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secretary as to the object of the insurance , I forwarded copy of his communication to William Palmer , who had iustructed me , and suggested an explanation should be given of Bates' mode of living , if he kept his carriage , &c , what property he had ; and cm my hearing that the object was ' to carry out a matter of business , ' 1 wrote and objected to the explanation being unsatisfactory , and subsequently , on inquiry in another quarter , determined to let the matter drop , having called on the secretary of the office with a vi * w of telling hiua so , but found him out of town . "
Here was a machinery concentrated on 11 George Bates , Esq . ; " and , according to the tale , even Bates himself was not altogether unprepared to try his luck at diamond cut diamond , in a game where his own life was at stake ! There is one point in cases of this kind that does not appear to have attracted attention . According to the story , Palmer had enjoyed an extraordinary facility in obtaining money upon persons who were insured that they might die . The case of Wainwiught had pointed the
warning long ago , and yet ive now find the same plan repeated , apparently upon a scale as much larger as the facilities afforded b y the insurance offices are greater . Thus the offices hold out a premium upon the poisoning of innocent persons . According to the plan , as it is now exposed , any man who is in want of cash within a reasonable tirhe , can insure the life of some unsuspecting person , may give his bill at three or four months , and thus raise the money for the purpose ; and with a very moderate amount of skill and tact in the use of a
proper kind of pill , may realise the sum assured at a given date . It . would perhaps make all safe if he were to renew his bill once or twice , so as to allow a sufficient period between the insurance and the deafh , and keep some kind of plausibility to the transaction . How far has this practice been carried out ? We really should regret to libel any class in the community ; "but no libel that ire could compose would tear off the veil of decency that covers such transactions , as it is torn even to
tatters , by the excess of vice in the community itself . It is no literary libeller who has brought out the complicated spelter case in the matter of Davidson and Gordon ; and remember , Davidson and Gordon can scarcely be said to have stood alone in that case . They could not have accomplished what they did , but for the extraordinary facilities they have found . It was not a literary libeller that tore clown the front wall of the Bank of Stkahan , Favl , and Bates . The commercial world has been
oxposing ilsel / * ; and in this instance it appears as the accomplice even of a Palmer . How is this ? To what extent has it really gone' ? The importance of the question will be felt when we observe , that it does not relate only to inorals or to human life , but to a question of money . If we were thinking only of saving " G-eougk Bates , Esq ., " no ' very great interest might be felt in the question . Possibly few of our commercial readers would turn pale if the question related only to a Mary or a Walter Palmer . But let us observe that it affects a
much wider circle than the immediate family and connexions of the pojsoner . If cases occur in , which assurances are effected in tins fashion , and moneys are paid out of the capital of insurance offices , what effect is it likely to have upon the resources of the insuring community , in meeting liabilities of longer date upon lives that reach their termination in a more natural
manner ? Wo have some reason to doubt-whether the rates of insurance oflioea are not already calculated so as to shave very olosely to the principle of stability . Now , if sums are anticipated in pay meats upon the prompt death of a Cook lioro , or a somebody else there , how much will remain to pay the insurances upon the lives of persona who arc suffered to reach the final goal in natural faaliion ? What pro-
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THE PERSIANS AT HERAT . Herat is not the key of India , in the sense that the key opens the gate ; but it is one of the most important positions in Central Asia . Its possession brings Persia actually within the 'frontiers of Afghanistan—a fact that may startle those who deride the idea of a Russian
advance towards the boundaries of our Indian empire . Great Britain has lodged herself within the Eastern limits , Russia , virtually , within the Western limits , of Afghanistanso that , absolutely , the enemy with whom we are contending in the Crimea and the Baltic , has forced his authority upon a city of the old Dtirani JSmpire !
Herat lies iu the most frequented route from Persia to India . The path of commerce is usually the path of armies . It is easy , no doubt , to enumerate the physical difficulties that would intervene between the conqueror of Herat and the invader of India . But the historical fact remains , that Russia , which lias advanced her actual territory a thousand miles in the direction of Teheran , has pushed her moral influence as far as Herat , which has succumbed , after several times resisting the Persians . The siege of the city in 1838 was described by certain India House politicals as
a contemptible 'burlesque . It was , however , a great and exciting struggle . The Persians , with forty thousand men , and seventy guns , sat during nine months before the citadel , and three times planted their standard in the breach . A British officer , however , was then the Khan ' s auxiliary , as a British officer should have been in the conflict which -has recently ended . The siege failed ; the Persians retired , ravaging the valley ; but since that day , Russia has worked incessantly to bring the Shah once more into the field , and to revive her influence in Central Asia .
It has been demonstrated , historically , that Russia has long entertained designs against our Oriental empire . It lias been demonstrated , also , that she lias selected Persia as the basis of those designs . Another track has , indeed , been marked , through Khiva , up the Oxus , to Bokhara and . Balk , and through the Hindu Koosh to Kabul ; but for this the subjugation of Turkistan , of Kharism and Bokhara , would be neccssar } 7 . These countries are in a rude social condition , and generally poor . So also , however , are the countries between the Caspian and Herat .
