24. Baker’s second edition of Insurance on Lives.
25. William Helmes, Exchange Alley, Assurance of Female Chastity.
26. Insurance from house-breakers.
27. Insurance from highwaymen.
28. Assurance from lying.
29. Plummer and Petty’s Insurance from death by drinking Geneva.
30. Rum Insurance.
A mere glance at this list will show that the ideas conveyed by some of the titles were sound and salutary, and that they are now being brought into action. It is true that we cannot yet insure our homes against house-breakers, or our persons from highwaymen; we cannot yet insure our poor population from death if they drink too much rum or Geneva; we certainly have yet no assurance against lying, however necessary it may be in this age of projects; nor have we, like William Helmes, of Exchange Alley, commenced a company to insure female chastity. These were Utopian schemes into which we have not yet entered; but with many of the more practical we are growing familiar. The present “Agricultural Society” answers to that for insuring cattle. The “Guarantee Company” has adopted that of “insuring to all masters and mistresses the losses they may sustain by their servants.” The company for the “insurance of debts” is at the present day fairly represented by the “Commercial Credit Mutual Assurance Company;” nor is there much doubt that the system will be spread to a still greater extent. The society for insuring seamen’s wages was very desirable, as the sailor never received his pay in cash, and parted with his tickets at a heavy discount. To this some of our naval losses may be attributed, as our best men went over to the enemy in consequence. A company, therefore, which should cash the seamen’s tickets at a fair rate would have been a national good.
Of course, schemes were plentiful enough, and many plans were commenced with no other view than that of receiving deposits and spending them. One of the offices was started by an old man called Le Brun. In 1690, he had promised to bring up pearls and gold from sunken ships. In 1710, he had been conspicuous in offering strange benefits to all who joined his Marriage and Widows’ Assurance Company; and in 1720, he was ready with something new. His life had been one of adventurous daring. He had owned a privateer when privateers were pirates. He had been, as a boy, with Sir Henry Morgan in his bucaneering attack on Panama. He had accompanied Paterson in his ill-fated Darien expedition. But in all had he failed to procure the gold for which his soul thirsted, and that which he did obtain was spent in riot. When the Mississippi scheme was acting he was in Paris, and now he came over in time to propose a wonderful project for the benefit of all who would risk 5l. By this “Office of assurance and annuity for every body,” any person who paid 5l. was to be assured of receiving 100l. per annum, “as soon as a sufficient number had subscribed;” and it need hardly be added that, as this “sufficient number” never did subscribe, the assurance of M. le Brun was all that the unhappy subscribers beheld for their money. To prevent the public from suffering by the arts of such men as these, legal proceedings were resorted to; and when the proclamation was issued, not only did it destroy the bubbles, but it produced a serious effect on the two chartered companies. It is probable that they had been “rigging the market,” as the directors were ordered to attend the authorities, in order that they might receive a fitting rebuke; and it must have been a very impressive, though not a very picturesque sight, to see a body of respectable, square-toed, elderly gentlemen, with brown coats and cocked hats, listening with subdued awe, as they were sternly cautioned “to keep strictly to the limitation of their respective charters, or it would be the worse for them.”