258 ESSAY ON PROBABILITIES. 



addition to general cautions, is a mistake to which such 

 offices are subject in the valuation of their property ; 

 namely, the estimation of different items by their re- 

 puted worth, or by the price which was given for them, 

 instead of the actual income which they produce. We 

 shall see the effect of such a mistake in considering 

 the proper method of inquiring into the state of their 

 affairs. 



The precedent are the contingent risks to which an 

 office is subject : its certain expenses are the ordinary 

 charges of management, including rent, salaries, interest 

 of sums lying at the banker's, &c., advertisements, and 

 the commission, as it is called, which most of the offices 

 pay to those who bring them business. 



Commission, in general, means either a per centage 

 paid to a factor for the transaction of business, or a volun- 

 tary relinquishment in favour of the person who brings 

 business of a part of the profit which the said person, 

 being honourably free to choose between one competitor 

 and another, has brought to the trader who, there- 

 fore, allows the commission. It answers to the profit 

 which the retail dealer is allowed by the wholesale mer- 

 chant from whom he buys. But, when an insurance 

 office announces to the solicitor, attorney, or agent of a 

 party desiring to insure, that they will allow him a 

 liberal commission, the term has a different meaning. 

 As between one office and another, the attorney is in a 

 judicial capacity ; and, as regards his client, he is 

 already the paid protector of the interests of another per- 

 son. He has, therefore, no liberty of choice between one 

 office and another, but is already bound to choose that 

 which he judges best for his client. All who have 

 written on the subject of late years have attacked this 

 'bribe, for such it is ; but they have directed all their cen- 

 sures against the offices, as if they were the only parties 

 to blame. If, indeed, the bribe had been offered to the 

 needy and ignorant only, this partial distribution of 

 blame might have been allowed; but when the parties 

 who receive the bribe are men of education, and moving 



