The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-06 00:00:00

CLERICAL, MEDICAL AND GENERAL
LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY.

BONUS MEETING, 1867.

The Report presented at a Meeting held on the 3d
January last, for the declaration of the EIGHTH BONUS,
showed,

1. AS TO TILE PROGRESS OF THE SOCIETY,

that, during the quinquennial period which terminated on
the 30th June, 1866,

NEW ASSURANCES for a total sum of £1,518,181,
and yielding £50,497 in Annual Premiums, had boon
effected, of which sums the former exceeded by £31,811,
and the latter by £2,332, the eerrevending items of any
previous period; that

THE INCOME had increased from £195,400 to £215,327
per annum; and that

THE ASSURANCE FUND, after piymont, of £85,303
on account of Bonus at the last Division, had risen from
£1,122,191 to £1,619,339.

2. As TO THE FINANCIAL POSITION Or THE SOCIETY.
That the Assets on June 30, 1866, were £1,619,539 14 8
And the Liabilities on the same dato 1,313,708 19 2

£275,830 15 6
Leaving a surplus of

and that, after setting aside L 50,000 as a special Reserve
Fund,

THE AVAILABLE PROFIT was £225,330 15s. 6d.,
of which sum £225,000 was recommended for division.
3. As TO THE RESULTS OF TIIE DIVISION.
That tho portion of this sum of 1:225,000—viz., five-sixths,
or £lB7,soo—which fell to the Assured, would yield a
REVERSIONARY ADDITION TO THE POLICIES
of £272,682, averaging 45 per Cent., or varying, with the
different ages, from 32 to 85 per Cent. on the premiums
paid since the last division; aad that the

CASH BONUS, which is the exact equivalent of such
Reversionary Bonus, would average 26 per Cent. of the
like premiums.

Tho Report explained at length the nature of the In-
vestments and the bases of the Calculations, the results of
which, as above shown, are eminently favourable.

The next DIVISION OF PROFITS will take place in
January, 1872, and Persons who effect NEW POLICIES
BEFORE THE END OF JUNE NEXT will be entitled
at that Division to one year's additional share of Profits
over later Assurers.

Prospectuses, Forms of Proposal, the R)part above men-
tioned, and a detailed account of the proceedings of the
Bonus Meeting, can bc obtained from any of theeSoeiety's
Agents; or of
GEORGE OUTCTAFFE, Actuary and Secretary,
13, St. James's-square, London, S. AT.

CONTRACT FOR APPOINTMENTS FOR TIIE
ROYAL MARINES.

, ADMIRALTY, SOMERSET
CONTRACT DEPARTMENT
HOUSE, May 3, 1867.
MIIE 'COMMISSIONERS for EXECUTING
111_ the OFFICE of LORD HIGH ADMIRAL of the
UNITED KINGDOM of GREAT BRITAIN and IRE-
LAND do hereby give Notice, that on THURSDAY, the
16th instant, at Twelve o'clock at noon, they will be read
to treat with such persons as may be
willing to Y
CON-
TRACT for supplying and delivering into her Majesty's
Victualling Stores at Deptford, all such quantities of
MUSKETDoSLINGS (tler Infantry),
. (LighArtily),
DRUM SLINGS,
DRUMMERS' SWORDS, and
CHIN STRAPS for FORAGING CAPS (Light
Infantry),
as shall from time to time bo demanded for the use of the
Royal Marines under a contract for twelve calendar months
certain, and further-Until the expiration of three calendar
months' warning.
Patterns of the Articles may be seen at the Royal Marine
Office, New-street, Spring-gardens, between the hours of
Eleven and Twelve o'clock.
No Tender will he received unless male on the printed
form provided for the purpose, and which may be obtained
on application in the Lobby of the Dept] tment of the Con-
troller of Victualling, Admiralty, Somerset House, where
the Conditions of the Contract may be seen.
No Tender will be received after Twelve o'clock at noon
on the day of treaty; and it will not be required that the
party tendering, or an agent on his behalf, should attend
at the office on the day of Contract, as the result of the
offer received from each person will be communicated to
him and his proposed sureties in writing.
Every Tender must be addressed to the Secretary of the
Admiralty, and bear in the left-hand corner the words,
Tender for Appointments for the Royal Marines," and
must also be delivered at the Department of the Controller
of Victualling, Admiralty, Somerset House, signed by two
responsible persons, engaging to become bound with the
person tendering in the sum of £2OO for the duo perform-
ance of the Contract.

