Hill. — National Pensions. 685 



at a rapid rate. We have, however, the fact that poverty and 

 wealth are existing side-by-side, and we have the further fact 

 that if men have nothing they must either be helped or starve. 

 Those who have must render aid to those who have nothing. 

 The law recognises this among all civilised communities ; and 

 the fact that so much is paid away annually to meet the de- 

 mands of poverty is sufficient to show that the laws under 

 which we live must be seriously defective in some respect or 

 other, as in England one in every thirty-five of those living in 

 the country is forced to seek parish aid, and become dependent 

 on his fellows for support, even though many of them are able- 

 bodied, and capable of working under an intelligent and organ- 

 ized plan of government. 



The world of commerce has grown out of the discovery of 

 new lands, and just as commerce extended and gave rise to 

 ambitious projects with a view to the acquisition of wealth, 

 so a similar commercial enterprise has brought into existence 

 banks, companies, insurance agencies, and the hundred and 

 one schemes of traffic in human lives and property such as 

 present themselves to the view of every man, woman, and 

 child in the community. 



The system of insurance, now so common everywhere, is 

 of modern growth. Antonio's ships, in the days of the Vene- 

 tian Eepublic, were not insured ; but it would be difficult to 

 discover a ship-owner in these days who failed to make provi- 

 sion in anticipation of the loss of his possessions through 

 storm and peril. The same thing has taken root with respect 

 to the safeguarding of household property and furniture and 

 goods and chattels and crops — in fact, in these times it would 

 be difficult to find an article of value that a speculative agent 

 would not insure if he thought that a profit was probable by 

 such a course. And now the insurance of human lives has 

 become of special importance in every community. A human 

 life is recognised as possessing value equally with property, 

 and the various schemes devised for annuities, endowments, 

 and payments to friends in case of the death of the insured, 

 supply means to those in receipt" of regular incomes of making 

 provision either for old age or in favour of those depending on 

 us. There is nothing difficult about the plan proposed, and, 

 although insurance is merely a profit-making scheme on the 

 part of companies other than those that are mutual and co- 

 operative in their interests and profits, they nevertheless 

 provide ways by which people in fairly comfortable circum- 

 stances can anticipate old age, sickness, and loss of employ- 

 ment. 



But even these do not meet the needs of all classes of 

 people. There are many thousands of people so circum- 

 stanced that insui'ance in its present form can never benefit 



