The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-04-11 00:00:00

REPORT BY THE DIRECTORS,

The Directors have again the pleasure of reporting a larger
amount of new business in the past than in any previous
year.

The number of Policies issued has been 472 ; the sum assured
by these amounting to £213,631 155., and the Annual Premiums
to .6171 Os. sd. In addition to these, proposals for a large
amount of Assurances were offered, but declined.
It is scarcely necessary to remark that the past year has been
one of extreme pressure on the resources of almost every class
of society. So large an amount of new business could, there-
fore, have scarcely been anticipated; and it is peculiarly grati-
fying, as an evidence of the extension of Life Assurance gene-
rally, and of the growing conviction on the part of the public of

the advantages offered by this Institution. It is interesting at
the same time, in a general point of view, to notice that, so far
as the Directors had the means of tracing, only a very small
proportion of the Assurances were made in connection with
loans, nearly the whole having been effected for purposes of
family provision. The effect of the commercial occurrences of
the past year, and of the general scarcity of money, has, how-
ever, been shown in a different way—in the unusually large
number of Assurances which have been surrendered or allowed
to expire, from inability to continue payment of the Premiums.
While this is a result which, in its general aspect, is to be re-
gretted, there is no doubt it is yet a source of considerable gain
to the common fund.

capital sums has been 32, and the amount of claims thereby
emerging £17,800; on the other hand three Annuities have
fallen in, for two of which sums amounting to £l5OO had re-
cently been sunk. The third was of smaller amount. Consi-
dering the almost unprecedented mortality over the country,
the Directors do not doubt that the Contributors would be pre-
pared to expect a higher rate in their own body than has occur-
red hitherto, and they consider they have cause for congratula-
tion in the fact that, notwithstanding their increased numbers,
and the now advanced age of some of the members, the deaths
in the year do not exceed one and a quarter per cent. of the
whole number, a proportion considerably short of the average
number provided for by the Tables of the Society.
The net amount of Assurances subsisting at 31st December,
1847, was .t,1,137,657 9s. ; and the income, from premiums
alone, exclusive of revenue from accumulated fund, .131,344.
The position of the London Branch has occupied much of the
attention of the directors, during the year. After mature con-
sideration, they were unanimously of opinion that it was essen-
tial for the interests of the Society that a new agent should be
appointed to conduct the business of the Branch. Unfortu-
nately, some difference of views regarding the constitution of
the Branch, in relation to the general management of the
Institution, occurred between the General Board and the Local
Directors, which, they regret to say, resulted in the resignation
of the latter gentlemen. To their influence is, undoubtedly, in
a great measure, to be attributed the decided success which
has attended the establishment of the Branch; and it is grati-
fying therefore to know, as the Directors do from the best of
all evidence, that their withdrawal has not in any way dimi-
nished their good will towards the Institution, and that their
influence will still be exerted in its favour.

The Directors do not propose to supply. their place in the
mean time, but to conduct the business in immediate connec-
tion with the Head Office—for which the rapid communica-
tion between Edinburgh and London now affords increased
facility.

They have appointed Mr. WILMER Ow EN HARRIS to the
office of Agent and Secretary, and they trust that, in this
appointment and in their other arrangements, they have made
provision for the continued and increased success of the Branch.
In regard to the Glasgow Branch, the directors have much
satisfaction in reporting that its progress is, in all respects,
satisfactory, and that a large increase of business has been
made in Ow year. They have also the pleasure of reporting the
continued interest taken in the Society by the gentlemen asso-
ciated as an Honorary Board in Manchester.
In the circular letters and advertisements calling this meet-
ing, the contributors were made aware that the preliminary
steps have been taken for obtaining from Parliament an Act
conferring on the Society the privileges and benefits of Incor-
poration. The Bill contains a few slight alterations on some
of the minor details of the deed of constitution. These have
already been unanimously approved of by two consecutive
special meetings of the Board of Directors, to the latter of which
the Auditors and Trustees were invited—all in terms of Act
37 of the Deed of Constitution.

