The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-18 00:00:00

Add interest on invested capital

Total net annual income £267,431 8 2
The present number of members is 12,617.
At the Quinquennial Division of Profits made
up to the 20;11November, 1857. the computed
valre of assrrances in Class IX. was .C1,000,090 16 6
Assets in class IX.

Surplus or profit £345,034 3 11
The effect of the successful operation of the Society during
the whole period of its existence may be best exhibited by re-
capitulating the declared surpluses at the four investigations
made up to this time.
For the 7 years ending 1842 the Surplus was £32,074 11 5
71 9
t
5 years „ 1847 „ 81,122 8 3
It
t,
5 years „ 18.12 „ 232,061 18 4
„ 5 years „ 1857 " 9, 345,034 311
Members whose premiums fall due on the Ist April are
reminded that the same must be paid within 30 days from
that date.

The Prospectus, with the last Report of the Directors, and
with illustrations of the profits for the five years ending the
20th November, 1857, may be had on application, by which
it will be seen that the redettions on the premiums range
from 11 per cent. to 981 per cent., and that in one instance
the premium is extinct. Instances of the bonuses are also
shown. JOSEPH MARSH, Secretary.

March, 1859.

ELECTION INTELLIGENCE.

WOLVERHAMPTON.

On Friday a meeting of the Liberal electors was
held at Wolverhampton, to hear addresses from Mr.
Villiers and Sir R. Bethell—Mr. H. Walker occu-
pied the chair.

Mr. VILLIERS was received with great applause.
After a graceful recognition of the kindness he had
received from the burgesses of the borough, and an
eloquent tribute to the great merits of Mr.
Thornely's character and his services as the repre-
sentative sit Wolverhampton, he said Mr. Thornely
was much gratified to hear that Sir R. Bethell was
likely to be his successor. He did not admit, as
had been urged in the House of Commons, that the
rotten, corrupt boroughs were the only places which
distinguished men could represent. (Applause.)
It was also for the interest of large constituencies
that they should select distinguished men, and men
likely to take a share in the Government of the
country, and he eulogised the wisdom of Lord
Aberdeen for selecting as members of his Govern-
ment the representatives of large constituencies. It
was to the absence of such men from the present
administration that he attributed that remarkable
ignorance of the sentiments of the country which
they had displayed in dissolving Parliament at the
present critical juncture, and in propositig such a
Reform Bill as they had done. The great defect
in the House of Commons was that the rural in-
terest exercised an almost overwhelming influence
in Parliament, so that as in the case of the Corn
Laws, it took a ten years' agitation to carry an im-
portant measure, and then it was effected by the
influence offs:wee and fear rather than reason. (Hear.)
Then by the advance of education numbers of the
artisan class were becoming fit for the suffrage, and
some plan--it need not necessarily be an alteration
in the occupation value—but some plan was neces-
sary from time to time to bring such persons
with the pale of the franchise. (Great applause.)
Glancing at the necessity for a more adequate re-
cognition of large populations, and at the question
of the necessity of the ballot, as a means of pro-
tection from coercion, he urged that reform should
be at once dealt with ; but while they ex-
tended the suffrage, they should do it gradually, as
bad always been the custom in this country, and
not as in other countries, where they attempted to
gain everything at once, and lost everything. It
was most important that this question should be
settled, and the sooner the better, especially in the
prospect of a war imminent on the continent of
Europe, and in which we knew not what part we
might be called upon to take, or to what danger we
might be exposed. Mr. Villiers concluded by pass-
ing a warm eulogium upon Sir Richard Bethell,
and sat down amidst another storm of applause.
Sir R. BETIIELL, on rising to address the meet-
ing, was received with reiterated applause. He
spoke of Wolverhampton as being the birth-place
of free trade ; and observed that the borough was
remarkable for its unanimity in its choice of mem-
bers. It was no ordinary time at which they were
called upon to exercise the electoral franchise.
Europe was shaking with the tread of half a
million of armed men, and they knew not whether
at that moment the spark might not have been put
to the train which would involve nearly the whole
of Europe in a most frightful and a most sanguinary
war. Such a period, when they would have imagined
that a Government would have had all its energies
and its anxieties concentrated upon the effort to
preserve peace abroad, they had selected to awake,
as far as it was in their power, intestine dissension
and tumult in the country. (Applause.) Such
conduct on the part of a Government called for the
condemnation of every wise, discreet, and patriotic
man, to whatever party he might belong. (Ap-
plause.) They had dissolved Parliament at that
critical moment, and left England without a Go-
vernment, because the House of Commons had
rejected their Reform Bill; but instead of appeal-
ing from that house to the country they stated that
they did not mean to re-introduce that measure, on
the ground of the rejection of which they chose at
that important period to throw the country into
the paralysis which must attend the period
of a contested election. (Hear, hear.) Sir
_Richard then referred to statements made by
/Ir. Disraeli in speeches to his constituents
in 1857 and 1858, in which he had pronounced
ment in the hand of t
the Reform Bill of 1832 as having been con-
s
cocted by Whig
'obb
ehr Ye t tpea rmt ya,
inantadinhathaeinGdoivcaetrned
as the object of a Conservative-
Reform Bill to
reverse that result, that to • •
give political power
was
to the Conservative party—(applause)—and its
pro\ ons were eminently calculated to effect that
object. But Mr. Disraeli had in his speech in the
house, however, said that the ' object of his bill was
to adapt the provisions of the bill of 1832 to the
England of 1859, although he had in 1858 said that
that bill was concocted. by Whig jobbery. The
principle of the bill of 1832 was to make property
the basis of representation in counties, and numbers
and residence the basis of representation in towns;

