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Every shareholder, as a condition of holding his shares, was required to insure a sum equal to the amount of his subscription in the Fire, or £1000 in the Life, department of the Co., int. to be paid to the proprietors of not less than 3 or more than 5 p.c. annually; and 5 p.c. of the profits annually to be applied in the purchase of shares, provided they could be purchased or redeemed at a prem. below £90 p. share, “thus benefiting the proprietary without diminishing the security of the public;" and a further sum equal to 15 p.c. of the profits to be employed in paying up the remaining 90 p.c. on the shares, until the whole cap. of £5,000,000 should be realized.

The remaining 80 p.c. of the annual profits to be invested by the trustees, and once in every 5 years to be divided between the proprietors and policy-holders in such proportion as the board of direction shall deem proper. No proprietor holding less than ten shares to attend annual meetings. All unemployed cap. beyond £20,000 to be from time to time invested in public securities. The prosp. also contained this clause:

The following is an outline of the plan upon which the inst. is intended to be conducted, which plan will be further matured by the Presidents and Directors under the ablest legal and professional advice, and will be completed in such a way as counsel may recommend, and the shares are tendered to the parties who have offered to subs. for them upon this express condition that all further details shall remain with the Presidents and Directors, and that the shareholders shall execute such deed or deeds as may be deemed requisite.

The condition implied in the above stipulation was introduced advisedly. The agree ment between the orig. promoters had been "to form an assu. co. for the several purposes at that time allowable by law to assu. cos., and for such further purposes as by any alteration of the laws then in force should be allowable to assu. cos." In that same year (1824) an Act was passed-5 Geo. IV. c. 114-"to repeal so much of an Act of the 6 Geo. I. as restrains any other corps. than those in the Act named, and any sos. or partnerships from effecting Marine Ins. and lending money on bottomry." Hence the monopoly on Marine Ins. was removed, and it was open for any co. to enter upon that branch of bus. We need not be much surprised then to find the following recital in the preamble to the Deed of Sett. :

And whereas the board of direction of the said Co., by reason of the premises, have resolved to extend the object and bus. of the said Co. to assu. upon ships and goods and merchandises at sea, and to lending money upon bottomry; and have further resolved that such assu. shall be taken and the pols. thereof subs. by three or more directors, etc.

This proposed extension of the objects of the Co., although it was very clearly in the minds of the promoters when the first prosp. was issued-and which was indeed intended to be provided for by means of the clause we have already quoted-led to some serious litigation. A Mr. Natusch, we believe an underwriter at Lloyd's, objected to this extension of the bus. What followed we will take from the reported case on the subject-Natusch v. Irving. (See Lindley on Partnership.)

The plaintiff, Natusch, was one of the orig. subs. and held 15 shares, in respect of which he had paid the required deposit, but he had not executed the Deed of Sett. In conformity with the rules of the Co., he had effected a policy with it for £1500 on his life. Shortly after the repeal of 6 Geo. I., an adv. appeared in the newspapers stating that the Co. would commence the bus. of Marine Ins. The plaintiff, in answer to an inquiry whether this announcement was authorized by the Directors, was informed that it was; and that if he objected to the course about to be pursued, he might receive back his deposit and int. and have his policy cancelled and the prem. returned. In reply to this the plaintiff stated that he was ready to execute any deed which was in conformity with the prospectus; that he conceived it competent for him to insist that the bus. in which he was a partner should be carried on according to the agreement which united the partners together; that he could not think his doing so would entitle the manager of that partnership to pay him out his cap. and deprive him of a share in a concern of which he had the highest opinion; that he therefore required the Directors to abstain from any contracts or engagements relating to Marine Ins. as not being contemplated by himself, and those who joined the Co. upon the terms of the prosp.; and that he required an undivided attention on the part of the Directors to the objects defined therein. The plaintiff afterwards attended at the office of the Co. to execute its D. of Sett., but finding that it contained provisions enabling the Co. to carry on the bus. of Marine Ins. he refused to execute it as not being conformable to the terms on which the Co. was formed. In pursuance of the adv., the Co. had commenced and it was carrying on the bus. of Marine Ins.; but there was no evidence to show acquiescence on the part of the plaintiff, and there was evidence to show continued opposition by him to the carrying on of such bus. The plaintiff applied for an injunction to restrain the Directors from effecting Marine Ins., and an injunction was granted. Lord Eldon made (inter alia) the following remarks on the occasion :

