18(30.] ^ ' [Ctulwaladcr. 



persons insured do not ordinarily forfeit their insurances tlirougli any 

 mere carelessness of themselves or their agents. But no prudent insurer 

 will take a risk ichere any interest of the insured would he promoted by care- 

 lessness of the subject of the risk. Insurance, it has again been often said, 

 is an aleatory contract, that is to say, a bargain upon a chance, like a 

 throw of dice. An insurer's tables of risks may, in a certain sense, 

 resemble those which might be made for the use of a professional 

 gamester on a grand scale. But beyond this, there is properly no anal- 

 ogy to gaming. Insurance, in its general results, is, in fact, though not 

 in form, a contract of mutual benefit ; and the benefit is not, in any 

 proper sense, uncertain upon either side. The values of life insurances 

 call thus be calculated with approximate certainty, because, however 

 uncertain may be the continuance of an individual life, the average dura- 

 tion of human life, is known from experience, and is almost invariable. 

 Then, as to marine insurances, it has been often said with truth, and, in 

 our own city, has been practically tested in more cases than one, that a 

 merchant employing a great many ships, or shipping a great many 

 cargoes, may prudently calculate for himself whether he would more 

 probably lose by insuring than derive benefit ; in other words, whether 

 the premiums to be paid would probably exceed the maritime losses to 

 be incurred. 



Fire Insurance, under this head, is not an exception. Where the 

 risks are sufficiently numerous, at points detached from one another, 

 and of small amounts, or where large risks are divided among several 

 insurers, the rates of premium are safely adjustable to a standard of uni- 

 formity. The more the insurances are with due caution multiplied, and 

 the source of profit increased, the greater is the safety of the insurer. 

 These are truisms, whatever may be the complexities of their safe appli- 

 cation. I wi]l not add any general remarks concerning the reservation 

 and investment of accruing income to meet losses. 



It is a misfortune of the present age, and an especial evil in this 

 country, that men do not scrui:)le to engage in responsible business, 

 without any apprenticeship, or other preparatory training. An insurer 

 without exi)erience would be not less unfit for the business than a lands- 

 man for navigation. In Mr. Bancker's time, interests of importance 

 were not thus trusted in untried hands. His youthful ex]3erience of 

 marine insurance had been acquired when it was principally the business 

 of underwriters not incorporated. It had been regulated by them on the 

 sound basis of self interest. The insurance of his own shipments may 

 have been instructive to him, but had jirobably been less so than his 

 necessary constant observation, during the wars of the French revolution, 

 of the transactions of other merchants, whose bills he purchased when 

 the safety of his remittances depended upon the insurances of millions in 

 value of shipments afloat, whose dangers have been mentioned under a 

 former head. He had afterwards been, for some years, the agent, in 

 this country, of one of the largest associations of English insurers ; and 

 had been a director of a life insurance company in this city. Fire 



