1823.] 
in addifion as would pay the insurance. 
Hence, a young man might obtain eight 
years’ parchase for an annuity, whilsta 
middle-aged man could not get more 
than a seyen years’ purchase, and an 
old man only six years’ purchase, and 
even in some cases only five years’ 
purchase. The grantee had no better 
bargain in the one. case than in the 
other, as, the older the grantor, the 
more was to be paid on insuring his life. 
Securities for payment of annuities 
are of various descriptions, as money 
in the funds, pensions, freehold, copy- 
hold,or leasehold, property, clergyman’s 
divings, widow’s jointures, or merely 
‘personal security. Where other par- 
ties also join in the deed to guarantee 
the payment, they are called collateral 
Securities. 
Money in the fundsis the best of all 
securities, as the payment is punctual 
‘to the day. It often happens that a 
grantor has merely a life-interest in 
-property in the funds, it being left in 
trust to certain persons, the interest to 
be paid to him whilst he lives; and, 
after his death, the property to be 
otherwise disposed of. It may happen 
that a gentleman, who has 100/. a-year 
from the funds, arising from stock, 
which, if he could sell it out, would 
fetch 25007. ; but he will, probably, not 
be able to raise more than 7001. or 
$001. on that security. Pensions from 
‘government, which the party has a 
: curity. 
right to alienate, are also excellent se- 
On a certain day, regularly 
-every quarter, as soon as the clock 
struck twelve, 
Messrs. Greenwood 
and Cox were accustomed to see a 
- certain usurer call at their banking- 
house to receive the annuity guaran- 
teed on funds which passed through 
their hands. 
Annuities are raised on the seeuri- - 
- tics of houses and lands from various 
motives. The grantor may hope tu be 
able to pay olf, and does not choose to 
sell his property on account of a tem- 
porary necessity, But much more 
' frequently it occurs, that, thoughhe has 
< 
» title. 
» great deal of time, and debts of honour 
‘ must be paid without delay. 
atitle which may even amount to what 
- is called a good holding title, there is 
some flaw, and it is not a good selling 
Also to sell property takes a 
If he 
have only alife-interest inthe property, 
he can give only a_ life-security. 
' Personal security was formerly fre- 
* quently deemed sufficient; and, when 
- the animity became due, it was en- 
On Usurious Annuities. 
325 
forced by seizing the personal pro- 
perty of the grantor, or arresting his 
person. Personal security is now 
much objected to, because, in the ease 
of a nobleman, or a member of parlia- 
ment, his personis protected ; and it is 
easy to live in splendour in London in 
a hired furnished house, with hired 
plate,.carriages, &c. which the creditor 
cannot touch. Since the peace, so 
many grantors have gone to the Conti- 
nent, that confidence in personal secu- 
rity is entirely lost. 
immense sums, not short of millions, 
have been laid out on insufficient secu- 
rities. ‘This has often arisen from the 
wilful misconduct of money-agents 
‘and attorneys, and very often ‘from 
their want cf judgment to discriminate, 
or the impossibility of arriving at an 
accurate conclusion, In the case of 
securities on land, except it be in Mid- 
dlesex or in Yorkshire, there is no 
possibility of knowing what may 
already have been borrowed on the 
security of it, there being noregister for 
any other counties. Hence it may be 
discovered, when it is too late, that, 
although the property on which the 
security is granted may have been 
Sufficient if there had been no previous 
charge, yet there was already. more 
than enough to require the whole 
income arising from it. The falling- 
off of rents has also been a source of 
immense loss, in which case, woe to 
the last. 
We have already stated, that annui- 
ties are a species of property recog- 
nised by the law of the land; but we 
should not give a faithful representa- 
tion of facts, if we did also state, that, 
in the very Acts of Parliament in which 
they are recognised, they are stigma- 
tised as disgraceful, and the agents and 
dealers in them treated as fraudulent 
characters, as their conduct cannot be 
left to the ordinary administration of 
the law cf the land, but must be placed 
under the despotic sway of certain 
public functionaries, who are armed 
with a power altogether at yariance 
with the usual maxims of British Jaw, 
and for which we must seek a parallel 
in Turkey and Algiers. «* 
In the courts of such despotic pow- 
ers, when the parties have stated their 
case, and the judges have heard what 
they please to listen to on the subject, 
they give their decision, and that deci- 
sion is final, and from it there is no 
appeal. In this respect it diflers from 
the tribunals of civilised despotism, 
for 