If six persons joined in a partnership of L. assu., it seems clear that neither the majority nor any select part of them, nor five out of the six, could engage that partnership in Marine Ins., unless the contract of partnership expressly or impliedly gave that power: because if this was otherwise, an individual or individuals, by engaging in one specified concern, might be implicated in any other concern whatever, however different in its nature, against his consent. . . . Courts must struggle to prevent particular members of those bodies from engaging other members in projects in which they have not consented to be engaged, or the engaging in which they have not encouraged, assented to, or empowered or acquiesced in, expressly or tacitly, so as to make it not equitable that they should seek to restrain them. The principles which a Court would act upon in the case of a partnership of six must, as far as the nature of things will admit, be applied to a partnership of 600.

The estab. of the ALLIANCE MARINE was the immediate and very just consequence of this opposition.

The Co. in 1824 obtained a special Act of Parl., 5 Geo. IV. c. cxxxvii., "An Act for enabling the Alliance Brit. and Foreign L. and F. Assu. Co. to sue and be sued in the name of the chairman for the time being, or of any other member of the Co.," and by that

act-which contained no provisions as to Marine Ins.—the several persons who had taken and accepted shares were formed into a Co.

The Deed of Sett. contained this clause-prob. taken from the deed of the Equitable: 80.-That whenever a sudden increase of deaths shall happen in consequence of the plague or any contagious or epidemic disorder, or of famine, invasion, or civil war, it shall be lawful for the board of direction, with the approbation of an Extraordinary General Court to be called by them for that purpose, to defer the payment of the whole or any part of the sum to be claimed under each policy issued by the Co. for assu. any life which shall expire during the prevalence of such plague, contagious, or epidemic disorder, famine, invasion, or civil war, until such time as an adequate supply for the payment thereof can be obtained out of the funds of the Co.

Separate accounts were to be kept of the various branches of the Co.'s bus., and the deed contains very full provisions as to the disposal of the profits of each department. Some variations have been subsequently made, generally in favour of policy-holders. A later prosp. stated

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The profits of the Fire department appropriated to the ins. will be distributed at the close of each successive period of five years, in the form of a per-centage on the prems. which have been paid. Parties who obtain the settlement of losses from fire are not thereby deprived of their right to participate in the profits of the Co.

This is in conformity with clause III of deed.

There is a tradition concerning the circumstances which led to the formation of this office too characteristic of one of its founders to be passed over. Mr. Benjamin Gompertz, at that time a well-known mathematician, although he afterwards became more famous, had been a candidate for the actuaryship of the Guardian Ins. Co., founded a year or two previously. He had not been successful, it was rumoured (probably quite erroneously) from the fact of his being a Jew. He sought out on 'Change his brother-in-law, the famous Nathan Meyer Rothschild, told him of his non-success, and of the probable cause. The reply was, "Not select you because of your religion-mine got! den I vil make a bigger office for you den any of dem." Mr. Gompertz was appointed actuary of the Co. under its D. of Sett. In a very interesting memoir of that gentleman, from the pen of Mr. Marcus N. Adler, there occurs the following passage relating to his appointment and its duties:

Having had only one month allowed him to prepare all the rates and regulations of the Co., he without hesitation adopted the Carlisle Table of Mort., which he found satisfactorily to agree with the Equitable experience. The office under his guidance made most satisfactory progress. One measure the directors of his co. were most anxious to promote at the time-viz., to compete with Government as to the grant of annuities. This he opposed strenuously. The terms on which the Gov. were granting these annuities were based on the Northampton Table, which, though safe enough for assu., could not but entail ruinous consequences with regard to annu. Eventually he even convinced the able Government actuary, Mr. John Finlaison, of the heavy loss that was caused by using these Tables; and in the year 1829 those rates were superseded by the higher ones based on the mort. experienced by Government annuitants.

So, again, it was the intention of the directors to grant endowments for children on the commencement of the business of the office; but on the advice of their actuary, Mr. Gompertz-advice given because he considered the recorded experience regarding all the earlier ages of life very defective-they refrained, and have never issued them.

