The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-16 00:00:00

Travelling in America.

A " Traveller" has written to the Times an
excellent letter exposing the folly of many insur-
ance offices in restricting the liberty of the insured
in travelling, arguing that this restriction has been
one of the main causes why the English do not
more generally travel in the United States. He
maintains that the policy is injurious to the
insurance companies by preventing people from
more universally adopting so admirable a means of
securing for their families some provision in case of
death. A " Traveller" having lately returned
from a visit to America contrasts the numbers of
Americans always found in Europe with the paucity
of Englishmen visiting the United States. "Of all
countries," he says, " from which an Englishman
may hope to derive profit as well as pleasure in
visiting, I know of none equal to the United States.
It is the duty of the politician, it should be the de-
light of every man of spirit and energy to make
himself personally acquainted with a country whose
future must be the future of the world, and whose
people, identified with our own in blood, religion,
and language, are destined, perhaps after many
internal struggles, to achieve the last victories of
civilisation over the heathen nations of the earth_
The Americans are great travellers, and think
nothing of crossing the Atlantic. Many families
send their children to be educated in Europe. We
fall in with them everywhere abroad—in Paris, in
Switzerland, in Italy ; but we seldom meet them
where we should naturally most expect to do so,
in our own country. I have been often puzzled to
account for this, but I cannot help thinking that it
is chiefly owing to the fact that comparatively few
Englishmen visit America, except for purposes of
business. In the course of a journey of 5,000 miles
through the States and Canada last autumn I did
not meet with half a dozen Englishmen who were
travelling for purposes similar to my own—i.e.,
to make themselves acquainted with the people and
institutions of the country. Were it otherwise,
were Englishmen in the habit of visiting America
and enjoying the hospitality of its frank and kind-
hearted people, I am sure that we should more fre-
quently have the pleasure of meeting Americans in
our English homes, and that much of the absurd
prejudice and misunderstanding which exists on
either side would be done away." With respect to
insurance he says :—" One great argument against
the present practice is that the insurance offices
themselves appe'ar to be all in the dark about it.
They have no fixed rules to go by, and act quite
a discretion.' While their ordinary rates of in-
surance are tolerably uniform, nothing can be more
various than their mode of dealing with such a case
as lam describing. Supposing a person to be in-
sured for £lO,OOO, and to be desirous of spending
three months in Canada and the United States, he
would be required to pay, as au additional pre-
mium or fine, if insured in the—
Equitable ... ▪
10s. per cent., or £5O.
London Assurance ditto ditto
Atlas ...
ditto ... ditto
Sun
£25 ••• ••• ••• ss.
Law Life
Economic... • ditto ditto
ditto ... ditto
North British •. ... nil.
Alliance
Lancashire
Guardian nil.
•.• •••
Mutual nil.
So that, while a person insured in either of the five
last-mentioned offices would be at liberty to per-
form his journey without paying any additional
premium, he would be taxed by each of the three
first to the extent of £so—a sum nearly equal to the
cost of his voyage as a first-class passenger out and
back. But this is not all. The offices which thus
heavily mulct his pocket impose also serious re

strictions on his personal liberty. I strongly sus-
pect that the American maps which doubtless adorn
the Board-rooms of some of these venerable institu-
tions are of very ancient date, and that neither the
rivers nor the railways of the American continent
are very accurately laid down. No limit, indeed,
is prescribed in a northerly direction, and I presume
that a traveller might explore the whole region be-
tween Canada and Boothia Felix without forfeiting
his policy. But the Mississippi is the Rubicon of
America. He must on no account cross that turbid
river, even though St. Louis, a town of 200,000
inhabitants, lies on its right bank, and though hun-
dreds of miles of railway connect it with flourishing
and populous towns in the healthy States of lowa,
Missouri, and Kansas. As for the Southern States,

they are, of course, as effectually shut out from his
ken as they are from Congress itself. The New
York or Philadelphia merchant or man of business

thinks no more of running down by train to New

Orleans and back than the Londoner does of going

to Aberdeen ; but the Britisher who value; his
policy of iusurauce must not set foot in North

Carolina, Georgia, or 'Tennessee, and cannot be
trusted so far to take care of himself as to keep
away from New Orleans in the season of yellow
fever. Surely, sir, it is time that these absurd

restrictions should be put an end to, and that
travellers should be credited with a little common

sense as well as with some regard for their own

lives ? During the whole of my travel through the
States I am not conscious of having run any greater

risk than I should have encountered on a similar
journey in England ; and it is a curious fact that

the only accident which befel any railway train
by which 1 might have had occasion to travel was

one that happened to the Birkenhead and London

train, by which I should have travelled on my re-
turn home, had I not landed at Queenstown and
taken the Holyhead route instead."

COUNTRY MARKETS.

WAKEFIELD.—FRIDAY.
Wheat meets a fair consumptive demand at last Friday'S
prices. Barley steady. Ocher articles dull.

LINCOLN.-FRIDAY.

To-day the supply of wheat was middling. Prices for
fine were is per qr. higher ; other kinds firm. Not much
barley on offer, and with a fair inquiry last week's prices
were realised. Oats were a scanty supply, and moved off
steadily, at recent currencies. A fair trade in beans and
peas at former prices.
New white wheat, Gss to 68s ; new red, 59s to 64s per 36
stone. Barley for malting, 49s to 518 per qr ; grinding,
32s to 3Gs per 30 stone. Oats, 24s to 3Gs. Beans, 48s to
50s per 38 stone.