The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-05
ROYaI Insurance COmnanY.

than usual interest. The satisfactory results o
the past years business not only fully set
forth; but the causes that have led to them are
clearly defined. For the first time the Directors
and :their jealous and over-worked manager,
Mr.. Percy NJ. Dove, have left us little to say
Hitherto we have been accustomed to draw
upon aud combine, in various ways, the figures
which represent the past action of the company,
In manner calculated to show what may be
accomplished by unflagglng energy, high char
Rcter, diffused reputation, and professional
skill. But the ground is, at length, cut from
under us; the directors and their able officer
preferring to tell their own story their own way
and very pleasing story they have to tell.
Setting out with the Fire business for 1867, we
learn from the report that the premium receipts
for the year amounted to the enormous sum of
a46O.553; not much short OF half a million ster-
ling-more than the revenue heretofore Of a
small German kingdom. Excluding Sundays,
the receipts amounted to close upon El5O0 per
day throughout the entire year. None but those
who are engaged in the management of such
colossal Institutions can form the slightest idea
OF the labor and responsibility associated with
such multitudinous transactions; every one of
which is surrounded by It's separate elements
Of peril. The money actually received, day by
day, is sufficiently astounding; but what shall
be said of the responsibility 1t involves? AS
suming 5s per cent. as the average rate of pre-
mium, the sum at risk, in respect Of each days
receipts is 5000 OO0-for the week G3, 900 OOO-for
the entire year not very much short of two
hundred millions.
The result of the years business is that, after
paying all losses and management charges
there is q net surplus profit balance of f56373
which the Directors have applied to the pay
ment of the usual dividend and bonus. leaving
balance of Ell, ,S92 to be added to the previously
accumulated reserve fund; which now amounts
to fl38 S05a fact not stated in the report. 1t Is
O large sum TO retain, but not mo than is re.
Quisite to maintain the financial quilibrium
of the company in the event of o occurrence Of
fires exceeding the average expectation of the
office. We adopt the term expectation, for
there is a law of Fire Expectation, as we'll as
q law of Expectation of Life; and 1t is only
by careful searching and anxious examination
of every proposal that safety for a company
can :be secured. A property proposed for
Insurance may be dressed up for the occasion
quite as designedly as the proposer for life
p licy prepares himself or medical examina-
tion by attempting TO physic himself out of a
whitened tongue adopting means to subdue a
quickened pulse, and abstaining from getting
drunk Tor at least week before the examina
tion takes place. In both classes of cases
everything that implies hazard is, so far as
may be practicable removed out of the way or
illustrated in the Royal report, by a tabulated
statement of the amount saved by the Office
during the psst year by a rel ection of risks
which the Directors and officers of the Comp
did not deem 1t prudent to accept. The following
are the classified items:-
In tie Agency Department...".."..... .9OI
- rome .................. S60
I" Foreign I" ..................... ID 700
Guarantee " .................... 1850
s72,Sll
The meaning of this is very simple. In every
instance of rejection there must have been
some ground for doubt, or suspicion. suffi-
ciently strong to induce the Company's mana
gers and agents to keep an eye upon the pro-
perty so as to be able to mark the result of the
caution that has been exercised. The aggregate
of these results is, that on the day the annual
meeting was held, the shareholders were nearly
seventy three thousand pounds better Off than
they would have been If the proposals which
applied to the destroyed property had been
accepted. 1t is a very remarkable example of
vigilance on the part Of the Company's agents;
and startling proof OF the disastrous conse-
quences that would inevitably arise from want
Of its exercise.
Other causes that have had favorable infiu-
ence on the business Of the past year are speci-
fled in the report-the lessening of the crime Of
arson, from the number of convictions that have
tection-a revision of the rates of premium on
certain classes of risks-the additional caution
arising from the heavy losses by Fire Compa-
MES during the last three or four years-and the
prospective influence of further legislative
protection against incendiarism by Judicial
Investigation into suspicious fires. Still the
greatest protection Of all will be the continued
vigilance of agents, and hrmness by managers
in the rejection of all risks Of more than ordi-
nary hazard.
We may now pass 10 the Life Department.
The new premiums for the past year are not
separately stated; but we may arrive at them
by approximation from the statement that the
average annual amount ofsums assured during
the last three years has been f80l 900 The
object in taking the average for these three
years Is to compare IL with the average for the
preceding quinquennial period Q859-lS6D-
f888,00 The progressive increase in the accu.
mulated funds in this department is thus ex-
hlbited:-
In 1864, after appropriating the
portion of Profits OF the preced-
ing hve years to the Sharehold.
ers, the Fund stood at...-.;....... 9s2l ,434 l5
In 1866 the amount invested for
the year, after pay ing all claims
and expenses wee :........".-... lob l48
In In 1857 1857 Do Do DO :....... 1883 rs 5S5 10
Six Months of 1868 shows
Credit Balance of about........... $4,000 0 0
Total sums now invested Oh the
Lille Account. FL O3l, ,329 10 III
A Million Of Accumulated Funds, as we once
before observed, is the Tottenham. corner in the
great race between Life Assurance Companies
OF the higher class; and the Royal Insurance
Company having now sot into the straight rum
ming, we shall be able to see which of it's com.