for medical services and loss of time. This
system is really what it professes to be. In
about four years, among the railway
travellers who procured these very economical
insurance tickets, more than four hundred
met with railway accidents, of one kind or
other, in respect to which one company paid
fourteen thousand pounds, giving an average
of about thirty-five pounds to each person
injured. In some cases one penny was paid
to the company, and two hundred pounds
repaid by the company.

It is found that, after a large batch
of railway accidents, people rush to the
company to obtain tickets; but when accidents
are few, passengers forget all about it. A
year or two ago one of the Great Western
directors lost his life by a railway
accident; he had an insurance for one
thousand pounds; the money was paid
to his representatives; and forthwith a great
influx of insurers appeared. The first half of
the present year was not "rich" in fatal
railway accidents, and insurers did not come
forward in large numbers; but the present
half-year has been more fatal. When the
hapless excursion train went from Dover to
the Sydenham Palace in August last, there
were seventy excursionists who held
insurance tickets; but nearly all of these
happened to take their seats in the first half of
the train, which reached the Crystal Palace
in safety, and the company have had to bear
a light instead of a severely heavy pressure.
Considering how much good one penny will
thus buy, we could wish that railway insurers
were reckoned by hundreds of thousands
rather than by tens of thousands. If some
plan could be adopted between all the
companies, whereby one payment and one ticket
might cover both the insurance and the journey,
almost every traveller would be willing
to incur this extra charge of a penny or two.

But by a yet greater exercise of boldness
accidents of every description have been
brought within the system. There is a
company whose directors apply the rule
of averages to other than railway
misfortunes. They grant insurances against
death and personal injury arising from
accident or violence of every description.
They will pay a fixed sum in the event of
death only; they will pay fixed sums in the
event of death or loss of limbs or sight; they
will pay a fixed weekly sum during disability
arising from any kind of accident which does
not terminate fatally, together with a sum
for medical expenses, and a sum in the event
of death; they will pay a fixed sum in the
event of death from railway accident,
irrespective of other catastrophes; or they will
pay compensation for non-fatal railway accidents.
And they make a difference in the
rate of premium, according to the degree of
probability that accidents will happen to the
insurer. Thus, builders, engineers, and persons
occupied with horses, have to pay rather
high rates; and boatmen, railway servants,
miners, and colliers, yet higher; and persons
on long voyages, yet higher; and sailors and
soldiers engaged in war, yet higher. All
this is equitable enough; the only wonder
is, how it is possible to fix on rates which
shall be just to the insurers, and still leave
a small margin of profit to the company.
A put his knee out of joint while playing
cricket; he received a hundred guineas in
virtue of his insurance. B tumbled into a
saw pit and hurt his spine; he received
twenty pounds. C fell in a snowdrift
and broke his ribs; he received thirty
pounds. D was thrown from a dog-cart,
and hurt his brain; he received twenty-one
pounds. E slipped his foot and sprained his
ankle; he received twenty-eight pounds—
and so forth: the sum received always
depends upon the terms of the original contract.

But not only may you insure your life and
limbs and health against all kinds of misfortunes:
you may insure your property also.
A disastrous fire may destroy your house and
furniture in a few hours; but this need not
impoverish you. There are companies which
come to your aid, if you have had forethought
enough to insure before the calamity. As to
the question—what is the proper rate of
premium? This depends on averages, as in the
former instances. Fires even observe a
certain general law of frequency in great cities;
which affords a guidance to the companies.
Sometimes there is an exception—as in the
present autumn, when three great fires
have occurred at Newcastle, Manchester,
and Liverpool, nearly at one time; but the
companies will look out for a compensation
in a comparative paucity of great fires at
some other time, and perhaps in the larger
number of persons who will be led to
consider the benefits of insurance companies
against fire. Who can doubt, especially
on the mutual system, the immense value
of fire insurance? Who does not see how
strikingly it diffuses a calamity among a
whole body of shareholders, so that each one
may bear a portion which is quite
insignificant in amount. Instead of one family
being beggared at a single blow, ten thousand
families bear a loss of a few shillings each.

As to the insurance of ships, many persons
to whom the subject is new, feel as much
puzzled to understand this as any other
branch of insurance. How can any one
predict the result of the next voyage of the
splendid clipper Star of the East, A1?  True,
no one can predict; but underwriters, and
insurance brokers, and marine insurance
companies find that, out of a total aggregate
of ships, a certain uniform average meet
with some kind of disaster yearly. In the
year eighteen hundred and fifty-two there
were eleven hundred ships wrecked on the
British coasts—a fearful number, rendered
more fearful by the loss of nine hundred
human lives. Fearful as these numbers are,