The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1852-04-20 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

AGENT FOR LIVERPOOL.  UTU A L LIFE ASSURANCE. C 0 TTI S H PROVIDENT INSTITUTION  HEAD-OFFICE, 14, ST. ANDREW-SQUARE, EDINBURGH.  THE FOURTEENTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Contributors to this Society was held in the Waterloorooms, Edisibugh, on Wednesday, the 18th February : Mr. WILLIAM FRASER, Writer to the Signet, the Senior  Directoi=, in the Chair,  The CHAIRMAN, after thanking the Meeting for placing him in the chair, adverted in terms of congratulation to the details of the Society's progress. Alluding to the steady increase of their business, he said—l need not say that the Directors have taken no undue means to procure it. They have adhered to those rules of administration which have always received your cordial approval, and have steadily resisted every inducement I 0 purchase favour by conforming to practices which they consider objectionable in principle. At the same time, they bave continued to give the greatest attention to the selection of lives ; and their care in this respect is apparent from the rate of mortality experienced, which still continues far below the rate indicated by the tables, which give the highest estimate of life. In i►lustration of our care, I;may re r to the Irish business, which is generally regarded as one a rather hazardous description. But with us—confininry urselves to a few Sind selected localities—it has been fully good as in the best districts of Scotland or England : one a ency, established ten years since, which has sent in about ,000 of Premiums, has sot yet produced a single claim upon e Societe•  There is one matter which it r.;^ / —7* -emir notice for me to bring under awl to Which pups atom if tti be asked. It has -Veen shot a sled dr ankioii consideratinn with the direc tots t6from the Pul les all restrictions and condi., Atom Of fOrfeiture which are of essential to safety; and you lire aware that a great des was done by this Society, a few years sir c to remove suc restrictions. The grounds of forfeiture in case of death by duelling, by the hands of justice, or by suicide, if beyond si months from the date of the policy, were then removed ; a it was further established that no mere innocent error, r omission to state what, though impor leant, might not at t , time have been within the knowledge of the contracting; par y, should be a ground of future challenge against the Policy. The exception of a mis-statement of the age was then retained, in order to check carelessness in regard to a matter on which the amount of premium depended, And 'which, with ordinary care, might be sufficiently determined ; but the Directors were, at the same time, empowered to correct lences of any accidental or unintentional error in  connt.,  this respect. A great advance Was thus made in giving to the Policies of the Institution a character of unquestionable security; but more enlarged experience has satisfied the Directors that they may, with perfect safety, and Without a departure from any great printiplei gb further in the same direction; and they now feel themselves quite prapared cordially to recommend the adoption of resolutions to which, in concert with other Scottish Life Assurance Companies, they signified their assent, and by which, at a comparatively early period after assurance, every restriction will, to the great body of the Policyholders, be removed, and the value of their Policies, as marketable securities, be placed beyond doubt. You are aware that, by the existing regulations, a Member being beyond the limits of Europe, or entering into Naval or Military service, or dying at sea, except within certain specified limits, forfeits his Policy, unless ne has previously obtained a license from the Directors. It is part of the resoiiitiona to be submitted for your approval, that the Directors be empowered, in the case of Members whose circumstances or prospects in life preclude the possibility any of these conditions} of the IN!!fil, being violated, to grant a certificate to Members applying for it, that. if these are not infringed within five years, they shall then prescribe, and shall not thorpsftpr he airroitud of forfeiture, With such a certificate, and the age be sumcientiy proved and admitted, winch ruts -never been found an insurmountable difficulty, the Policy will become a document of debt absolutely unchallengeable upon any ground whatever save one, viz., that of fraud or intentional falsehood, in retaining which, as a ground of challenge which cannot be abandoned, the Directors feel confident that they will carry with them the feelings and judgment of the coniributorst  "To those Members whose circumstances will exclude them from the benefit of the proposed resolutions, it must be satisfactory to know that the fundamental.laws of the Institution (as fixed at your meeting three years ago) secure their Policies against challenge on grounds of innocent error; and this is to be kept in view as an advantage which your Society still offers over every other Scottish Institution. Copies of the law as it at present stands, with the alterations proposed, have been placed in your hands. After the reading of the Report, these will also be read; and it wilt then rest upon you to decide whether they shall be adopted. Mr. C. W. ANDERSON laid on the table the Report from . the Directors. He referred to the steady and progressive increase of the Society, which is exhibited in the Tabular view now subjoined.