By 2nd of Henry IV. c. 11 (A.D. 1400), an Act was passed: A remedy for him who is wrongfully pursued in the Court of Admiralty. This Act was repealed in 1861.

The High Court of Admiralty was formerly held at St. Margaret's Hall in Southwark. During the plague of London it was held at Jesus College, Oxford; the principal of that College being judge of the Court. After that it was removed to Doctors' Commons. Blackstone says its proceedings were according to the civil law, and therefore the Court was held with the Superior Ecclesiastical Courts in Doctors' Commons. In later times the judge has generally been an eminent Doctor of the Civil Law. Before the Revolution there appears to have been two judges; afterwards but one.

At the present time there are two divisions of the Court-the Prize Court and the Instance Court. In the Prize Court the judge has jurisdiction, by virtue of a Commission issued under the Great Seal, at the beginning of every war, to proceed upon all and all manner of captures, seizures, prizes and reprisals of ships or goods which are or shall be taken, and to hear and determine according to the course of the Admiralty and the law of nations. In the Instance Court also the jurisdiction exercised by the judge is conferred by a Commission under the Great Seal. This is a municipal tribunal; it is a court of record, and its decrees and orders for the payment of money have the same effect as judgments in the Superior Courts of Common Law.

This Court has jurisdiction in cases of private injuries to private rights arising at sea, or intimately connected with maritime subjects. Its jurisdiction in cases of torts is confined to wrongs committed at sea, or at least on the water, within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty. Such are suits for (1) Sea batteries; (2) Collision of ships, for which there is also remedy at common law; (3) Restitution of possession of a ship where there is no bona fide claim to withhold her; and (4) Piratical and illegal takings at sea.

In cases of contract its jurisdiction is confined to those of a maritime nature, as (1) Between part-owners of a ship-Equity has a concurrent jurisdiction in this case; (2) Mariners' and officers' wages-also recoverable by action at law, or before a magistrate; (3) Pilotage; (4) Bottomry and respondentia bonds; and (5) Salvage-which is also recoverable by action at law, or a summary hearing before magistrates, or the Cinque Port Commissioners; (6) Whenever any ship is under arrest by process issuing from the High Court of Admiralty, or when the proceeds of any ship having been so arrested have been brought into the registry, the Court has jurisdiction to take cognizance of all claims and causes of action of any person in respect of any mortgage of such ship, and to decide any suit instituted by any such person in respect of any such claim or causes of action respectively (see 3 & 4 Vict. c. 65).

The Court now sits at Westminster, and its proceedings are still greatly conformable to the Civil Law in conjunction with Marine Customs. There is a Court of Admiralty in Ireland, but the Scotch Court was abolished by 1 Wm. IV. c. 69. The practice of the Admiralty Court in England has been much modified by recent enactments-24 & 25 Vict. c. 10 (1861), and 27 & 28 Vict. c. 25 (1864).

It appears at first a little remarkable that, while so many questions incident to Marine Ins. fall within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty Court, no action upon a policy of Marine Ins. can be brought there. Blackstone shadows forth the reason for this: "and indeed it hath been further holden that the Admiralty Court cannot hold plea of any contract under seal." This rule, as we have seen, has been modified in recent practice; but actions on policies of Ins. still have to be brought in the ordinary Courts. [POLICIES OF INS. COURT.]

ADMISSION OF AGE.-The technical process of endorsing on the policy "age admitted" after proof has been supplied. [AGE ADMITTED.] [AGE, PROOF OF.] ADMISSION OF CLAIM.-In Life Ins., after all the required evidence and proofs have been sent in to the office, and the directors have become satisfied of the bona fides of the case, the next process is to "admit the claim," payable at 3 or 6 months-as the policy shall provide. In Accident Ins. death claims are dealt with in the same manner; while in cases of non-fatal injury the admission is in the form of a letter to the claimant, telling him to call upon the agent of the Co. where he will find a cheque for the amount, on signing the form of discharge.

