Memoir o^the late Francis Baily, Esq.^ F.R.S.y &;c. 41 



standard reputation on account of its intrinsic utility, and went 

 through several editions. His next work, a pamphlet in de- 

 fence of the rights of the Stock-Brokers against the attacks of 

 the City of London, printed in 1806, at all events shows him 

 at that time to have become identified in his feelings and in- 

 terests with that body of which he lived to be an eminent and 

 successful member. A similar conclusion may be drawn from 

 his next publication, which appeared in 1808, ' The Doctrine 

 of Interest and Annuities Analytically Investigated and Ex- 

 plained,' a work than which no one more complete had been 

 previously published, and which is still regarded as the most 

 extensive and standard work on compound interest. It was 

 speedily followed by other works on the same subject, viz. in 

 1810 by 'The Doctrine of Life Annuities and Insurances Ana- 

 lytically Investigated and Explained'; to which, in 1813, he 

 added an Appendix. This is a work in many ways remark- 

 able, and its peculiarities are of a highly characteristic nature; 

 method, symmetry, and lucid order being brought in aid of 

 practical utility in a subject which had never before been so 

 treated, and old routine being boldly questioned and con- 

 fronted with enlarged experience. A friend, of great mathe- 

 matical attainments and extensive practical acquaintance with 

 subjects of this nature, thus characterizes it: — "It is not easy 

 to say too much of the value of this work in promoting sound 

 practical knowledge of the subject. It was the first work in 

 which the whole of the subject was systematically algebraized; 

 the first in which modern symmetry of notation was intro- 

 duced ; and the first modern work, since Price and Morgan, 

 in which the Northampton Tables were not exclusively em- 

 ployed, and in which the longer duration of human life was 

 contended for ; and the first in which some attempt was made 

 to represent by symbols the various cases of annuities and as- 

 surances, afterwards more systematically done by Mr. Milne," 

 In the Appendix to this work, a method originally proposed 

 by Mr. Barrett of forming the tables, by which cases of tem- 

 porary and deferred annuities, formerly requiring tedious cal- 

 culations, become as easy as the others, and which, in the im- 

 proved form subsequently given to it by Mr. Griffith Davies, 

 has come into very general use in this country, was, by the 

 penetration of Mr. Baily, given to the public, but for which 

 it would probably have been altogether lost. It may serve to 

 give some idea of the estimation in which this work was held, 

 that when out of print, its copies used to sell for four or five 

 times their original price. A chapter of this work is devoted 

 to the practical working of the several life assurance companies 

 in London, containing some free remarks on several points of 