The Directors have further to report that, a vacancy having
occurred in their number, by the resignation of Mr. Robert
Robertson, they unanimously nominated Mr. AITKEN MEGOET,
one of the original Directors, in his place.
A vacancy having also occurred in the body of Trustees,, by
the death of one of their number, the Directors unanimously
appointed to that office Mr. CHARLES COWAN, Member otra4,-
liament for the City.
It remains for this meeting to confirm these appoixlmer.its,
as well as to appoint three Directors in room of thea at
the top of the list, who now retire in terms of the rules,-
The beads of the Bill for Incorporation, referred tr , in the
report, having been read, and the Bill laid on the t&.l'
air. JOHN SCMANK MORE Professor of &GU in the
University of Edinburgh, said,—l have been sego, ewhat unex-
pectedly ca'led upon to propose a motion for tk ,e adoption of
this meeting, which, however, I do with the Itr eatest pleasure,
because I have always taken a deep intere# 1' a the success and 11
prosperity of this Institution. I had marry .nteresting consul-
tatins pith /117 1p4,0 wend Mr, CleghQrq*P' efore this Institution

was formed, and I was so satisfied of the sound and scientific
principles on which it was based, that I never doubted that, as
soon as they came to be understood, it would meet with that
general favour and support which I am glad to see it has, to
such an extent, received. ' There were two great principles on
which Mr. Cleghorn proceeded. The first was to make the
Premiums as low as was consistent with the entire safety of the
Institution, and so as to secure, beyond all risk, the fulfilment
of its obligations. In this respect, most of the existing Assur-
ance Companies had been misled by the Northampton tables,
and lied made the Premiums for young lives—in which I in-
clude ages up to fifty or so—much higher than was necessary,
while their tables for the older lives were somewhat too low.
This error was perceived by Mr. Cleghorn, who, from more
recent and better calculated mortality tables, found that the
premiums for these younger lives could be safely and very con-
siderably reduced; and he framed a table which all subsequent
experience has proved to be singularly correct. lam happy to
say that, since this table was framed by Mr. Cleghorn, the
Registrar-General of England has appended to one of his late
Reports a table for the guidance of Life Assurance Societies ;
and it is very gratifying to find that the rates specified in that
table are nearly the same, and in many instances precisely the
same, with those of this Institution. Now one of the chief and
immediate benefits resulting from this reduction of the pre-
miums upon the younger lives is, that it operates as a direct
bonus in favour of every Insurer, when the premiums of this
Institution are contrasted with those payable to the older As-
surance Societies. It operates in this way. A person of twenty
years of age, insuring with this Institution, can, for the pay-
ment of the same annual sum which other offices would demand
for insuring £lOO, insure here .ell 5 or .tl2O, payable imme-
diately on his death. The Premium payable to this Institution
for £lOO is -el 15s. Bd., while, in other Offices, it is 21 s. 6d., or
or £2 3s. 2d., and, in some, still higher. There is thus an
immediate and certain benefit secured by the lower rates of
premium. But the second, and most important improvement
suggested by Mr. Cleghorn was this, that if any profits should
be made, after paying all expenses and securing all the obliga-
tions, as must be the case, even at his reduced rates of pre-
mium, these were not to be frittered away among those insurers,
or their representatives, whose contributions to the general
fund could never possibly have tended-to make such profits,
but should be reserved for distribution among those contribu-
tors whose payments into the general fund had come to be equal
to the sum assured. The importance of this improvement has
never, I think, been sufficiently estimated. And truly the
practice which has prevailed in several highly respectable and
flourishing Mutual Assurance Societies, of giving a share of
what they call their bonuses or profits to the representatives of
every insurer, who has been such for five years, is, to say the
least, very strange, and seems to indicate a very limited know-
ledge of the true principles of Life Assurance. It reminds me
of the old rule by which originally all lives, whether young or
old, were equally insured at same invariable rate of 5 per
cent. The absurdity of this rule was soon discovered ; but
truly the other is not much less absurd. Why, in five or seven
years, every life should get the same share of what are called
profits, is utterly incomprehensible. The delay is plainly in-
tended to approximate somewhat to the sum assured • but this
can never be done upon reasonable principles, till there be a
graduated scale, corresponding to the age of the parties, ac-
cording to which the profits shall be distributed among the
policies which fall. If any Office were to insure a person at 75
years of age, which, I dare say, few Offices would do, I have no
doubt the premiums would be so high that, in five years, it
ivould approximate to the sum insured; and if this sum were
.100, and if 2 per cent. yearly of profits were to be added, for
each of the five years, supposing the policy then to fall, the sum
payable would be .4'llo. But suppose a young man of 20 to
insure 'lOO at £2 a year, and to pay the premium for five
years, and then to die, his representatives would equally draw
2 per cent. yearly upon his policy, and would also get £llO, so
that all that theoffice would receive by this transaction would be
the interest upon the premiums which had been paid. Nothing,
surely, can be more absurd than this. It might be thought
that these representatives, drawing the £lOO insured, or .eOO
more than they had paid into the office, would get a sufficiently
handsome return for the policy; and why, over and above,
they should have all the premiums returned to them, under the
name of bonus, I cannot conceive. Yet this is the footing upon
which a great deal of insurance business is done ; and it is very
apparent how greatly such a system must withdraw the profits
from those who alone contribute to their being formed. Even
in this Institution, low as the premiums for the younger lives
are, I know that such an ample provision was made by Mr.
Cleghorn for the expenses of management and for contingent
losses, that there must ultimately be very considerable profits
realized ; and surely those by whose contributions such profits
are realized ought to draw them. This is the principle on which
the main improvement made by Mr. Cleghorn hinges. And,
though the prosperity of this Institution has been very remark-
able, I am far from being surprised at it; and Ulm persuaded
that, the more its principles are known and studied, the more
favour will it receive from the public. I desire to make no in-
vidious comparison with other similar Institutions. I rejoice
in the prosperity of all of them, because I see in that prosperity
much that must conduce to the moral and economical welfare
of the community. And all I wish is, that, in the details of
their management, they should be guided by sound and scien-
tific principles. I observe that, every. year since the com-
mencement of this Institution, its business has been steadily
Mid progressively increasing. I see that, during its first year,
182 Policies were issued, and that, in each succeeding year, the
number has been regularly increasing, till, during last year,
they amounted to 472, being 56 above the preceding year. Al-
low me, then, to congratulate this meeting on the growing
prosperity of the Institution, and to propose the following mo-
tion which has been put into my hands?—" That the Meeting
approve of the Report by the Directors, now read, and confirm
the appointments thereby made ; farther, approve of the Bill
introduced. into Parliament by the Directors, entitled `A Bill
forfi rmlncorporating
at] ide
RSecgout tl iasthi
nPsr ot iedree no
ft,
flonrs tit uti
enablingo n , fn csoani d-
Society to sue and be sued, to take and to hold property, and
for other purposes relating to said Society,' which has now been
read ; and of the alterations upon the Deed of Constitution
proposed to be thereby effected; and authorise the Directors
to proceed with the requisite measures for having the Bill
passed into a law, subject to such alterations as may be made
by Parliament, or as may be considered expedient by the
Counsel to whom it shall be remitted by the Directors for
revisal."

