It is industriously reported that the Editor of the F. Q. R. has only received ex parte information; but we, who are in the real secret, know better.

AZIMGURH, Dec. 22.-We have the painful duty of announcing the death of that most distinguished Mason, Bro. Robert Neave, district judge. It can hardly be expected that his loss will be readily supplied. With a delicacy peculiar to himself he recoiled from taking any part in the late sad disturbance-partly from the distance of his residence, and partly from having accepted office under Grant; which, for the sake of Masonry, he preferred the livery of, to a resignation previous to his retirement to England, which would have taken place next year. Equal to the Grand Master in all salient points, he was a perfect contrast to him in those delicate views of honour that constitute the true Mason.

THE

GENERAL ASSURANCE ADVOCATE.

30TH JUNE, 1849.

INSTITUTE OF ACTUARIES.

THE Latin proverb " Stultus nisi quod ipse facit, nil rectam putat,” may be fairly applied to some indiscreet meddlar, who, in an article in the "Post Magazine," ,"* has issued the following declaration :-" We presume that a prudent person will, in future, no more think of entrusting the interests of his family to an office that is not under the management of a Member of the Institute, than he would of entrusting their lives to a practitioner who was not a member of one of the Medical Colleges." Verily, a fool's bolt is soon shot! That there are many men of the highest attainments, and of the strictest honour, among the Members of the Institute, we are ready to prove; but the writer of this farrago has earned the cap and bells, and proved himself the exception to the rule. Let the Council look to him, for should he bite them, we should see the game of "folly run mad," and the Institute become a mark of derision. The peroration of the lucubration from which we quote is coarse and vulgar, enough to entitle the writer to a breech of the peace.

The first annual meeting of the Institute was held on the 9th Instant, at the Society's office; and the day terminated with a dinner at the Castle, Richmond. It is hardly necessary to observe that both business and pleasure were conducted and enjoyed with equal propriety and delight.

"IS YOUR LIFE INSURED?"

UNDER this quaint title a new periodical has been announced, intended to spread a knowledge of Assurance and to advocate its practice; and the Assurance Companies have been solicited to take advantage of its columns as the means of bringing extensively before the public their various claims to attention and support. "Two of a trade," says the old adage, never agree," and in this case the saw is applicable; for the objects and views of the promoters of the new periodical have been

* May 26.

questioned in the "Post Magazine," with a tartness and acerbity seldom called forth except in protection of shaky "vested rights," or by feelings of self-interest. Our object, say the promoters of the new speculation, is to benefit Companies and Assurers; to which the "Post Magazine' in effect replies by translating the prospectus to mean, seeking for profits without affording corresponding advantages. We think this somewhat illiberal. We do not know why the parties connected with the " Post Magazine" should not be open to the same objection. They, as well as those interested in "Is your Life Insured?" seek for advertisements, and would probably be quite as unwilling as anybody else to forward the objects of Assurance Companies, unless they found it profitable to do so. The quid pro quo feeling we imagine is equally applicable in both cases, and if the cry of "Rogue" must be raised, we fancy we may say with King James, after hearing the contending lawyers, "Rogues all-Rogues all!" It is true, as Hudibras has it, that folk

And we are heartily sick of that sort of illiberality which is so conspicuous among literary men, and which leads them to give tongue and attempt to cry down every new competitor. People "who live in glass houses should not throw stones ;" and perhaps the surest way of causing one's own motives to be suspected, is to always cavil at and doubt those of others."To the pure all things are pure," and the world is getting wise enough to comprehend that those who cannot believe in the honesty of any one else, are not much too good themselves; over-righteousness always smells strongly of hypocricy. The "Post Magazine” may do well to recollect that, without any reference to the character of the projected work, the ability with which it will be conducted, or the nature or extent of its circulation, we must say that the scale of charges for Advertisements appears extravagantly high; a consideration likely to act more disadvantageously to the proprietors than to any one else—for, while the acute Managers of Companies will not be deterred from any fair means of seeking publicity by the squabbles of merely interested parties, they will not be induced to pay too dearly for their whistle." However, that is no concern of ours; and for ourselves we can only say that we shall accord a hearty welcome to every able coadjutor or competitor in the good work of extending Life Assurance, and the greater the ability with which that object is promoted the more sincere will be our congratulations.

66

CALUMNY.