The Edinburgh Review of March, 1827, speaking of the fact that but one life ins. so. then existed in Germany, expressed a belief that the practice of life ins. would rapidly extend if a so. were formed on such a scale as to attract notice, adds:

In the absence of such an inst., recourse is had in many places to the Alliance Ass. Co., which has estab. agencies in many of the principal cities, and in which confidence is reposed; partly, it may be, on account of the large capital invested in the undertaking, but chiefly from the names of some of its principal supporters being universally known in the mercantile world.

In 1841 the Co. found itself to be defendant in an action upon a Life pol. for £1,500 effected on the life of one Howes. The case stands in the law books as Palmer and Fish (executors) v. Chairman of Alliance Co. The direction of the Judge to the Jury, after hearing the plaintiff's case, will sufficiently indicate the points upon which the Co. resisted payment.

Gentlemen, you will find a verdict on the seventh issue, and you will be discharged from finding any verdict upon the other issues, that is to say, you will find-That the policy was effected by the fraud, covin, and misrepresentation of the party Howes.

This was the first time the Co. had resisted payment of a policy.

In 1848 the Co. took over the Fire bus. of the Ins. Co. of Scotland, which it has since carried on as a branch; but according to Scotch law, that Co. having been chartered, the orig. name is retained.

We may state here, that while the Co. has taken over the bus. of several other Fire offices, it has never taken the bus. of any Life office.

In 1850 the Co. entered into an arrangement with the Suffolk and General County Amicable Ins. Co. for a transfer of the bus. of that Co. to a new Co., to be called the Suffolk Alliance Fire and Life Assu. Co., in consideration of which the Alliance F. and L. was to pay the sum of £65,000 in money, and 3421 shares in its capital stock; and then carry on the newly-created Co. for its own benefit. The arrangement was confirmed by authority of a special Act, 13 & 14 Vict. c. i. The bus. now carried on at Ipswich and at Bury St. Edmunds are simply branches of the Alliance Fire and Life.

About 1852 some proceedings were taken against the Co. by a Mr. Van Sandau, a policy-holder, with a view to compel the Directors to distribute amongst the parti. policyholders a larger proportion of the profits of the Co. than they (the Directors) had thought it expedient to do. The proceedings (known as Van Sandau v. Gurney) never came to any issue; but the Directors appear to have taken the subject into consideration, with a view to some modification of the provisions of the deed.

By special resolution of a General Court, held 7th May, 1856, an alteration was made in the method of distributing the profits of the Life branch. Four-fifths were appropriated to parti. policies. The remaining fifth to the shareholders.

In 1865 the Co. took over the Fire businesses of the following offices:-1. District Fire (Birmingham); 2. Hants. Sussex and Dorset (Gosport); 3. Sheffield Fire. These were simple trans.; the Alliance having purchased the goodwill in each case.

At the close of 1868 the Co. had Life ins. contracts in force amounting to £3,173,983 ; and its Life reserved fund was £943,000-exclusive of paid-up cap. of £550,000. The Fire fund stood at about £200,000, making total funds £1,600,000 invested, and yielding int. at an average rate exceeding 4 p.c. The general features of the Co. are liberal. Its management sound and economic. Expenses of management less than 8 p.c. on Life income, and only I p.c. of Life reserve fund.

A remarkable circumstance occurred several years since in this Co. A German nobleman, who had been ins. in the office for a considerable sum, but for a few years only, died, and by his will directed his executors to give a discharge to the Co. on receiving a return of the prems. he had paid and 3 p.c. int. added. The Directors of the Co. were naturally surprised, but complied with the directions of the will; indeed, they could hardly have obtained a proper discharge for any larger sum. The motives for such a unique determination afford play for the imagination. The same life was ins. in the London Life and Metropolitan, the policies were of longer date, but the same directions applied also to them. From every point of view the Alliance F. and L. must be considered one of the most solid ins. inst. we have in this country.

