S02 ESSAY ON PROBABILITIES. 



viduals, registering their names, to appoint three men of 

 undoubted character to receive contributions of one 

 guinea a year each. If the subscribers be occupiers of 

 dwelling-houses in London, tbereis no doubt that this sum 

 would be amply sufficient to insure a thousand guineas 

 to each. If three years were to elapse without a fire 

 taking place, the subscription might be suspended, until 

 circumstances should diminish the fund ; which, im- 

 proving in the mean time at interest, would become 

 every year more capable of meeting demands upon it. 

 There would be no need of any legal security, if the 

 trustees were well chosen ; and a short agreement would 

 explain the understanding on which the parties contri- 

 bute. As soon as a few such clubs were formed, the 

 inutility of imposing a tax on one particular way of 

 effecting an object would become apparent. 



It would be lucky for the preceding plan, if it were 

 the decided opinion of lawyers that the courts of equity 

 would not entertain any application for inquiry into the 

 state or management of such funds ; since, in that 

 case, the law of honour would be sufficient. It has 

 always been found, that whenever the law of the land 

 refuses to protect a proceeding which is fair and equal 

 in itself, a stronger law claims jurisdiction. The parties 

 benefited in the end would be the fire offices, since such 

 a method of resisting this excessive tax would inevitably 

 procure its abolition. 



There is another tax which, though not so dispro- 

 portionate in its amount, is much worse in its principle 

 than that on policies of fire insurance ; namely, the tax 

 on policies of life insurance. It must be remembered, 

 that the income of which the savings are invested in 

 this manner, has already undergone a considerable 

 amount of taxation. If any investment of such savings 

 be taxed, all should be treated alike. 



The abolition of lotteries happily leaves nothing to 

 be said upon the subject of gambling, encouraged and 

 promoted by the government ; and the recent decision 

 of the French legislature, by which the public gaming- 



