The Express.
London, England, 1852-09-23 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPT. 23.

THE QUEEN has—through the agency of the PRE-
MlER—expressed her desire that the funeral of the
Duke of WELLINGTON should be public. Her MA-
.HATT at the same time, with a delicacy which her
subjects will know how to appreciate, has left the
ultimate decision of the question to the representa-
tives of the people. There is no action of her Ms-
JEsl'which mote clearly shows nut only her careful
sense of the state of public feeling, but also her tho-
rough comprehension of her position as a constitu-
tional 141Vt.rvign than this. She has identified her-
self with the nation.
Her Nlsiesri," says Lord Denny, in his official
letter to Secretors- Watrou:, " is well aware that
as in the case of Lord NELSON, she might of her own
authority hwe given immediate orders for this public
mark of veneration for the memory of the illustrious
In RE, and has no doubt but that Parliament and the
country would cordially have approved the step.
But ht? MAJESTY, anxious that this tribute
of gratitude and sorrow should be deprived
of nothing which could invest it with a
thoroughly national character—anxious that the
greatest pessible number of her subjects should have
au opportunity of joining it—is anxious above all,
that such honours should not appear to emanate from
the Crown alone, and that the two Houses of Parlia-
ment should have an opportunity by their previous
sanction, of stamping the proposea ceremony with
increased solemnity, and of associating themselves
with her 3lnixsry in paying honour to the memory
of one whom no Englishman can name without
(nide and sorrow."
ithout looking too curiously into the Ministe-
rial English. and worrying ourselves with inquiring
how her MAJESTY, who never saw the light until
many years after the interment of Lord NELSON,
could, •
"us in the rose of Lord Nelson, have given
orders, or how a parliament can have an
...pionrefunty of stamping anything by a prerious
sanction.- i: is quite sufficient to us that a meaning
looms.- as Mr. Disnsu.l would have it, through
the abuse words, and that the meaning is very satis-
factory. Commit told us long. ago that we were
not to expect grammar in ministerial productions,
and although we might have looked for better
times, now we have a literary man in the
ministry. it is too much to expect that the
CHANCELLOR of the Exculat:Ea, in the midst
of hit present difficulties, can be looking over
the shoulders of all his colleagues when they
are writing letters, that he may put them in trim. We
accept. there ore, Lord DERBY'S bad English for the
oaks of his good news, and, remembering the good
old adage '• not to look a gift horse in the month,"
content ourselves with the matter rather than the
manner of tile communications of our horse-racing

]Prime Minister.
Now, the readers of the Erpreqs will not need
to be reminded that the view which her MAJESTY
takes of the nature of the necessary course to be
adopted, on the occasion of the death of the great
military hero, is precisely that which we have advo-
cated. No later than yesterday we contended that
the 0.,b0n must bury the Dine—that the nation
must he the chief mourner—that all heraldic mummc-
ties must be subservient to the great object in view.
11'e demanded that every detail should be so ordered
that the notion at large should be enabled to partici-
pate. We denied the right of any clique to bar the
claim of the nation to share in the funeral obsequies
of its greatest hero. The decision of the QuEEN comes
forward now to give the most powerful corroboration
to the soundness of this view. The highest au-
thority in the nation declares, through the
agency of her chief minister, not only that
it is fitting and proper that the funeral should
be national, but that the nation itself should,
through thf, ....ins of its representatives, affirm this.
The Qt. ev: declines taking any steps towards the
realisation of en object in which,nevertheless, her feel-
ings arc deeply interested, and waits, to use Lord
DERBY'S words, " until she shall have received the
formal approbation of Parliameot, of the mime
which it will be the duty of her 'Meiesrr's servants
to submit toboth houses upon their re-assembling.
Now, the letter which communicates the wishes
of her MAJESTY, states that the intended place of
interment is St. Paul's, but contains no information
as to the building to be selected for the
lying in state. 'this surely is an important point
to be settled. Thousands who will be unable to
witness the fur.eral procession, which will occupy
but a few hours, and be accompanied by immense
crowds, will gladly avail themselves of an opportu-
nity of witnessing the solemn ceremonial of lying in
state. The order which it will be possible to pre-
serve in a building will attract many persons who
would be too timid to incur the danger of mingling
with a vast multitude in the open streets. It will,
therefore, be of the utmost importance that
this portion of the ceremony should be conducted
with all possible solemnity, and in a building large
enough to accommodate great numbers. No place
wnuldThe so appropriate for this purpose as West-
minster Hall. We have already given sufficient
reasons for the selection of this building.
Another point may be mooted. Every one who
has been bold enough to entrust (limier to
the tender mercies of a sight-seeing crush, looks
back to his escape—if be has escaped—from bodily
injury as a sailor looks back to his preservation
from the clingers of wreck on a los shore
in a stormy night. Why should the privileged
spectators of all national ceremonies be the violent
and unscrupulous? Why should the indulgence of
a desire to witness an object of national interest be
accompanied with the greatest danger to life or
limb? Why, in short, on all occasions of public
participation in great ceremonies, should the
more violent and ill-regulated be in possession of
the main points of view in the streets. It would be
difficult to answer this question properly, unless it
should be asserted that any improvement is impos-
sible. Now, in the absence of any proof at this asser-
tion, may we not suggest the possibility of prevent-
ing much of that turbulence and crush which makes
it impassible for the great majority of the public to be
present at a great prprocession. At any rate the ex-
periment is worth trying. Nothing can be worse than
no system at all. If any proposed plan fails, we
shall be no worse off than before. And it is quite
clear that unless some measures of prevention are
taken; an attempt of unprivileged persons to see the
procession will involve an amount of discomfort like
that nts being jammed in a crush equal to that of ten
Lord Mayors shows crowded into one. If the nation
are to attend the Duke's funeral, let tho nation be
made as comfortable as possible.
To be enabled to discover a remedy for tho ordi•
nary evils attending processions let us see how they
arise. roc public attention is generally directed to
those points in the line where the best view can be
attained. The great pressure therefore will be found
at those points. and crowds will flock there. As the
numbers increase, the struggle commences, and the
strongest and most brutal remain of course in pos-
session of the field. Those who have been
foiled in their attempts, distribute them-
eaves along the whole line io less favoured
positions unul at lest every point is occupied. The
accession of new spectators IM attended with greater ,
pressure and fresh struggles. The mass becomes
packed so densely that the slightest movement in nny
one portion produces extensive vibrations. As the
precs salon advances each one endeavours to follow the
object of the greatest interest. All these soon be-
come engaged in a contest to pass other', and the
pressure towards the ultimate point in the bnc--
that where the procession stops--ice enormous. The
weakest go to the wall, and the few who arc violent
and careless cbtaiu their end. The smallest possible
number out of vast multitude'—and' these very pos-
sibly the least deserving—have a view of the
imectiscle. Now, all these evils would be remedied
flit were possible to keep the crowd nioriny along
the whole line of procession in a direction contrary
that in which llie yrnceasion fob-amts. By this

