The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-01-08 00:00:00

FIRE AND LIFE. ASSURANCE COMPANIES

We beg to draw the attention of our readers to the follow-
ing excellent article on Life Assaf arice. The cessation from
business of a recently established office in London, within
the last two days the premiums of which were notoriously
low, will be a convincing proof that the established offices
are the most to be relied upon. Although they charge
higher premiums, they, have respectability and stability to
to recommend. them :

. .
It is impossiblefor the trade of the country to be in a
healthy state, or for the commercial intel ests to he prosper-
ous or conren; ed, until the floundering system or managing
the national currency has undergone a searching investiga-
tion and reform. But our whole system of banking must be
amended, and a proper code of legislation framed for the re-
gulation of the joint-stock banks. We are persuaded that
every impartial person must see the propriety of making it
imperative on every joint-stock bank, without regard to lo-
cality, to register the names of the partners annually at the
Stamp-office I that their deeds of settlement should be sub-
mitted to the inspection of a public officer, and that his cer-
tificate should be the warrant for the Stamp-office authori-
ties to issue the license. The regulation ought not, however,
to be confined to joint-stock banks. It ought to be ex-
tended to all fire arid life assurance companies. The facili-
ties of establishing the latter class of companies are most ob-
jectionable. They are under no species of legislative check
or regulation whatever, and thus temptations are put in the
way of the vicious to dupe the public. We are perfectly
sensible of the imOortance of life-insurance companies, and
of the great benefits they confer upon the community. The
remarks we have have made, both as regardsjoint-stock banks
and insurance companies have, we trust, been explicit. We
trust that our object has been seen, namely, to protect the
genuine firms ; to separate the tares from the wheat ; to support
the real against the fictitious, and thus encourage and advan-
tage the sound institutions and the public. To accomplish this
purpose the. life-insurance system -specially requires to be
placed under the controul of legislative enactment, fer seve-
ral bubbles of that class have burst in the metropolis, and
there may be more to come. We have heard of one instance
lately, of a most extrecr dinary kind, where the extent of the
' • ' ly incredible. But the plan is of easy ac-
flaming prospectus with a series of names
uilli,hed, all well " enquired " for effect ;
*empting kind are circulated, promisin,.

aelut;:ort Is
cornplishm
for director
tables of t

annuities on conditions which cannot pay the company ; but
as that is never intended, the parties concerned give them-
•ouble about it, and the public greedily take the
%Ar, the. price generally at once, so as to secure
Then, to make the picture more pleasing, they
'unce that the company is established under
variety of acts of parliament, which are
se are the statutes applicable to friendly
e nothing to do with insurance companies.
r, is attained, and in a short time the
fi ce t Royal Union Fire and Life Insu-
r some other fine sounding title, nothing
ivent such impositions, and to secure the
, resulting from a proper system of well-
surance companies, the subject ought to be
me active member of the legislature. He will
. materials, and no want of evidence, to satisfy
islation to correct existing evils is essentially re-
may be said in answer to us on this point, as
in regard to the London joint-stock banks,
the law does not require the partners to be re-
ractice the same thing is done, as the directors
tist-stoel: banks generally print the names and
.heir shareholders, which are given with their
Senonsir

selves no t
bait by in

the bargain
take care tc

and by virtue of a

_ such to be the usual practice, as re-
joint-stock hanks, which it certainly is,
e practice is not so general with regard to insurance
iez,. But at any rate we do not consider it entitled to
weight. Our object is not to obtain guarantees from
Lble establishments. We know that they will always

reasonable satisfaction, but the right of as-
certaining the names of partners i❑ joint-stock banks and
life-insurance companies should not be left to the discretion
of the directors. To guard the public from imposition from
spurious firms, we maintain that the law should compel them
all to register them all annually. A mere printed list is no
guarantee of authenticity. We do not strictly believe every
thing that we see in print ; and, i❑ point of fact, in the case
of the Imperial Bank not more than one-sixth of the partners
returned to the Stamp-office ever signed the deed. Fictitious
firms could have no difficulty in providing printed Eats of
shareholders, and the law should take care to prevent the
concoction of such fraudulent lists. Therefore the deeds of
settlement with the signatures of the partners, verified by the
oaths of witnesses who saw them sign, should be lodged with
a public officer, with duplicates for examination; and his cer-
tificates to the Stamp-office should be the warrant for a li-
cence, to be followed up with advertisements in the London
Gazette.

