The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-08-11 00:00:00

THE ROYAL INSURANCE COMPANY.

IN proportion to the public sense of the duty of
insuring life and property against the casualties
affecting both will be the anxiety to select an
establishment transacting such business whose
calculations are just and well founded, and whose
management is conducted by men whose experi-
ence and character are guarantees for carefulness
and prudence in the practical administration of
its affairs. The insurers' next consideration must
be directed to the actual progress and develop-
ment of the institution he may have selected as
trustworthy, and in which he may have" risked
the safety of much of his property, and to a great
extent the future comfort and happiness of those
that are dearer to his heart than his own exist-
ence. Apart from and in addition to the indivi-
dual interests of insurers, the welfare of society at
large is deeply involved in the wise conduct of
the various insurance offices which solicit the confi-
dence and patronage of the general public. If it
were necessary to illustrate this fact we might
remind the readers of many and widespread
calamities which have unfortunately arisen from
misplaced confidence in bubbles which, in burst-
ing, have desolated happy homes, and thrown
helpless upon the cold charity of the law gentle-
women and children who lived in the lap of
plenty ;—explosions which have buried men of
intelligence and enterprise in the gloom of the
Bankruptcy Court, or in the Trophonian caves of
lunacy, whereinto those who enter never more
send forth the jocund laugh of health and reason.
Much, very much, that appertains to the welfare
of the individual and of the general body politic,
depends upon the solidity and prosperity of our
Fire and Life Insurance Companies.
The great difficulty experienced by the non-
professional mathematician or actuary—and that
means the great body of general readers, and men
of ordinary capacity—is to know how to form
an impartial judgment on this question for them-
selves. Few feel disposed, or competent to enter
into the details of an actuary's quinquennial
report ; and most men are, now-a-days, well
aware that certifications of pretended investi-
gations, by professional accountants, have been
too often found appended to the books, balance-
sheets, and reports of the most fraudulently con-
ducted concerns. There is some truth in the
enigma that " nothing is so deceptive as figures ;"
and those who have had most experience, and the
best opportunities of judging, know most fully
the truth of this apparent contradiction in terms.
There are few things easier than to make out a
seemingly fair balance-sheet, and a report showing a
profit, whether it has or has not really been realised,
and to obtain a certification of its accuracy from
some one whose professional capabilities may not
have been questioned. The suspicion and anxiety
of the public, therefore, in this respect, are well
founded and healthy. The proper manner of
meeting and resolving this difficulty, lies in the
publication of the fullest details, under the
sanction of known men, who have something at
stake to be • sacrificed in the event of their un-
faithfulness, and whose known position renders
it beyond probability that they can have much
temptation to yield to any paltry considerations
of pecuniary reward. If PERCY M. DOVE, F. S.S.,
F.1.A., the actuary of the Royal Insurance Com-
pany, be not such a man, there is none
of that calibre to be found in the world;.
and if the unhesitating disclosures and unusually
ample details of a company's experience and
business transactions now made to the public in
that actuary's report do not secure an ample
reward' by engendering in the mind of every
reader entire confidence in the stability of the
Royal Insurance Company, we know of no com 7
pany worthy of the slightest trust. Theqe, how.:
ever, are so full and minute, so capable of being
checked by hundreds and thousands of people,
and rest upon such undoubted authority, that we
believe assurers will select the Royal Insurance
Company; which has exercised such unprecedented
and unreserved frankness with the public, as one
of those institutions (without prejudice to certain
others,) which deserve their unlimited confidence,
and a corresponding increase of public patronage
and support. Indeed, there seems every reason
to believe, judging impartially from the facts and
data already published, that when the next five-
yearly report is published, the Royal Insurance
Company will be found to be unsurpassed by
more than two or three, if it be by any assurance
institution in the kingdom. The signs of such a
probable extension of business are already dis-
cernable, as it has been the satisfactory announce-
ment ' of each succeeding year for a lengthened
period, that the new policies, in the interval
between one meeting and another, have exceeded
those of any former like period. Such is the re_
cord again made this year. In the last year,
we learn from the high authority we have named,
sure upwards of
of f a thousandnearly half-a-million, the largest were issried, for a
number and for the largest. amount, in any one
year, since,the commencement of the company's
business. Without entering further into details
ancient or modern, even
we are led to believe, frOm the same source, that
Royal, has larger elements of prosperity,
tnhoe m assuranceostsupc'eceoem4:: company,
'compared with the career
fullrdme degree rreexeßt
extent,
orclf tishemore likely to find these developed into a
t7apnadn sion, th at will ere lon,g,
beyond the anticipation
Share-
holder and, the Assured.heuefit both the
od,
One of the happiest discoveries of modern times
to of
a successful
anyve very
yf
former
is the fact that the business of Insurance may b.e
safely carried on with the greated public benefits,

