The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-01 00:00:00

before it could be finally engrafted upon the
constitution. The process went on slowly during
the summer and winter, and is at length complete,
I'he requisite number of States have given in their
adhesion, the President has issued a proclamation,
and negro suffrage is now the law of the land. The
same privilege extends to all other coloured races.

THE BRITISH EQUITABLE ASSURANCE

COMPANY.

The annual general meeting of this company was
held on Friday, at the offices, Queen-street, Cheap-
side ; Mr. J. Smither, in the chair.
The report, which showed a considerable and con-
tinued increase in the business of the company having
been read,
The managing director (Mr. W. S. DOVER) en-
tered at length into the position of the company since
its formation. In the course of his remarks
he said the company had an accumulated fund of
£210,000 ; it had a revenue, including interest on
investments, approaching £100,000; numbered above
16,000 policyholders, and had a trained agency staff
accustomed to work in intimate relationship to the
policyholder connections, producing a continual
source of new business. Although the company had
fairly renumerated those whose probity, industry,
and perseverance had aided it to obtain such success,
it had never deviated from the legitimate scope and
operation of a life office ; its business had been con=
fined to life assurance alone. It had eschewed the
half-credit system and " foreign business," and had
never amalg kmated with any other life assur-
ance company, or purchased its business, but every
individual life had been carefully examined by
the medical officers of the company, and cauti-
ously deliberated over by the board prior to
acceptance ; and this great mass of picked English
lives had experienced a mortality so low throughout
the duration of the company that less than two-
thirds the tabular provision had covered all death
claims— an indication that the expectation of life of
this select body must be taken to be some years
longer than that of a similar body of average lives.
Nor had this business been fettered by an unsound
loan system, The company had selected those in-
vestments, such as freehold and leaseho!d property,
mortgages, investments in the public funds, and on
life interests and reversions, which form a legitimate
form of investment for life assurance companies.
Above all, special care Lad been taken that
not one penny had been improperly paid, nor
was any of the publis'ie.l staff of the com-
pany indebted to it a single farthing,
while many companies, decrepid with the weight of
a century, were dying out from the very 'want of
sustenance, the British Equitable became stronger
and snore vigorous year by year. It had, in fact,
almost doubled every three years, and out of
£210,000 accumulated, £84,000 had been laid by in
the last three years alone. If further confirmatioa
of this system were wanted, the events of the p st
year would suffice. While other companies had be?sa
over flowed with applications to surrender, this com-
pany, giving full surrender values, I aid away a sum
proportionately less to the premium income of the
company than in the preceding year, and when other
companies had their new business greatly re-
duced, they did as much new business as usual,
and of a better quality even than in former years.
After having referred to the Life Assurance Bill
which had been introduced in the House of Commons
by Mr. Stephen Cave, which measure, he observed,
would fall widely short of the purposes for which it
was intended, conclu led by congratulating the share-
holders on the 1 osition the British Equitable had
attained, and expressed his willingness to furni h any
information that might be required.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the formal resolution
for the reception and adoption of the report,.said
that he thought the last year had been one of severe
trial and difficulty. The of 1 business of the company;
lad been maintained almost intact, though the cit.-
cua,stances of the times were such as might hale led
them to anticipate a large number of sumnders.
The new business, too, had beer equal to that of
previous years—somewhat in excess, in fact. The
death claims, wh'.ch had been singularly small in the
dist fifteen years of the company, had been some-
what larger last year, but still within the limit as
signed by the tables. It was anticipated that this
year a smaller number would happen, so that be-
tween the two years a pleasing balance might be
struck. The accumulated fund stood at £210,000,
'laving been increased this year by nearly £30,000
was securely and safely invested, and could,

needed, be readily convert id into cash.
The MANAGER, in replying to the questions put to
him, said the reserve of £210,000 was a solid and
actual amount, and was as safe as if it were in the
cash-box in sovereigns. It consisted of balance at
bankers, Delhi, and Great Indian Railway Stock,
New Three per Cents , and mortgages on freehtld
and leasehold properties, and balance in agents' hands
(which item had been greatly reduced since the date
of the report), an I a few other small items. No
money had been advanced on personal security.
The average rate of ii,t,3rest was £5 3s. They had
50 per cent. in band of the premiums received.
'Thirty-three per cent, had been declared ample by
all authorities on the subject, and allowing for the
profits, 40 per cent. wa3 quite sufficient. They had
£7los. per cent. in hand for every £lOO of contin-
gent liability, without calculating uncalled capital
and value, the future premiums. It should be recol-
lected that but 114 out of 1,000 policies issued be-
came death claims. £7 10s. was, with the future
prem ums, ample to meet double the contingent lia-
bility, according to all -ctuarial experience. If they
took the uncalled capital into account, they had £l4
or £l5 in band beside 3 the value of the future pre-
miums ; and it must be borne in mind the total pre-
miums received bad not exceeded 15 per cent., and,
of course, death claims, bonuses, surrenders, and
expenses, including those of establishing the com-
pany, bad had to be paid, so that it was doubtful
whether any company was in a more prosperous
position, seeing the quality and quantity of the
business, and the charge per cent. of premiums in
hand and stocks invested.

