The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-23 00:00:00

THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY.

At the ordinary meeting of the Statistical Society
held at the offices in St. James's-square—Colonel
Sykes, M.P., in the chair—the usual routine busi-
ness of the meeting having been transacted, a paper
"On the Progress of Fire Insurance in Great Bri-
tain and other Countries" was read by Mr. Samna
Brown.

Mr. Brown commenced his lecture by giving an
historical sketch of the origin and progress of insur-
ance against loss by fire. He stated that the scheme
first originated in London about 180 years ago, and
that the corporation of the City shortly afterwards
took the matter into their own hands. But the de-
lays which occurred in forwarding the idea, and the
dilatory manner ia which it was carried on, induced
many private companies to compete with them.
From advertisements published about 1680, it ap-
peared that several private companies were ready to
effect insurances on brick houses at the rate of 6d.
in the pound ; and on wood houses at Is. in the
pound. In the year 1682 the Court of Common
Council did not find the scheme profitable, for they
relinquished the matter, paying back the premiums
they had received ; and from that time fire insur-
ances were conducted by private companies and
friendly societies. The Hand-in-Hand was the old-
est of the now existing fire insurance offices, and
for 10 years after its establishment it bad no rival.
The Sun Office was the next, which was followed
in succession by the Union, the Westminster, and
the Royal Exchange. The number of offices had
been gradually increasing ever since ; and in 1856
there were 75 insurance offices in the United King-
dom. Mr. Brown then went into a very long state-
ment relative to the report of Mr. Coode upon fire
insurance, lately presented to the Houses of Par-
liament, in which he refuted the facts and opinions
expressed by that gentleman, and brought forward
many facts advocating the removal of the duty now
charged upon policies in England. He stated that
in England, where fire insurances had been
known for 180 years, the total amount insured was
in 1856 927,000,000/. ! while in France, where it
had only been in vogue for a period of less than 40
years, the sum insured was in 1856 1,880,000,0001.
The great advance which had been made in France
in insurance business as compared with England,
be attributed to the fact that there was no legisla-
tive duty on policits in France, and that the insur-
ance of nouse property was in a measure rendered
compulsory by the Government holding the tenant
responsible for all damage occurring from a fire
originating in his tenement, Mr. Brown gave
many curious statistics of the duties which were
laid upon fire insurance by continental governments,
and in every case be showed that the tendency was
to diminish the amount of property insured in
the countries where they existed. The follow-
ing are the results of his observations :—ln Great
Britain the amount insured, calculated from the
duty paid, was in 1856 927,000,000/., while the
property insured and exempt from duty was
estimated at about 70,000,0001., and the foreign
and colonial business, alsu exempt, 125,000,0001. ;
making a total insured for Great Britain of
1,122,000,0001. In France the amount insured in
proprietary companies in the same year was
1,320,000,0001., and in mutual companies
480,000,0001. ; total, 1,880,000,0001., or about
700,000,0001. more than England. In Germany
the amount insured, as far as could be ascertained,
was about 1,150,000,000/. For Russia, Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, and several
other countries where it was difficultto obtain in-
formation on the subject, the amount was calcu-
lated at about 400,000,0001., making the total
amount insured in all the countries mentioned
4,482,500,0001., upon which the estimated annual
premiums paid amount to 8,250,0001., and upon
which the total annual loss was about 4,750,0001.
Mr. Brown stated, in concluding his paper, that he
thought there was still ample room for extension of
fire insurance iu this country, and that it was only
restricted by the duty imposed by Government. He
entirely disagreed with Mr. Coode's statement that
fire insurance had reached its utmost limits in Eng-
land, and that all the insurable property was pros
tested. B fora setting down he brought forward a
long series of figures, refuting the low estimate
placed by Mr. Coode upon the amount of insurable
property in the United Kingdom. Mr. Brown was
loudly applauded on resuming his seat.
A considerable discussion then arose upon ti)
points at issue between Mr. Coode and Mr. Brown;
and Mr. Coode made a long statement in support
of the facts which he had advanced in bis report,
after which the proceedings terminated with the
usual vote of thanks to the chairman.