The enemies of our Indian ascendency have invariably aimed at it through Persia , and Persia through Herat . Napoleon , before Russia and Persia were one , diplomatically , incited the Shah to assail Turkey , and to subdue the Khanates that lay to the east of his dominions . When , after disastrous wars with Russia , Persia submitted to her powerful neighbour , she became , not her ally only , but her slave ; and it is impossible to do \ ibt that she has boon bribed as well as coerced into her present attitude .
In our opinion , therefore , the capture of Herat by the Persians is a serious event , which destroys British prestige throughout the vast regions of Central Asia . In the eyes of some , thut prestige is valueless , but we think it is at least worth « naval expedition in the Persian Gulf .
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MORE PENSION LIST VAGARIES . Not more than u month ago , we drew the attention of our readers to the misfortunes of Mr . Gut , the writer of elementary works , who , though in deep want , arid with real chums upon the public
purse , waa unable to obtain a pension . A case of equal hardship , and exhibiting in as glaring a light the inadequate amount set aside from the public revenue for the relief of men of intellect , has come before the public in the course of the present week . Mr . Joseph Haydn , the author of the popular Dictionary of Dates—a work of great use to those who , without aiming at scholarship , are desirous to get at facts by a ready process—has been offered a pension of ^ 25 per annum I Seriously , he has received that degrading offer—the pay of an upper servant , for a life spent in useful literary labours . And the fault is not with those who administer the national funds ; the fault consists in screwing those funds down to so beggai-ly an amount that ( after subtracting what is given ^ s a mere matter of honour to men who do not need
pecuniary assistance ) almost the only effect of the bounty is to insult rather than . to relieve . Mr . Ha . ydn , like his fellow-labourer to whom we have a 3 ready referred , has been reduced to most painful extremities—the cause in his case beitfg a stroke of paralysis on last Easter Tuesday , at which time he was employed by the Admiralty in bringing up the records of the Secretary of State ' s letters . " Lord Palmerston , according to tlie statement of a correspondent of the Times , has had the generosity to send him ^ 100 ; " ' whale Mr . Disraeli , and a few others , added to tnis
sum enough to purchase for Mrs . Haybn and family a shop for the sale of stationery and newspapers ( No . 13 , Crawley-street , Oakley-square . ) ' If in tlie neighbourhood of Oakleys-square there " be any wlio have benefited by the Dictionary of Dates , or who have respect for the struggles of illrequited intellectual labour , we are sure they 'will regard it as a duty to do the best they ean for that stationer ' s shop established under these touching circumstances . But the public at large will have to look to another matter—the removal for the future of these blots upon our national generositv .
The Sound Duns—The Council of + he Liverpoo * Chamber of Commerce have received-a letter from , the Earl of Clarendon stating" that Government had the subject of tlie abolition of the Sound Dues under its consideration . The annual meeting of ihe Chanlbers of Comm-erce of Liverpool will "be held early in 3 Sebruary , when it is expected some definite information on the matter will "be laid before the members . The Metropolitan Board of Worjks held a meeting on Monday , wlien several matters of rotitine "were discussed . Mr . Bazalgette , the temporary engineerin-chiet of the Board , delivered in a report with respect io the management of the sewers , for -which he had engaged thirty-three assistants . Considerable
discussion ensued on the subject of a device fox the official seal . The committee appointed -to consider this matter recommended a design which should include the armorial bearings of the four metropolitan connties , Middlesex , Surrey , Essex , and Kent ; but it appeared that Surrey and Essex have no armorial bearings ; and a design by Mr . Wyon having been submitted to the Board , the question , was sent back to the committee for reconsideration . A motion fixing the clerk ' s salary at . £ 800 a-year -was agreed to ; and some discussion arose with inference to the future place of meeting of the Board , Bui'lington House "being required by Government after the 21 st . The meeting adjourned till Monday .
The Omnibus Entente ConpiAtE , —The firBt in . stalment of the London omnibus connexion was passed over to the French Compaigno Ge " nerale on Moudny morning , and was duly worked by them througli tho day . This was the Holloway line , belonging to Mr . Wilson . It consisted of fifty omnibuses with five hundred horses , employing about one hundred and oiglity men , all of whom are now in tlio service of the . Anglo-French General Omnibus Company of London , The "times , " whiflh are a special privilege , roligiously guarded by the omnibus fraternity , and considered to be of equal value-with tlu > vehicles . &c . wore alao made ov er as part of th «
, bat-gait ) , A similar transfer was executed on Monday by Mr . Leonard Willing , the oldeat omnibus pro prietocin London , who , with others , convoyed to the same parties the Stoko ] Nevvingtou and Kingsland and D-ulatou lino , comprising twenty-two omnkbuaoB two hundred horsoa , and seventy employe . The Freucli company ' s intended Byutern of " corro spoiidouco" ( by wbioh a person getting into an omni bua in any part of London may be convoyed at on clmrgo to any point of destination , by tho mutual oa change of passengers ) doea not come into action unti their » ow carrii ^ gos arc built , and tueir purchases t tho other London " times" are completed .
Finis . — -A lire burst out on Sunday on tho promise occupied by tho London Parcels' Delivery Company which oonnumed a portion of the building , but di not destroy any of tho parcols .
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portion exists , may we ask , of insurances at sliort dates ? The question is enough to make sonae of us hope that our families may be among the earlier claimants upon the insurance offices .
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January 12 , 1856 . j « T H Er L E A D B Bi oQ
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 12, 1856, page 39, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2123/page/15/
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