The report was then adopted unanimously, and the
proceedings terminated with a vote of thanks to
the directors, the manager, and the other officersof
the company:

no Mines Regulation Bill was discussed at a
meeting of the miners of Wigan and neighbourhood, held
yesterday. There was a general expression of dissatisfac-
tion with the bill as it stands, and a number of amend-
ments, suggested by the miners' agents, were approved
of, and ordered to be submitted to the consideration of
the Government.

Du BARRY'S Delicious Health-restoring Revalents Ara-
bica Food, which contains three times the nourishment of he
best meat, saves fifty times its cost in other remedies, restores
perfect digestion, strong nerves, sound lungs, healthy liver, re
freshing sleep, functional regularity, and energy to the more
enfeebled, removing speedily and effectually indigestion (dye-
popsia), habitual constipation, diarrhoea, haemorrhoids, liver
complaints, flatulency, nervousness, biliousness, fevers, sort
throats, catarrhs, colds, influenza, noises in the head and ears,
rheumatism, gout, impurities, eruptions, hysteria, neuralgia,
irritability, sleeplessness, acidity, palpitation, heartburn, head
ache, debility, dropsy, cramps, spasms, nausea, and sickness,
sinking fits, coughs, asthma, bronchitis, incipient cent iun,lion,
scrofula, tightness of the chest, pains at the pit of the stotr7,eh,
between the shoulders, &c. We quote a few out of 08,000 cries
—The Pope's health restored by Du Barry's Food, Cure No
F 8,413 Rome, July 21. 1866. -The health of the Holy Father
is excellent, especially since, abandoning all other remedies, he
has confined himself entirely to Du Barry's Revab nta Arabica
Food, of which he consumes a plateful at every meal. It has
nrodeced a surprisingly beneficial effect on his health, and his
Holiness cannot praise this excellent food too highly."—From
the "Gazette du Midi," July 25. Cure No. 9,832: of fifty years'
inieseribable agony from dyspepsia, nervousness, asthma,
cough, constipation, flatulency. sp,smi, sickness at the stomach
and vomiting. Maria Jolly. Wortham, Ling, near LIFE,. Norfolk.
Cure No. 47,111: Miss Elizabeth Jacobs, of :razing Vicarage,
Waltham Cross, Herts, of extreme nervousness, indigestion,
gatherings, low spirits, and nervous fancies. Important Caution
—:teware of the many unsavoury and more than sloppy imita-
tiong to which without authority, Baron Liebig's name is most
audaciously ettaned

In tins, at is lid; 1 lb 28 Pd; 2 lb 4s 6d; 5 lb 118; 12 lb 225;
24 lbs 41s.— A Iso 1) U BARlty's ItEVALENTA ItABICA CHOCOLATE
PoWDEit is packed in tin canisters: for 1! cups at 2s, for 24 cups
at 3s 6d, for 48 cups at Cs, for 288 cups at 30s, for 876 cups at 55s
—being about one penny per cup. The 30s and Ms tins are•sent
free of carriage in England on receipt of Post Office Order.
BARRY Du BARIty and Co., N0..77, Regent-street London; and
all Grocers and Chemists.

PROTECTOR . ENDOWMENT LOAN AND
ANNUITY COMPANY.

