The Express.
London, England, 1864-11-09 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

IMPORTANT JUDGMENT ON A LIFE
ASSURANCE POLICY.
(now oua owa comaroaunT.)

PARIS. TuirADAY ECM:IM

The Droit only now publishes an important judg-
ment of the Tribunal of Commerce pronounced on
Oct. 26. It was an action brought by the Marquis
de Beaumont against the International Assurance
Company of London to recover the amount of
policy of 50,000 fr., effected by the marquis in 1854
upon the life of a M. Driencourt, who died .on Oct.
8, 1863. The payment was resisted by the company
on three grounds That the English law does
not recognise the validity of an insurance effected
on the head of a third party, estranger to the con-
tract.--(This, I may remark in passing, is a manifest
misrepresentation of the English law, which does
allow of an insurance on the life of a stranger to
the contract, provided the party effecting the policy
has an interest in that life.)-2. That the Laurance
under the circumstances constituted an illegal wager
upon human life.—(This was the extraordinary
doctrine broached by Procnreur-General Dupin
in the La Pommerais case.)-3. That the policy was
void by reason of the concealment of certain points
essential to be known by the company. The judg-
ment of the court states that whatever may be
the law of England, the objections founded upon
it are not applicable to an insurance made in
France without any notice having been given to
the Marquis de Beaumont of the special English
provisions alleged, and that the conditions ex-
pressed on the face of the policy make no mention
of the grounds of nullity now relied upon by the
company ; that an insurance on the life of a third
party, a stranger to the contract cannot be con-
sidered as a gambling transaction or a wager
upon human life ; that the contract is based upon
the existence of a debt certain, and that the only
contingency was the period at which it should be
paid ; that at the time of taking out the policy the
company had, according to usage, asked for and
obtained all necessary information touching the
identity of the life insured, his age, state of health,
and personal situation ; that the subsequent
changes in the social position of the person whose
life was insured cannot affect the previous contract ;
and that the premiums having been duly paid,
the 50,000 fr. are now justly due to the Marquis de
Beaumont.

Judgment is therefore given spinet the com-
pany upon every point, and with costs.

- M. Jules Favre, iii • letter to the France,
replies as follows to Deputy Buggio :

You publish a letter from M. Boggio, which =anteing
some of the assertions of his pamphlet. I can only re-
iterate my absolute contradiction to all of them. M.
Boggio moat certainly oorifouud my conversation with that
of some other person of diametrically opposite opinions.
I never could hare said " that in the proem& state of per.
ties in France no government could without danger brave
the h►tred of the ca.tholios, readered all powerful by the
MUMS and universal suffrage, and that coesequently the
government which should give up Rome to the Italians
would incur the gre►test risk." I have constantly
thought and said the very contrary. The occupatiou of
Rome always seemed to me a course of weakness fat our
government u well as a peril for religious interests, and I
am still convinced th►t the withdrawal of our troops,which
I have unomaingly demanded, would be beneficial both to
our government and to religion, and would not lead to any
serious agitation in France. I regret being compelled to
return to a subject which I had thought exhausted, and
in which I shall not again mix myself up.-1 remain,
Nov. 7. J Cus FAvar.

The paradoxical M. Proudhon has just pub-
lished a pamphlet at Brussels against Italian unity.
He avows, what is well known, that he himself
does not believe in the catholic religion, neverthe-
less he thinks it for the interest of the French go-
vernment not to abandon the " fortress of con-
science," which consists in the religious opinions of
the great majority of Frenchmen. To give up the
influence which the goveznment gains by protect-
ing the prejudices of catholic. without substituting
.10(110 other faith would seem to him about as wise
as the conduct of a general who, on the first
news of the invention of rifled cannon, should
have destroyed all his old guns before there bad
been time to manufacture new ones. M. Proudhon.
therefore, seems to adopt the very doctrines and
expressions which M. Jules Fevre so energetically
repudiates. As to the value of the Italian people
and their fitness fur liberty, M. Proudhon expresses
himself in the following terms :
I tell you that what Italy really wants and what she will
have is an iron hand to scourge her, whether the hand be
that of a Hapsburg, a prime of Savoy, or a Garibaldi. Her
destiny is fixed ; she must be governed by a combination of
the Pretormn, the extortioner, and the priest ; otherwise
she has nothing for it bet to tall piecemeal into the hands
of the foreigner.

The rise in Consols made an excellent imprea-
siou on the Bourse to-day. Reute rose sc. fur
cash and 2uc. for account, closing at 541 r. 90c. and
tisfr. sc. !thanlier rose 17fr. 50c. Railways,
however, were ou the whole rather lower.

lIZALTH OF LONDON. -- The return issued
by authority of the Regiathar-General states that the
deaths is London showed an =mew in the List week of
October, when they row to 1,409 • they exhibit • further
increase for the week that ended last Saturday, the number
now reterned being 1,454. Th. ge number of deaths
in the forty-fourth week of ten years, 10 i4-6d, is, with •
oorrecuou for increase of population, 1,239 ; and there is
therefore an excess of 215 deaths in the present return
over the estimated number. The most prevalent of the
zymotic class of diseases is scarlatina, the deaths from
which rose to 110. Next to it in respect of mortality is
typhus (including typhoid, gastric fever. he.), to which Ilk
deaths were referred. Fifty-seven children died of meaeles,
no lino than ten of whom were in the Poplar district. Of
the 110 cases of scarlatina, four occurred in the Belgrave
sub-district, four in that of St. John, Westminster ; four
in the Regent's-park sub-diatnct, four in Mint=
East, six in Haggereiouir West, by* io the sub-district of
St. Saviour, Southwark, nine in the two Lambeth Church
sub-districts, four in Hummed. Is thelmt-ineotioned sub-
district there were also six deaths from typhus. In the
Green eich district, which comprises Deptford, linen rich,
and Woolwich, there were six deaths from searlatioa, and
eight from typhus. The total cumber of deaths from dis-
MYRA of the respiratory organs to the week was 293, being
exclusive of phtbisis. The corrected average for the week
is 224. This order of ouniplainta appears to be unusually
prevalent for the beginning of November. Phthisa for
consumption) we. fatal in 161 cases. A widow died at the
age of 94 years ; another woman at the age (as reported) of
103 years. The *soutane' iao died on the lat inst. in the
Bethnal-green workhouse. A man, aged 4.0 years, died in
the London Fever Hospital, of mercurielism from Brown's
gout pills. Last week the births of 1.019 boys and 995
girls, in all 2,017 children, were registered in London. In
the ten corresponding weeks of the yearn 1554-63 the ave-
rage number (corrected) was 1.901.
M TUT 61t101.:ei Ot.:CUaIiALNCE AT BOULOGNE, —A
circumstance has just occurred which has created the
greatest excitement in Boulogne. On Monday morning,
shoat 7 a.m, a little boy, about seven years old, was found
drowned in the Liao. river, and about 11 a.m. • younger
boy about four was discovered ; both were fully dressed and
did not appesx to have been loug in the water. The bodies
were conveyed to the hospital, but as several hours elapsed
end no one appeared to claim them, inquiries were made,
and the children were recognised ea having arrived by the
steamer of the South Easters Railway, Albert Ed weld, from
Folkestone, on &today afternoon, is company with •
FrenchmanFochman who fosineely lived at inform, but who has
resided some years in Load= as a waiter. It km been
asoertamed that be left Boulogne on Monday by railway,
and justice, it is to be hoped, will not be long in reaching
,kina