MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. 2Q 



from opinion, and the security of the national debt 

 must always be thought the very best. The patriotic 

 annuitant, too, may reflect that the profit derived from 

 him goes to the reduction of the national debt. 



The distinction of male and female life becomes of 

 importance in the granting of annuities. The insurance 

 offices have not as yet, except, I believe, in one or two 

 instances, begun to recognise the distinction, which is 

 of the less consequence, since, with respect to the 

 office, it is keeping on the safe side, and, with respect 

 to the public, very few female lives are insured. But 

 the exact reverse takes place with regard to annuities ; 

 it would be insecure to grant them to females on the 

 same terms as to males ; and a very large proportion of 

 the whole number of annuitants is of the former sex. 



Annuities might be granted by an office which 

 should undertake a return of profits, in the form of a 

 payment to the executors at the death of the party ; 

 and an association of mutual annuitants would not be 

 of difficult formation. The principal objection would 

 be, the smallness of the number of persons who buy 

 annuities, compared with those who insure their lives. 

 If, however, such an office were to grant reversionary 

 annuities, their field would be very much widened. 

 Several of the insurance offices grant annuities, but 

 none, I believe, in which the annuitants are sharers in 

 the profits. 



The details of a Friendly Society comprise every pos- 

 sible species of life contingency. They grant weekly 

 payments during sickness, annuities in old age, and sums 

 payable at death, in consideration of weekly premiums. 

 These institutions, combined with Savings' Banks, and 

 aided by the removal of the abuses of the Poor Law, 

 will, in time, raise the labouring classes of this country 

 to a degree of independence which they have never 

 known. But, as might have been expected, the manage- 

 ment of these important institutions has, in many in- 

 stances, been wanting in prudence ; and I am afraid it 

 is hopeless to expect tbat the unity of system, which 

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