ON THE NATURE OF INSURANCE. 247 



The only distinction between the case just put and 

 that which actually occurred is, that the banker was a 

 person who gained his profits by receiving such savings 

 during a contingent term, and guaranteeing a fixed 

 sum ; standing the loss, if there were any, and paying 

 himself for it out of the gain which would accrue in 

 another instance: the premium having been calculated 

 so as to insure a moral certainty of profit upon the 

 average of similar cases. It is not pretended, on either 

 side, that the chance of indemnification at the hands of 

 C's executors was made to lessen the consideration paid 

 by B for the guarantee ; and the legal iniquity of the 

 decision may, I think, be made clear, as follows : - 



It will hardly be disputed, firstly, that the legislature 

 is the judge of what shall constitute valuable consider- 

 ation ; and, secondly, that a consideration which is ex- 

 pressly allowed to be good in a statute, should be ad- 

 mitted as such in the decisions of the courts. Now, 

 the contract of insurance, be it gambling, or be it not, 

 rests entirely upon the permission given by the law to 

 consider a high chance of a small sum as good con- 

 sideration for a low chance of a large sum. If I now 

 pay 2/. of premium for 100/., in case I should die in 

 a year, and if my executors can maintain an action for 

 100/., it must be because the law sanctions the notion 

 that 2/., nearly certain, may, with consent of parties, be 

 considered as an actual equivalent for a distant chance 

 of 100/., as much so as one weight of silver for another 

 of bread, or food, clothing, and wages for personal 

 service. It is true that the same law, fearing certain 

 reputed immoral practices, to which the power of 

 making a particular bargain offers temptations, may 

 limit the circumstances under which it will permit 

 such bargains to be made ; but this is equally true in 

 regard to the other sort of contracts mentioned : 

 indeed, there is no sort of bargain which is not 

 under regulation. The law, then, allows risks, and 

 permits unequal chances to be compensated by giving 

 odds ; the courts declare that, after the cast shall have 

 R 4 



