie with his own . He
who in any subordinate situation simply proposes to give a quid pro quo , will seldom find the advantage on the side of his employer . What a man intends to do and what he does , would leave a great deficit of the latter on a balance sheet . He may give his physical presence at the office , or manufactory , or warehouse , with the utmost punctuality . But he may be abstracted during his work . Reflection on those he has left at home may obtrude on his labour . Distracting thoughts may arise of what will become of those dependent upon him if he were to become incapacitated , or if death were suddenly to remove
him . How do these thoughts chime in with the long columns of a ledger , or the counting and invoicing of goods , or the promptness and punctuality of correspondence ? May they not arrest many a one in his daily duties ? Will they not set the head in mazy abstraction while the hand falls powerless ? Let the capitalist estimate the loss he sustains by the anxieties of those who render a willing service , but who are , nevertheless , distracted by reflection . A free mind in those he engages is of incalculable value to the employer . lie cannot secure those around him from the various ills to which flesh is
heir , but he has the power , by the recommendation , if not enforcement , of Life Assurance , to secure himself from one cause of pecuniary loss and his people from one source of mental anxiety . The Ministers of Religion in various parts of the country have shown a laudable desire to encourage saving habits among those over whom they have influence . There are no means by which they might so readily advantage their locality as by recommending the practice of Assurance . They frequently now take weekly payments in exceedingly
small sums for various purposes . Why should they not become the depositories of the savings of the poor for the purposes of Assurance , and the communicators between them and the oflices where no local agent may have been appointed ? They might do more than this . They can reach the ears ami hearts of many whose attention can be arrested by no other means . Might they not from their pulpits recommend the adoption of that which would tend to soothe the dying hour of many among their flocks , and drive want , and the bitterness of poverty from their communion ? They who have ; such frequent opportunity of seeing the results of improvidence , and witnessing the sorrow and suffering of the helpless '< md unprotected , cannot , surely think it , without , their pale to recommend a system which brings provision to the destitute . They preach that "if any provide not lor his own , and especially for those of his own house , he hath denied the faith and is wor . se than an infidel . " They will not exceed t . heir duty by pointing out the means whereby such provision may most , mi rely and successfully he made .
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Till' : NKW " CONTINENTAL HMKIKADK ' AUA 1 NST MNULANI ) . ( loMi'i . icri ' Y with Cossackisin , is what the . events and results of British diplomacy for many years seem to indicate , on the part of the British Foreignolliee . There is a , great conspiracy on foot " against , flu : liberties of Europe " ; and what il , most behoves us to know in , whether or not Lord Pahnerston " in privy to it , a , party | . <> it , an active agent in it ? While diplomacy is aecret , tiunpicion in not only
inevitable but necessary ; and , therefore Lord Palmerston cannot complain of being suspected while he is the champion of secret diplomacy H can easily clear himself if he will . We only ' stat facts , we make no charges . But until we kno the actual relations of England with the Continental despots , and the Foreign-office chooses to be frank it will be our duty to warn the public of the danger * concealed in the future . We affirm deliberately that there is a conspiracy . What are its elements ? I . Diplomacy : its head ; II . Military Absolutism : its Sword ; III . The great Roman Catholic priestly party its Soul : ^'
IV . National Debts : its means of corruption . We have shown , in a previous number of the Leader , of Avhat Diplomacy is composed ; how the thing called the Diplomatic Interest is a guild devoted to the maintenance of itself , and ruling more or less the powers that be ; how Lord Palmerston is one of the most eminent members of that guild ; and how Russian diplomacy , being the strongest , must succeed in all its projects .
The common news of the day , the last seizure of power in Paris , the Austro-Russian occupation of so large a portion of Europe , these are the facts of Military Absolutism . What can words of ours add to them ? And , as to the share which organized Roman Catholicism has in these events , two recent facts , not to speak of others , indicate the close complicity of the priestly with the despotic party . Charles de Monfcalembert , in the name of the
Ultramontanes , adheres to the policy of M . Bonaparte , because he has rendered such , immense services to the Church ; that is , he has " guaranteed the liberty [ enslavement ] of instruction [ to the Priests ] , reestablished the Pope by French aims , restored to the Church its councils , its synods , the plenitude of its dignity , " &c . &c . And on the same day on which we read this declaration of the descendant of the Crusaders , we learn by the Transatlantic Mail that the Democrats of New
York have at length found that the Roman Catholic Archbishop Hughes is the dire foe of liberty , and have denounced him through the popular New York Herald as the " Enemy of the Republic . " It will be remembered that Archbishop Hughes visited Rome last summer , and that immediately on his return he denounced the institutions of the United States in the strongest language . On these points , at present , we shall say no more .
But there is one object of the Ausfcro-Russian conspiracy which probably will rouse the susceptibilities of the City . Napoleon said he was fighting the battles of England under the walls of Moscow ; and it is not now inconceivable that Kossuth may have been fighting the battles of England on the banks of the Theiss , and Mazzini performing similar service behind the walls of Koine ; because both these patriots were defending human liberty as well as Hungarian or Italian liberty . J * ut , if so , what were their antagonists doing ? Let us see . How would British Merchants like " a new Continental
blockade , " more stringent than that which Napoleon attempted to enforce , because voluntary on the part of the Continent , ;' , ! governments welded together by a fe . derat . ive Continental despotism ? We say auvisedly that the tactics not ; opposed by I ' al merston are leading to a similar blockade . Let Knglisli manufacture ™ look to it . What is the new move , unmasked of late , through the official medium ol Drr Lloyd , the Voice of Austria ? Nothing less d has )( nl
than a Continental blockade . J )« r Uoy < M ; >' pronounced , . since the Parisian " coup d ' etat - ' introduction of a Continental , system—words oi fatal memory is now hotly urged upon the C <> " ' ' nental governments . Lloyd , in the name of t » - Austrian ( ioverninent , exclaiming , "All KiiropiM " and particularly all ( Jerman , Powers must feel it duly to combine in taking defensive measure , against , the I'linj / isfi . si / stem , of plunder "
Will this open the eyes of the blind ? S « o yc no thai , the strife involves , not , only the alternative liberty or Cossackism , hut of Cos . Hackisin or I ' nytrade ? It prepares to attack your material iiiteren Hence can ye , Merchants ami Manufacturers Kngland , longer allord to dally with doubt ami a the sceptics on the edge of a precipice , out . ol t « ' » „ consideration lor the " most liberal ol MinisUnH The People neither dally nor doubt ; tlwy sheer through all mystifications , ami range trie wives with those who proclaim an iiiviolulH '' Nutionality and a Federative Alliance ol I copk , H .
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1210 HL % t 3 Lt&iitV + [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 20, 1851, page 1210, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1914/page/14/
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