but in direct contravention of that the Government
bill deprived the freeholders resident within the
precincts of boroughs of their votes in counties,
whilst the principle of the representation of num-
bers and residence was attempted to be destroyed
by the votes of non-resident freeholders. (Loud
applause.) After noticing the facilities which the
Government bill held out for swamping small
boroughs by fictitious freehold votes, and for creat-
ing fictitious qualifications in counties by the quali-
fication which made the occupation of lands or
tenements a title to the suffrage, the right hon.
gentleman proceeded to say that during the 28
years since 1832, the advances witnessed in the
social state and the material prosperity of the
country had been such as no previous period of our
history had presented; and by the advance of
education thousands of artisans were as much en-
titled to the franchise as the £lO householders were
in 1832. (Applause.) That bill was a great change,
which excited much alarm, but he asked now who
regretted it or regarded its effects as inimical to
the country ? As Mr. Villiers had said, every
advance must be gradual ; an attempt to effect too
great a change would retard all reform by awaken-
ing the fears of those who possessed property ; but
he had no doubt that in a-few years political free-
dom would be extended to every householder in the
land. (Applause.) After advocating a more
equal distribution of representatives, Sir Richard
said a reformed Parliament was only a means
to an end, that end being the general good
of the country, and he hoped some of the
results would be the maintenance of peace ; a wise
and economical management of the finances of the
country ; and above all that office, place, and poli-
tical power would no longer be the mere inheritance
of a few privileged classes, but would form the
great prize, would be held up as the great stimulant
to provoke the industry, to excite the ambition, and
to reward the exertions of the middle classes of the
country. (Loud applause.) He advocated the ad-
mission of Dissenters to a share in the management
and advantages of endowed schools, and decidedly
condemned church rates. With respect to law
reform—(applause)—to assist in that great work
was the motive for which he first sought to enter
the House of Commons. It had been said that he
was a lawyer, and no doubt many in his profession
did enter Parliament with a view to obtain appoint-
ments, but he did not seek a seat in the House of
Commons until he had rendered himself indepen-
dent of any such favours, and had pledged himself
to his present constituents not to accept any office
which would require him to retire from Parliament,
and he had refused the office of Vice-Chancellor, to
which a salary of £5,000 a year was attached, be-
sides other great advantages, and had since declined
a still more advantageous appointment, and was
ready again to give the pledge he had given to his
present constituents. (Applause.) He pointed out
the striking defects in the present state of the law
which required the amending hand, the simplifying
hand, and the condensing. hand, and above all a
department for the administration of the law, and
for the steady progress of law reform required to be
established. (Applause.) It was to promote such
objects that he asked them to send him to Parlia-
ment as their representative. Sir Richard sat down
amidst the most hearty applause.
Votes of confidence in Mr. Villiers and in Sir R
Bethell were agreed to unanimously and moss
enthusiastically.