the intentions of the legislature in granting them an exclusive right of effecting, as companies, marine insurances, are evidently defeated. They do not, and they cannot, afford any adequate accommodation to the merchants; and though their transactions, as far as they go, are of service, and it is not intended by the committee to recommend anything to prevent their continuance, yet their right to exclude all other societies and corporations from doing what they can, with their monopoly, so inadequately perform themselves, appears to be decidedly against the words of the Act of Incorporation, and as such may and should be repealed. The framers of the Act in question seem to have thought that insurances are best done by companies. Whatever may be the opinion of the House on this point at present, there can be little doubt of the absurdity of suffering a monopoly to exist which is more effectual in its hindrance than its performance, when such monopoly can, as in the present instance, be repealed without any violation of public faith."

In accordance with this report, the select committee submitted to the House of Commons the following two resolutions:

Ist. "Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that property requiring to be insured against sea and enemies' risk, should have all the security which can be found for it, whether that security exists in chartered corporations, in other companies, or through individuals."

2nd. "Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee that the exclusive privilege for marine insurance of the two chartered companies should be repealed, saving their charters, and their powers, and privileges in all other respects, and that leave should be given to bring in a bill for this purpose."

In the debate that followed in the House of Commons when these resolutions were brought forward, Mr. Joseph Marryat again distinguished himself by his eloquent defence of Lloyd's against its detractors. "The existing system

of marine insurance at Lloyd's," he exclaimed, "has not only kept pace with the increase of our commerce, grown with its growth, and strengthened with its strength, but a system of commercial intelligence has also been established there by the labour of half a century, and has, at length, been brought to a degree of perfection which renders it of the utmost importance to the mercantile world." This latter point told greatly in the House of Commons, it being admitted by the warmest partizans of the proposed new company that marine insurance could not do without the "system of commercial intelligence" of Lloyd's. These and other considerations led to the rejection, by a considerable majority, of the resolutions presented by the select committee. Sixteen years more had to elapse before freedom was granted by Parliament to establish marine insurance companies.

INSURANCE FRAUDS.

RE not frauds frequently practised, or attempted to be practised, upon underwriters ?" the chairman of the select committee of 1810 asked Mr. John Fisher Throckmorton, one of the leading underwriters at Lloyd's. "I have known a great many," was the reply. To the further question, "Can you state instances of that sort which happened to yourself as an underwriter," the answer was, "I have made a list of a considerable number of them which have happened since I began underwriting." Mr. Throckmorton then proceeded to enumerate the cases set down in his list, highly curious as being the experiences of a single life, not a long one, in the matter of insurance frauds.

"The first fraud I remember," began Mr. Throckmorton, "was on a ship called the Eagle. An order came to have her insured, and was executed; but we proved afterwards that the insurer, who lived at Philadelphia, knew that the ship was lost when he wrote the order for the insurance. The next fraud was that of the noted Captain Codling, ship Adventure, and Messrs. Easterby and Macfarlane; the ship was destroyed and the captain hanged. The next was a ship or sloop, from Dieppe, in France, to a place on the

coast of England, said to be with a great quantity of specie on board. In this case, the ship sailed in the evening, and was reported lost early the next morning, when the captain and crew had breakfast on shore on the French coast. Being summoned, the captain appeared before the underwriters at Lloyd's, and on a suggestion made in the committee-room, where the business was spoken of by me, to have the man taken into custody, he made off in haste. The affair turned out a complete fraud, and not a farthing was recovered, because there never was any money shipped. Next there was a case of a ship from Leghorn; an insurance was made for a large amount on silks; but it was found that she was only loaded with brimstone. In this case the ship, insured against sea-risk only, went to sea on a fine morning, and was destroyed in the evening, the captain and crew coming quietly on shore in their boats. Insurances had been effected at a number of places, London, Liverpool, Marseilles, and, I believe, Manchester; and, a claim for total loss being made, the witnesses actually came here to substantiate their claim, but they took wing the day before the trial was to come on. There was another insurance by the same parties, at nearly the same time, on another risk of a similar kind, but against capture only. In this instance, the ship was taken and carried to Corsica in the course of a few hours after she had left Leghorn, and, though it was found to be a fraud, the discovery of it came too late, as the money had been paid by the underwriters."

Mr. Throckmorton, being interrupted here by a question, then went on to relate with a little more detail other cases of fraud, several of them showing great expertness in perpetration. "There was a ship from Boston, the Hannah and Mary," he told the committee, "which was sunk by design, after having been insured at Lloyd's, at Bristol, and at Liverpool, to a very considerable amount. Suspecting a crime, we had one man arrested on suspicion, after another, also suspected, had run away at Liverpool. Brought to London, the prisoner acknowledged that he had forged the

bills of lading, the invoices, and everything necessary to substantiate the interest, legalized by American stamps which he secured and sent to Boston by order of his principal, who drew up the plot ready to be acted upon." No prosecution, it appears, was entered against this too faithful servant. "The next case, in which I happened to be concerned, and which I had a hand in detecting," Mr. Throckmorton went on, "was that of a ship going from Gibraltar to Lisbon. She was seen to be captured in Gibraltar Bay, as she went sailing out, upon which couriers were dispatched, by different roads to Lisbon and elsewhere with four or five duplicate orders for insurance. These orders found their way to London, and the insurances were effected; but the fraud was discovered in time and the loss was not paid. In another case of fraud, a ship called the Aurora, bound to the Brazils from Lisbon, was burned by design in Madeira roads, having been insured to a large amount, but the loss was not paid. Then there was the Philippa Harben, from New York to Belfast, which soon after going to sea was destroyed. Having been a noted ship in the Barbadoes trade, no suspicion was at first entertained, and, when the assured came to London, the underwriters were near making payment to him when rumours came of the fraud. Upon this the man made off, not even asking for the return of his premium."

The catalogue of frauds committed within the knowledge of a single underwriter did not end here, but Mr. Throckmorton had three more stories to tell. The first was a tragedy curt to completeness. "There was, in the year 1803, a ship called the Merry Andrew, sunk in King's road, Bristol, by design; the captain was hanged, and the owner absconded." The second tale was less tragic. "I wrote a ship," said Mr. Throckmorton, "called the Bordeaux trader. She had sailed from Portsmouth on a Saturday morning, and was captured immediately, when outside the Isle of Wight. The captain got back, and was with the owner at Portsmouth on the Sunday afternoon when the latter wrote