FOOTNOTES:[1]When asked what benefit it would produce, he replied, “C’est pour perfectionner l’art des arts, l’art de penser!” This, at first regarded as amot, became a proverb.[2]The title of this essay is “Waardye van Lyf-Renten naer proportie van Losrenten;” or, the “Value of Life Annuities in Proportion to Redeemable Annuities.”[3]There was no just cause for surprise in these periodical visitations. The thinkers of the day understood the connection between cleanliness and health; and the following will show that such as these hit on the right source of pestilence:—“I often wonder,” says Erasmus in a letter to Dr. Francis, “and not without concern, whence it comes to pass, that England for so many years hath been continually afflicted with pestilence, and above all, with the sweating sickness, which seems in a manner peculiar to that country.... They glaze a great part of the sides with small panes, designed to admit the light and exclude the wind; but these windows are full of chinks, through which enters a percolated air, which stagnating in the room, is more noxious than the wind.“As to the floors, they are usually made of clay, covered with rushes that grew in fens, which are so slightly removed now and then, that the lower part remains sometimes for twenty years together, and in it a collection of spittle, vomit, urine of dogs and men, beer, scraps of fish, and other filthiness not to be named. Hence, upon change of weather, a vapour is exhaled very pernicious, in my opinion, to the human body.”[4]The first parish registers were kept in England in 1538, in consequence of an injunction from Thomas Cromwell. They had been kept for a long time previous in Augsburg and Breslau, though it was not till the beginning of the 17th century that they were general in Europe. It is worth mentioning, that long ere this, the paternal government of Peru kept a register of all the births and deaths throughout the country; exact returns of the population being made every year by officers appointed by the state.[5]About as much silver as is now coined into 3l.1s.11d.[6]Equal in weight to about 2l.1s.3d.of our silver coinage.[7]Equal in weight to 10s.4d.of our present silver coinage.[8]The following figures will give some idea of the chances of life as estimated by Dr. Halley:—Out of 1000 born,661will be living at10years of age.””628”15”””598”20”””567”25”””531”30”””490”35”””445”40”””397”45”””346”50”””292”55”””242”60”””192”65”””142”70”””88”75”””41”80”””19”84”[9]The total amount paid by each company was 150,000l.[10]By Kersseboom’s table, out of 817 persons of 20 years of age, all living at the same time—711will have lived to30years605””40”507””50”382””60”245””70”100””80”10””90”By De Parcieux’s, it appears that out of 814 persons of 20—734will have lived to30years657””40”581””50”463””60”310””70”118””80”11””90”1””94”[11]In 1768, Mr. Mores quarrelled with and separated from the society.[12]Sir Richard was a notability of those days, and divided civic popularity with Beckford, whose colleague he was in the representation of London in 1761. He was made Doctor of Civil Laws by Oxford University, a custom which would have been perhaps more honoured in the breach than the observance; and we owe Blackfriars’ Bridge greatly to the energy and exertions of Sir Richard Glyn, Knight, Baronet, and Lord Mayor, and—more honourable title still,—director of our first purely mutual life assurance office. We look in vain for such names as Glyn, Gosling, Ladbroke, or Beckford, among the sheriffs and aldermen of the present day.[13]That the safety of this Society was doubtful may be partly judged from the fact, that half the policies issued within the first twenty-five years had been abandoned, probably from doubt of their ultimate payment.[14]14 Geo. 3. c. 48.[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.[17]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 1830310""on 10th Oct. 1830310""on April 5th 1831310———930If the nominee lived only one day longer, say to April 6th, 1831, there would be due an additional1510———£10810———Thus the capital and interest at81/2per 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.[22]This man appears to have been an innocent tool in the hands of his acute brother-in-law.[23]This was first pointed out by the Quarterly Review.