, 1865-09-26

$780,
accompany would Indicate, the claims
"would not be more than G65,S76,''
Caution, in such matters, begtts conf
dence, and the public will understand that
an office, whose business is managed with
such manifest prudence-wilose officers
are so rigorous IN thoir avoidance Of eX-
ceptionallv hazardous risks-who8c pay
ments, upon policies which have become
claims, have fallen short by G73 5000, or
very nearly twenty per cent. Of the
amount estimated by antlcIpatlon-and
whose funds in hand at the end OF TWEEN
ty years are all but equivalent to 63 per
cent. of the entire premiums which have
been received-is an Office which may
safely be trusted, and to which premiums
may be paid with an absolute certainty
that they will be so employed as to COM
bine with perfect security the largest pos
sible attainable return.
We have been much struck, in reading
the Report and Appendix, with the very
forcibIe reasons which are urged by Mr..
Dove in favour Of rates Of premium suffi-
cient to provide q moderate margin for
contingencies and with the proof which
he gives that such rates Of premium,
while they enable the Company TO con-
template, without apprehension, the pos
sible occurrence of seasons of excessive
mortality, are, in reality, most advanta-
geous to the policy-hoIders themselves,
since the surplus, whatever it may prove
to be, is returned to them, in the long
run, with accumulations and accrctions
greatly in excess Of any improvement
which they could possibly have made of
it, if it had remained in their own hands.
These accommodations and accrctions arc
represented in the present report by a
sum of GI68,9 58, of which One-thlrd has
been apportioned to the Shareholders TO
cover their responsibility and risk, while
the remaining tWo-thirds will, for the
third time, give to the holders of partici-
pating policies a reverSionary Bonus "Of
"two per cent. per annum, to be added
''to the sum assured'' for each entire year
that the policy has been in existence
since the last quinquennial appropriation.
We have said before, and we hardly need
repeat, that, in making his estimates of
profit Mr.. Dove assumes a rate of inter
est which is very much within the amount
that the Company has hitherto realised,
and this places it almost beyond the limits
of possibility, that the sum reserved to
meet its liabilities can be too small, or
that that pronounced available for divi-
sion can be too large. His calculations,
in point of fact, are always very much
upon the safe side. His policy has al
ways been to insist upon ample reserves,
and to make stability the first considera-
ton. In that policy the Directors and
Shareholders have invariably supported
him ; and we see the fruit of it in the
fact, that the accumulated funds of The
Company have grown from 1929 0OC, at
Christmas, 1916, to FL, 160, 900, at Christ
mas, 1864.
Ofthe importance of the prudence and
f0rbearance which the able Actuary Of
the "Royal" has invariably incuIcated,
the state of the "Fire'' account, present
ed yesterday, furnishes a sufficient illus
~tration. The business transacted during
1864, in the "Fire" department of the
Company, was much larger than in any
previous year. The premiums received
exceed those of 1868, by nearly f65,000,
and the advance in the amount of duty
paid to the observation-disclosures being