

1827.] Letter on Affairs in general. 183 



abroad, that so voluminous a work executed in so short a time must 

 consist, in a great measure, of compilation. Still Sir Walter Scott will do 

 nothing that will not have some novelty and interest about it independent 

 of his style of relation, being the pleasantest in the world. In the list 

 of the London publishers, " Recollections " out of number afflict us, in pre- 

 sence and in prospect. Mr. Boaden has already inflicted a " Life " of 

 Mrs. Siddons ; and Mr. Dibdin, the farce writer and play-house manager, 

 is going to write the annals of Sadler's Wells and the Circus, in the shape 

 of a " Life " of himself. Of a better order, there is Mr. Southey's second 

 volume of the History of the Peninsular War, just out : and the events 

 of the time just now will make that a work of strong interest : and Black- 

 wood's Elizabeth de Bruce is a hit-rit has a toucn of the real vein of 

 romance writing about it. 



The New Quarterly Review is out ; but it does not strike me as being 

 quite so good as the last number was : though I like the paper on the Ser- 

 vian Minstrelsy ; and the article on the Corn Laws is very ingeniously 

 written. Here, too, there is a long and elaborate paper upon the uses and 

 abuses of Life Assurance; but I dun't quite go along with the writer in all 

 his views upon the subject. The objection taken to the allowance of 

 " commission," or brokerage, by the Assurance companies, upon assurances 

 brought to them, seems to me to be untenable. The custom of all trades 

 has been for those who follow them to attract preference by holding out 

 all advantages even one beyond another that they fairly can ; and this 

 " commission," which, by the way, may be received by the principal 

 who insures for himself, just as readily as by the agent is made no secret, 

 but forms a regular part of the proposals of Assurance companies in their 

 public advertisements. In the instance quoted of the clergyman who had 

 his policy effected upon unfavourable terms, by employing an attorney 

 who had a predilection for the commission given by a particular Assur- 

 ance office, no doubt, in the bargain there made, the insurer was very 

 much injured ; but what earthly description of bargain is there in which a 

 man may not be injured, who will not, or cannot, do his business himself, 

 .and is so unfortunate as to entrust it to a dishonest agent ? There are one 

 or two other points (of fact) as to which the writer in the Quarterly, if he 

 argues with a view to practice, is mistaken. Take that, for instance, 

 where he complains that the Assurance societies make their calculations 

 of premium, upon the understanding that the interest of money accruing to 

 them is three per cent., while, in fact, they get four or five ! This writer 

 can hardly have forgotten that, hardly more than twelve months since, 

 there was a difficulty in obtaining even three per cent. or even two and a 

 half for money ? If that state of things had continued, or were to re- 

 turn, the only result of any company's having framed its calculations upon 

 the supposition of a constant interest of five per cent., would be, that such 

 a company must become unable to meet its engagements, and must declare 

 itself bankrupt. The charge which follows that the Assurance compa- 

 nies have an advantage out of the manner in which their tables of mor- 

 tality are framed to wit, that they form these tables from an average of the 

 mortality in society in general among rich and poor sickly and healthy 

 while their trade, in fact, arises almost entirely among the rich (and 

 least exposed.), and even there, is restricted to the best, and selected lives 

 this charge is well founded, and very ingeniously put. But I don't at all 

 agree in the view of the writer, as to the probability (or advisableness) of 

 the " statutary interference " which he recommends. The best security for 