and at the same time with large profits to pro-
prietors of stock in the various rival establish-
ments which seek to cultivate the goodwill of
assurers. Hence the unworthy discussions
promoted and sustained by those who are known
to have an unequally divided feeling between these
several interests. It may interest brokers and
jobbers and small pettifogging people to get up
disputes, and to simulate distrust to serve special
ends and interests ; and it may matter little to
the general public to prevent such displays as
being upon the whole calculated to effect a healthy
ventilation ; but the character of such encounters
should be fully understood by the public as
unworthy of serious consideration on the part of
intelligent and earnest men. In so far as the
Royal Insurance Company is concerned, doubtless
such discussions are most profitable, as tending to
make still more manifest and prominent the sound
basis upon which the business has been established,
and the safe and stable manner in which the
superstructure has been raised. Next to impressing
the public with a conviction of the duty of insuring
life and property, we feel it our privilege to have
an opportunity of recommending a safe and sound
office—such as the Royal Insurance Company,
and we trust that in doing so it will not be sup-
posed that we have—for we really have not, any
interest whatever beyond that of the general good ;
neither do we in any measure wish to depreciate
other institutions of equal security when, on the
present occasion, and with reference to the meet-
ing of yesterday, we give without fear, love, or
favour, an unqualified word of confidence in and
commendation to a native institution—the Royal
Insurance Company.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRANCE.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Friday, August 10, 1860.
A propos of the visit which it is said Queen
Victoria is to pay to Germany next. month, I
observe that it is stated by a correspondent of the
Cologne Gazette, that her Majesty will be accom-
panied on her journey by Lord John Russell, but
that the Queen will not go to Berlin, but to
Coburg, where she is to meet the Princess
Frederick William. Her Majesty's sojourn at
the residence of her Royal relative will be of con-
siderable duration.
The Prince Imperial left Paris this afternoon
for the camp at Chalons, in charge of his gouver-
nante and Adjutant-General Rollin. The child
was received with Imperial honours at the railway
station, and several of the directors accompanied
the train as far as the camp. This is certainly an
early introduction to the habits of camp life. Prince
William of Baden, who is somewhat older than
than the Imperial Prince, has been the guest of
the Emperor in the camp since Wednesday, and
has been invited by his Majesty to remain some
time longer, in order to be present at the manoeu-
vres which are about to take place at Chalons on
a large scale.
General d'Hautpoul takes out with him the in-
signia of the grade of the Grand Cross of the
Legion of Honour, which has been conferred by
the Emperor on Abd-el-Kader. General d'Haut-
poul has been promoted to the rank of General of
Division. Accounts from Toulon state that the
steel plated (cuirassee) vessel La Gloire was
taken into the roads on Saturday last, and
brought alongside the wharf, for the purpose of
taking a full complement of coal on board. The
first departures of the expedition commenced, it
seems, from this port on the previous Sunday
morning. The steam transport Finisterc got up
her steam at nine o'clock that morning, and was
ready to start at midday, for Oran, where she
was to take on board four hundred mules for the
use of the commissariat. The Yonne steamed to
Algiers the same evening to take up a battery of
mountain artillery. The Mogador the Asmodeus
and the Ceres, conveyed direct to Beyrout, in all,
1,600 men and 65 horses, besides a large quantity
of materiel and ammunition of all kinds. There
have been several extensive shipments of men
and horses made subsequently.
A letter from Rome mentions that Colonel de
Pimodan, recently promoted to the rank of
General of Brigade in the Pontifical army, has
been appointed to the command of the corps of
observation established on the ,Tuscan frontier,
and General Lamoriciere seems likely soon to
have an opportunity of at length fleshing his
sword in a fresh Italian struggle. General Goyon
will probably not be sorry to have escaped from
a position which was fully as remarkable for the
embarrassment in which it surrounded him as for
the opportunities it afforded him of displaying his
generalship.
Garibaldi's arrival at Naples has not yet been
telegraphed ; indeed, it is even said that he has
not yet been able to make arrangements for
taking a final leave of Sicily, but I see it stated
in a letter from Naples, dated not later than
Saturday last, that the walls of Naples are
covered with placards announcing that his
arrival is " imminent," and calling the citizens to
arms. The police have torn down the placards,
which is now considered an extraordinary cir-
cumstance, for everything, in other respects,
looks as if the monarchy had disappeared. In
many of the houses, also, quantities of paving
stones have been collected, to be used for barri-
cades when the day of struggle comes; and it is
even asserted that notices have been put
up at the corners of the streets, announcing
the departure of a steamer for Palermo,
and inviting the patriots to go by it, to join the
army of Garibaldi! General Clary had arrived in
Naples. The anniversary of the birthday of the
Queen Mother, who had returned to Gaeta,
passed over without any disturbance, but with no
demonstrations of respect. The King has collected
his troops in the camp near the city, and is putting
them through manoeuvres which frequently last
the greater part of the night. The spirit of insur-
rectionary effervescence is betraying itself in vari-
ous ways On Thursday last, a crowd of people
presented themselves in front of one of the
barracks, and called out " Viva Garibaldi !" and
on the officer on guard ordering them to cease,
they replied by knocking him down. He then
ordered the men to fire in the Ail' to frighten
the insurgents, but they attacked him again, and
ultimately he ardered them to be fired on, by
which one, of their number was killed. The
National Guard is installed in several of the
religious houses. Up to this time it has behaved
tolerably steadily, and has been thanked by the
King for its conduct in protecting some soldiers
assailed by the canaille.
You will have seen, from the summary, which
has been prepared from the Cologne Gazette,
of the reply which has been made by
Prussia to the proposal of France to give the
representative of Spain a seat at the council
board of the great powers, that Prussia, in con-
senting to this request, has suggested the intro-
duction of Sweden to the meetings of this
assembly, as a Protestant counterbalance to the
ultramontane ethos of the Cabinet of Her Most
Catholic Majesty. This suggestion deprives of
a considerable portion of credit the rumour
that, at the recent interview hetween the
sovereigns of Denmarkpro-
and Sweden, a
ject of
IVA aWance had been agreed to
between Denmark and Sweden, having for its
object, according to the Nord, the formation of a
Scandinavian coalition against Germany. It is
not likely that if any such leaning had keen ma-
nifested on the part of Sweden to, support Den-
markilolstein predilections,
in its Schleswig
katve made any such
Prussia would proposal in
her behalf. Moreover, the Swedish Press is una-
nimous in pronouncing against any such under-
standing or agreement.
According to the Swabian Mercury, there
remains no longer any doubt, that a meeting at
Warsaw, towards the end of the present month,
has been definitely nrmuged between the Prince
Regent and the Czar. It is doubted, however,
whether the Emperor of Austria and the other
Princes of Germany will be present on the Occa-
sion, as was also at one time supposed would be the
case. The Emperor seems likely to have his
hands quite full at home for some time to come, as
by the latest accounts from Vienna, the demands
of the Hungarians for a restoration of their
rights, are being pursued with the most deter-
mined pertinacity ; so much so, that the Only
hope of f4l--e Aus,trian Government being able
to give these demands the go-by, rests on the
Success of the efforts which it is at present
Making on a most extensive scale, and at ki, consi-
derable expenditure of money, to excite the Ser-