ADULTERATION OF FOOD was prohibited in England as far back as 1267. Much attention was called to the subject in 1822, through Mr. Accum's book called Death in the Pot; and in 1855, through Dr. Hassell's book, Food, and its Adulterations. In 1836, by 6 & 7 Wm. IV., c. 37, adulteration was made a criminal offence. It is now provided by 23 & 24 Vict. c. 84 (1860), that every person who sells any article of food or drink, with which, to the knowledge of such person, any ingredient injurious to health has been mixed, or sells, as pure, any such article adulterated, and not pure, shall, on summary conviction, forfeit a sum not exceeding £5. On repetition of the offence, offender's name may be pub. at his expense in newspapers. Parochial chemical analysts may be ap pointed. See Baker's Laws relating to Public Health.

ADULTERY: its Effect on Lond. Marriages. Gregory King, who wrote in 1696, gave as one reason why Marriages in Lond. produced fewer children than country marriages, "the more frequent fornications and adulteries." [MARRIAGE.]

ADULTS, DEVELOPMENTAL DISEASES OF.--These rank as order 2 in the Class of DEVELOP

MENTAL Diseases, and embrace Paramenia and Childbirth. The deaths in England from these causes show but very slight fluctuations. In 1858, they were 2114; in 1862, 2198; and in 1867, 2461. Over a period of fifteen years ending 1864, they averaged about 118 per million of the population living.

The deaths in this order are limited to females, and in 1867 were 2461. Of these, 5 took place at ages between 10 and 15; 141 between 15 and 20; 361 between 20 and 25; 1006 between 25 and 35; 865 between 35 and 45; 80 between 45 and 55; and 3 between 55 and 65.

In vol. vi. of the Assu. Mag. (1856) will be found an abstract of an able paper by Professor A. Buchanan, M.D., On the Physiological Law of Mort, and on certain Deviations from it observed about the commencement of adult life.

AD VALOREM, according to value.

ADVANTAGEOUS AND GENERous So., Limited : founded in 1711, for Ins. on Marriage. [MARRIAGE INS.]

ADVANTAGEOUS INSURERS, "upon the lives of men, women, and children, for the benefit of themselves and posterity for ever." An asso. under this title was projected in October, 1712, in printed "proposals," after the manner of the time. The following is an outline of the scheme in the projector's own words:

If such an ins. can be estab. as that a man by paying 255. per quarter, and never more, to a jointstock for 9 years only, can secure to himself, his heirs, executors, or whomsoever he pleases, upon the decease of the person insured upon, whether himself or any other, from £50, if that life drops the first year, to £75 if the second, and so £25 increase every year, till it comes to £250 or more the 9th year, about which time all payments to the stock will cease, and so every year after for ever £250 to the claimant of each person insured upon who should happen to die, would it not be deemed a noble invention, since every contributor, his heirs, etc., could receive £50 for the first £5 he pays, and about £25 for every other £5 he is out of pocket to the stock, whenever the person insured upon dies; and also have an interest in the joint-stock, so as himself, his heirs, etc., for ever to have liberty to nominate another life to be insured upon, and have a like sum paid unto his family again, when that life drops; and then insure again as before, and so on perpetually, without paying the sums mentioned for more than 9 years, which amounts in the whole but to £47 10s., that any one man will pay to the stock for insuring upon one life, to secure a good estate to his family for all succeeding generations.

The projector continues:

And that such a Co. for Ins. upon lives for the benefit of posterity may be solidly founded, and fairly governed by its own members, more advantageously for all and every one of them than any other yet estab., the author of these papers conceives the following articles and scheme annext will truly demonstrate to all that peruse them.

A most elaborate scheme, with tables of calculations, was annexed, and there is the following intimation:-The scheme was calculated and the articles drawn up above a year since, but not pub. till now, by reason of the many fallacious projects (before taken notice of and justly put down by Act of Parl.) that were then offered to the public. [L. INS., HIST. OF.]

