The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-11-13 00:00:00

TIMES

advancing, daily. The ,profits Of merchants are
growing less, and the employers of labour must
speedily give way under the pressure for money.
We had fewer mouths to feed and more gold to pay
54,594,4521. of taxation in 1848 than we have to pay
82,174,9881. in 1856-7, A loan must be resorted to
to carry us over this year of peace and extravag-
ance, and the effect the further absorption of the
available means of trade will have on the material
interests of the nation, may be clearly foreseen.
The Financial Reform Association do not recog-
nise any of the well known relations which exist
between taxation and Currency. They write
and speak as though the • nation should get up
hungry, and go to bed fasting. They pretend not to
see that taxation cannot be dispensed with, and
that taking 51),000,000/. a year from the money
of trade and -commerce must lead to incalculable
misery in some portion of our industrial system.
On the ground they now occupy, they run the risk
of having the extinguisher put on them, by a three
line,paragraph in a newspaper announcing the ar-
rival of a few ounces of gold, and stating that " the
" money market was easier this morning, with a less
,` demand for cash," and concluding with the suppo-
sititious intelligence, " Trade continues active ;
prices steady." No national movement never stood
on so narrow a basis. The money laws of aiState con_
stitute the very essence of its financial system.
Peel's currency acts readjusted the whole of our
national burdens, while they regulated both the
quantity and quality of the money we were to be
allowed to have to carry on our trade and
industry. And yet the Financial Reformers say
nothing whatever about the influence the sudden

changes in our supply of money and the rates of
discount must have in increasing or decreasing the
pressure of taxation. Seasons of comparative
prosperity or positive famine all are the same to
them. The* feel for the artisan in full work as much
as they do for the operative on half-time, or the poor
labourer out of work. In a word, they seem to
throw aside all economical abortions and social
seourges that they may pursue a mixed political
evil. This is not 'what they have led the country

to expect. They exist merely to be smothered
by the]] carefully concocted rodomontades of

the city scribes of the London newspapers. As
Financial Reformers they fall as Consols rise, and
they dwindle down to the zero of panic when
Exchequer bills touch 2s. 6d. premium. This is
not precisely the sort of financial agitation we
want in Liverpool where Monetary and fiscal
questions are so well understood ; and we hope the
Reform Association, with the abundant materials
they have at command, will extend their views,
and enlarge their field of usefulness, before those,
who see further into finance than they have
entered, take up the ground which has been so
long left open to the Reformer.

THE Merchant's and Tradesman's Mutual Life
Assurance Company have drawn a reply from their
late Medical Officer, Mr. JAMES MILLER SHAIN, to
the serious aspersions cast upon his character at
the late trial, in which the representative of Mr.
THOMAS LAURIE was the plaintiff, and Merchant's
Company the defendants. Mr. SHAIN confines his
defence to, a moderate sized pamphlet, which he
describes as " a plain and unvarnished statement
"of facts." They appear to be briefly these :—Mr.
Snlnt's connection with the office in question
commenced about tivo years before the Company
disputed the insurance on Mr. THOMAS LAURIE'S
life, and during that short time this medical
examiner passed a large number of lives, and,
" strange to say," as Mr. SHAIN observes, "Mr.
" THOMAS LAURIE, whose life has been disputed,
"was examined twice 'by me, and for two separate

offices—the Industrial and General Life Assur.

" ance Company, and the Merchant's and Trades-
" man's Mutual Life Assurance Society. My first
" medical report was addressed to the former of
" these institutions,-and, as I intend to make this
" a broad statement of facts, I here beg to lay the
" report itself before the public." Our author

fulfils this promise by publishing the proposal as
filed up by th) insured, the agent's report, and
the agent's and medical officer's confidential
statements and opinions, and in these latter
documents we find the agent makes this very
distinct and matter of fact declaration, " I believe

" Mr. Laurie had a brother and sister WHO DIED of
" CONSUMPTION, but I hope this will mako no
" difference in the premium, as Mr. LAURIE seems
"a first class life." This report did, however,
make a difference in the premium demanded; but
not before the Industrial Office had asked for a
more minute examination and report of the
insured's life. This request was complied with,
and the facts brought to light on this second
investigation shoull be borne in mind by the
reader.

In answer to the questions put to the insured
as to whether his brothers and sisters have been
in good health ? How many are now living, and
at what ages ? If any died, at what age ? And of
what disease did they respectively die? The
proposer answered—" Six alive, three dead, and
" two of these deaths from disease of the chest."
These admissions were accompanied by a second
medical report, in which Mr. SHAIN states " There
" is no doubt but some members of the proposer's
"family died from Phthysis." The Directors, on
hearing this, demanded an additional premium
equal to twelve years added to the age of the
insurer, to cover the risk disclosed. But Mr.
LAURIE refused to comply with their terms, and
Mr. SHAIN subsequently took the life to the
Merchant's and Tradesman's Mutual Life Assur-
ance Office. lip to this period the reader will
observe that there was no attempt at deception on
the part of the proposer or those officers who had
to examine and report on his life, and the health
of his family. All was candid and above board.
The Merchant's and Tradesman's Office had the
power of referring to the agent of the Industrial
and General Office. Whether they did so or not,
matters but very little to the insured public. Suffice
it to say, they received a proposal from Mr. LAURIE
and accepted his life. The proposal, agents report,
and medical opinions being, if anything, more
explicit than those sent. to the Industrial and
General Office. In the proposal submitted to the
Liverpool Agent of the Company, Mr. ROBERT
WEBSTER, the insured stated, in answer to the
questions respecting the number of his brothers
and sisters dead, and those living, the proposer
says he has living " Two brothers and three
" sisters (and in good health), fl'orn seventeen to
trhona
irtya.
brothersnTawe'ocident, at and
,one sister dead; one
‘f
"diseases of the chest, twenty-five and twenty-seven?'
Mr. SHAIN, in reply to the query, " have any part
"of his family ever steered from hereditary
" disease?" makes the ordinary statement, '' not to
" my knowledge."

Now the Company's Agent comes prominently
forward. He had to make his general and private
report. He had interlined the proposal "at the
" request of the insured," with the words, " and in
" good health." But this was not enough. The
medical officer's report was not quite the thing,
as will be seen by the subjoined letter, addressed