The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-05 00:00:00

•:!.) iltrix. X7,*

INSURANCE AGAINST RAILWAY
JLACCI-
DENTS, by the RAILWAY PASSENGERS' ASSURANCE
COMP-INY.
Empowered by special Act of Parliament, 12 and 13 Vic., cap. 40.
OFFICES. 3, OLD BROAD-STREET, LONDON.
Chairman—JOHN DEAN PAUL, Esq., 217, Strand.
Deputy-Chairman—G. B. HARRISON, Esq., 24, Great Tower-street.
The following claims have been already adjusted :
Three fatal cases insured for 500/. each.
Fifty-eight cases of personal injury received compensation, in sums
varying according to the circumstances in each case.
The distinctive features of this Company are :-
1. It Is empowered by special Act of Parliament, 12 and 13 Vic-
toria, cap. 40.

2. It has a subscribed capital of one million sterling, as a guarantee
to the assured.

3. In the premium charged the stamp duty is included, which is
paid to Government by the Company.
In these respects it is peculiar, and distinguished from any existing
Railway Assurance Company.
TABLE OF PREMIIT3fS.

For the convenience of frequent or daily travellers the Company
'Ssues periodical tickets at the following rates of premium, which
e :the holder the option of travelling in any class carriage and on
y railway :
To insure 1,0001. at an annual premium of 20s.
2001. 46 64 ss.
Single journey tickets are likewise issued at most railway stations
the kingdom at the following rates of premium :-
3d. to Insure 1,0001. In a first-class carriage.
2d. ditto 5001. in a second-class carriage.
Id. ditto 2001. in a third-class carriag?.
These sums to be paid to the legal representative of the holder in
asea of fatal accident while travelling by railway, with propor-
tionate compensation to himself in cases of personal injury.
ALEXANDER BEATTIE, Secretary.
3, Old Broad-street, March 1, 1851.

RAILWAY PASSENGERS' ASSUR-
ANCE COMPANY.—(THIS DAY.)
The third half-yearly meeting of this company was
held this afternoon at the offices, 3, Old Broad-street,
City; John Dean Paul, Esq., chairman.
The report commenced by congratulating the share-
holders on the satisfactory progress made during the
past year in the business of the company. The perio-
dical tickets issued in 1849 were 1,123, and in 1850,
2,320. The single journey tickets issued in 1849 were as
follows:-Ist class, 11,397; 2d class, 18,429; 3d class,
16,504. They had increased in 1850 to-Ist class,
14,008 ; 2d class, 30,040 ; and 3d class, 40,236.
The receipts for the half-year, ending 31st December,
amounted to 2,531/. Is. 11d., being an increase over the
previous half-year of 4441. Is. 7d.,. and over the amount
of the premiums taken in the first five months the com-
pany was in operation, ending 31st December, 1849, of
1,1091. 14s. I Id. The directors had not availed them-
selves of the power to raise a call of 11. in addition to
the deposits rail The claims daring the last six months
had very largely increased. Several serious railway
accidents had occurred in England and Scotland, and
among the sufferers, on almost every occasion, were
some who had taken insurance tickets previous to com-
mencing the journey, or who held periodical tickets.
The claims consequently had been numerous, and in
some instances heavy, so that the compensation paid
during the period in question, and in course of
adjustment at the time when the accounts were
made up, would necessarily absorb what would
otherwise have been divisible to the shareholders
at this time. From the commencement of the business
of the company to the present date, embracing a period
of twenty months, the claims had been for two fats'
oases, insured for 5001. each, and for fifty-five cases of
personal injury, the compensation to which in the cases
adjusted had varied from IL to 4251., according to the
severity of the injury sustained in each case. The com-
pany had some remarkable escapes to notice. In one
very serious accident which happened to an excursion
train in July last, where upwards of 150 persons were
more or less injured, there were only eleven out of that
number who held insurance tickets, who became claim-
ants on the company. In another still more se-
rious accident in August, when they bad eleven
cases of personal injury to meet, there were
no fewer than six persons killed, of whom, unfortu-
nately for their families, none had taken insurance
tickets. Again, in September, when 18 persons were
more or less seriously injured, only one of them was in-
sured, and his claim was for an injury so slight, that
the sum of 31. sufficed to meet his demand for compen-
sation. The accounts up to the 31st December exhi-
hired a gross income from premiums for the half-year
(including balance due from previous half-year's ac-
count) of 3.6601. 16s. 4d., and a total expenditure of
2,261/, 19s. 9d., leaving a balance at that date, after de-
ducting estimated amount due on various accounts of
998/. 16e. 7d. This sum the directors would have ap-
propriated in plying interest or dividend upon the
shares, but the claims upon the company in re-
spect of accidents, towards the close of the year, were
so numerous, and some of them so heavy, that the
entire balance must necessarily be reserved to meet them.
The issue of single journey tickets had been extended,
since the last half-yearly meeting, to fourteen additional
lines of railway. Two or three companies still refused
to sanction the issue of tickets, though on one of those
lines where this refusal had been persisted in, a ver y
serious accident happened in December last. In the
month of December, arrangements were made to es-
tablish the issue of single journey, as well as periodical
tickets, on the leading railways in Ireland. The
Great Southern and Western Company, and
the lines towards Belfast, afforded every faci-
lity for this purpose, and since the Ist of January,
the receipts from that source, though small, had not
been trenched upon by any claims in respect of acci-
dents. The company established in France had com-
menced its operations, and being in friendly correspon-
dence with this company, the mutual interests of both
would be promoted by the publicity given to the system
of insurance there, as well as here. Since this period
last year, two companies had been formed to do insur-
ance business, in some respects similar to that which
this company wee the first to propose to the public.
But a; neither cf there companies had obtained an Act
of Parliament, it w Ls not expected that they would seri-
ously effect the business of this company.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the report,
said he was glad to inform the proprietors that there had
been a steady and, he trusted, an important and perma-
nent increase in the amount of business transacted. The
company had rapidly risen to a position of great public
utility and usefulness, and the success which had at-
tended it had scarcely a precedent in the history of life
assurance societies. Since the commencement of the
enterprise they had issued no less than half-a-million of
journey-eicliets, and the returns of the last quarter
showed that the company had grown daily in the estima-
tion of the travelling public. Whi'e the proprietors
would reap, as he fully anticipated, a fair reward
for their invested capital, they would at the same time
have the satisfaction of kaowiug that they had relieved
the misfortunes of bereaved widows and orphans, and
also compensated, as far as pecuniary assistance could do,
many sufferers from railway accidents; and these great
advantages were secured to the parties by paying a cern-
paratively trifling, premium. During the half year fifty-
eight cases of accident had occurred, in which the
sufferers had received from the company sums varying
from 11. to 425/. as compensation for thus injuries they
had received. There were also two cases of fatal acci-
dent, in which the deceased individuals had assured:their
lives for 5001. each, and the company had just received
notice of a third case of the same kind. In the two first
cases both the parties were married, one leaving behind
him a family of six children, but they were possessed of
no property; and letters had been sent to the directors
by their representatives or friends, acknowledging with
grateful thenks the ready boon conferred upon them by
the company. Though the accounts for the half-year
showed a balance of 998/. 16s. 7d., the directors die not
feel justified in recommending a dividend at present ;
but they fully expected that the shareholders would soon
have an amine return for the capital they had invested
in the undertaking. The Chairman concluded by moving
the adoption of the report:
After a brief discussion the motion was agreed to, the
retiring directors aed auditors re-elected, and a sum of
300/. awarded to the directors for their labours during
the past year.
The meeting was then made special, and a resolution
which was agreed to at a former meeting confirmed, ex-
tending the benefits and advantages of the company to
pup (vas on railways.
After a vote of thanks to the Chairman for his con,
duct in the c:tair, the meeting separated.

