The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-11 00:00:00

the fallacy (to use no stronger term) of the Massachusetts'
report, and to establish that the International. Society is
possessed of assets fully adequate to meet not
only all its liabilities under contrac s of assurance,
but also to repay the shareholders the whole amount of
capital paid up by them. These conclusions have further
been verified and confirmed by Professor Pierce, of Harvard
College, Massachusetts, an eminent American mathemati-
cian, and the directors are happy to find that the investiga-
tion of the society's affairs, detailed in Mr. Woolhouse's
report laid before this meeting, and which is completed up
to Dec. 1 last, show even a more satisfactory result than
those just referred to, which extended only up to the 30th
of November, 1858.
" In accordance with the actuary's report, the directors
recommend that this meeting should declare a
bonus to holders of shares at the rate of one
per cent. per annum for the next five years,
in addition to the ordinary interest of five per cent.,
and also a bonus to the different classes of policy-
holders entitled to participation in profits, as explained by
Mr. Woolhouse.
" It will be the business of this meeting to elect three direc-
tors in lieu of Henry John Hodgson,. Esq , John Moss,
Esq., John Symes, Esq., whose period of office expires, but
who are eligible for re-election, and offer themselves accord-
ingly. Also to elect two auditors in lieu of Professor Charles
Wheatstone, F.R.S., and Professor John Radford Young,
whose period of office expires, but who are eligible for re-
election, and offer themselves accordingly.
" For the Court of Directors,
"E. S. SYMES, CHAIRMAN."

The CHAIRMAN, in rising to move the adoption
of the report, said, after hearing the comprehensive
statement that had just been read, he thought he
should not be called upon to go at any very great
length into the present position of the society. The
report showed that the society still maintained the
prosperous position it had occupied for many
years, and that success still continued to attend
it. The amount received for new assurances was as
nearly as possible the same as that of the previous
year, as was also the amount paid for claims arising
from death and from surrendered policies. The
expenses of the management, including commis-
sions, appeared by the balance-sheet to be a
little higher than those of the previous year,
but that arose principally from our having paid a
bill for law expenses in America extending over a.
period of five years. The expenses properly
chargeable to this year were even less than the last,
and the shareholders would bear in mind how con-
siderably these had been diminished from year to
year for four consecutive years since he had been
the manager, so that they were absolutely one-third
less at present than they were five years ago.
(Hear, hear.) As regards the new assurances with
the company during the past year, they had been
by no means inconsiderable. (Hear, hear, and
cheers.) Most offices considered that if on an
average one policy a day was completed that would
be a fair business, but the number effected with
this company amounted to 424, and the new pre-
miums earned had exceeded £5,000. (Hear, hear.)
If, however, he were asked, as chairman, whether
the directors were perfectly satisfied with this result,
he would frankly tell them they were not, because
he was perfectly aware that, had it not been for
adverse circumstances over which they had no sort
of control, the result would have been even more
favourable—far more favourable. (Hear, hear.)
He held in his hand a classification by the actuary
of the assurances effected in each month during the
year, which showed that during the first six months
297 policies were issued, the premiums on which
amounted to no less than £3656 (that is, at the
rate of £7,312 per annum), out of the £5,423 of
premiums earned during the whole year. That result
was due to the adverse report of the Massachusetts
Assurance Commission, which appeared in June
last, and which, as far regarded this society,
was most unjust, and, in faet, altogether irrelevant,
and expressed in language as undignified as it was
incorrect. You all know, he continued, the nature
of life assurance. It may be regarded as a ter-
minable annuity receivable by the o I; ce during the
life of the individual, or for a specific term of years,
in return for which the office guarantees to pay a
certain sum equivalent thereto at his death; and of
course, if the payment is not kept up, the liability
also ceases. Now, that being the case, it is clear
that some amount of annuity, or premium, would
cover the whole of the risks on our books without
our having any reserve fund whatever, and how
nearly the value of the risk can be calculated is shown
by the fact that while the amount of the assurances
effected by this company during the last five years
exceeds £1,000,000 sterling, the claims which have
accrued during that period are just £1,515 within
the expectation. What, then, will yorithink, gen-
tlemen, when I tell you that the assurance commis-
sioners of Massachusetts—or commissioner rather
for one of them, Mr Eleazur Wright, has since con-
fessed that although two names are appended to
the report, he alone is responsible for it—l say,
what will be your surprise when you learn that
the calculations of this commissioner were
avowedly not made upon the premiums ac-
tually receivable by us. He did not even know
them for he never asked us. But his calcu-
lations are based upon a mere hypothetical pre-
mium, having no reference whatever to those
actually charged by the company; and, on this
i assumption he chooses to argue that we ought to
have reserved a much larger sum than we have
done, to provide for future liabilities. But what
right had Mr. Wright to assume anything of the
sort when it was easy for him to have obtained
the real facts ? (Hear, hear.) By such a mode
of calculation two companies, one of which was
receiving, for example, 5 per cent. for the same
risk which another accepted at 4 or 3 or 2 per
cent. would be placed by him on precisely the
same footing. (Hear, hear.) The directors imme-
diately took measures to protect your interests and
arrive at the real merits of the case. They called
upon our actuary, one of the first mathematicians in
the kingdom, to make a thorough investigation of
the true position of the society. That investiga-
tion showed that the International is in a
position to meet all its engagements, to
return every shilling of the shareholders capital,
and to leave a handsome surplus. (Cheers.)
So far as we are covioerned we should have been
perfectly satisfied to rest our case upon Mr. Wool-
house's report. But as the Massachusetts report
was signed by two commissioners, we submitted
the whole of our affairs to Mr. Neison, another
eminent actuary, who made a separate and inde-
pendent investigation without seeing that of Mr.
Woolhouse's, and although he adopted a different
mode of calculation and a different table of mor-
tality from those of Mr. Woolhouse, the result
coincided in a remarkable manner with that
arrived at by our own actuary. These, again, we
submitted to the professor of mathematics and
astronomy in the principal university in the
United States, by whom they were fully confirmed.
It cannot be doubted that this most unjustifiable
report did us great injury in America. Our busi-
ness there, for a time at least, was almost at astand-
still ; and, although in America, generally, it is
gradually recovering itself, we are at present doing
nothing in that particular State. This, however,
does not arise from Mr. Wright's report—for there,
as elsewhere, that report is getting to be looked
upon in its proper light, but from the circumstance
of arbitrary enactments having recently been made
there with which it is absolutely impossible for
a great company like ours to comply, viz.,
That on or before the 15th November in each year
a return shall be filed there of the whole affairs
of the society up to the 31st October preceding."
Now you will see at once that it is impossible for a
company, whose ramifications are so widely ex-
tended as ours, to comply with such an enactment.
In fact, it is only within the last three weeks that
our final entries have been made, and the books
balanced; but had it been other wise, we could not
have published our accounts to the world before
they had been submitted to and confirmed by the
shareholders themselves. (Hear, hear.) This,
however, having now been done, we shall comply
with their requilements, and resume our business
in the State. (Hear, hear.) We have also taken
measures to bring before the notice of the State
Legislature the total unfitness of their commis-
sioner for the office he holds. He might be asked
how a public assurance commissioner could
give in any thing but a fair report. To such
an inquiry he could only reply by relating
a trifling circumstance which might possibly
throw a little light upon the matter. Some time
before the report was made our agent in America