ADVANTAGEOUS SO.-This So. was constituted out of several Subs. for Birth, carried on at Parr's Coffee House, Broad-street, Ratcliffe, early in 1711. It afterwards amalg. with the Generous So. and became known as Advantageous and Generous So. [BIRTH INS.] ADVANTAGES OF INS.-These will be made apparent in many parts of this work; especially under the head of FINANCE OF LIFE INS., and in a selection of notes from various writers under INS. and LIFE INS.

ADVENTURE.-The sending to sea of a ship or goods at the risk of the sender.-Lex. Merc. An adventure is now more generally understood as a speculation in goods sent abroad under the care of a supercargo, to be disposed of him to the best advantage for the benefit of his employers. ADVERTISEMENT.-Any Co. regis. under Cos. Act, 1862, must give notice by adv. "in some newspaper circulating in the district in which the regis. office of the Co. is situate" before closing the register of members. In all adv. the Co's. name and full title must be inserted.

ADVERTISING. It has long been a problem in the conduct of the affairs of an ins. asso., What benefit is to be derived from advertising? We think the answer may be rendered as tersely as the question. It familiarizes the name and bus. of the office in the minds of the public-that is all. The bus. resulting directly from advertisements is frequently of such a character that it had better be avoided. Advertisements may be properly regarded as seed sown; the harvest follows at an appropriate distance of time, and can only be effectually garnered by experienced workmen. Mr. Langley put the case very well in his Vade mecum:-"Boards and door-plates and wire-blinds are of little value to an agency; and advertisements are scarcely worth the expense, unless backed up by diligence and intelligent activity." The real problem is, How to obtain the largest return for a given sum of money expended? That depends upon the nature of the bus., and a variety of circumstances, regarding which experienced advertising agents may be consulted with great advantage. Advertising is a science. ADVOWSON. The right of presentation to a church or benefice. Advowsons are of two kinds; appendant, and in gross. Appendant is a right of presentation dependent upon a manor, lands, etc, and passes with and as appendant to the same. Advowson in gross is a right subsisting by itself, belonging to a person, and not to a manor, lands, etc.

Advowsons are either presentative, collative, or donative. Presentative is where the patron does present or offer his clerk to the Bishop of the Diocese to be instituted in his church. Collation differs from institution in this, that institution is performed by the Bishop upon the presentation of another, and collation is his own act of presentation. An advowson Donative is when the King or other Patron, in whom the advowson of the church is lodged, does, by a single donation in writing, put the clerk into possession without presentation, institution, or induction. Advowsons were formerly mostly appendant to manors, and the patrons parochial barons. The lordship of the manor and patronage of the church were seldom in different hands till advowsons were given to religious houses. Now they are generally divided and dealt with separately. It is in reference to valuations of advowsons that the above definitions become important. [NEXT PRESENTATIONS.]

There are many Tables extant by which advowsons may be valued, as will have been seen by our list of ACTUARIAL TABLES. Of the modern Tables, Willich's has probably been more generally used than any other. But in 1864 Mr. Samuel Brown prepared two valuation Tables, based on a Mort. Table, deduced from observations amongst the clergy over a period of a century-1760 to 1860-made by the Rev. J. Hodgson, late sec. of the Clergy Mut., which will probably supersede all others. The Table as to Advowsons is as follows. That of Next Presentations will be given under that head.

Table showing the present Value of an Advowson; the Incumbent in possession being at any age from 24 to 90. Interest at 5 per cent.

=

4'9667
5'1152 52
5.2685 53
5'4286 54
5'5936 55
5'7644 56
5'9421

...

...

