168 INSURANCE [LIFE, of dollars, and in the Insurance Year-Boole for 1880 there is a list given of about four hundred different native offices in the various States, but this does not include a large number of local offices of small dimensions, mostly estab lished on the mutual principle. The number of fire insur ance offices in the United States is probably about nine hundred. Of these a large proportion have a merely nominal existence, but on the other hand important foreign offices -British, French, German, Swiss, and Canadian transact business in the States. If sixty offices suffice to transact the insurance business of the United Kingdom and a great deal of foreign business besides, the existence of more than four hundred offices in the States indicates of itself that a large number of them must have very limited resources, quite unfit to cope with the disastrous fires which sometimes occur in the rapidly developed cities of America. The failure of an insurance office is therefore a more familiar event than in England, and it is this perhaps partly which has led to a system of Govern ment supervision intended to guard the public against such misfortunes. Each State of the Union lias its own regula tions about insurance companies, its insurance department, its insurance commissioner, superintendent, or auditor, its system of accounts and checks and public notices, its fees, taxes, and requirements as to deposits. The trouble and expense to which offices are thus exposed, especially where they do business in many States, is very great indeed, while the resulting benefits are problematical. All at tempts of this sort are attended with these disadvantages, that they interfere injuriously with honest and well- conducted companies, and afford but a feeble protection against those of a different class ; that they involve the Government in the odium of failures which it is supposed to be their duty to prevent ; that they lessen the sense of responsibility among those who control the offices, and the spirit of prudence and watchfulness among the public ; and that they place in the hands of public officials a power and influence which are apt to be abused, and are always open to suspicion. More to be admired and imitated are the State regulations in America with respect to building operations, the extinguishing of fires, and the inquiring into their origin. The business of an insurance agent in America is more recognized than in England as a distinct profession, and the agent is entrusted with greater powers. More has been done to facilitate the working of insurance by the surveying and mapping of large cities, and there has been a greater development of periodical literature devoted to the subject. Since 1866 a national board of fire underwriters of the United States has existed, and has proved of great service to the insurance offices and to the public. At the present time it is unfortunately suffering from disorganization, and there has been a consequent "shrinkage" of rates. It ap pears from the reports of the superintendent of the fire department in the State of New York that in the year 1S79 the sums insured in the United States by the com panies reporting to him amounted to 6767 millions of dollars, and the relative premiums to nearly 61 millions of dollars, so that the average rate of premium was 9 per cent., or 90 cents for each hundred dollars insured. Four teen British fire offices doing business in the States received in the year 1879 premiums to the amount of 11 millions of dollars, and paid losses of 7 millions. Their losses that year were 63 per cent, of their premium, and their expenses in America 31 per cent. In Canada twenty-seven companies Canadian, British, and American made returns, which showed that in 1879 they had insured in Canada, including the maritime pro vinces, sums amounting to 385 millum.s of dollars. In the eleven years ending in 1879, the premiums received
- iad amounted to nearly 33 millions of dollars, and the
.osses to 27J millions, and the ratio of loss had been 84 1G per cent. This included the loss arising from the great Ire at St John s, New Brunswick, in June 1877, which ost the insurance offices 6^ millions of dollars. In France there were at a recent date thirty-two pro prietary and about twenty mutual fire insurance offices. Df the thirty-two offices founded on capital three are pro vincial offices, and the others are established in Paris. Two confine themselves to reinsurance. From the returns made by twenty-three of these offices, including all the more important, it appears that in 1879 their income from premiums was about 92 millions of francs, and their losses 47 millions. The average loss during eleven years was 50 per cent, of the premiums. Many of the French offices have been extremely successful; and recently there has been a remarkable increase of new offices in that country. The Insurance Cydopmlia of Mr Cornelius "VValford, a work now in progress, and of prodigious industry and completeness, is the best and almost the only available literary authority which covers the whole subject of this article. The Law of Fire Insurance, by Mr C. J. Bunyon, is also of value. (J. M. M C.) II. LIFE INSURANCE. The system of life insurance embraces a variety of con tracts by which the insurers engage to pay capital sums on the decease of policy holders or nominees, in consideration of other sums received during their lifetime. These contracts may be divided into two classes, (1) those in which the sum insured is certain to become payable, provided only the insurance is duly kept in force, and (2) those which are of a temporary or contingent character, so that the sum in sured may or may not become payable according to circum stances. To the first of those classes belong the great bulk of the Var transactions of life insurance offices, namely : 1. Whole-Term Assurances on Single Lives. These are h simply contracts on the part of the insurance office to pay a certain sum (with or without " bonus additions," as the case may be) on the death of the person named in the policy, whenever that may occur. The premium, or con sideration for the insurance, is in most cases an annual sum payable during the whole continuance of the policy. It may, however, be arranged in various other ways, as, for example, by a single payment at the commencement of the transaction ; or by a limited number of contributions, each larger in amount than the annual premium for the whole of life ; or by payment of a modified rate during a limited period and a correspondingly higher rate thereafter. Insurances for the whole term of life are more common than any other kind. 2. Endoivment- Assurances. Next to insurances for the whole term of life, these constitute the most numerous class of insurances on single lives. The sum insured is payable to the person named in the policy, if he should survive a certain period or attain a specified age, or to his represen tatives at his death, if that should occur before the time has expired. 3. Insurances on Joint Lives. In these transactions two or more lives are included in the policy, and the sum in sured is payable when either or any one of them fails. 4. Longest-Life Insurances, or Insurances on Last Sur vivor. These also are effected on two or more lives, but, instead of falling in by the death of any one of the parties, they do not mature until both or all are dead. The second class of insurances described above consists principally of two kinds : 1. Temporary or Short-Period Insurances. These are effected for limited periods to cover special contingencies,
