The Sun.
London, England, 1838-05-31 00:00:00

HE NATIONAL LOAN FUND LIFE
ASSURANCE SOCIETY.

Class of Persons. I Period.

Avcrage
amount of
Sickness.

Months. Days.
16 4
9 0

7 27
10 29
8 13
9 1
11 4

%%
:

Benefit Societies, that the National Loan Fund Life Assurance
Society proposes to submit a plan of deferred annuities on a
new principle, which will not only afford a more ample provi •
sion for old age, and protection against sickness and misfortune,
but, in addition, the means, at all times, of putting his ener-
gies in motion, and, in the event of a premature death, better
protection to his family.
The plan proposed will emLody several essential objects :-
1. To secure an increased provision for old age, out cf a given
saving, by applying it exclusively to the purchase of a
deferred annuity.
2. To render the purchase of a protection in sickness unne-
c-issary, by enabling, the purchaser of a deferred annuity
to withdraw or borrow two- thirds of his previous payment.
g, By the use of two-thirds of all his payments when required,
to limit misfortune and want of employment, and extend
!lin power of productiveness by an increasing command,

Ie each year, of capita!, so that, while providing for old
age, each successive contribution renders him more se-
cure aoinst present misfortune.
4. To afford, at the age at which the Deferred Annuity would
commence, without reference to his then state of health,
the option of receiving, instead of his annuity, its value
in money, according to the value fixed on the contract,
or a larger sum payable at his death.
5. In the event of death before the age at which he would be
entitled to his Deferred Annuity, to return two-thirds of
his ilayments to his family, or such fixed life assurance
as may be settled on the contract.
6. In all such cases where the power of productiveness fails,
either from disease or accident, to enable the assured on
equal terms to convert his Deferred Annuity into a pre-
sent Annuity.
Do the working classes require a still stronger proof
of the immense advantages which the New Institution
holds out to them over the best-regulated Benefit
Societies ? They are referred to the following tabular
exposition of the relative advantages to be detived
from paying one shilling weekly in:o a Benefit Society,
or purchasing with the same shilling a Deferred An-
nuity from the National Loan Fund Institution :
Age W. (Annuity` Cash. Policy Sickness Loan. I Death,

,
Age W. I Annuityi Cash.lPolicy; Sickners Loan. I Death.
4- '-'-'
£. --------,---
s. V. s. X ' . S. '
IlBtional Tian Fund'l
I I
Ah.ferred Annuities i
)...17 16 391 111466 9 % of the 21 sf the ,% cf the
Option of Benefits,' 1 payments pa y men ts!payments
at 05 J received.
Benefit Societies,/ 2,5 0 Ni! Nil allow- Nil Nil.
ditto
i i sickness.,

To any man who is in the least acquainted with
business, the advantages here held out by the
National Loan Fund Society, over every other
institvtion, for the convenience of persons of limited in-
come, Are of no ordinary magnitude. There are few
men in trade who will not readily admit, that there were
occasions, in the course of their business transactions,
when the command of a few hundreds would have all
hut realized the means of an independence for them
Hundreds have been fumed to become bankrupts—to
the ruin of themselves and their families—whom the
advantages here derivable, front /he saving of a few
shillings weekly, would have maintained in credit with
the world. We dare not trust ourselves to look deeper
than the social surface, in order to point out the
crimes engendered by the prospect of hopeless destitu-
tion. They will suggest themselves but too readily to
every person capable of the least reflection. For these
evils, necessarily inherent in the present social system,
the National Loan Fund Society offers the most effec-
tual remedies which the ingenuity of man has yet
devised.

In the meanwhile we trust that our Provincial Con-
teivnporaries, whose co-operation is so necessary to the
success of any project, however excellent, which wears
the semblance of innovation, will unite cordially with
us in canvassing the merits of the new Institution, and
;its adaptation to the wants of the middle and working
4:4 asses. Projects of improvement, based on sound
principles, are sure to gain ground in public faith, in
proportion as they are made the subjects of candid,
public discussion. The Clergy of every religious de-
•acy, the Parochial Guardians
from their rank or station in
e confidence of the industrious
)f good by taking part in a
of the plan of social improve-
National Loan Fund Society.
'y of them may feel upon