=

12.9023
13.1667

13'4314 88

13'6922 89
13'9470

14'1977

Example.-Required the value of an advowson where the age of the present Incumbent is 50, and the net ann. income £1,000; value of £1 £8 os. 1d.; therefore of £1,000 £8,005 145., and so in proportion for any greater or lesser amount. Note. Before using this Table, all charges, etc., must be deducted from the Income of the Living, and it is here that the experience of an actuary is sometimes of great importance. ÆGIS FIRE AND DILAPIDATION, AND ENGLISH AND CAMBRIAN INS. Co., founded in 1825 with a proposed cap. of £1,000,000. The F. and L. branches appear to have been worked distinctly; but the capital applied to each. The Dilapidation branch was worked with the former. In the F. branch there was no special feature, except that "floating policies" on goods and merchandize were put prominently forward.

The distinguishing feature of the Co. was its Dilapidation department, and here we shall quote the language of the prosp. :

This branch of the Co. is entirely orig., presenting a mode of ins. of the utmost importance. To indemnify parties from the charge of repairs and dilapidation in buildings of every description is the plan proposed to be adopted.

It is sufficiently obvious that although a small ann. sum can usually be spared from the income of every individual, yet a heavy demand occasioned by the necessity of putting a building in thorough repair, at the termination of the lease, is often the means of involving a tenant for life or lessee in difficulty. The advantages to landlords, patrons of livings, colleges, and other ecclesiastical corps., of having thus the means of compelling tenants and incumbents to ins. against the dilapidation of the buildings they occupy at the expiration of a given period, are obvious.

Then follows a Table of "Dilapidation rates," rates for ins. £100 payable for dilapi dation at the end of a Lease, which will terminate in not less than, 40 years and upwards £1 o 3

I 6 3

I 14 3

2 6 3

20 years and upwards £3 4

4 16 3

The Table in the prosp. is given for every year from 40 down to 7. The next Table is-Rates for ins. 100 payable for dilapidations on the death of an Ecclesiastical Incumbent, or of a Tenant for Life, or on the death of a person on whose life a Lease depends:

NOTE. In all cases where Ins. against Dilapidations are effected with this Co. on more than one life, the same principle of calculation will be adopted, but each particular case will be the subject of a special agreement. This department was under the management of Mr. Henry T. Ryde.

Among the officers of this Co. were several persons who have since risen to very considerable distinction. Thus among its consulting physicians were Dr. Birkbeck and Dr. Southwood Smith; whilst one of its Surveyors was Mr. Charles Matthews, afterwards the well-known actor, still living. In the L. department there were no special features. The Co. only continued in existence about two years.

ÆGIS LIFE ASSU. Co., founded in 1848, with an authorized cap. of £160,000, in shares of £20 (power to increase to £500,000). About half the first portion of the cap. was subs. Among the Hon. Directors were "The Chairman and Deputy Chairman for the time being of the Union F. and L. Assu. Office,” and in the prosp. there was the following: The objects of the Co. extend also to the transaction of all bus. connected with, or in any way dependent on the contingencies of human life; and the Co. affords to persons assu. the combined advantages of rates of prem. so low as are consistent with perfect safety to the ins., and the most ample security, by its cap. and by its connexion and arrangements with the Union Fire and Life Office.

The nature of this arrangement appears in some sort explained by the following note: Though the transactions of this office are limited to Life Assu., yet in consequence of the arrangements which have been made with the Union F. and L. Assu. So. the Directors of this Co. are desirous to obtain Fire Ins. to be effected with the Union through the agency of this Co.

The Co. had Tables of BUILDING So. INS. It made loans to "enable persons to enfranchise Copyhold Land, and thus render it available for building purposes without being subject to the increased fine imposed on improvements." It also accepted lives "temporarily afflicted," and granted loans.

It continued bus. until 1854, and then trans. its policies to the Mitre.

AESCULAPEAN MEDICAL ATTENDANCE AND GENERAL LIFE INS. Co., projected in 1852, by George Latham Browne, Barrister-at-Law, for securing constant medical attendance to the insured, and for general Life bus. It did not advance beyond prov. regis. AFFIDAVIT (I confirm by oath) in law is an oath in writing sworn before some person who has authority to administer it.

