The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-09 00:00:00

S A 11 IYA

ENGLISH AND CAMBRIAN LIFE

ASSURANCE SOCIETY.

The first annual meeting of this company was held
at the offices, New Bridge-street, on Saturday, the
26th July last.; G. M. Murray, Esq , occupied the
chair.

Mr. C. W. BEVAN, the resident manager, read the
report and bulance-sheet :
The directot> have much pleasure in meeting tho
share and policy holders ou.this the first annual general
eting of the sccioty, and although a period of rcarcely
eight months has elapsed from the date of the issuing of
the first policy by the board an amount of business has
been done almost unprecedented in the history of in-
surance societies.

The number •of proposals received up to the I2th
instant has been 432, amounting ,to 99,415/., of which
273 .have been accepted and completed, averaging
2591., and.assuring... £70,695 0 0
29 ditto, ditto, but not

completed' - 4,650 0 0
62 have been declined or
withdraWn
68 under consideration 10,290 0 0
--------X99,415 0 0
43 as abode

The society's income to the present time.is 2,3281. Is.
These results cannot fail to be highly gratifying to
the proprietary; and augur well for -the inture prospects
of the sock ty.
The directors, under the powers contained in their
deed of settlement, deemed it prudent, in December lavt,
to suspend the fire department of the society's business,
and accordingly the risks (with the exception of two)
were transferre,d to a highly respectable office, for which
the society is still liable. ' When the proper period ar-
rives, the directors will ask the sanction of the share-
holders to resume this department of business, of which
due notice will be given.
The directors point with much satisfaction to the an-
nexed report of the auditors, containing the ;balance-
sheet, and the state of the society's affairs, and on com-
paring the preliminary and working expenses with those
of other offices, have reason to congratulate the share-
holders on their comparative smallness in amount.
Your directors have devoted their attention to the
establishment of,local branches in favourable districts of
the United Kingdom, and have succeeded in forming a
highly-respectable and influential branch in the city of
Norwich, which cannot fail to be productive of the most
beneficial results in extending the business of the society.
• The directors have further to congratulate the pro-
prietary on having secured the lease of the valuable pre-
mises now occupied by the society at a very low rental;
and although a considerable sum has been expended in
the necessary alterations it now forms a valuable asset
in the society's balance-sheet.
Your directors are happy to report that, up to this
date, no claims have fallen is by reason of death, and no
losses have been- sustained in the loan department.

E VENIN6;

AUGrATST

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

6, 1850

been rebuilt), presrnts to the nineteenth century. Must
the barque of Peter be rowed by galley slaves? Must the
fisherman's ritig be the signet to the death ;yam! t?
Must the functions of Nero be performed by the succes-
sor ol his supposed vic:im? Th,:y show yeti in Rouse
the Mamertine dungeon, where Catiline's confederates
were ireu4ured; where Jugurtha, Z-:nobia, and a host of
illustrious prisoners, were let down. Peter, they say,
Was thrown into that monumental cavity at the foot of
the Capitol; and the memory of minor captives is
tnergOja the monopoly of marvel which that circum-
stance establishes for this prison-hole." Why has the
successor of the Apostles united his Palace to the Black
Holes by a covered passage. if it be not to transport, un-
fortunate persone, who have excited his snspicioni,
secretly into the oublittlec of St. Angelo, and to ntyord
him the couveniencz, of witnessing and gloAting in per-
son over their sufferings? Whether this man of blood,
who has attempted to foist his rule ovf r England, found
or re-established the Roman Inquisition, we know not;
but Dr. Achilli is an illustrious instance that he makes
use of its dungeons; and what they are, we know
from the discoveries made by the French soldiers
in 1793. Skeletons were found that had boon ina-
inured, when living min and women, within
the massive walls ; uumc-reua traps for pri-
vate executitais, and deep wells containing quick
limo and hall-consumed bouos. And w hen again, in
1 S4B , Rome was besieged and the Pope expelled, the
bones of thousands of victims, who had been secretly
put to death, were discovered. This is the religion that
was to displace Christianity, as it is practised by Eng•ish-
men; this is the man who was to rule the province of
England. We do not refer to the dark ages of Popery,
but exhibit it as it now shows itself in the eyes of the
world. That the fruit discovers the parent tree cannot
be doubted. Two or three weeks ago the Augsburg
Allgemeine Zeitung had the following passage;-_
"The total absence of religious feeling among the lower
classes of the population of Rome is really horrible; edd
CO this, that scarcely any class whatever has the least
sympathy for the Papal Government, and the most me-
lancholy reflections will rise in the mind of every friend
of social order." The state of the popular feelings in
Rome in regard to religion might be explained on the
ground, that the people are on the spot where Pope and
priests show by their daily actions, that they have no
real care for religion themselves, otherwise than as a
medium of pecuniary profit and temporal power. But
this argument will extend beyond the metropolis of
Roman Cathalioisua, and epply to the whole of
Italy. So notetriously depraved is the state of morals in
that country, and more particularly in the States of the
Church, that no attempt has been made to deny the fact
—but persons favourable to Romish tenets, like Mr.
Eustace, the author of the " Classical Tour," have con-
fessed it in seeking for palliating circumstances. "May
it not be ascribed," he asks, " to the corruptions of the
national religion, to the facility of absolution, and to
the easy purchase of indulgences?" And if it may,
what, let us ask in return, are these latter but essential
parts of the Romish religion, the very tree whose fruit
we are considering? A modern traveller relates, that at
Tivoli, a man stabbed his brother, who died in agonies
within an hour. " The murderer went to Rome, pur-
chased his pardon from the Church, and received a
written protection from a Cardinal, in consequence of
which he was walking about unconcernedly, a
second Cain, whose hle was sacred." Wo give
one more illustration of the religion that Dr.
Wiseman was to have triumphantly carried into
Westminster Abbey. It is from " Graham's Three
Months' Residence in the Mountains East of Rome"---
" Those that have an interest with the Pope may obtain
an absolution in full from his Holiness for all the sins
they have ever committed or may choose to commit!"
And the author of " Rome in the Nineteenth Century"
says—" I have seen one of these edifying documents,
'issued by the present Popo to a friend of-mine. It was
most unequivocally worded." In reference to the dread-
ful barbarities perpetrated by the Pope in the prison of
St. Angelo, it is obvious that unless the French autho-
ritatively interfere in behalf of his victims, the character
of their nation will be seriously compromised. Raving
the power to wrest them from sacerdotal malignity, they
will become accomplices in the foul deeds now charged
upon the Pope, in the letters to Lord Aberdeen. Under
the relations of England to Rome, we hardly see how
our Government could interpose to save them. The ex-
istence of this miserable and hypocritical despotism any
longer in Europe, however, will be a crime in ad the
states that have the power to crush it, but hold aloof. I

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.