280 



ESSAY ON PROBABILITIES. 



Mr. Morgan says, "that for the first twenty years, 

 the society possessed such an excess of income, that 

 being suffered to accumulate without interruption, it 

 contributed, in a great measure, to form the basis of its 

 future opulence." This circumstance, with the great 

 number of policies which were abandoned* in the 

 early stages of its career, and the increase of interest 

 during the war, are quite sufficient to explain the 

 wealth which the Equitable Society has accumulated : 

 to these must be added the parsimony with which, at 

 first, additions were made to the policies. The whole 

 was an experiment, on a graduated scale of premiums, 

 made with a caution, which, though it turned out to be 

 superfluous, could not be known to be such, except by 

 the result. It was at the same time a venture, and by 

 many considered as a hazardous one ; for instance, the 

 law officers of the Crown refused a charter, on account of 

 the lowness of the premiums. The hazard having been 

 run, and having turned out profitably, the proceeds be- 

 long to those who ran it, and to those who, by their 

 own free consent, became their lineal successors. Nor 

 is it the least remarkable circumstance connected with 

 this society, that the immense funds at its disposal have 

 been always opened, though under restrictions, to the 

 public. Though this has been done in a way which 

 renders the participation of the new insurer in the 



* Perhaps Mr. Morgan's statement on this point may have led to the 

 statement alluded to in page 266. 