means each person in the crowd will see each point
of the procession. The instant that the fusion)
cortege begins to move, the spectators on each side
'of the streets should be made to aloes also, bat fn
on opposite direction, so as to most the advancing
line.
Tho only question that remains is, is it practi-
cable to enforce such a reguletioaP Why set
The road will, as usual, be kept by the Howe guards,'
the pavement will be lined with police. Now, instruc-
tions given to the constables to enforce the order,
" keep moving," would—if commenced at the
point where the procession started from—be
sufficient to put an end to much of the
evil we have described, and to give an
uninterrupted view of the procession to thou-
sands. Any attempt at violence might surely be
checked, and all endeavours to turn back—and thus
throw the line into disorder—might be suppressed by
turning the offender out of the line, or in
ease of contumacy handing him over to cus-
tody. No rational liberty, but only irrational li-
cense, would be opposed by these measures, and the
good sense of the public, it may be fairly hoped,
would induce them to assist the police in their task
of carrying out a plan by which thousands would be
enabled to become spectators, who would otherwise
uovcr venture near the line. Only the lawless would
object to such a regulation. If it, or something
similar bo adopted, the funeral will have a still
greater claim to the epithet national, from the fact
of a larger proportion of the nation being admitted
as spectators. Let Scotland-yard think of this.

Ose of the most remarkable circumstances of tho
present day is the rapid increase of life assurance
companies. They spring up like mushrooms. It
has been proclaimed by high authority that no
employment for capital is more profitable, and many
persons who hare capital, and many who have none,
are boldly starting assurance companies. (Jut of 132
um in existence, only 10 existed before 1800. In
the first decennial period of the century only 10
Now ones were established, in the second only 5, in
the third only 16, in the fourth only 29, and in the
fifth, or from 1340 to 1850, 82 were established. Of
these 92, 75 have been established since 1844, when
the Joint-stock Registration Act was passed,
which includes assurance offices within its provisions.
The number projected since then is still more extra-
ordinery,—no less than 241; but of these only 75
continue in life, the rest having been strangled at
their birth, or died after a abort and ricketty exist-
ence. These teeming births and addled conceptions
since 1844 were the consequence of that act giving
to assurance companies an easy means of obtaining a
recognised legal existence. But it would have had
no such an effect were it not that great wealth had
been acquired by some old assurance offices, and great
profits were consequently anticipated by those who
set about establishin,r new ones.
There is no more beautiful or conservative feature
in the human character than that which aims at pro-
viding for the future welfare of families, and conse-
quently of society. If improvident statesmen have
forestalled the resources of future generations by
enormous national debts, prudent individuals have
laid by to a still great extent, including the savings
dill, and have enabled the nation to bear the burdens,
with the many advantages which past generations
bus bequeathed to it. The property assured is only one
part of this greet provision, and it amounts according
la the big calculations to about 150,000,0001. It is
eatireld that 5,000,000/. is paid yearly in premiums
is 'ear that 130,000,000/. may at some distant
rdbe paid to those for whose benefit
assurance is made. To that extent in
this single branch, to say nothing of the ships
and houses built, of bridges, mills, and cathedrals
constructed, of land drained, of property gathered
together in various other directions does one genera-
tion stint itself to provide for the next. Compared
to that the exertions of vaunting statesmen, whose
business it is to take care of the future, are mean,
beggarly, and inefficient. The providence of indi-
viduals is the conservative spirit of society ' • and
while some politicians are, or 'intend to be, alarmed
at the progress of disorder, the increase of assurance
offices, if they be sound, is a proof of the great in-
crease of the best kind of conservatism.
With the establishment of so many new offices,