AFFIDAVIT OF FIRE LOSS.-In the early practice of Fire Ins. all claimants for loss from Fire were called upon to make proof of their claim by affidavit on oath, or their affirmation, as the office might elect, and according to the form used by the particular office wherein the claim was made. This again had to be supported and confirmed by a certificate of the minister, churchwardens, and others residing in the parish where the loss occurred. [CERTIFICATE of Fire Loss.]

The Sun was one of the offices requiring such affidavit or declaration of loss. AFFIRMATION (Lat. affirmatio).-In English law a solemn declaration made in cases authorized by law, by persons statutably relieved from the necessity of taking oaths. This relief, orig. granted to Quakers and members of some other persuasions, was extended by the Common Law Procedure Act (1854) to all persons having conscientious objections. A false declaration or affirmation is punishable as perjury. AFFREIGHT (To).—To hire a vessel. [FREIGHT, INS. OF.] AFFREIGHTER.-One who affreights or hires a vessel. AFFREIGHTMENT.-The freight or lading of a ship.-Cowel.

AFRICA. Ships and merchandises from England to the coast of Africa, and at and from thence to our Colonies in the West Indies, etc., were formerly insured with the following clause in the policy :-" Free from loss or average by trading in boats; and also from average occasioned by insurrection of slaves, if under 10 per cent.'

AFRICA, WEST COAST OF. --Nearly all Life offices prohibit the residence of their Ins. lives on this coast. It is doubtful if any rate of prem. likely to be obtained would cover the risk incident to such residence. In the Assu. Mag. (vol. i. p. 83) will be found a record of the mort. experienced by the officers and crews of Her Majesty's ships employed on the coast of Africa, in each year, from 1840 to 1848 inclusive. The rate fluctuated from a little over 2 up to nearly 8 per cent.

AFTERLIFETIME.-The afterlifetime of men of the age of 30 is 33 years, by the English Life Table (No. 1); 33 years is not the precise time probably that any one of that age will live, but the average time that a number of men of that age will live, taken one with another. At birth lifetime, and afterlifetime are one and the same thing -Dr. Farr, 8th Report, R.G. For more detailed grounds of definition, see EXPECTATION OF Life. Dr. Farr again says:

If 1000 or any given number of persons be taken at the age 20, and be followed to the end of life, the years which they live added together and divided by 1000, or by the number of persons, is generally, but incorrectly called the expectation of life. I shall call it the afterlifetime at 20.

AGAINST TOTAL LOSS ONLY.-This is a form of "Average Warranty" used in Marine Ins. Under it the underwriter is exempted from general as well as particular average, and remains liable only for total loss, absolute or constructive, and for such charges as may be incurred under the "Suing and Labour" clause, to avoid that contingency.-McArthur. AGE means generally a definite period or length of time. As applied to man, age may either mean the whole of his life, or a portion of it. It is usual to divide the whole period of human life into four parts or ages. The first, or infancy, extending to the 14th year (legal infancy extends to 21); the next, or youth, from the 14th to about the 25th; manhood from the 25th to the 50th or 60th; and the last, or old age, filling up the remainder. Ovid ingeniously compares these four ages to the four different seasons of the year. These divisions, however, are in a very great degree arbitrary, and they are frequently changed.

We subjoin the following able remarks from Dr. Pettigrew's Presumption of Survivorship, an essay of great merit :

