ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF LIFE INSURANCE. 489 



insurance schemes, most of which were ridiculous, while many were 

 intentional frauds. The failures that necessarily followed created dis- 

 trust and retarded the efforts that were just beginning to be made to 

 introduce legitimate life insurance. 



But a new era had begun in the history of the English people. 

 The cessation of internal strife, the settlement of fundamental, con- 

 stitutional questions, the increase of material prosperity, the greater 

 power and intelligence of the people, and the growth of large towns, 

 particularly London, had completely changed the conditions of society 

 as compared with previous centuries. Selfishness and brutality gradu- 

 ally yielded to more forethought and refined feeling ; family ties grew 

 warmer and more generous. Comforts were greater, life and property 

 more secure, and everything tended to a more vivid desire in thought- 

 ful men to provide for their families in the contingency of their own 

 death. The feeling was most pronounced among the clergy and other 

 professional classes, and associations began to form to accomplish that 

 purpose. The conditions on which they were based were somewhat 

 similar to those even now in vogue, with benevolent institutions hav- 

 ing the same object in view. On the death of a member, his heirs 

 would receive a certain contribution from the surviving members. 



Such arrangements, when a mere subordinate feature of benevolent 

 societies, may work well for a time, but they can not serve as sub- 

 stitutes for life-insurance companies. These can only be founded on 

 scientific principles, and all other devices must be futile and short- 

 lived, as a century's experience has amply shown. The difficulties to 

 be encountered were clearly foreseen and explained by the mathemati- 

 cians of the day, and their labors did not prove in vain. In 1761 a 

 number of gentlemen petitioned Parliament for a charter for a life- 

 insurance association. They met with opposition, on the ground that 

 the undertaking was purely speculative, devoid of any merit, and 

 sure to fail. The charter not being granted, they organized in 1765, 

 as a mutual insurance company, under the title of "The Equitable 

 Society." 



They were the first to issue policies for life, for a fixed amount, and 

 at premiums not merely conjectural. Still, for a number of years their 

 progress was very slow. But the public mind was agitated on the 

 subject, and many men of superior ability were absorbed by it. Most 

 prominent among these was Dr. Price, an unsuccessful Unitarian 

 preacher, who had contributed many excellent papers to the "Philo- 

 sophical Transactions," and published treatises on annuity values. He 

 was consulted by one of the many insurance societies then forming, all 

 of which he found started on a basis sure to lead to ruin. As he ex- 

 pressed it, "All London seems to be entering societies of this sort," 

 and he determined to examine the subject thoroughly. ^Yhat ap- 

 peared an easy task proved the arduous labor of many years. The 

 London mortality bills could not serve as a proper basis for insurance 