(From The Sun of May 9.)
Being firmly persuaded that nothing is so injurious
to the moral feelings and habits of the industrious
classes as the apprehension of poverty—as the almost
moral certainty of comparative destitution in old age,
unless riches can be acquired early in life—we deem
it a duty which we owe to the public, and particularly
to the classes which we have mentioned, to extend the
observations which we madein The Sun of Saturday last,
upon the prospects held out by the National Loan Fund
Life Assurance Society to the provident of every grade in
the scale of social being. We believe, with D'ISRAELI,
that want of money or want of love will be found at the
bottom of all the crimes, and nearly ali the misfortunes,
that affect the happiness of our social relations. Not
only poverty, but the well-founded dread of it, is an
evil of no ordinary magnitude—a temptation to
amass wealth by dishonest means, which few weak
minds, with the opportunities in their favour, have
been unable to resist. To make a people moral and
happy the first step is to educate them, and the next
is to prove to them that by husbanding their honest
resources it will be impossible for them, with industry
and good conduct, ever to encounter that worst
enemy of human happiness—indigence. The Bri-
tish Legislature has, from time to time, devoted
much of its attention to these objects. The Parish
School and the Benefit Society are existing monu-
ments of its solicitude in the way of providing for the
mental and corporeal wants of the industrious classes.
It is now admitted on all hands that Benefit Societies
have failed to render the poor more independent. They
hold out the hope of a provision in sickness and old
age ; but the way in which they administer aid to the
sick, is of itself enough to break the spirit of any
generous-minded individual. Besides, what is the
average amount of sickness in the life of a
labouring man, that he should be called upon
to devote his surplus earnings to the keep-
ing up of a sick fund ? Why, on an ave-
rage, somewhere about from six days to twelve and
a half annually, betwixt the ages of twenty and sixty-
five ! Is the fact doubted ? We quote the returns
made by the best authorities upon the. subject :

Average yearly
Sickness in the
period.

Highland Societie,' return '2o to
East India Company's labourers :10 to C 5
Factory Commissioners—
Cotton 121 to 61
Wool, Yorksh re Ol to 61
Ditto, West of England 2l to 61
Flax, Yorxshire 2l to 61
Silk
Soriety for Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge to to 65, 18 21 j 12y
In cases of sickness for a few days, it is but seldom
that applications are made to Benefit Societies for any
portion of the funds ; and it is no longer a mystery
that the best conducted workmen rarely benefit to the
amount of one farthing from the Societies' coffers.
Not so the drunkard, th.e idle, and the improvi-
dent—who, under one pretext or other, contrive
to subsist upon the hard earnings of their ho-
nest fellow-workinen. But, independently of all
this, sickness and old age are not the only evils
to which humanity is heir, against which it is neces-
sary to make an ample provision. As regards the
helpless members of a family, want of employment is
the same as want of health. To save the lives of his
children, the member of a Benefit Society, who loses
his work, has no resource but to tamper with his
health—perhaps destroy his constitution for life—in
order to qualify himself to become the recipient of the
fruits of his own industry ! Is not this cruelly un-
just ? And yet these are not the only defects in the
system of Benefit Societies, as is obvious from the
following summary, which we extract from the Pros-
pectus of the Institution which we are recommendino.-
to public patronage :-
1. Because sickness it%elf is not a calamity of equal probable
duration to the ffuctuations in the quantity of employment
and other casualties, and misfortune, against which Bene-
fit Societies offer no protection.
2. Because, out of a given meal's, the sum laid aside for sick-
ness must diminish the provision for old age.
3. Because many must contribute to the sick fund who never
become chargeable upon it, and the value of such contri-
butions is lost to themselves and families.
4. Because sickness, being a state of non-productiveness,
must necessarily be included in any protection against
such an occurrence.
Such are the defects of Benefit Clubs—and most
serious defects they are, too. Now for the National
Loan Fund Society's remedial projects :
It is to remedy these defects, inherent in the constitution of ,

nomination, the Magistrz
of the Poor,. s e all who
life hi;rielillii:lP-4- pon the
classei, w 11!4 .orld of
41is'eussion of* rits c
Thera proposed iir he 1S
a.rt%
' However supinely man:,
-,--i<ty
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at a 111