ALLIANCE FIRE AND LIFE AND MARINE INS. CO. (IRELAND).-This Co. was founded in Dublin in 1825, and carried on bus. until it had lost all its cap. and about £20,000 in add., when it closed its doors, about the year 1836. It paid for Marine policy stamps in the year just named £364 4s. 3d, which was small. The amount of its Fire duty we cannot ascertain, as at the period the duties of the Irish F. offices were all lumped in one sum. Its policies are said to have been trans. to North of Ireland, but we do not find a Co. bearing such a title.

ALLIANCE MARINE ASSU. Co., founded in Lond. in 1825, with an authorized cap. of £5,000,000, in 50,000 shares of £100. The directors were to be at liberty to lay out any portion of the profits in purchasing shares of the Co. for the benefit of the shareholders, or in augmenting the deposited cap. of the Co. until the whole £5,000,000 be paid up (cap. since reduced, 1840).

The existence of this Co, is due to circumstances which we have already explained under hist. of Alliance, etc., F. and L.; and the original prosp. of this Co. contained the following:

Pursuant to an original understanding and arrangement, the board of direction will have full power to adopt the Marine bus. heretofore transacted by the Alliance, etc., Life and Fire Assu. Co.; and also that transacted by Mr. N. M. Rothschild for the account and on the responsibility of the Co. The bus. of the Co. will consist in the assu. of British and foreign property against all usual Marine risks, and in lending money upon bottomry and respondentia.

The D. of Sett. of the Co., after giving power to the Board to grant ins., etc., on such terms and regulations as the Board should think fit, imposed this limitation (clause 51):

Save that no assu. of ships, or goods and merchandises at sea shall at any time hereafter be effected by any country or foreign agent of the Co., or by any committee or board estab. abroad or in any provincial city or town in Gt, Brit, or Ireland, nor in any other place nor in any other manner than at the head office of the Co.

This clause was modified in 1850, and the Directors were allowed agencies "under such limitations and restrictions as they might think necessary.'

Clause 70 provided that portions of the profits should from time to time be applied to paying up the uncalled cap. of the Co. until the whole £5,000,000 of cap. became paid up. Clause 71 gave the directors power to buy up the shares of the Co.

A special Act of Parl. was obtained in 1825, 6 Geo. IV. c. ccii., "An Act for enabling the Alliance Marine Assu. Co. to sue and be sued in the name of the Chairman for the time being, or of any other member of the Co,' The act obtained the Royal Assent the

6th July, 1825. The D. of Sett. of the Co. was set forth in extenso in a schedule to the Act, and was declared by sec. 4 of the Act to be irrevocable. Any member might sue the Chairman for money due from Co., and the Chairman might sue other members for their proportions. The Co. was not to be incorp. by the Act.

In 1834 the Co. obtained another special Act, 4 & 5 Wm. IV. c. xxxiv., "An Act to repeal an Act passed in the 6th year of the reign of his late Majesty King Geo. IV., intituled, etc., and for granting certain powers to the said Co. instead thereof." This Act recited : And whereas certain of the enactments and provisions of the said recital act have been found

defective and inconvenient, and it is expedient the said recital act should be repealed, and more effectual powers and provisions granted and enacted for the regulation of the said Co. instead thereof.

The D. of Sett. was not this time made any part of the Act, and it could therefore be altered from time to time as might seem expedient without reference to Parl. There was nothing other than the ordinary clauses in this new Act.

In 1840 the cap. of the Co. was reduced to £1,000,000, in 10,000 shares of £100; £25 per share being paid up. That is, each proprietor had I new share for each 5 former shares. This was a very prudent step. The new shares were for a time called solidated shares."

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ConALLIN, GEORGE.-Manager of London and Westminster Plate-Glass; was formerly district man, for Brit. Empire Mut. at St. Alban's, for which Co. he transacted a considerable bus. retired in 1867, and for a short period represented the Gresham as agency superintendent. ALLISION, the running of one vessel against another.

ALLOCATION OF PROFITS.-The distributing rateably, and placing to the credit of the various policy-holders of the parti. class the proportion of profits to which they are severally entitled. In law the word has several significations.

ALLOPATHY.-A term recently invented to describe the ordinary system of medical practice in opposition to Homœopathy.

