The Sun.
London, England, 1828-02-23 00:00:00

COUNTY FIEF.-OFTICE

A General Meeting of the Members of this Establish-
ment took place yesterday, at their house in Regent-street,
at which Sir Join; liannir.urori presided.
The Secretary having read over the Annual Strs:-..emeit
of Accounts, and the Report of the Directors, whirls r-,,\.
a very gratifying view of the affairs of the offiee-'- -
Mr. 13..tr..amt BEAL:MO/sT, the Manager Director., ros,
and addressed the Meeting to the following effect :
It must be highly gratifying to every Proprietor to wit-
trees the continued and increasing prosperity of our writer,
under circumstances, only part of which has caused the
ruin or breaking up of eight Fire Offices, within the iaet
two or three years. I allude to the great reduction which
has taken place in the premiums of insurance. But be
sides this, the County Fire Ofnce alone Las had to sustain
such ,ritt attack upon character and credit as, I am sure.,
no principal I ifs Office ever before suffered. It is not in;
intention on the present occasion to occupy your time by
going over Mr. Sykee's calm: twits 4,-ainst us, which first
alarmed and then disgusted the ptiblie, every one of which
consequence
the
has been proved to be totally without Igsm-datiora ; but I
Just notice them ten say, that the effect of th..lsc calumnies
and threats was to stop the progressive increase :In our busi-
ness, which previously bad been uninterrupted, and to
cause a teinpOrary
with
in that business ; but this alarm
has :disappeared with the igiantont that caused it, rind our
reputation may be considered to stand higher than ever fit
t
regard to payment of duty which post'il Here I leave that subject for the present, and pro-•
tlhaewseieq:eosoersd:ali ts' which it has beers ex-
ceed to a ti which is of vital importanzt, not mak
to ourselves, but to ever' Fire-office In Great Britain,
to fulfil, and affixes penalties on non-falfilruerrt, willei...
arc tremendous. The law says this—ths dilly diarge3lic.
upon every policy and renewal of a policy, which fir issued
lci
to
ini:
impossibletle ri re ffirc ei I,h
then
within a quarter, shall be accounted foci and pald at
the Staitip-offic6 within two months after the end of snub
quarter, under a penalty of 50tg. and double the amount
of the sum left unpaid. Now much' the greater part of
the the renewals issued from the LiPadon Offices are :..o conic-.

try agents fo them to collect. The duty on the ruzewarz
we send out amounts to 10 or 11,0001. every quarter, nuZ

