The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-18 00:00:00

ather Vests, Drawers, and Socks.

PASSENGI

Rs' BEDDING,
being kept well aired for

immediate in;

HE TAILORING DEPARTMENT
to with every new and fashionable article.
GENTLEMEN'S CLOTHS
i in first style to measure.
FE AT FOUR HOURS' NOTICE.
N.B.—Listi of Prices

SUIT C(

fade t

d of Outfits sent, post free,
be had on application.

ltd Nil.,

CORINTHIAN ESTABLISHMENT,
55 and t 6, New No., 62 and 64, LORD-STREBT.
LIVERPOOL.

I NORWICH UNION FIRE INSURANCE SOCIETY

ESTABLISHED 1821

DIRECTORS.
PRESIDENT.—Edward Temple Booth, Esq,
VICE-PRESIDENT.—Lieut.-Colonel John Harvey.
A. Hudson, Esq. Charles Evans, Esq.
George Morse, Esq. Edward Steward, Esq.
William Herring, Esq. Lewis Evans, M.D.
Major General Sir R. J. T. Blakiston. Esq., R.N
Harvey, C.B. I W. M. Seppings, Esq.
Mr. Recorder Jermy,

SECRLTA RIES

Adam Taylor, Esq. Samuel Bignold, Esq.
THE Directors of this Office have the high satisfaction of
announcing to the Insurers that a return of zt::ls per
cent. on the Premiums paid between :Michaelmas, 1837, and
Michaelmas, 1841, having been declared, such return will
be payable to the several holders of Policies, at the re-
spective Quarter Days when such Policies become renew-
able, either at the head Office, or by the Agent with whom
parties may have Insured.
The Directors have the stongest grounds to expect that
the future returns will equal, if not exceed, that now de-
clared, and the constant increase of Business, (now amount-
ing to nearly 58 Millons,) sufficiently attests the public
confidence in the Stability of this Office.

It is provided by the COnstitutionof this Society, that the
parties Insured shall be free from all responsibility, the
engagements of the Office being guaranteed by a Capital
of £550,000.

The CHIEF OFFICE for LONDON is,
New Bridge-street, Blackfriars.
Norwich, Jan. 11th, 1842.

No. 6, Cresent,

A N Assortment of upwards of 100 PIAN9:FORTES,
11 from 7 to 100 Guineas, on Sale and Hire, at W. P.
DREAPER'S PIANO-FORTE and MUSIC WARE-
HOUSE, 49, BOLD-STREET, (Six doors above Newington.)
Excellent second-hand Square Piano-fortis, in perfect order,
by Broadwood and other makers, from' 7 Guineas.
Cabinet Piano-fortes, Ditto
Six-octave Cottage Ditto
„

Six-and-a-half Horizontal Grand Ditto

Patent Semi-Grand Ditto

W. P. DREAPER begs leave to state, that he has just
returned from London, and his saite of Show-rooms are
now replete with all the novelties in the above line, forming
an elegant and extensive Assortment of New and Second-
hand PIANO-FORTES, from the Manufactories of Messrs.
COLLARD and COLLARD, Bno ADNV oOn, TOMKIRON, and other
esteemed London Makers, at the lowest possible prices.
Piano-fortes taken in Exchange, Lent on Hire, Repaired,
and Tuned, Singly or by the Year.

.... _ .
A superior Double-action Harp, by ERARD, of London,
to he sold at half its original cost.

W. P. D. will warrant any Piano-forte sold by him, and
will exchange the same within twelve months, if not approved
of.

N.B.—A large Assortment of NEW and POPULAR
MUSIC, at HALF PRICE.

NORWICH UNION FIRE OFFICE

On Tuesday last, the 11th instant, the annual general
meeting of the proprietors of this noble institution was held
at the Office, in Surrey-street, Norwich, pursuant to public
advertisement. Rumour had heralded that the Society's
financial affairs were in a highly prosperous condition, and
that the report of the Directors would he of a most gratifying
nature. By twelve o'clock (the appointed hour of meeting)
the Board-room was nearly full, and soon after the Directors
and Officers of the Society entered. We observed amongst
the persons present on the occasion, the worthy President,
E. T. Booth, Esq., the Vice-President, Lieut.-Colonel
Harvey, Major-General Sir R. J. Harvey, C. 8., Mr. Re-
corder Jermy, of Stanfield-hall, George Morse, Esq., of
Cation-park, William Herring, Esq., of Hetheraett, Anthony
Hudson. Esq., Charles Evans, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, Dr.
Evans, William M. Seppings, Esq., Edward Stewart, Esq.,
and the Secretaries, A. Taylor and Samuel Bignold, Esqrs.,
besides a numerous and highly influential proprietary.
The President having taken the Chair, called upon the Se-
cretary, Samuel Bignold, Esq., to read the advertisement
from the London Gazette convening the meeting, and the
claases of the Deed of Settlement, pointing out the object
for which the proprietors were assembled, viz., " to receive
the report of the Board of Directors." This report consisted
of the usual annual account of the income and expenditure of
the office, and the cash accounts showing the amount of the
capital in hand, and the nature and quality of the invest. ments. These preliminaries having been gone through, the
President, Mr. Booth, rose and spoke as follows :—He ob-
served that the customary duty devolved upon him of sub-
mitting to them the report of the Directors on the results of
the Society's transactions for the twelve months commencing
at Michaelmas, 1840, and ending at Michaelmas, 1841, and
on the present state and prospects of the Society ; and a most
gratifying duty it was which he had to perform, for there was
probably no parallel in the country to the high prosperity,
and the well-deserved reputation, of this great institution.
The principal features of the year consisted in a steady in-
crease of the Society's business, the annual premiums
amounting to £78,794—a great diminution in the sum paid
out for losses by fire—a reduction in the Office expenses
—and the closing and exhilarating fact of a net profit
of £27,400 on the year's business. (Hear, hear, hear.)
He had to state that the Directors had determined to appro-
priate this sum, which, according to the provisions of the
Deed of Settlement, belonged to the insurers and to the pro.
prietors in defined proportions, viz., thre&-fifths or £16,440.
to the former, and two-fifths or £10,960. to the latter. The
important sum this year's business had thus realised for the
insurers, added to former accumulations, would enable the
Directors to make an immediate return of £l5. per Cent. on
£309,328. 17s. 6d., being the amount of the premiums recei-
ved by the Society from September, 1837, to September, 1841.
This per centage would be paid to every insurer, without ex-
ception, whether his policy had been in existence the whole
period or for only a single year, or even but ;for three months ;
an advantage, he believed, not afforded by any other society
whatever. This return would cause a distribution among the
the parties insured of £46.395. in the next four quarters.
(Hear, hear.) He would now advert to the situation of the
proprietary, would be this, a moiety of there gains this year,
or £5480. would be added to their reserve fund, which would
thus be augmented to £57,305., and the other moiety, with
the balance of interest on the capital, would be available for
the annual dividend on the shares, which he had the pleasure
to announce would be £l2l.per ent., or £3. 15s. per share,
causing an immediate distribution amongst the proprietors of
£8,250. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Booth then announced that the
dividend to the proprietors would be payable at the East of
England Bank on and after the 24th inst., and added, that
if any proprietor then present desired information on the ac-
counts or affairs of the Society, it would be immediately
given.