With regard to age, it may be and has been variously estimated. Aristotle, e.g., divided life into three portions, viz., the period of growth, the period during which the body remains stationary, and that of decline; while Varro divided it into five, and Solon into ten. Hyppocrates and the greater number of the ancients adopted a septenary division, and this division has been almost universally adhered to in modern times. Thus the period of growth is made to include-Infancy (Infantia), Second Infancy, or Boyhood (Pueritia), and Adolescence (Adolescentia), the period during which the body undergoes little change; Youth (Juventus), and Manhood (Etas virilis); and the period of decline Old Age and Decrepitude. Infancy, as commonly estimated, extends from the first to the seventh year; Second Infancy, or Boyhood, from the seventh to the fourteenth year; Adolesence, from the fourteenth to the seventeenth or eighteenth year; Youth, from the seventeenth or eighteenth year to the twenty-first, or, more properly, the twenty-fifth; Manhood, from the time the powers corporeal and mental are fully matured until Old Age and Decrepitude supervene. As the epochs which comprise the sum total of existence insensibly glide into each other, it has appeared to me that in framing rules for the regulation of questions of survivorship, we shall gain precision by reducing them to the lowest possible number, ie., by fixing on such periods only as are characterized by obvious and well-marked bodily and mental changes. With this object in view, I have, on reflection, divided life into four great eras. The first, embracing Infancy and Childhood, and extending from the first to the fourteenth year, a period characterized by great bodily development; the second, comprising Adolescence and Youth, and extending from the fourteenth to the twenty-fifth year, at which latter period the body may be considered as having attained its full stature; the third, including Manhood, and extending from the twenty-fifth to the fifty-fifth, or, it may be, in some instances, to the sixtieth year, which era may be said to be the term of man's greatest mental and bodily activity; and the fourth, or last era, comprehending Old Age and Decrepitude, when the body may be considered as gradually giving way. The latter period, I may remark, forms the converse of Infancy and Childhood, when the body rapidly developes.

AGE ADMITTED. -In consequence of the difficulties which sometimes arise in proving the exact age of a person insured under a life policy, after the death of such person, the good practice has been introduced into modern Life Ins. of supplying such proof when the ins. is effected, and of getting the age admitted on the policy, by the indorsement of the office issuing the same: after which there can be no further trouble on that head. The Agriculturist Life (1851) made it a condition of ins. that proof of age should be furnished in every case, and age admitted. Other offices have talked of such a regulation, but its adoption has not been enforced. [AGE, PROOF OF.] [CLAIMS.] The effect of "age admitted" on the market value of a policy is sometimes very considerable. AGE AS AN ELEMENT IN INS.-In the early practice of Life Ins., the circumstance of age was not regarded as one of the important elements of the risk. All who were ins. were taken at the same rate, viz., £5 for ins. £100 for one year. This was a rate admitting of some latitude. It was only when a MORT. TABLE was constructed that the means of measuring the chances of life as determined by age were provided. It will be seen that the Roman law-givers without a mort. table-for no writer has yet contended that they had onemade some very close approximations. The early traders in Life Ins. here did not enter upon such distinctions of detail. We shall treat of these subjects more at large under head of ANNUITIES, LIFE INS. We only desire at this point to fix upon the mind the importance of the epoch when age became recognized as an important incident of Life Ins. It is not only in Life Ins. that the question of age enters. In MARINE Ins. ships are classed, if classed at all, for a certain number of years. An experienced underwriter understands the various phases in the life of a ship-aye, the influence and incidents of climate-the consequences of undue wear and tear, even as a physician estimates corresponding circumstances upon the human being. Some day shall we not include in our Ins. Library the "Life of a Ship from an Underwriter's Point of View"?

In ACCIDENT Ins. certain limits of age only are of consequence. No office that understands its business will grant Ins. on lives under 18, or continue them on lives over 60, except at a very largely increased prem. or otherwise than exceptional cases.

In CATTLE Ins., and in CARRIAGE ACCIDENT Ins., age may become an important element in estimating the risk. It is sometimes so in STEAM BOILER Ins.

Returning to Life Ins., some points have to be specially noted. The Life offices in Gt. Brit. always accept lives at the age next birthday. It is probable that, from this cause (allowing for selection against the practice), the lives on the books are on an average some four months younger than they nominally stand at. In the U.S., the nearest birthday is adopted for fixing the age or prem. To be exact, 183 days are allowed after last birthday-after that, the age ranks for next birthday. In that case the lives should be on an