there is connected, however, a great zeal to
promote assurance. The eld offices were content
with now and then advertising a small bonus, bat
the new companies Rl2OOllOOO SIIIIIIIIIOr premiums,
larger bonuses, and greater security. They employ
agents, they enter into correspondence, they write
and ran to excite the public to be provident, and in.
cremes annually the sums that are to be laid by for
posterity. If there be nothing erroneous, nothing
delusive or deceitful in all this ; if the new offices
snowed in proportion to their increase in generating
a provident spirit, and reward it by repaying here-
after all the capital they are now exciting the public
to advance with adequate interest, the increase of
assurance must be regarded as a sign of great future
improvement.
There is, however, elms season to mistrust this
new-born seal. Not only les it ben disfavored that
the old companies hare mode a great dud of money,
it has been ascertained that mont7 02111 Mamie
without money. " The mime of life ere "nee is
supported solely oat tamp *petiole," says one writer,
" that the contributions if disoorabers taken year by
year and invested in suns had which will pro-
duce an interest, will be sughient of themselves to
sgpsthe represestativesetriminencbsr when his life
in the stmt emend mar Ids policy."
la ether words, the preemie= properly employed
will and mist mike to . pay all the sums
smiwelr the selesellsrs being AS sulky, as is Oda
inetl mmlind meimmee s.
=sdee, their own esseree
Beam Nasals writer that capital is 1121111081-
my, that it is an incumbrance, and that some Mikes
ere gleaning under the weight of an immense capital.
It is area ascertained that a judicious employment et
the premiums can command additional capiteL
Mina most of the new companies have started with
way semi espitala, or none at all. Now though it
melt le admitted that there is no positive use for
capitol in an assurance company, except to pay the
awed expense of hiring an office and advertising it,
and to preside against the possible contingencies of
great losses in the first years of the company' on it
is plain that the possession of capital pledged Sir
the good management of a company is some security
that it will be well managed, while the went of
capital, unless the office be for mutual asserance,
may justly make people cautious of those who,—having
nothing,—earnestly solicit the public to entrust them
with large sums to invest and accumulate at com-
pound interest through many year..
It is plain from the fact that assurance olden
receive money now to pay a larger sem law
after, that their success depends on future
as well as on present circumstances. The
two great principles on which all assurance is eal-
sedated, are the value of life, and rate of interest on
money. As to the first it is a fact that the value of
life generally—from more temperate habits in the
people, improved knowledge of the laws of health,
and the hazards of occupations being diminished by
more skill and care—has of late years continually
increased. Assured lives being selected and in the
main of longer duration than average life,
offices which have calculated premiums on the ave-
rage value of life estimated half a century or more
ego, have exacted premiums much hither than were
asesseary, and by that means have been enriched.
Most of the new companies, therefore' and now many
of the old ones, ask lower premiums. In forming new
offices with an expectation of profit, it must be re-
membered that this element of the profit of old ode*
asking too high a premium, is extinguished by the
ebstement in the premiums, but they may still be
erfficiptly high to give a good profit, if the value'
of life should continue to increase. Future soon=
will depend on the valve of life in future; altheagh
there is some reason to hope that it will continue to
increase, that may be doubted of assured lives, bemuse
they have hero nfore been few, and of the most ear*.
fal claws, while the great extension of life magnum
leader the stimulus of advertisements, ix., seems likely
to approximate assured lives henceforth much snore
to the general value of life than formerly. That
element of future profit will not be great, pod young
latices, founded on a different calculation, even if
otherwimo enlightened, and well intentioned, may
find their expectations disappointed.
As to the second, it is also a feet that the interest
of money hes generally. fallen through a course of
years. there was a period between 1730 and 1744
when the Three per Cents. were on the average
nearly as high as they have latterly been, and for
some time higher than we have ever 800 n them,