Annals, Anecdotes and Legends: A Chronicle of Life Assurance

by of the Bank of England John Francis

ANNALS, ANECDOTES, AND LEGENDS
OF
LIFE ASSURANCE.

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London:
Spottiswoodes and Shaw,
New-street-Square.

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ANNALS,
ANECDOTES AND LEGENDS:
A Chronicle
OF
LIFE ASSURANCE.

BY
JOHN FRANCIS,

AUTHOR OF
“THE HISTORY OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND,” ETC.

“Tragedy never quits the world—it surrounds us everywhere. We have but to look, wakeful and vigilant, abroad; and, from the age of Pelops to that of Borgia, the same crimes, though under different garbs, will stalk in our paths.”—Sir E. Bulwer Lytton.

“Murder?”
“Murder most foul, as in the best it is;
But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.”—Shakspeare.

LONDON:
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.
1853.

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Dedicated, by Permission,

TO

THE MOST NOBLE

THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE.

THIS NARRATIVE,
RECORDING THE PROGRESS OF LIFE ASSURANCE,
AND
RELATING THE SERVICES OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY,
THE FATHER OF POLITICAL ECONOMY,
IN THE CAUSE OF VITAL STATISTICS,
IS, BY PERMISSION,
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO HIS DESCENDANT,
THE MOST NOBLE
HENRY PETTY, THIRD MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE,
BY HIS LORDSHIP’S
MOST OBEDIENT AND VERY DEVOTED SERVANT,
JOHN FRANCIS.

Shooter’s Hill, May 23. 1853.

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