The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-26 00:00:00

NATIONAL MERCANTILE AS.

SURANCE SOCIETIES.
The annual dinner of the members aria friends of
these very improved and successful Life and Fire
Assurance Societies took place on Saturday evening,
at the London Tavern. The annual meeting vas
held at the office of the society, in the Poultry, in the
early par. of the day, Robert Wilcoxon, Esq., in the
chair. The.following report was read and adopted :
" Gentlemen,—The directors have great pleasure
in submitting to the proprietors a statement of the
receipts and disbursements of the society during the
year ended September 30th, 1848, which is
appended hereto, with a certificate of the ac-
curacy thereof signed by the auditors of the society.
"In reference to the progress of the society the
directors are enabled to report that, notwithstanding
the depressed state of the country during the last
three years, the society has progressed most favour-
ably as regards its increase of business, and, also, in
its increase of assets, and in regard to the average
amount of claims by deaths.
" From the statement annexed it will be seen that
the average annual amount assured in the three years
ended December 1845, was 94,4161., and in the three
year ended. December 1848 166,8081. Showing an
average annual increase of 72,3921., or an increase of
77 per cent.
" During the same period it will be found that the
increase in the assets of the society have increased to
the extent of 80 per cent.

a. d.

" The average annual amount paid
to the executors of deceased mem-
bers, during the three years ended
December, 1845, was 4,090 18 1
" And during the three years ended
December, 1848
" Showing an annual decrease in
the amount paid in respect to
claims of 1,308 18 9
" The total-amount paid in respect
to !sliding from the commencement
of the Society up to the end of
1848, a period of ten years, is.. 23,587. 9 1
"Or an average annual amount 0f... 2,358 14 11
"In the former reports the directors have :only
stated the amount paid in respect of claims, after de-
ducting therefrom the amount received by the society
in respect to lapsed policies, but in the present state.
went the actual amount of claims alone is given, and
nearly the whole of this amount has been paid by
Means of the premiums received upon lapsed policies.
"The great consideration for the policy holders is
not so much the amount as the character of the busi-
ness transacted by an office, and the directors have the
satisfaction of thinking that few if any offices can
congratulate themselves upon so fortunate a selection
of lives,. as.. is evidenced by the small amount of
claims, that have fallen due and been punctually
paid by this society in each case without litigation.
"In the report for the year ended December 10,
1845, the directors stated that they had the satisfac-
tion to believe that the society would, by the pur
chase of the premises consisting of the long range of
buildings in Charlotte-row,, not only have made
an excellent investment of money, but would
he enabled to occupy most commanding pre-
mises at a very small annual rent. In reference to
this expression of their opinion, the directors are
now enabled to report that they are realising 5 per
cent. upon the investment money, and occupy the
present valuable and commanding premises rent free.
" The directors have, in conclusion, only to make
their annual appeal to the members to use their in-
dividual effurts in behalf of the society, and also to re-
mind them that the next dividend will bedeclared in
1851. and that the amount of the bonus will neces-
sarily be more or less, according to the progress of the
society during the interval."
About eighty gentlemen sat down to dinner, which
was presided over by Mr. Wilcoxon, who was supported
on his right by the respected member for Maldon,
David Waddington, Esq., and on his left by William
Nicholson, Esq., the eminent distiller. Among those
Ilesent we observed William Lawson, Esq , George
oore, Esq., James Peek, Esq., Giles Redmayne,
Esq. ; John Mair, Esq ; C. J. Jones, Esq. ; George
Stockdale, Esq, &c., &c.
Due justice having been done to the dinner, which
was provided in the best style of the London Tavern,
and which, with the wines, gave general satisfaction,
The Ch AiRmAN gave in succession the usual loyal
and constitutional toasts, which met with warm re-
sponses from the company.
The CHAIRMAN then rose and said—Gentlemen,
it is now my pleasing duty to propose a toast which
I am sure will receive from you every demonstration
of satisfaction. It is one which I give as
you may conceive with great delight, and the
gathering together of so many friends of the institu-
tion round this festive board fully evinces the great
interest you all take in its welfare. I will give you
without further preface "Prosperity to the National
Mercantile Life Assurance Society."—(Prolonged
cheering.) Before I enter particularly into the
subject will you allow me to make two or three
passing observations. In the first place I would just
remind you that individually, commercially, and nation-
nally, we have of late been called upon to pass through a