[24]The following form extracts from the above articles of Mr. Mackenzie:—“Some time ago there was sent to this office a series of advertisements in favour of the Independent and West Middlesex Insurance Company, which were entered and paid for in the regular course of business. We are cautious about quack medical advertisements, none of them that we are aware has ever been admitted into our columns; but it never entered into our heads for one moment, that an insurance company professing to be incorporated by special acts of parliament, was in truth a quack company, got up for the premeditated purpose of imposing on the public in matters of fire and life. Hence the advertisements of this company glided through our columns from time to time to time.... But we were astonished lately to learn that this was a spurious insurance company hatched in London two years ago.” “Under these circumstances, our duty, we humbly conceive, is at once plain and decisive, and therefore we proceed to discharge it for the sake of the public, whose faithful and unflinching servants we at all times profess to be. In a word, we raise our voice and warn the public against this Independent West Middlesex Insurance Company. It is a false and fictitious company.” “In their polices of insurance they take care to provide that ‘the capital stock and funds of the said company shall alone be answerable to the demands thereupon under this policy.’ Why, what is the value of their capital stock and funds, if as we say the parties themselves forming the said company are utterly worthless, being in fact no better than a parcel of tricksters in London, disowned, or repudiated, or condemned by every respectable person to whom reference is made? There can scarcely, we think, be anything so base or so nefarious as taking premiums from unsuspecting people, and making them believe they are secured against the contingencies of life, or the risk of fire, and yet mocking them in their calamities when the bubble bursts.”[25]The cholera first visited England about the beginning of August 1348. From the seaport towns on the coasts of Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Somersetshire, it ran to Bristol, and the men of Gloucester established a quarantine between the two places. But this “familiar fury” mocked then as now at the quarantine, and walking in darkness appeared in Gloucestershire to the horror of its inhabitants. From thence it passed by way of Oxford to London, finally spreading all over England, “scattering everywhere such ruin and desolation that of all sorts hardly the tenth person was left alive.”In the church and churchyard of Yarmouth, 7052 were buried in one year. Within six months, in the city of Norwich more than 57,000 died. In London, death was so outrageously cruel that every day saw twenty, sometimes forty, and sometimes sixty or more dead bodies flung into one pit. The churchyards became crowded. Fields and additional places of burial were set apart, and these soon failed to suffice; the number of the dead increasing so rapidly that “they were fain to make deep ditches and pits very broad, wherein they laid a range of carcasses and a range of earth upon them, and then another range of dead bodies,” and in this manner the people, except those of the better sort, were placed in their long home. The cattle died in hedges and ditches by thousands for want of men to attend them. All suits and pleadings in the King’s Bench and other places ceased. The sessions of parliament were stopped. England and France forgot for a time that they were “natural enemies.” County, city, and town witnessed solemn prayers and public processions for days together, and God was implored in highway and in byway to “sheath his angry sword and preserve the residue from the devouring pestilence.” When this pestilence which yet yearly threatens our coast had passed away, it was found that its prey had been chiefly old men, women, and children of the “common sort of people,” and that but few of the nobility of the land had been seized by it. Property was for a long period depreciated: that which was previously sold for forty shillings, only fetched a mark; and the Scots in scorn invented a new oath, swearing in contempt “by the foul deaths of the English.”[26]Letter to the Right Hon. Joseph W. Henley, M.P.—By Robert Christie.[27]The Equitable even was regarded with a very suspicious eye by the Court of Chancery soon after its commencement, and the names of bankers and merchants as directors, great in their day and generation, did not prevent the proprietors of the Royal Exchange, the Amicable, and the London Assurance corporations from predicting its failure.[28]The public is greatly indebted to Mr. Hartnoll, the avowed editor, and Mr. Pateman, the publisher of the Post Magazine, for their great exertions in the cause of Life Assurance.[29]“Assurance Companies’ Accounts,” p. 43.[30]“That the said Commissioners shall have full power to examine all books, at all seasonable times, of such bankers as issue notes, and to take copies or extracts from any such books or accounts.”—History of the Bank of England, its Times and Traditions.—By John Francis: 2 vols. 3rd edition. Longman, Brown, and Co.[31]The Morning Chronicle.[32]“I tell the tale as ’twas told to me.” It has, however, been suggested that he failed to take the dose in his extreme agitation.[33]Night and Morning.
[1]When asked what benefit it would produce, he replied, “C’est pour perfectionner l’art des arts, l’art de penser!” This, at first regarded as amot, became a proverb.