FRANCE.

The Presse having expressed an opinion that '
the subscription for the Christians in the East
will prove, like many others in France, a com-
parative failure, the Constitutionnel, in the course
of an article declaring that it differs from its con-
temporary, says it is our bounden duty, under
present circumstances, to offer to Syria at least
what England gave us in 1856. The English have
spontaneously contributed an important part of
the result. This liberality of England to foreign
misfortunes is an example which ought never to
be forgotten.

SYRIA.

CONSTANTINOPLE, August 9..
[OFFICIAL.]

Advices from Damascus of the 4th inst. report
that city quite quiet, and that perfect order is
established. Upwards of 400 persons, accused of
complicity in the massacres, have been arrested.
In a day or two all principal persons compromised
will be in the hands of the authorities. An
extraordinary court has been opened for the trial
of the accused, and those condemned will be
immediately executed. Troops behave very well.
A great part of the pillaged property has been
recovered.

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, Aug. ilk

The Austrian Government intended, as soon as
the principle of intervention in Syria had been
agreed upon at the conference, to dispatch a
battalion of Tyrolean Chasseurs to Aleppo by the
Kaiser.. The Porte, however, having officially
assured the Austrian Cabinet that, according to.
the latest information received, Fnad Pasha_ had
guaranteed to pacify Syria without the aid of
foreign troops, the protocol was abandoned.
According to a communication from Vienna, in
the Cologne Gaze*, active negotiations are going
on between the courts of Vienna and Rome an the
subject of the eventuality of an invasion of the.
Pontifical States by Garibaldi. The Duke of
Modena has promised to unite, in that case, his.
troops to the Papal arms,