ENTERTAINING the opinions we have often expressed respecting the benefits which the new offices have conferred upon the public, and the healthy stimulus they have given to the business of assurance, we were rather amused, and considerably astonished, at an article which appeared some time since in the "Law Times," and in which, under the guise of an anxious solicitude for the protection and welfare of the public, an outrageous general attack is made upon all the new offices. The gist of the article we have referred to is, that new offices have been got up, and are carried on by penniless swindlers, and that in the long run the public will be cheated out of their money. This is an implication which all the new offices are immediately concerned in repelling; for no one institution is pointed out, and the malice is shewn in the very generality of the charge, which renders it incapable of either direct proof or contradiction. So far as we conceive the slander, for such we cannot help terming it, is utterly untrue and uncalled for. We have a pretty intimate acquaintance with assurance and those who are directing it, but we are not aware of a single office, either old or new, which "the cap" thrown down by our contemporary will fit. All the new offices we believe we may say, are presided over by respectable and responsible men. All of them appear to be founded on secure bases, and conducted on more correct principles than have heretofore obtained; and none either by the adoption of unsafe rates of premium, or by other unworthy and imprudent means, attempt to attract the public attention, or secure support. It does appear to us most monstrous, that gentlemen who are engaged in one of the greatest social works of the present age, should be thus anonymously subjected to the implied accusation of swindling; and while we are amused at the imbecility of the attack, we are astonished at its malice, and wonder that a journal of high character, should commit itself to so utterly disreputable a course. We must confess ourselves to be quite incompetent to analyze the motives which prompted the writer in the "Law Times." Men can understand the feelings of a man urged on to attack an individual who has committed either a public or a private wrong; and this feeling goes so far, that the public sometimes sympathize with even the murderer; but sane and civilized beings, must be totally at a loss to understand, perfectly unable to sympathize with, or enter into the feelings of the malay, who, dagger in hand, rushes forth, and indiscriminately destroys, all who come across his path. For all we know to the contrary, the "Law Times" is the malay of the press running a muck" at good and bad alike. Though we cannot precisely point out the motives which did instigate the article, it requires no great acuteness to perceive what motives did not. It was not intended to expose any fraudulent

institutions, for none are named. Neither was it designed to protect the public, for in that case the certain secure and obvious course of giving particulars and facts, would have been adopted, particularly as such a proceeding, now that truth is no longer libellous, involves no danger. It was not intended to do impartial justice, for we presume the "Law Times" does not pretend to say that all the new offices are under the guidance of swindlers, and yet the injustice is committed of involving all in a charge, which, without any great stress of meaning, may bear that construction; and the effects of which, if it have any effects at all, must be to create a distrust of every new society. We cannot divine the intention which led to the discharge of this literary bomb shell, thrown at random into the midst of the good and bad, (if bad there be) to injure all alike, except it be that the "Law Times "-one of the organs of a profession, which has several established offices, is afraid of the competition of new societies, conducted on the most improved and beneficial principles, and therefore, being afraid to make pointed and specific allegations, and conscious of its incapability of making out a case, resorts to the underhand, tortuous, and unworthy course of throwing out general accusations, and using insinuations and inuendoes, the weapons of the ill-disposed and timidly-malicious. We think that with such a course, the members of the public will have no sympathy, even if it be well-intentioned; it is injudicious and unjust, but it bears upon its face, evidence of being an error of the heart rather than of the head, and the world is wise enough to distinguish between devotion to the public good, and the promptings of selfishness, manifesting itself in 66 'envy, malice, and all uncharitableness." So far as we have been enabled to ascertain, the feeling which we believe to be likely to spread in the public mind, does prevail among the honourable members of the legal profession, who deprecate an attack so evidently unjust, impolitic, and unsupported by anything like proof. The injury which the "Law Times" intended to inflict, will rebound upon itself, covering it with odium, and the conductors of that periodical will find that it is better not to deal in calumnies, which, like curses and chickens, generally 66 come home to roost."

In the ignoble character of reviler of new offices, a writer in the "Post Magazine" rejoices extremely; but he may be safely left until the year 1850, when, if we mistake not, unless his hide be of the rhinoceros kind, he will betray such muscular twitchings, as may dispose him to regret his folly and imprudence.

WE are prevented from following our customary duty of giving a summary of events, by circumstances in themselves so important that we consider it prudent to pause; not that there would be anything dis