[1]When asked what benefit it would produce, he replied, “C’est pour perfectionner l’art des arts, l’art de penser!” This, at first regarded as amot, became a proverb.
[2]The title of this essay is “Waardye van Lyf-Renten naer proportie van Losrenten;” or, the “Value of Life Annuities in Proportion to Redeemable Annuities.”
[2]The title of this essay is “Waardye van Lyf-Renten naer proportie van Losrenten;” or, the “Value of Life Annuities in Proportion to Redeemable Annuities.”
[3]There was no just cause for surprise in these periodical visitations. The thinkers of the day understood the connection between cleanliness and health; and the following will show that such as these hit on the right source of pestilence:—“I often wonder,” says Erasmus in a letter to Dr. Francis, “and not without concern, whence it comes to pass, that England for so many years hath been continually afflicted with pestilence, and above all, with the sweating sickness, which seems in a manner peculiar to that country.... They glaze a great part of the sides with small panes, designed to admit the light and exclude the wind; but these windows are full of chinks, through which enters a percolated air, which stagnating in the room, is more noxious than the wind.“As to the floors, they are usually made of clay, covered with rushes that grew in fens, which are so slightly removed now and then, that the lower part remains sometimes for twenty years together, and in it a collection of spittle, vomit, urine of dogs and men, beer, scraps of fish, and other filthiness not to be named. Hence, upon change of weather, a vapour is exhaled very pernicious, in my opinion, to the human body.”
[3]There was no just cause for surprise in these periodical visitations. The thinkers of the day understood the connection between cleanliness and health; and the following will show that such as these hit on the right source of pestilence:—
“I often wonder,” says Erasmus in a letter to Dr. Francis, “and not without concern, whence it comes to pass, that England for so many years hath been continually afflicted with pestilence, and above all, with the sweating sickness, which seems in a manner peculiar to that country.... They glaze a great part of the sides with small panes, designed to admit the light and exclude the wind; but these windows are full of chinks, through which enters a percolated air, which stagnating in the room, is more noxious than the wind.
“As to the floors, they are usually made of clay, covered with rushes that grew in fens, which are so slightly removed now and then, that the lower part remains sometimes for twenty years together, and in it a collection of spittle, vomit, urine of dogs and men, beer, scraps of fish, and other filthiness not to be named. Hence, upon change of weather, a vapour is exhaled very pernicious, in my opinion, to the human body.”
[4]The first parish registers were kept in England in 1538, in consequence of an injunction from Thomas Cromwell. They had been kept for a long time previous in Augsburg and Breslau, though it was not till the beginning of the 17th century that they were general in Europe. It is worth mentioning, that long ere this, the paternal government of Peru kept a register of all the births and deaths throughout the country; exact returns of the population being made every year by officers appointed by the state.
[4]The first parish registers were kept in England in 1538, in consequence of an injunction from Thomas Cromwell. They had been kept for a long time previous in Augsburg and Breslau, though it was not till the beginning of the 17th century that they were general in Europe. It is worth mentioning, that long ere this, the paternal government of Peru kept a register of all the births and deaths throughout the country; exact returns of the population being made every year by officers appointed by the state.
[5]About as much silver as is now coined into 3l.1s.11d.
[5]About as much silver as is now coined into 3l.1s.11d.
[6]Equal in weight to about 2l.1s.3d.of our silver coinage.
[6]Equal in weight to about 2l.1s.3d.of our silver coinage.
[7]Equal in weight to 10s.4d.of our present silver coinage.
[7]Equal in weight to 10s.4d.of our present silver coinage.
[8]The following figures will give some idea of the chances of life as estimated by Dr. Halley:—Out of 1000 born,661will be living at10years of age.””628”15”””598”20”””567”25”””531”30”””490”35”””445”40”””397”45”””346”50”””292”55”””242”60”””192”65”””142”70”””88”75”””41”80”””19”84”
[8]The following figures will give some idea of the chances of life as estimated by Dr. Halley:—
Out of 1000 born,661will be living at10years of age.””628”15”””598”20”””567”25”””531”30”””490”35”””445”40”””397”45”””346”50”””292”55”””242”60”””192”65”””142”70”””88”75”””41”80”””19”84”
[9]The total amount paid by each company was 150,000l.