ALL OTHER PERILS, LOSSES, ANd Misfortunes. The policy of Marine Ins. generally in use in Gt. Brit., after enumerating the particular risk insured against, contains these words, "and of all other perils, losses, and misfortunes that have or shall come to the hurt, detriment, or damage of the said goods and merchandises, and ship, etc., or any part thereof."

The terms of this clause are so comprehensive that they might be supposed to embrace every species of mishap not already particularized to which property at sea can be subjected. This, however, is not the case. The foundation of marine ins., as already stated, must be accident; and the "perils, losses, and misfortunes," above referred to, only include such as arise from similar causes, and are of like kind with those previously mentioned. It has been held that this general indemnification includes the risk of loss by land-carriage, when specified in the policy; damage to a ship heeled over by the wind in a graving dock; loss of dollars jettisoned from a vessel in imminent danger of capture, to prevent their falling into the hands of the adversary; loss by one British ship firing upon and sinking another on the supposition that she was an enemy's vessel, etc. But while the clause is efficacious to cover these and parallel instances of loss, it will not extend to the admission of casualties, which are excluded from the contract by the memorandum at the foot of the pol., only the general limitations of the underwriter's liability prescribed by law and custom.-Hopkins; Arnould; McArthur. ALL-WORLD POLICIES.-See WHOLE-WORLD POLICIES.

ALLOTMENT INS.-A new species of ins. arose out of the mania for allotments in various enterprises during the South Sea period in 1720, which, for the want of any better title, we designate Allotment Ins. Its application may be seen from the following advertisement in Daily Courant, 6th June, 1720:

Whereas a subs. has been privately taken on a roll of parchment by gentlemen concerned in the cotton manufacture of Lancashire for £2,000,000 for the making of English callicoes. This is to give notice, that printed sealed tickets of assurance of subscription will be delivered to the gentlemen subs. this day at io a.m., at the Ship Tavern, behind the Royal Exchange in Threadneedle St.-N.B. No tickets will be delivered to any but the subs. in person.

The subs. being so assured would become a property capable of being dealt with. This seems to have been the idea.

ALLOTMENT, Letter of. See LETTER OF ALLOTMENT.

ALLOTTEE, a person to whom land under an Inclosure Act, or shares in a public undertaking, are allotted.

ALLOWANCE, a deduction, an average payment, a portion. In commerce this word bears several technical meanings, a knowledge of which may be very essential in the adjustment of losses under Marine ins. policies.

ALLY.-A power in alliance with us.

ALMA LIFE INS. Co.-A scheme projected in 1854 very soon after the famous battle of the Alma. The battle was a fact, and a brilliant one. The Co. was but a name. Its connexions merged into the Clarence.

ALPHABET LETTERS.-A scheme of ins. under the title of "Alphabet Letters" was instituted in Lond. in 1711, with a view to evade the Gambling Act of the preceding year. We shall give some account of these schemes under head of GAMBLING INS.

ALPHA REVERSIONARY INVESTMENT SO. LIM. projected in 1871, with an authorized cap. of £100,000, in 10,000 shares of £10. The objects of the asso. are the purchasing of reversions, life ins. policies, and for granting loans thereon. Mr. Wm. Young, M.A., is the promoter of the Co. The scheme has some good features.

ALPHA UNITEd Life Investment Co. -This Co. was projected in 1845, but it never got beyond the stage of prov. regis.

ALTERATION in Articles of Association.—Every co. regis. under the Cos. Act, 1862, may by "special resolution" of a general meeting alter its regulations as contained in its

art. of asso.; but it cannot thereby enlarge the scope of its bus. beyond the objects in the orig. memorandum of asso.