•
The annual general meeting of this company was
held yesterday afternoon, at the offices of the com-
pany, 34, King-street, Cheapside. Mr. Thornthwaite,
in the absence of Mr. Alfred Smee, chairman of the
board of directors, presided.
The report of the directors, which was read by the
Secretary, Mr. INl'Morran, was as follows :
" The directors submit to the general meeting a
report of the proceedings of the company during the
Bast year, together with a statement of income and
expenditure. Five hundre I and eleven p• oposals
were made for advances of money, for the aegrega' e
sum of £110,657 ; of these, 258 were granted,
amounting to the sum of £53,919 13s. 10d., for terms
varying from one to five years. During the preceding
financial year the sum advanced amounted to
£52,103 13s. 4d., so that the business transacted
last year exceeded the former by £1,816. The past
year hasbeen specially remarkable for a great depres-
sion of trade and absence of legitimate enterprise, and
this inactivity is always found to be unfavourable for
applications for loans from the Protector Company.
A. rise of business, although small, under these cir-
stances must be regarded as a favourable indication
of the progress of the company. The directors would
again call the attention of the shareholders to the
value of their deposit department, whereby sums of
money are received at five per cent. interest. This
department is particularly valuable to trustees and
others waiting investment for their money. The
directors retiring by rotation are Alfred Smee, Fsq.,
F.R.S., and Edward Solly, Esq., F.R.S., and the
board recommend that their names constitute the list
for re-election. The company's auditors, G. H.
Ladbury, Esq., and H. C. T. Beadnell, Esq., also
retire, and will offer themselves for re-election. The
directors recommend that the interest on shareholders'
stock be at the rate, for the current year, of 10 per
cent. per annum on the called-up capital of £1 per
share."

The CHAIRMAN, in moving the reception and
adoption of the report, said he regretted very much
the absence of their chairman, Mr. Smee, and had it
not been for unforeseen causes he would have been
present. That gentleman had been absent from
England for a short time, and was on his return
home ; but when in Florence he received intelligence
that a friend was dangerously ill, and E 0 urgent was
the case that Mr.. Smee had to return to Naples, and
thus he was prevented being present with them that
day. Their chairman, however, was now on his way
to England, and his arrival might be looked for in a
very short time. The unavoidable absence of Mr.
Smee was the cause of his presiding over the meeting
that day, and in fulfilling the duty t hat devolved
upon him he had to move the adoption of the report
ihey had just heard read. That document was so cliar
and concise, and contained such dry facts, that
it left him very little to say, as the very nature of the
company was of a dry, commercial nature, and, that
being so, it required that its progress should be re-
corded by. dry figures. (Hear, hear.) He must,
however, congratulate the shareholders that the re-
port for the past year did not differ from that of its
predecessors, as it showed that the company con-
tinued to advance, which was a most unmistakable
proof of its usefulness, stability, and profit. (Hear,
hear.) The directors put down the item of expenses
as much as was commensurate with energy and ad-
vancement, and as a sign that their exertions had
been successful they had recommended the very
handsome dividend of 10 per cent. on the called-up
capital of the company be raid to the share-
holders. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. WILLIAms said it gave him the greatest plea-
sure to second the motion of the chairman.
The adoption of the report was then put to the
meeting, and carried unanimously.
Mr. TOLEMAN moved the re-election of the retiring
director,,, Mr. Alfred Smee and Mr. Edward Solly.
Mr. lIANDCOCIC seconded the motion, which was
carried unanimously.

The retiring au litors, Mr. G. IL Ladbury and Mr.
C. T. Beadnell, having also been unanimously
re-elected, and the resolution paved for the payment
of the dividend announced by the ch irman,
Mr. C. TYLER moved a vote of thanks to the direc-
tors and secretary, remarking that it was highly
gratifying to the shareholders to see how well all
matters connected wit►h the society were managed.
The CILAIRMAN having returned thanks for the
directors,

Mr. 111,MoRnAN said he was exceedingly obliged
for the compliment, and he sincerely hoped they
might do as well in the future as they bad done in
the past.
The proceedings then terminated.

CONFESSION OF MURDER.

A confession of murder has been made by a man at
Sutton Bridge, named Trueffit, in which himself and a
woman are implicated. It appears that a woman named
Maria Burridge, who has been a widow for eight years,
and is in the prime of life, had been on terms of intimacy
with the self-accused murderer, who has been a singer in
the Wesleyan Chapel, where Mrs. Burridge played the
harmonium. There had been hints of undue fami-
liarity existing between them, but it was set down
generally as mere village scandal. It now
appears from the statement of Truefitt that for the past
seven years he has been in the habit of visiting Mrs.
Burridge late at night, but that recently a carter named
Richardson had been the favoured visitor in his stead,
and to him, it was said, she was shortly to be married.
On Thursday night, about eleven o'clock, Truefitt went
to the house, but could get no recognition
of his knock, from which he imagined that
Richardson was in the house. He then entered
but found no one there but Mrs. Burridge, and for this
act she summoned him before the magistrates, who fined
him for the offence. This he resented, and at once stated
that Burridge had had three children, which had been
murdered and buried. Burridge, on hearing this disclo-
sure, coolly replied, " How can you say so? You
know it's false." Trueffit asserted that his state-
ment was true, and that he himself had
buried the first of the babies in his father's garden
about four or five years ago, and offered, if the police
would go with them, to shew them the exact spot. On
going to the garden and digging, a child's skull and other
remains were taken up. Trueffett states that the woman
gave him this child over the fence, and promised, if he
would bury it, she would never have any other
man but him. He also admitted that the
child was alive when she gave it to him,
and that when he was burying it it began to cry,
when he stamped upon it. The other two children, he
states, Burridge put away himself, but he does not know
where. A strict search for these bodies is now being
made. The woman is the widow of a man named Wil•
ham Burridge, who committed suicide by hanging himself
with his waist strap about eight years ago.