[9]The total amount paid by each company was 150,000l.
[10]By Kersseboom’s table, out of 817 persons of 20 years of age, all living at the same time—711will have lived to30years605””40”507””50”382””60”245””70”100””80”10””90”By De Parcieux’s, it appears that out of 814 persons of 20—734will have lived to30years657””40”581””50”463””60”310””70”118””80”11””90”1””94”
[10]By Kersseboom’s table, out of 817 persons of 20 years of age, all living at the same time—
711will have lived to30years605””40”507””50”382””60”245””70”100””80”10””90”
By De Parcieux’s, it appears that out of 814 persons of 20—
734will have lived to30years657””40”581””50”463””60”310””70”118””80”11””90”1””94”
[11]In 1768, Mr. Mores quarrelled with and separated from the society.
[11]In 1768, Mr. Mores quarrelled with and separated from the society.
[12]Sir Richard was a notability of those days, and divided civic popularity with Beckford, whose colleague he was in the representation of London in 1761. He was made Doctor of Civil Laws by Oxford University, a custom which would have been perhaps more honoured in the breach than the observance; and we owe Blackfriars’ Bridge greatly to the energy and exertions of Sir Richard Glyn, Knight, Baronet, and Lord Mayor, and—more honourable title still,—director of our first purely mutual life assurance office. We look in vain for such names as Glyn, Gosling, Ladbroke, or Beckford, among the sheriffs and aldermen of the present day.
[12]Sir Richard was a notability of those days, and divided civic popularity with Beckford, whose colleague he was in the representation of London in 1761. He was made Doctor of Civil Laws by Oxford University, a custom which would have been perhaps more honoured in the breach than the observance; and we owe Blackfriars’ Bridge greatly to the energy and exertions of Sir Richard Glyn, Knight, Baronet, and Lord Mayor, and—more honourable title still,—director of our first purely mutual life assurance office. We look in vain for such names as Glyn, Gosling, Ladbroke, or Beckford, among the sheriffs and aldermen of the present day.
[13]That the safety of this Society was doubtful may be partly judged from the fact, that half the policies issued within the first twenty-five years had been abandoned, probably from doubt of their ultimate payment.
[13]That the safety of this Society was doubtful may be partly judged from the fact, that half the policies issued within the first twenty-five years had been abandoned, probably from doubt of their ultimate payment.
[14]14 Geo. 3. c. 48.
[14]14 Geo. 3. c. 48.
[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.
[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.
[16]The present Marquis of Lansdowne.
[17]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.
[17]
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 1830310""on 10th Oct. 1830310""on April 5th 1831310———930If the nominee lived only one day longer, say to April 6th, 1831, there would be due an additional1510———£10810———Thus the capital and interest at81/2per cent. were returned in one year, three months, and two days.
[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 1830310""on 10th Oct. 1830310""on April 5th 1831310———930If the nominee lived only one day longer, say to April 6th, 1831, there would be due an additional1510———£10810———
Thus the capital and interest at81/2per 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.
[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.
[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.
[21]“Lucretia.”—By Sir E. B. Lytton.
[22]This man appears to have been an innocent tool in the hands of his acute brother-in-law.
[22]This man appears to have been an innocent tool in the hands of his acute brother-in-law.
[23]This was first pointed out by the Quarterly Review.
[23]This was first pointed out by the Quarterly Review.