By Order,
ANTONIO BRADY,
Registrar of Contracts and Public Securities.

SPIRIT OF TILE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

--t-

THE "SATURDAY REVIEW" ON 110USEIIOLD Eco-
NOMY IN 1867.—Unpleasant as the fact may be,
there is, we fear, no doubt that this ydar will see in
many families as much distress and as much pinch-
ing as the last saw. The dire shadow of last year's
commercial eclipse is still chilling our homes and
darkening our paths. Although There is more
money than would suffice to buoy up every totter-
ing firm of note, there is a perfect dearth of credit.
And it is this utter dearth of credit that will be so
painfully and pinchingly felt in numberless families
throughout England. In the first place, half of the
small incomes of the country are derived from rail •
ways, and more than one great railway is practi-
cally insolvent. It is impossible to measure accu-
rately the precise amount of the misery thus in-
flicted. Whatever the amount is now, it will be
doubled if all the engineers on all the railways
combine to strike ; for enhanced wages or suspended
traffic and constant dividends are incompatible.
Although, in the majority of cases, personal
i
consist wholly of railway dividends,
incomes do
opnerohtaps,
yet in some cases they do, and in a good many one-
half is derived from this source. It needs but small
powers of imagination to conceive the straits to which
people whose whole annual income does not exceed
£4OO, and half of this rroducel from one source,
must be reduced when this one source fails. But
this picture does not fully represent the intensity
of the suffering now felt by many families. Few
persons in the middle ranks of life abstained from
investing in one or more of the numerous specula-
tions which came forward during the last two years
under the specious attraction of limited liability, and
which promised to give ten per cent., and to exact
only a few calls at distant intervals. The experi-
ence of the last six months may witness how well
this promise has been kept. The interest has long
ceased to be paid, but the calls go on in a geome-
trical ratio of acceleration. Money that was
borrowed when money was easy to get has now to
be repaid when it is all but impossible to borrow.
The unfortunate shareholders who were told that
they would never have to pay up 40 per cent. of their
capital have to pay up 60 per cent., and are still
dinned with the cry of " more." With half of their
ordinary income taken from them, they have in many
cases to provide fresh capital which will be as un-
productive as if it were flung into the ocean. How
many families of moderate means are at this moment
casting their hundred a year each into an abyss from
which not a particle of it can ever return ! There is no
help for it. To go through the Bankruptcy Court
is out of the question, though the inducements
which led them to speculate would afford a substan-
tial justification for such a course. But pride, the
dreadporfevloesnit mngcaany casts,
and the dread of losing situa-
tions struggling man from taking
lavishing on " calls" the petty
a step which would put an end to a lifelong burden.
Ao on,
sunrciplu sos menthat
a t
sell-
ing out the only safe investments they have made
at a depreciation of 30 or 40 per cent. •
"'his is the
special and peculiar sore of the existing crisis: Not
oncegwent to buy an ornament for the
wife or some amusement for the children, and
only are incomes docked to feed the rapacious leech
of the share-market, but capital is sacrificed with-
out stint or compunction. Every £lOO which the
persecuted shareholder throws into the ravening
maw of his cruel tyrant cost him from £l3O to
£l4O ; in a year or so this, the savings of years,
must come to an end, and then how is the
tribute to be paid ? There will be but one resort--
the Bankruptcy court ; and when he flings him-
self, au exhausted and beggared suppliant, at its
altar, he will curse the false shame which forbade
an earlier recourse to its protection, and urged bins
to pauperise himself and his children that he might
satisfy the exactions of dishonest or deluded directors.
THE " EXAMINER" ON THE PROGRESS OF TILE
BILL—The House of Commons sticks to its work,
and shows that it is resolved to try what can be
made of the Ministerial Bill before consenting to
have the question thrown over for another year.
This is exactly what the country desires and de-
mands. It cants no more of faction fight about
the matter : it wants, if possible, to get the ques- •
tion settled satisfactorily, and settled soon. Settled
at all it cannot be unless it be settled satisfactorily;
and perhaps we may add, unless it be settled soon.
The attempt to impose a differential test on the new
voters, in the shape of a two years'. residence, has
been, after a brief debate, rejected by an over-
whelming majority; and the exclusion of lodgers
and compound householders is certain to share the
same fate. It was clear, indeed, after Lord Derby's
recent address to the deputation which waited
upon him at Downing•street, that intelligent
Tories were not expected to take much
trouble in defending what had become un-
tenable positions. - Intelligent Toryism took