ACTION FOR TnEsrAss.=A curious action for trespas;
has been tried at the Kingston Assizes. The plaintiff
took a lease of a house belonging to the defendant, on the
condition that certain repairs were made. • The
plaintiff took possession, but declined to complete the
lease until the repairs were completed. At the end of
the first quarter a distress warrant was issued, which
the County Court judge decided was illegaL The question
now raised was whether the plaintiff was a tenant of the
defendant's or not. The plaintiff contended that as the
as for a lease was conditional, and the defendant
had not fulfilled the conditions, no tenancy had
licen created, and the defendant had com-
mitted a trespass by putting in the distress.
Mr. Justice Keating thought that there had been quite
enough litigation, and should try to prevent more. He
therefore told the jury that if they considered a tenancy
did exist the action could not be supported ; if they did
not the distress was illegal, and they must give damages
for trespass. The jury were of opinion that the plaintiff
was tenant to the defendant. With regard to the other
nuestion, they assessed the damages at 4:10, if a superior
court should decide that the evidence did not establish a
legal tenancy.

A COMMANDER IN THE NAVY ON • THE " SPREE."—A
commander in the Royal Navy, attached to the Naval
College at Portsmouth, named James Steven Tonkin, has
been brought up on a charge of being drunk and
disorderly, and assaulting john Main,• night-man, in
the presence of Police-constable • Hart. Shortly
after twelve one night, according to Main's state-
ment, while Main was at his work in St. James's-
street, Portsmouth, defendant came by drunk and assaulted
him twice. Hart came up, and although defendant
was requested to " move on," he declined, and " pitched
into "the constable with his umbrella.—Defendant pleaded
that in the first place he was assaulted by Main.—He was
convicted in the penalty of ss. and 7s. costs, which he
paid, the Magistrates telling him he had got off very