- Joseph Stannard, Esq. wished to know whether incendi-
ary fires had increased or diminished in the last year.
Samuel Bignold, Esq. replied that the losses from this cause
were less in the year just closed than had been experienced in
any year since that of 1830 to 1831.

Stannard would ask one other question. Had the
great business of this Society on farming insurance been kept
up or fallen off? He asked because of the great advertising
of an office styled " The Farmers' Office."

Mr. Bignold had much pleasure in informing the worthy
proprietor that our great connection with the farming inter-
est had not in the least suffered from the competition he al-
luded to. The Norwich Union Office had now for 50 years
been the favourite office with the great body of British agri-
culturists, and the aggregate insurance effected with this
office by that class amounted to £9,532,000, which was about
one.fifth of all the insurances effected in the country by the
other 44 offices collectively. He also added that the sum in-
sured was greater in the last than in any previous year,
This important statement produced a feeling of general sa-
tisfaction throughout the meeting; and no other proprietor
rising, the secretary, Mr. Samuel Bignold, spoke as follows :
He said,

I hope I may be allowed to offer my congratulations to the
numerous and opulent proprietary and to the hundred thou-
sand insurers in this great and prosperous office an the
splendid results which have attended its operations, not only
on the year which has this day been the subject of our annual
report, but on the last eight years. The year just closed has
been, it is true, a most successful year, but it has been only
one of a series of successful years, for which the profits in
1811 amount to £27,400 : the profits of the previous seven
years are £168,000, besides leaving a clear balance in hand
of £612-1, thus yielding an average on eight consecutive
years of upwards of £25,000 per annum. (Hear, hear.)
I am persuaded that no office can compete with ours in so
auspicious a balance sheet. It has been achieved by great
watchfulness and caution on the part of the numerous active
agents of the office, well stationed over the whole kingdom,
and by the prompt, liberal, and honourable settlement of
every just claim. The great and increasing business of the
office sufficiently attests the truth of this remark ; for, whilst
in 1834 its total amount of insurance was below fifty millions,
the present aggregate sum insured is £57,846,139, and its
course is still onwards, the last year's increase in every class
of business, commercial, trading, and agricultural, being
greater than that of the previous year. All this prosperity
has been attained without any adventitious aid whatever, if
(added Mr. Bignold) I except the friendly co-operation and
interest taken by a concern, which, though it is entirely
separate from this office in every way, yet does influence
many insurances to this society—l allude to the Norwich
Union Life Insurance Society, which, through its many
thousand insurers and its numerous mortgagers, yields much
connexion and support to the fire-office. I trust the same
friendly spirit which has always prevailed between the two
institutions will continue. I know of no cloud to obscure
the sunshine which now beams so effulgently on both socie-

ties ; and I can only say, so long as p;osperity such as Vwe
are reposing under continues to attend us, we may afford to
one deadly foe the full vent to his malice ; for myself, having
through a large portion of my life conferred favours on that
individual, I can only feel that contempt for him which in-
gratitude like his must ever give rise to.
The Rev. J. P. Chambers, of Heidenbam, rose to perform
an agreeable duty, though from his little connection with
public affairs he should be brief in what he bad to say. The
position of this office appeared to him to be one of great
and signal prosperity, and every person he thought must feel
proud of having so great an establishment here. It could
only have been brought to its present eminence by great di-
ligence and active superintendence, and seeing so many of
the directors present, he should avail himself of the oppor-
tunity of tendering them, and the active officers of the
society, the cordial thanks of the proprietors for their wise
and judicious management of the society's affairs, from
such profitable results to the public at large, and to this
propritary, had ensued. (Hear, hear.)
Joseph Stannard, Esq., had much pleasure in second-
ing a proposition which so entirely recommended itself to