[24]The following form extracts from the above articles of Mr. Mackenzie:—“Some time ago there was sent to this office a series of advertisements in favour of the Independent and West Middlesex Insurance Company, which were entered and paid for in the regular course of business. We are cautious about quack medical advertisements, none of them that we are aware has ever been admitted into our columns; but it never entered into our heads for one moment, that an insurance company professing to be incorporated by special acts of parliament, was in truth a quack company, got up for the premeditated purpose of imposing on the public in matters of fire and life. Hence the advertisements of this company glided through our columns from time to time to time.... But we were astonished lately to learn that this was a spurious insurance company hatched in London two years ago.” “Under these circumstances, our duty, we humbly conceive, is at once plain and decisive, and therefore we proceed to discharge it for the sake of the public, whose faithful and unflinching servants we at all times profess to be. In a word, we raise our voice and warn the public against this Independent West Middlesex Insurance Company. It is a false and fictitious company.” “In their polices of insurance they take care to provide that ‘the capital stock and funds of the said company shall alone be answerable to the demands thereupon under this policy.’ Why, what is the value of their capital stock and funds, if as we say the parties themselves forming the said company are utterly worthless, being in fact no better than a parcel of tricksters in London, disowned, or repudiated, or condemned by every respectable person to whom reference is made? There can scarcely, we think, be anything so base or so nefarious as taking premiums from unsuspecting people, and making them believe they are secured against the contingencies of life, or the risk of fire, and yet mocking them in their calamities when the bubble bursts.”
[24]The following form extracts from the above articles of Mr. Mackenzie:—“Some time ago there was sent to this office a series of advertisements in favour of the Independent and West Middlesex Insurance Company, which were entered and paid for in the regular course of business. We are cautious about quack medical advertisements, none of them that we are aware has ever been admitted into our columns; but it never entered into our heads for one moment, that an insurance company professing to be incorporated by special acts of parliament, was in truth a quack company, got up for the premeditated purpose of imposing on the public in matters of fire and life. Hence the advertisements of this company glided through our columns from time to time to time.... But we were astonished lately to learn that this was a spurious insurance company hatched in London two years ago.” “Under these circumstances, our duty, we humbly conceive, is at once plain and decisive, and therefore we proceed to discharge it for the sake of the public, whose faithful and unflinching servants we at all times profess to be. In a word, we raise our voice and warn the public against this Independent West Middlesex Insurance Company. It is a false and fictitious company.” “In their polices of insurance they take care to provide that ‘the capital stock and funds of the said company shall alone be answerable to the demands thereupon under this policy.’ Why, what is the value of their capital stock and funds, if as we say the parties themselves forming the said company are utterly worthless, being in fact no better than a parcel of tricksters in London, disowned, or repudiated, or condemned by every respectable person to whom reference is made? There can scarcely, we think, be anything so base or so nefarious as taking premiums from unsuspecting people, and making them believe they are secured against the contingencies of life, or the risk of fire, and yet mocking them in their calamities when the bubble bursts.”
[25]The cholera first visited England about the beginning of August 1348. From the seaport towns on the coasts of Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Somersetshire, it ran to Bristol, and the men of Gloucester established a quarantine between the two places. But this “familiar fury” mocked then as now at the quarantine, and walking in darkness appeared in Gloucestershire to the horror of its inhabitants. From thence it passed by way of Oxford to London, finally spreading all over England, “scattering everywhere such ruin and desolation that of all sorts hardly the tenth person was left alive.”In the church and churchyard of Yarmouth, 7052 were buried in one year. Within six months, in the city of Norwich more than 57,000 died. In London, death was so outrageously cruel that every day saw twenty, sometimes forty, and sometimes sixty or more dead bodies flung into one pit. The churchyards became crowded. Fields and additional places of burial were set apart, and these soon failed to suffice; the number of the dead increasing so rapidly that “they were fain to make deep ditches and pits very broad, wherein they laid a range of carcasses and a range of earth upon them, and then another range of dead bodies,” and in this manner the people, except those of the better sort, were placed in their long home. The cattle died in hedges and ditches by thousands for want of men to attend them. All suits and pleadings in the King’s Bench and other places ceased. The sessions of parliament were stopped. England and France forgot for a time that they were “natural enemies.” County, city, and town witnessed solemn prayers and public processions for days together, and God was implored in highway and in byway to “sheath his angry sword and preserve the residue from the devouring pestilence.” When this pestilence which yet yearly threatens our coast had passed away, it was found that its prey had been chiefly old men, women, and children of the “common sort of people,” and that but few of the nobility of the land had been seized by it. Property was for a long period depreciated: that which was previously sold for forty shillings, only fetched a mark; and the Scots in scorn invented a new oath, swearing in contempt “by the foul deaths of the English.”
