80 Mr W. Fraser oji the History and Constitution of 



" Here we find subsisting between the sums a singular eoiTespondenee. 

 From 30 to 40, and 40 to 50, the j)rc)portions are precisely the same, and at 

 all other ages nearly so ; and the general ratio in both instances is as 2 to 3 ; 

 but so far is life from having been improved, that in all cases except where 

 the proportions are the same, they appear to be less in favour of life than they 

 ■were in the year 1777 *• Besides which, in a conversation with Mr Morgan, 

 I find that a little inadvertency has occurred in calculating these proportions, 

 so as to render them less in favour of life than what they seem to be. This, 

 I have no doubt, Mr Morgan will explain, though I do not feel authorised 

 to enter upon it. But to ascertain the accuracy of his conclusion upon the 

 numbers taken in 1810, he made a further calculation upon 151,754 persons, 

 members of the Equitable for 20 years, ending in the year 1821, and specify- 

 ing the diseases by which the deaths were respectively occasioned ; and his 

 conclusion most decidedly is — as given to me in correspondence, and printed in 

 my Observations upon your Report, p. 99, which I solicit permission to lay 

 upon the table, as well from his opinions delivered in his charge to the Equi- 

 table in 1825, and personally repeated to me on Saturday last, — that life 

 among the members of the Equitable has rather diminished than increased in 

 value ; which opinion I find also confirmed by other actuaries." " With re- 

 spect to the mortality of females, he (Mr Morgan) is fully convinced that no 

 such difference exists as to authorise any variation of tables. If such a dif- 

 ference had existed, he must have discovered it, because the Equitable insures 

 both sexes very largely, and more especially upon survivorships, principally 

 between husband and wife, consequently the excess must have appeared in 

 the superior number of females, and this the more distinctly, as the survivor 

 possesses the option of receiving either a gross sum, or of becoming an annui- 

 tant." Mr Becher then gives a very long and minute detail of the rates of 

 various life assurance associations and Friendly Societies ; also, a further ac- 

 count of the data possessed by Dr Price for the construction of his tables ; but 

 our limits preclude us quoting any more of his evidence, which occupies near- 

 ly eight pages folio, all chiefly in defence of the Northampton Tables. — Re- 

 port^ pp. 15-22. 



Joshica Milne, Esq. actuary, states, that there now exist three tables, which, 

 he conceives, show, with sufficient accuracy, the rate of general mortality, or 

 the proportion of the people, including all ages, which die annually. Speak- 

 ing with reference to this country, these thiee tables are " the Carlisle and 

 two others constructed from the experience of the Equitable Society, of the 

 mortality that has been observed to take place among its members for a period 

 of upwards of 30 years. One of these tables was constructed by Mr Babbage, 

 a gentleman well known and justly appreciated in the scientific world ; the 

 other by Mr Griffith Davies, actuary to the Guardian Insurance Company ; 

 they were both published in the beginning of the last year. I had, previous- 

 ly, in the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, given a comparison of 

 the mortality prevailing in the several intervals of age, from 10 years to the 

 age of 80, according to the Carlisle and Northampton Tables, and the expe- 

 rience of the Equitable Society ; by which that experience and the Carlisle 

 table appear to agree remarkably well. The two gentlemen just named, have 

 since shown it at each separate age ; and I have here tables of the values of 

 annuities calculated from these three tables of mortality, compared with the 

 results of the Northampton table, derived in a similar way. I beg leave to 

 states as to the nature and uses of a table of mortality, the object being to 

 show how many persons at any one age will arrive at any greater age ; the 

 simplest way of considering it, is to suppose them all born at once. I can 

 illustrate this subject by comparing it with the table of mortality for Sweden, 



•If we rightly understand the note by Mr Morgan, at p. 132, 103 of vol. i. of Dr Price's \<ork (7th edi- 

 tion), the deaths expected to occur previous to 1777> had been calculated by the table of mortality 

 constructed by Messrs Simpson and Dods from the London Observations, while the number of 

 deaths expected to happen during the 30 years ending with 1800, had been calculated by the Northamp- 

 ton table. Now, as the London table represents a much higher rate of mortality than the one for 

 Northampton, and as the deaths among the members of the Equitable previous to 1777 bore the same 



Eroportion to the former table as the deaths occurrinc for the 30 years ending with 1810 did to the 

 itter tablet it aecessaxily follows that the duration of life must have increased since the year 1777> 



