An allusion made by Mr. Jellicoe to this subject, in a paper read before the Institute of Actuaries on the 28th November, has induced me to place on record the conclusions at which I had arrived after a somewhat recent consideration of the question.

It appears to me that the buyer of a policy by way of investment, in considering the price at which he should purchase, should come to his decision entirely independent of what might be the Office value. The two values have no connexion whatever one with another. In the one case the purchaser is about to make an investment; in the other, the Office proposes to redeem a liability.

The remarkable change which has taken place within the last two or three years in the position and circumstances of these institutions has very much tended to allay the desire, so generally expressed formerly, for legislative interference, with a view to their better regulation. The impression, by which so many well-informed persons seemed to be actuated, that they might be multiplied with advantage almost indefinitely, appears now to have become thoroughly eradicated; and in its place a conviction seems to have arisen that the country cannot support a very large number of these Companies, and that the sooner the existing ones even are reduced in number the better. Be this as it may, we cannot but regard the rational and moderate ideas now prevailing on this subject as a vast improvement on the extravagant notions heretofore generally entertained with regard to it; and, if reliance could be placed on the continuance of this better disposition, we think our readers will agree that the necessity for legislative interference has, in a great measure, passed away, and that the Assurance Companies might now be left to pursue their course guided by their own discretion and untrammelled by further restrictions.

According to present practice, when property is insured, both by average and by specific policies, the latter have to bear the whole of any loss which may occur, unless it exceed the total amounts which they insure; and, in that case, the excess of loss over the amounts they insure is covered by the average policies, and is subject to average at the settlement of the claim.

Having thus glanced at different occupations as elements in the medical estimate of life, it may not be out of place to introduce the following table by M. Lombard, exhibiting trades in relation to consumption. In 1,000 deaths in each of the different occupations noticed, the following proportions were furnished by this disease:—

A note of alarm has been sounded at the present mode of adjusting fire losses under average policies; and it will be well, though for other reasons, hereafter to be explained, than those to which it owes its origin, that it be not allowed to die away without some effort to gain additional vantage-ground towards the substitution of a comprehensive and reasonable scheme of apportionment for the mischievous and unsound practice which now exists.

The returns of the various Insurance Companies are published in some of the United States, so that if all the facts were fully stated as required, a fair estimate could be formed of the extension of the business of the Companies from year to year, with their premiums, capital, reserve, &c. Those of the commonwealth of Massachusetts are given agreeably to the requirements of Acts passed in 1837 and 1842. In 1850, the requirement of returns from the mutual Fire Insurance Companies was repealed by an Act of May 3rd in that year.

The Great Exhibition of 1851, however fruitful it was in direct results beneficial to the trade and commerce of this country, has indirectly produced greater consequences still, by leading to the discussion of questions in which the common interests of all the nations of Europe are concerned.