[25]The cholera first visited England about the beginning of August 1348. From the seaport towns on the coasts of Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Somersetshire, it ran to Bristol, and the men of Gloucester established a quarantine between the two places. But this “familiar fury” mocked then as now at the quarantine, and walking in darkness appeared in Gloucestershire to the horror of its inhabitants. From thence it passed by way of Oxford to London, finally spreading all over England, “scattering everywhere such ruin and desolation that of all sorts hardly the tenth person was left alive.”
In the church and churchyard of Yarmouth, 7052 were buried in one year. Within six months, in the city of Norwich more than 57,000 died. In London, death was so outrageously cruel that every day saw twenty, sometimes forty, and sometimes sixty or more dead bodies flung into one pit. The churchyards became crowded. Fields and additional places of burial were set apart, and these soon failed to suffice; the number of the dead increasing so rapidly that “they were fain to make deep ditches and pits very broad, wherein they laid a range of carcasses and a range of earth upon them, and then another range of dead bodies,” and in this manner the people, except those of the better sort, were placed in their long home. The cattle died in hedges and ditches by thousands for want of men to attend them. All suits and pleadings in the King’s Bench and other places ceased. The sessions of parliament were stopped. England and France forgot for a time that they were “natural enemies.” County, city, and town witnessed solemn prayers and public processions for days together, and God was implored in highway and in byway to “sheath his angry sword and preserve the residue from the devouring pestilence.” When this pestilence which yet yearly threatens our coast had passed away, it was found that its prey had been chiefly old men, women, and children of the “common sort of people,” and that but few of the nobility of the land had been seized by it. Property was for a long period depreciated: that which was previously sold for forty shillings, only fetched a mark; and the Scots in scorn invented a new oath, swearing in contempt “by the foul deaths of the English.”
[26]Letter to the Right Hon. Joseph W. Henley, M.P.—By Robert Christie.
[26]Letter to the Right Hon. Joseph W. Henley, M.P.—By Robert Christie.
[27]The Equitable even was regarded with a very suspicious eye by the Court of Chancery soon after its commencement, and the names of bankers and merchants as directors, great in their day and generation, did not prevent the proprietors of the Royal Exchange, the Amicable, and the London Assurance corporations from predicting its failure.
[27]The Equitable even was regarded with a very suspicious eye by the Court of Chancery soon after its commencement, and the names of bankers and merchants as directors, great in their day and generation, did not prevent the proprietors of the Royal Exchange, the Amicable, and the London Assurance corporations from predicting its failure.
[28]The public is greatly indebted to Mr. Hartnoll, the avowed editor, and Mr. Pateman, the publisher of the Post Magazine, for their great exertions in the cause of Life Assurance.
[28]The public is greatly indebted to Mr. Hartnoll, the avowed editor, and Mr. Pateman, the publisher of the Post Magazine, for their great exertions in the cause of Life Assurance.
[29]“Assurance Companies’ Accounts,” p. 43.
[29]“Assurance Companies’ Accounts,” p. 43.
[30]“That the said Commissioners shall have full power to examine all books, at all seasonable times, of such bankers as issue notes, and to take copies or extracts from any such books or accounts.”—History of the Bank of England, its Times and Traditions.—By John Francis: 2 vols. 3rd edition. Longman, Brown, and Co.
[30]“That the said Commissioners shall have full power to examine all books, at all seasonable times, of such bankers as issue notes, and to take copies or extracts from any such books or accounts.”—History of the Bank of England, its Times and Traditions.—By John Francis: 2 vols. 3rd edition. Longman, Brown, and Co.
[31]The Morning Chronicle.
[31]The Morning Chronicle.
[32]“I tell the tale as ’twas told to me.” It has, however, been suggested that he failed to take the dose in his extreme agitation.
[32]“I tell the tale as ’twas told to me.” It has, however, been suggested that he failed to take the dose in his extreme agitation.
[33]Night and Morning.
[33]Night and Morning.