We learn by a report in the Sun, evening newspaper, that
on the 21st John Thorogood received the balance of his
wages, amounting to nine hundred pounds! ! ! The money
was paid to him at the London Coffee-house, Ludgate-hill.
The Sun, with the greatest simplicity, exclaims, What will
the oppressors of conscience say to this noble manifestation
of public feeling ?" Whatever oppressors of conscience may
say to it, men of common sense and common honesty will
say that John Thorogood has made a good job of his con-
science: Thousands of such martyrs may be had for a ninth
part of the money. By the bye, how much money besides
has this man received personally while in gaol? No small
sum, we are inclined to believe.—Essex Standard.
PRODUCTION OF ENGLISH SULPHUR.—We are glad to
find, on personal inquiry in the north, that the use of sul-
phur ores ccntinue,, to gain ground, and that no fear need be
apprehended of want of demand, unless his majesty the King
of the Sicilies should determine on giving up the duty of
£4 10s. per ton, with with which he visits the article of sulphur
exported from his dominions—a matter not very likely while
he has the markets of France, Russia, and America to sup-
ply. 'We should not, however, be surprised if, in time, .we
do not export even sulphur ores to other countries. We find
that a preference is given to the Wicklow ores (which are
now being raised in great abundance), the stocks having been
worked off, and some contracts entered into, which will take
up much of the ore raised in the next few months. The price
continues to be maintained, and we think, that a prudent
course being observed by the miner, in accommodatingsc his
supply and prices to the state of the market, the sul-
phur never can compete with our home produce, while, at
the same time, a remuneration may be secured to the miner,
and a fair profit afforded to the manufacturer. Lancashire
alone, we find, will consume • `J 0 000 tons of ore annually, and
hence we may reasonably expect that the mines of Wicklow
will find ample demand for their produce, at the same time
'that Cornwall may contribute to the supply—the quantity
consumed in• Newcastle; Glasgow. &c,, beingoonsidcrably
on the,increase.—Mining Tourncir

(1,-br aibrrpool &tanbarb.

FRIDAY MORNING, JANUARY 8, 1841

It must, we think, be now sufficiently evident that
the time has arrived for making a permanent provision
to meet the increased expenditure of the country.
Temporary expedients, calculated only to stave off the
evil day, have too long been depended upon by our
Whig financiers; and we trust that the session of par-
liament which is approaching will not be allowed to
progress many weeks, without some intelligible state-
ment of our financial position being elicited, and a
sound principle laid down by which the revenue of the
country can he raised to the level of the increased
wants of the government.

The financial statement for the year ending sth Ja-
nuary, 1841, which has just been published, exhibits a
deficiency, as compared with last year, of £254,009,
or, in round numbers, of upwards of a quarter of a
million; and, bearing in mind the ridiculously insuf-
ficient sum demanded last session to cover the expenses
of the expedition to China, we may fairly conclude
that a large additional sum will be wanted this year to
reimburse Government for the increased expenditure
under that head alone. Independently of this, how-
ever, we have to provide for the cost of the Syrian
quarrel ; and it is evident that, to do this and, at the

same time, to place the nation in a position to engage

at once and with effect in any course of action which
its honour and interests may require, an effective and
extensive increase of taxation has become indispensa-
bly necessary. A very slight examination of the pre-
sent position of our foreign relations will show that,
although it may not be necessary for Great Britain to
possess those vast armaments • which our French
neighbours consider compatible with the existence of
an " armed peace," yet that a large increase of our
naval and military forces will be required, under any
circumstances, not only as a measure of precaution
against the possibility of foreign aggression, but to en-
able us to carry on efficieutly those struggles in which
we are already engaged. We must increase our force
in China, unless we expect our hostilities against that
people to be protracted over a much greater space of
time- than has ever yet been calculated upon; for we
cannot yet depend upon the telegraphic despatch which
announces its termination. We must recruit our In-
dian army considerably, to enable us to carry to deci-
sive conclusion the embroilrnents in Affghanistan and
elsewhere, into which the hasty policy of Lord Auck-
land has led us; and although the settlement of affairs

in Syria would undoubtedly enable us to detach a por-

tion of the

nean fleet into the eastern seas

yet, in the present unsettled state of western Europe,
wa see little prospect of doing this to any considerable
extent, consistently with the. preservation of our own
interests and .safety, in case of any sudden outbreak of
hostility in that quarter.
To provide for this pressing emergency, a bold and
vigorous administration of our financial resources be-
comes absciutely necessary; and we press the subject
thus early upon the consideration of our readers be-
cause we are fully convinced that, even whilst imposing
an increased taxation upon the country—a measure
which, we fear, will be far from a popular one—it is
perfectly within the power of an honest government to

ntroduce, along with it, such alley

mg and judicmu

changes in our present system as will give a stimulus

to industry and enable the communit

iv* par cone, upon that, artial:, qoraumpttort

By no sucll

system, however, can

of a nation, which draws the breath of it

eriously be

netited