ALTERATION IN NAME OF Co.-Any co. regis. under Cos. Act, 1862, may, with the sanction of a "" special resolution" of the co., and with the approval of the Board of Trade, alter or change the name of the co. ALTERATION OF POLICY, VOYAGE, OR RISK.-Whenever it may be requisite to make any alteration, erasement, addition, or interlineation in a policy after it has been underwritten, it ought to be done with caution and accuracy, and a mutually clear understanding between the parties. For otherwise, if it varies at all from the insured's order, or the insurer's entry, disagreements of moment may arise, and be sometimes troublesome to adjust; yet such alterations are very often made by brokers in a manner so very loose and hasty, and with so little attention of the underwriters, that the nature of the risk originally described in the policy, is sometimes, by the introduction or erasement of a single word, or monosyllable only (without any alteration of the prem.), rendered entirely different from what is understood, or perceived by the underwriters, till the subsequent effect of it in some unfavourable event opens their eyes.-Weskett, 1781. The same may be said at the present time, although nearly a century of litigation has since passed. ALTERATIONS IN STRUCTURE OR USE OF BUILDINGS (F. INS.).—The subject of alterations, after the date of the policy, in the structure or use of the buildings, either as regards the trades carried on, or the goods deposited in them, has been of all others the most fruitful of disputes between the assurers and the assured. In the decided cases the question has generally turned upon the construction of the conditions, and the F. offices, tutored by experience, certainly endeavour to guard themselves in every possible manner against unanticipated hazards. In spite, however, of the ingenuity of their advisers, cases must occasionally arise to which no condition is applicable, and the question remains for solution, how far an alteration, not expressly forbidden, affects the contract.-Bunyon, Law of Fire Ins.

Managers, surveyors, agents, and assessors of F. offices, all require to bring their attention to bear very closely upon this subject.

It may be useful to give a brief digest of several decisions before the U.S. Courts on points coming under this head :

In the case of Curry v. Commonwealth Ins. Co., tried in 1830, it was held that an alteration or enlargement of a building will not avoid the pol. unless the risk be thereby increased-which must be determined by the jury. In the case of Jones Manufacturing Co. v. Manufacturers Mut. Ins. Co., tried in 1851, where there had been an alteration of the stove and smoke pipe, the Judge instructed the jury that if the alteration increased the risk, the pol. would be void. On appeal it was held that this instruction was correct. In the case of Padleford v. Providence Mut. Ins. Co., tried in 1855, where under a provision in the charter of the Co. against "alterations by the act of the proprietor without add. prem.," etc., it was held that an alteration made by a tenant without the consent or authority of the proprietor, would not avoid the policy; and it was a question for the jury to determine how far the proprietor had authorized the alteration made by the tenant.-Digest of Fire Ins. Decisions, 2nd ed. INCREASE OF RISK.] [WARRANTY.]

ALTRINCHAM CATTLE PLAGUE INS. ASSO. was founded at Nutsford, in Cheshire, in 1865, the liability of the members being limited by guarantee.

AMADOR, M. RISUENO D', a French writer, who in 1837 pub. a memoir, in which he endeavoured to apply the doctrine of prob. to measure the law of disease. Violent discussions took place upon the subject at that period; whether it has since made any progress we cannot learn.

AMALFITAN [AMALPHITAN] CODE OR TABLE.-A collection of Sea Laws compiled about A.D. 1063. It consists of the laws on maritime subjects, which were or had been in force in countries bordering on the Mediterranean; and probably on account of their being collected into one regular system, it was for a long time received as authority in those countries.

Anderson says that the city of Amalfi was about the year 1020 so famous for its merchants and ships, that the Caliph of Egypt granted its inhabitants a safe conduct to enable them to trade freely in his dominions. They also obtained other distinguished privileges. The city itself is said to have been founded by a party of Roman emigrants about the year A.D. 350. Hardly a trace of its former greatness now remains.

Their new code appears to have superseded in a great measure the ancient Rhodian Law. Its authority was acknowledged by all the states of Italy during several centuries. The High Court of Admiralty of Amalfi even obtained authority and sanction as a tribunal of nations. This code was ultimately itself superseded by the CONSOLATO DEL MARE. [MARINE INS.] AMALGAMATE. To mix or incorporate.-Richardson. To mix so as to make a compound.-Webster. To form a union, combine with something different.-Smart.

V.C. Wood remarked in the case of the Empire and City and County: "It is difficult to say what the word amalg. means. I have not the least conception of what the full legal effect of the word is. We do not find it in any law dictionary, or expounded by any competent authority; it seems to be a process of annihilation or extinction, rather than anything else." This is the dictum of a very learned and clear-sighted man, but requires to be qualified to this extent, that none but amalg. producing disastrous consequences, or illegally or defectively carried out, were likely to come before him.

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