POPULAR AND CLASS GOVERNMENT.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
Last week we noticed the unceremonious decapi-
tation by Congress of the surplus U. S. military.
officers. This case illustrates in a why worth notic-
ing the practical working of a people's Government
as compared with a class Government, as between the
Republic and the British monarchy. Where every
man weighs alike in politics the most numerous are
the heaviest, an 1, as the every-day working men
are the most numerous, such a Government as that
of the Union must be mainly influenced from below.
What mast interests the masses, what they say and
do, will most interest Congress; and be there debated.
The same holds true of the press, as iu America all
are newspaper readers, and newspapers are there
within the means of the poorest citizens. If every
purchaser weighs alike, and all purchase, then the
working-people must form the Main body ; and no
newspaper can afford to pass unnoticed the subjects
which chiefly interest the body of its readers. Thus
it happens that the Government and the press be-
come a reflection of the masses in America, showing,
as in a glass, their actions, thoughts, and aspira-
tions ; but in Great Britain it is only by slow stages
the multitude gets a footing on the political plat-
form. Its Government has always been class, vary-
ing only in the degree of the power exercised by the
Sovereign, by the nobles, and by the middle grades,
which it has been the habit to call the people, and
the effect is seen in every branch of public em-
ployment. When the British army is discussed in
the press or in Parliament, the officers are meant.
In society, a British regiment means the men who
assemble around the well furnished mess table ; and,
although the military have no end of grievances,
these are among the privileges of the elect, as it is
highly unconstitutional for the non-commissioned
to profess any grievance at a!l. No other branch of
the national service so truly depicts the sort of go-
vernment which has ruled for centuries in Englaud,
and the writer heard Lord CLYDE say, during the
mutiny of the European soldiers which followed the
suppression of the Sepoy rising, that had it been an
officers' grievance, all Europe would have been made
to ring with the injustice. The officers of the
Honourable Company gained in every way by their
transfer to the Queen, yet no grants, however fiber-
ral, could satisfy their extortion nor stop their com-
plaints. On the contrary, the soldiers were transfer-
red byproclamation from the Company to the Crown,
as if they were a flock of sheep, and were sternly re-
fused the bountythey claimed as re-enlistment money.
It was then that they became " ugly," and the VICE-
ROY had to expend more than ten times the sum the
men had asked in sending them home, with the dis-
agt eeable knowledge, too, that the Government was
defeated ; that it had acted illiberally and ungraci-
ously, as well as foolishly. Retrenchment is now the
order of the day, both in America and in -England,
where military and naval establishments are in pro-
gress of reduction ; and a cursory glance at the
mode adopted by each, shows the effect of the people
and of a class, on the working of a Government.
In England they clear out the dockyards, discharg-
ing hands by the thousand, with little regard to the
suffering and starvation caused. The scenes in
Deptford, in Woolwich, in Portsmouth, and Ply-
mouth have been depicted by the Tory papers as
a charge against the Government of their op-
ponents ; but the illustrations only show, that whe-
ther Liberal or Conservative, how little is the
consideration of the authorities for the masses
whom the nation employs. At the same time the
country is trying to get rid of the surplus officers
of the Navy, for it has been found that the Admi-
ralty has been filling up the lists, promoting officers
so as to crowd every grade enormously beyond the
requirements of the service, and the Navy men may
now be described as people who look at ships from
land through teleseopes, but are seldom caught at
sea. Mr. CHILDERS desires to reduce this excessive
list, and he is at his wits' end how to achieve the
object, A very handsome retirement for officers
of every grade has been proposed, or a round sum
pa'd down ; -still Admirals, post-captains, and corn-
mande: s rise in rebellion, and make uneasy the
pillow whereon the First Lord rests his head. It
is not considered improper to turn adrift, without
compensation, poor mechanics who for all their
lives have been working hard in the dockyards, but
when the interests of the officers who have spent
their years of service in gazing from the white
cliffs of Albion at the passing ships come to be dis-
cussed, the case is widely different. Just so it is
with the Army, for that officer has a crying griev-
ance who is placed on half-pay, and speeches in Par-
liament, pamphlets, articles as.well as letters in the
newspapers are circulated over the land. Our
American 'readers cannot comprehend the British
system of Army purchase, although there is nothing
complicated in it, a certain sum being fixed by
regulation as the price of each step, beyond which it
is illegal to give money. That law is systematically
violated with the connivance of the ruling autho-
rities ; and the officers now demand the surplus
back from the Government which they have illegally
paid, maintairing that the Government, by its con-
nivance, sanctioned the illegality. There is no doubt
that the officers have a great deal of right on their
side ; still it isnmusing, as well as instructive, to
contrast the summary way in which the U. S. offi-
cers are treated by the Washington Government,
while the country looks on' approvingly, with the
demands which many may think preposterous of the
British. officers. The difference is rendered all the
more striking by the fact that nearly all of the
" decapitated" in America are men who have distin-
guished themselves iathe .most . trying war of our
generation, and to whom the Union ascribes the
highest mead of praise. They get a year's salary
to settle up their' bills, and, perhaps, to carry them
from some distant part to their homes, though
their discharge is in violation of the stipulation on
which they entered on. their regular army career ;
while the reduction to half-pay of the British offi-
cer is in accordance with the well-known practice
of the service. But, what waSthe case when the
other day the appropriations were exhausted in
some American dockyards, and some thousands .of
workmen had to be discharged ? Immediately there
was an outcry which resounded in the halls of Con-
gress, in the offices of the Executive, and in the
columns of the press ; and no time was lost in
placing at the disposal of the Secretary of the Navy
a large sum for the re-employment of the dis-
charged hands. The difference between the dis-
charged mechanics in America and the discharged
Mechanics in England is this, that in the former
country they have not only a far better field for
labour, but an abundance of fine land forsettlement,
while the English mechanic and his family have
little more before them than starvation in the attic
of -an alley. This striking contrast in the mode of
treatment ought not to be passed Unnoticed ; indeed
it is a fine commentary on the remarks of an Eng-
lish paper as to the influence of the masses in Ame-
rica on the Government, which asserted that influ-
ence to be a delusion, that wealth alone ruled, and
that its ready tools manipulated the crowd in its inte-
rest. Even while ANDREW JOHNSON was sitting in
the • Presidential Chair, the pretentious leader of
popular opinion declared, that poor boys had no bet-
ter chance of distinction or of rising to high placc s in
America than in England, though every American
paper contained obituary notices showing that out
of four men who died wealthy, powerful, and well
known,three had commenced their careers byplough
digging, or sweeping out a store. But how-
ever this may be, the circumstances we have nar-
rated demonstrate in a striking light what the in-
fluence is upon a Government of a people, or, of a
privileged few, and if a doubt remains on any
mind, let him contrast the pay of the British with
the American diplomatic service ; of the high State
officials of both countries; ef the Judges, &c. &c..
and then compare that, of all the ;very subordinate
posts