He discusses the question of insurance:—
“The question whether or not it is wise to insure, and to what amount, appears to me a very difficult one. If a person’s property be such that the loss of his house and furniture would not be a ruinous injury, then it appears to me it would be absurd for him to insure, because more than half the premium consists of duty to the Government, and by becoming his own insurance broker he saves that sum and the profit also. It appears to me also to be bad policy to insure to a great amount, because by a strange arrangement in all insurance offices, the sum paid for damage is not estimated, as it ought to be, by considering what proportion the damage bears to the whole value of the building, and paying the sufferer the same fraction of the insurance. Thus, if a house be worth £1,000, and is insured for £100, if the building is damaged to the amount of £100, the office will pay the whole of that sum; whereas I should say it ought to pay only the tenth part of £100—that is, £10; for the rate of insurance upon a large sum is no less than that upon a small one, and the probability of a house being injured to the amount of £100 is greater than the chance of its being injured to the amount of £200, still greater than the chance of its sustaining an injury to the amount of £300, and so on.
“It was reasoning in this manner that induced me to insure for so small a sum; but I forgot that our risk was greater than that of our neighbours, in consequence of so many persons residing under the same roof. For this reason, and because we should not be equally well able to bear a second loss, we have now insured to a much greater amount; but I am not sure that we were not right before, and are mistaken now, because the circumstance of our having been unfortunate is no proof of error, any more than the gaining a prize in the lottery is a proof of the propriety of purchasing a ticket.
“Some people have very strange ideas about insurance from fire. They appear to think that it actually prevents a fire taking place. Birmingham furnishes a remarkable instance of an error of this kind. The workhouse, which is the property of the whole town, is insured in the Birmingham Fire Office, which is supported by a comparatively small number of individuals. I wonder whether the company insures its own office? Perhaps it does in another—or perhaps in its own!”
He fails, as it seems to me, to take into account that freedom from daily anxiety which a man buys who insures his property to its full value, or something not much short of it. His eldest brother told me that, at one time of his life, he himself was so much troubled by the thought that if he died early he should leave his young wife and children but ill provided for that his health became affected, and his power of work was lessened. His dread of poverty was, therefore, tending to keep him poor. He insured his life heavily, and at once regained his cheerfulness. He had paid, he added, in his long life far more in premiums than his children would ever receive back on his death. This outlay, nevertheless, he looked upon as a real money gain to him. It had given him freedom from care, and this freedom had greatly helped to increase his earnings.
In the summer of 1821, Rowland Hill and his next brother, Arthur, crossed over to Ireland, to inspect the Edgeworth-Town Assisting School. This curious institution had been lately founded by Lovell Edgeworth, the brother of Maria Edgeworth. On their way the travellers passed through Manchester. There for the first time they saw a whole town lighted by gas. Between Liverpool and Dublin steamboats ran during the summer months. None ventured as yet to cross the winter seas. The fares were high—a guinea and a-half for the passage. The sailing packets charged but seven shillings; and it was in one of them that the two brothers crossed over. On landing they had to undergo the Custom House examination, as Import Duties were still kept up between the two islands. Two packets arrived almost at the same time, but there was only one officer to examine all the baggage. There were fees to pay; and overcharge was rendered easy by the difference that still subsisted between English and Irish money.
During their stay in Dublin they drove out with an Irish barrister to see the Dargle. “We found,” wrote the younger of the two brothers—
“A line of bushes laid across the road into the grounds, and were told by men working on the spot that we could not pass, the place being under preparation for the King’s visit. Had we been alone we should have either turned back or tried the power of a bribe; but our Irish friend knew better; and after one or two cajoling phrases, which moved not very much, proceeded to ‘damn the King!’ The effect was complete, a gap being at once made, through which we passed, while one of the men remarked that others had applied, speaking of the King in high terms, but all those had been turned back.”
One evening they saw the general departure of the mails for the provinces. They expected, as a matter of course, to find the guard of each coach armed, as in England, with a blunderbuss; but they found that he carried, in addition, a sword and pistols, while some of the coaches had two guards, and others even three. They left Dublin for Edgeworth-Town on a Sunday morning. For the first time in their life they heard bells rung from churches that did not belong to the Establishment.
Rowland Hill’s Journal contains an interesting account of this tour:—