more than 9,0001. of this at the utmost is collected, but
we cannot procure accounts fens the country agents of.
what they do collect wit Lia two months—no, nor within
two quarters, nor two years sometimes, nee. until we colas
pet the production of accounts by suits at law. And let
the Fire-Offices generally do nut render accounts, and
payments of the duty collected by country agents to the
Stamp Office, until after they have accounts from the
agents of their having received it, although this may
be two years after they, the agents, have received it ;
still the agent frequently receives the duty immediately
after his reeCesieg the renewals 'from the head office.
and from that instant the liability of the Fire Office
takes date, as much as if the duty had been paid oe
their counters in London, and the not accounting
for a single receipt is enough to bring them withies
the penalties cef the Act. In every such esee, therefore,
the offices are liabtc to penalties—that is, to the 5001. peas
nalty, for the non-delivery of account, and doable the
amount of the duties then received by the agents, but not
vet paid to the Stamp Office. In cur scale of business the
amount then received by the agents, but not accounted for
by them, would probably be about 6,000/. quarterly ; tisie
doubled, for one penalty, and added to the 500/. for the
other penalty, motifs tender us liable to penalties- to' the
amount of 50,000/. a yeat. This is the condition of
every Fire Office in London. Their existence hung br a.
thread, and that thread is in the hands of informers. It was
in'order to relieve ourselves i'eosu this state of peril, and to
conform to ties directions of the Act, that we resoleed, at
the commeucement of our concerns, to pay the duty on all
the policies and renewals which were issued during a quarter,
within two tnotiths after the end of such quarter, as well at
such renewals as see issued to county v agents for them to
collect, as for that duty which we had actually troeir.vi
at our office in London. But as a great part of the re-
newals sent into the country were not eventually zeceivet;
by the agents, but were. returned by them as not eventually
taken up, we claimed cre4itor with the .Stamp Office in
future accounts for so much duty as we had thus provi-
sionally lodged, as it were, but did not eventually receive,
and in this way we fulfilled the directions of the Act to
the letter, although at a material sacrifice, iu being sa
much money (generally 8,0001. or 10,000/.) in advance,
thank God for it. By hiving paid in this way, we hair.
To this sacrifice, however, we owe on: security, and nia-
hem enabled to set the malice of our enemies at dehacr-
for while they were racking their brains to refuse Pr -
secations against us, and to overwhelm us with ;la''
nalties, the unconquerable facts stood in their way, that'
we had never leaned: e. single policy or renewal which
we had not duly accounted for, and duly paid the
duty upon to the Stamp Office, and that we had,
never been a shilliug in arrear to the Stamp Office during
the eighteen years' transactions brought in queation,
Seeing what you have seen, I leave .e.s; to judge how
many of these 30,0001. a-year penalties (Per the eighteen
years) we might have been visited with, had we bate'.
vulnerable to attack. We have dune wore to compt with
the Act and to favour the revenue, than any other Fire
Office in Lugland. 'How we have been rewarded fur this.
is before the public. I now come to the most tenons pa_l
of our case. We ate actually prevented contioning tier!
above mode of payment, so advantageous to the revenue,sts
accordant to the law, so consistent with our own at-
curity> The Board of Stamps now refuse to make any
allowance far duty it Welt we may provisionally pay on
country renewals, Which eventually are nut taken up ; so
that paying the duty on all the renewals we issue from
London to the country, the duty an all not to ten up would
be a dead loss to the office, and svould amount to at least
6,0001. or 7,000/. a-year. To a sacriflee of yew' nsonee.
so unreasonable and so unjust, we could not submit; ;NW,
therefore have been driven to adopt the mode of deterring
payment of duty on the collections of country agents nuts'.
we obtain accounts from them of what they really have
collected, iu the manner which it usual among the
Fre Offices generally. By this new determination of ths.
Stamp Office, the Revenue loses 500!. in the value of in-
terest on our payments iu advance, and we save that sum.
With this, however, we expose ourselves to informations
and penalties, in common with all the other Fire Offices,
The Managers of the Fire Offices may view their conditaes_
as they please, and because they themseleas have not ye'
tastedi the bitterness of Stamp Office attack.., may lma-
gine that they never will, but no office knows /OW SG'`)
their turn may come. The proceedings in the Coeirt of
King's Bench yesterday must convince any one how later
a share of the annoyance which we have suffered has ariseta
from the accidental circumstance of Mr. Sedgwick, Chaim
man of the Statup-office Board, having been for a short time
one of the sixty Directors of the County Fire Office. Many
of the members of the other Public &elf's are Directors et
Fire Offices. ',qr. Iluskisson is a Director of one Fire
Office ; Mr. !ferries, I am told, has had soneething to do
with auother. A present Member of the Stamp te‘ffioll Board.
I understand, belongs to, or did lately belong to, es. third-
These gentlemen may become marked for vengeance the
turns of political power, and their Fire Offices by pcost!4i-
lity become mixed up with them. Be thie as it may.
as useful and lingo:
ever, the fact is, that it is impossible for the Fire Offioaa
to comply with the directions, or to steer clear of the Fa—
nalties of the law, in respect to payments of duties, as it
now stands. They must violate it, or give up their butt-
pa-toffidesceirabbelee
nets. The law protects them not. They are at the
ter the Act 2.2 Geo. c. 48, le-
mercy of informers. Now this is a prostration to which
nu gentlemen embarking their capitals
ofal Duty on Fire Insurance, through
periods for
to. consider and
taut undertakings ought to be subjected. The law ought
With a view to
ttolpiatrthoemetil
to be rendered practicable, or it ie a delusion and a uullit
submit to you the following resolution
" That it be referredth tioiert
deferred,nd until
determine on the propriety of offering a petition to the Wese
ofalCdoiirnigmthoinese,osiojecatsiotno
suchcountry
e collections
inotsw, lett ertng acoounta of
the said accounts are actually received by the Fire-offices.
instead of being limited to two mouths from the quartet, in
which the policies and Renewals are issued front the Fite-.
Alio, es now required under heavy pe Ina ties—a dire tiff
which it is absolutely impracticable to fulfil."
After a few observation§ from Sir William Well,-j 'el'
George Duckett, and Mr. T. Peel, the Resolution' s'e see
sassed.

" A vote of thanks to 31r. Barber Beaumont, for
continued, zealous, and able exertions, WAS then proposed
by Sir John Harrington, and carried unanimously, aft,/
which the Meeting adjourned.

A letter received this morning from Oxford;
speaks of Lord GaY.t4vlLLe being seriously indisposed,
Morning Paper.
COURT OF KING'S BENCH.-- ALLEGED
PErouity.—THE KlIs"G V. ATTW00D.....411 this ca.,,e,
conuiderable portion of which has already appeared in =-
Paper, the Jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty, which
seemed to give very general satisfaction.
ORATORIO AT COVENT GARDEN THE.
ATILE.-;Madame PAsTA,Nlifi3 PAION, and Mr. BRAIIAII,
were more than usually attractive here last night in thr!.
Oratorio, which was under the direction of thsuor.
dame PAsrA was particularly applauded. The liou
however, Was not so NH as ;alight have beta auticipgcd.