season of extraordinary difficulty and trial.— (Hear,
hear.) We have witnessed on every side the wreck
of fortunes—of property to a most awful extent. Our
trade, manufactures, and industry have been para-
lysed, and our labourers, artizans, and mechanics
have wanted the bare necessaries of existence. Riches
have taken themselves wings and flown away, and
we have been reduced to a state of necessity, indeed.
But in the state of things to which I have al-
luded let us turn our eyes elsewhere. The
condition of the countries which constitute Europe
has been infinitely worse than the state of our own.
In them, indeed, there have been " wars and rumours
of wars." - The people have engaged in strife, and
trade and industry have been all but paralysed. In
them anarchy, revolution, and bloodshed have
marked their onward course, and the " hand
of brother has been lifted up against brother ;" but
in our birth-place, England, we have been fortunately
exempted from beholding those horrors which have
been witnessed elsewhere.—(Hear, hear.) It is true
that wicked and designing men have been found, and
such men will ever be found, even in the freeest coun-
tries, doing their utmost to stir up the worst passions
of the very lowest classes—to stir up misguided mul-
titudes, to trample upon our laws, to rob us of our
birthright, our invaluable privileges, our unequalled
constitution, but their puny attempts have been
frustrated, their evil designs have been subverted;
for the right hand of an all- wise Almighty Provi-
dence was outstretched for our pretection in the hour
of our trial—(Cheers)—and I do think that we are
much indebted to that Protestant faith, which as a
nation we profess, for having been enabled to suppress,
yet at -the same time mercifully, the vain attempts
that have been made to stir up discord in the land.
—(Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, if these things, which I
have stated so imperfectly, be really matters of fact,
and 'I do not think any one will deny that
they have taken place—that we have passed through
a period of great danger, and undergone much suffer-
ing—those who pause to contemplate the events-that
have of late taken place must be of opinion that each
and every one of us must have suffered in our degree,
and that public bodies, as well as individual commu-
nities, life assurance societies not excepted, must have
participated in that which has been so common
to all.—(Hear, hear.) Many of you have
had an opportunity; of being, present to -day at
the annual general meeting of proprietors. You had
there laid before you a full, frank, and faithful report
from your board of directors, together with a balance-
sheet of our financial condition, prepared by our
actuary, and certified as to its correctness by your au-
ditors, showing the present condition of this prosper-
ous company.—(Loud cheers.) Ido not think this
is either the time or the place to enter into an array
of figures, or to enter into anything like a
detail upon a subject like that of assurance ; but I
am called upon, as the chairman of the company,
broadly to tell you that, notwithstanding the un-
equalled pressure of the times, we have not only
maintained our position, but we have made a cons
derable advance.—(Loud cheers.) We have issued
a very large number—a very large number, indeed—
of additional polices, whilst our losses have been com-
paratively small, and we have, at the same time added,
as you may readily conceive, very largely to the
amount of our annual reserve.—(llear.) Gentle-
men, I only wish that life assurance was better un-
derstood, fur I am certain it would then be far more
highly appreciated. I wish the whole community
was more deeply impressed with its immense import-
ance, for it is really lamentable when we look around
and see how much misery is caused by neglecting to
assure, and how few there are who participate in the
many benefits which it is calculated to bestow, out of
the vast number who, reckless of their own
interest, - and the future condition of those
near and dear to them, seem not alive to the
duty which devolves upon all men, but more particu-
larly upon those who have others dependent upon
them, to assure their lives.—(Cheers.) They are
mere passive spectators of its incalculable advantages.
The existence of ,that husband, or that father,
who has the prudence to assure his life, whilst
health and strength are vouchsafed to him—
who has discharged that duty which is due to
those nearest and dearest to his heart's affections,
is relieved of a great portion of his cares, but more
especially is such an act a source of the utmost con-
solation to him in the period of mental or bodily
suffering; had he deferred his intention until then, or
until some future day, he might not be able to accom-
plish it.—(Hear.) I look to you, gentlemen, to
spread a knowledge of the great importance of life
assurance among your friends. I appeal to my
friends - the commercial travellers, whom I have been
in the of meeting from time to time, and wha have
done and can do so much'for us, to aid'us in the
future in the same excellent spirit as that which has
animated them during the past.—(Hear, hear.) I