Mr. JOHN M`CaAw said, before agreeing to adopt at once the
latter part of the motion, although I have every confidence in
the Directors, I would like to be informed what are the precise
alterations which the Bill referred to makes in our Deed of
Constitution ?

Mr. JOHN HUNTER, jun., said,—lt is quite proper that Mr.
M'Craw should be satisfied upon this point. The Bill, in the
very first clause, contains a distinct declaration—" That no-
thing herein contained shall relieve or discharge the Society
from any contract, responsibility, debt, engagement, or obli-
gation to which the said Society is now or shall be hereafter
liable, but the same shall continue as if the Society had not
been incorporated under this Act ; and farther, that nothing
herein contained -woct the Deed
w uunstitution, and Laws and Regulations of the Society, or
any of the powers therein contained, or any of the Bye-Laws or
other alterations of the said Deed of Constitution, made or to
be made, in virtue of the powers given by the said Deed, except-
ing always in so far as the same are expressly altered or varied
by this Act, or are or shall be contrary to the true intent and
meaning thereof." I can assure Mr. M'Craw that there are no
alterations whatever on the Deed of Constitution, except in one
or two minor matters, rendered necessary by the extension of
the business to England. Indeed, I may say that the only
alteration is that on the arbitration clause. By that clause of
arbitration, as it stands at present in the Deed of Constitution,
every person who may have a disputed claim against the Society
is bound to enter into a reference before the Sheriff of Edin-
burgh. This clause would of course be very unsuitable in the
case of Members resident in England, and it was therfore in-
dispensable that some alteration should be made upon it in the
Act of Parliament. The Bill, accordingly, does not make it
obligatory on parties having claims upon the Society to go into
arbitration at all. It gives them the option either of proceed-
ing to enforce their rights by the ordinary modes which are
open to all, or to insist on the Society entering into a reference
to two parties mutually chosen. If the parties are resident in
England, the arbitration may now take place there, instead or
forcing them to go before the Sheriff of Edinburgh. This, it
will be observed, is a provision wholly in favour of the Members
and others, who may have claims on the Society. In all other
respects the Bill confirms the provisions of the Deed of Consti-
tution, and merely confers on the Society and its Members the
valuable benefits and privileges usually granted to incorporated
bodies, which carry on business in Scotland, England, and
Ireland.

