[15] “Never grant life annuities to old women,” Gideon would say; “they wither, but they never die;” and if the proposed annuitant coughed on approaching the room door, Gideon would call out, “Ay, ay, you may cough, but it shan’t save you six months’ purchase.”—“Chronicles and Characters of the Stock Exchange. By John Francis.” 2nd. Edition.
[16] The present Marquis of Lansdowne.
Birmingham.
Commercial.
Egis.
Hercules.
Kent.
London Commercial.
Marine.
Minerva.
National.
Philanthropic.
Protector.
Rainbow.
Royal Institution.
St. James’s.
St. Patrick.
Shamrock.
South Devon.
Southwark and Surrey.
Star.
Sussex.
[18] The following table will show the precise action of an investment of 100l. on a nominee aged 90:—
| £ | s. | |
| 100l. paid on Jan. 4. 1830, would produce | ||
| ""on 6th April 1830 | 31 | 0 |
| ""on 10th Oct. 1830 | 31 | 0 |
| ""on April 5th 1831 | 31 | 0 |
| ——— | ||
| 93 | 0 | |
| If the nominee lived only one day longer, say to April 6th, 1831, there would be due an additional | 15 | 10 |
| ——— | ||
| £108 | 10 | |
| ——— | ||
Thus the capital and interest at 8 1/2 per cent. were returned in one year, three months, and two days.
[19] One gentleman thinking that the Greenwich pensioners would afford good subjects, went to the hospital with that purpose. But they all gave their ages at 90 and above, and when the parish registers were searched for the dates of their birth, it was discovered that they had exaggerated, in some cases ten and in others twenty years. Every one claimed the distinction of being nonogenarian, and the consequence was that the stock-broker was completely baffled in his attempt.
[20] It is difficult to avoid blaming the offices. These large and varied insurances were, probably, known to every company in existence. The reasons assigned should have been tested, and very little trouble would have shut the door of every office in London on Wainwright and his companions. For so much money to be risked on the life of a girl of twenty-one, described as “remarkably healthy, whose life was one of a thousand,” and that too for only two years, merely because a nominal plea of insurable interest was given, was neglectful and almost culpable; although there is some extenuation in the fact that this lady assisted to deceive by uttering, or at least coinciding in a false statement to Mr. Ingall, at the Imperial, is certain. The slightest inquiry would have discovered that Wainwright was a beggar, that this young lady had no direct or indirect interest in any property whatever, and that the premiums must have been paid with some sinister purpose by a man steeped in difficulties and overwhelmed with debt, on the life of a healthy but most unhappy girl, entirely under his control.
[21] “Lucretia.”—By Sir E. B. Lytton.