GERMANY.

The following is the text of a letter of the King of
Wurtemberg to Prince Schwarzenberg, on the Con-
ferences at Dresden, to which many allusions have
recently been made in the German journals-:
" your Ilig,hness,—From the report of my Plenipo-
tentiary in Dresden, I perceive that you decidedly reject
collective
idea of calling into existence a representation of the
vo,re nation by the side of the chief Executive
of the Bend, which
e tablishcd,
m
la
even in this open That
from declaration,
I sincerely regret this intelligence
your Highness will think
quite natural,
well-known freedom of ex-
presion• vcmy own
own part, I have always, before as
well an since this lamentable events of 1848, believed
that a reform of the Act
a revision of the lath artce
of
true palladium and the only
lConfederation, and especially
was unavoidable. The last
in particular I regard as the
real test of the value of all we
the age and the moral
necessities article is to be re-
visednegotiate in a manner not in arrear of
mast extend the necessities of the nation, then we
hi-
therto existing representation
and bring
of the
Chambers •
the
seto the Federal
compact as:9. whole, together divided, bar-
ren, and confused powers of the different
one united Upper National Parliament. into
mreys_ceoen,vi^tion
such a united Parliament, according to Only with
will it he possible to establish a generally
lastin,?; Central Power, the activity, force, and"" in'efici and
of othiela will be in vain sought in its external form
numerical c:anposition alone. In these times mere and
phy-
sical power will Co: suffice to sustan; a general formo
government. Repressive laws and measures of police
atone have hitherto neither guaranteed political institu-
tiona, nA. averted political convulsions. It Ido not err the
old Confederation has proved this to us in the mariner that
suffices to in-_,.ke it a fearful example. A federation of states
is much more difficult to guide and 1;01 together than
a sie gle state, The first require:, much more than
the last, a common moral bond of connexion which may
preserve. it—which may -eq^ v' it from d.
issolutian from
within, and destruedo pi —r
''
from without.
I. Such a moral
bond for the whole of Germany
/-(F................
i con now only be found
ZI NT :7;_,_ , in a general Parliament- a vain shall we seek a sue-
r -T0....".1n17:,. atitute for it in a general
-4'.:?'"-- er -----. ' let ''t rll • commercial union. Material
,/,..(t , A ‘,... . er,„, s p.o_ ote social revolutio
ns much more than
..'•'3l7•-_,4V-..,--- , they hinder them; these interests
,:,„.. A.,' \c''' - don - •
ot tight, they retire
• 10./ Iv, itt the hour of danger and k •
,:.:....-_-, N.., -- ---.. submit themselves easily and
j'`,_,... and
fi_, without conditions; they are as , •
variable as property
I. e... . 1 . i itself, on which they depend; th •
It 1-#7si* i. " lit.ltEruacc prevented neither
the
exclusive demands
IA A;11',44.: T.,. Monwnlay nor the vsolution of 1848.180 f the restored
'W. 94T -- (1 WOE: A Conic tiara ti re G o i-ernm:nt su • 14 mY °Pi-
Ni '
Ito Eported by a vneral