Mr. J. F. MACFARLANE said, I have been unexpectedly called
upon to second the motion approving of the Report, which has.
now been proposed by Professor More. Although I cannot
enter so minutely into the question touched upon by the
Learned Professor, as I have had my attention more particu-
larly directed to another—a very distinguished and flourishing
Institution, with which I am connected, yet, at the same time,
I look on all these Institutions as brethren, having one great
object in view. The business of Life Insurance is only in its

infancy. Every one of such Institutions just appears to me to
form one of our national defences. We have heard a great deaf
about this of late ; but it appears to me that, as Institutions of
this kind spread, every one of them will form a guarantee for
the preservation of good order, and for peace and security pre-
vailing here and elsewhere. Certainly were they universal, our
naval and milit establishments might be dispensed with al-
together. (Hear.)ary ln reference to the Bill which the Directors

have submitted, it is well that the question has been put by Mr.
M'Craw before the approval of the meeting is given. But, after
it has been put, and distinctly answered, every one of us must
be satisfied there is no invasion of any right which any partner
holds, or any thing introduced that is calculated to injure, but
only what is essential to the proper conducting of the business

of the Institution. As the passing of an Act-of Parliament is
a measure of considerable importance to the Society, I think
this motion will now meet the cordial approbation of every
gentleman present. (Applause.) On the general advantages of
Life Assurance, were they not now so well known, one would
like to talk a while; for there is nothing which can give greater
security and comfort to a family than. the knowledge that a
provision is secured for them. But it is unnecessary to enter
into this. Allow me. therefore,_ just to Fongratulate the mep-

bers on the great and extraordinary advances, which, under
disadvantageous circumstances, this Society has made. Secu-:
rity is thus given that it will continue to flourish; and I have
no doubt that it will go on at such a ratio as will prove highly
satisfactory to all parties. I have much pleasure, therefore, in
seconding the motion for the approval of the Report.
The motion was then put to the Meeting by the Chairman,
and cal ricd unanimously.

Mr. WILLIAM JOHNSTON, of Kirkhill, said.—l rise to ask
you to join inc in a very pleasing duty, that of returning thanks
to the Directors for their valuable services during the past

year. I feel very. sure that, when we think of the great extr4
labour they have in perfecting the matter of the London agency,
as well as framing the Bill now before Parliament, which
trust will-soon be the law of the land ; and, above all, when we
think of the great extra services necessary to transact such a
large amount of business, now in connection with the institu-
tion, we must be at once prepared to give them our warm an&
hearty thanks. (Applause.)
Mr. WILLIAM CH MICH, jun., of Glasgow, seconded the mo-
tion, which was carried amidst acclamation.
Mr. C. J. KERR, banker, said,-1 am sure the Meeting will
join with equal cordiality in tendering a similar compliment to
the Boards at Glasgow and Manchester. (Applause.)

ANote of thanks was also given to thellindiOrs and Trustees
and to the Office bearers of the Society.
The management for the ensuing year was then vested in the
following Gentlemen ; the three last-named Directors being
elected by the Meeting, instead of those Yvlxo.retired by rota-
tion : DIRECTORS.

Charles Morton, Esq., W.S.
George Meikle, Esq., Merchant.
Aitken Megget,. Esq., Merchant.
Alexander Jamieson, Esq , Merchant.
John Parker, Esq., Stamp Office.
James Cowan, Esq., Paper Manufacturer.
John Hunter, junior, Esq., W S.
Alexander Keith Johnston, Esq., Geographer to the Queen.
William Oliphant, Esq., Publisher.
William Fraser, Esq., W.S.
Archibald Thcnnson, Esq., Merchant.
Charles-Black, Esq., Publisher.
Robert Hunter, Esq., Sheriff of Bute.
Francis Richardson, Esq., Merchant.
Jules Catfr.icart, Esq., Wine Merchant, Leith.
AUDITORS.
C. IV. Anderson, Esq., Merchant, Leith.
James Crawford, jun., Esq., W.S.
Alexander Bryson, Esq., Watchmaker.
TRUSTEES.
David Hector, Esp., Advocate.
James Alexander, Esq., Wine Merchant.
James Peddie, Esq., W.S.
William Campbell, Esq., of Tillichewan.
Charles Cowan, Esq., M.P.
Bankers—The National Bank of Scotland.
Medical Officers.
Sir George Ballingall, Professor of Military Surgery.
Dr. James Duncan, 12, Heriot-row.
Solicitor—William Pollock, Esq., 13, York-place.
Manager—JAMES WATSON. Secretary—JOHN WATSON.

LIVERPOOL.
Medical Officer—Dr. Moffat, 37, Bedford-street North.
Agents,
WM. HASLITT and Co., 13, Oldhall-street,
From whom Tables of Rates, and any Papers connected wit%
the Instittition, way be obl4lllled.