298 ESSAY ON PROBABILITIES. 



the proper use of the funds so invested. If one large 

 office were to he established in London, having the 

 general management of the money raised, and the regu- 

 lation of its distribution, it would not be difficult to find 

 persons of station * and character throughout the country 

 who would consent to act as agents, receiving the con- 

 tributions and certifying the claims. The expense of 

 management might be borne for a few years by the 

 public purse, and this burden might be gradually thrown 

 on the establishment itself. No very great difficulties 

 could arise in the formation of such an institution, and 

 certainly none the expense of conquering which would 

 not be trifling in comparison of the greatness of the object 

 gained. The act which should establish this universal 

 Friendly Society would, in two generations, become the 

 real poor law. 



The subjects of fire and of marine insurance are 

 founded on principles of great simplicity, though it is 

 not easy to procure exact data for the computation of 

 risks. As there exist no offices which are managed on 

 the republican method of a mutual Life Insurance Com- 

 pany, no publication of the results of experience has 

 been made. If every loss by fire or sea were a total 

 loss, it would only be necessary to ask what proportion 

 of all the houses or ships now existing is burnt or 

 wrecked in a year or on a voyage, and the premium for 

 insuring a house for one year, or a ship for one voyage, 

 would immediately follow. Thus, if of all the ships 

 which sail to the West Indies, one in a hundred is lost, 

 the lowest premium at which an insurance could take 

 place is one per cent., and all demanded above that pro- 

 portion would be profit. It would not, perhaps, be 

 very easy to ascertain this proportion with exactness, 

 and the difficulty is increased if ships or houses be 

 divided into different classes as to security, since the 

 risks of each class must be ascertained separately. But 



* Many of the Friendly Societies now established depend almost entirely 

 upon the" superintendence of the clergy or local gentry. 



