A certain number of persons clubbed together a specified sum (without reference to age or sex) annually, and at the expiration of each year the interest of this fund was divided amongst the subscribers who were living, and so on from year to year, until the last survivor received the whole of the interest. This novelty, having on its face all the appearances of a profitable investment, with a little of the then relish for gambling, as to health and death, caused many thousands to be annually contributed, each man speculating on the life and habits of his co-subscriber, so as to form a rough guess as to who stood the best chance of survivorship. This went on for some time, until some one, either wiser or more inquisitive than his fellows, came to inquire what became of the principal sum subscribed, as the interest on the fund only was awarded. This was a death-blow to the first invention; the money of course, failing heirs, was forfeited to the Crown. But the "snake was scotched, not killed." To remedy this glaring error, a limited number of years was fixed for the continuation of the "Tontine," and should any members be alive at the expiration of that time, they were to receive the whole amount originally subscribed; but as many died without receiving any advantage whatever for their subscriptions, and others, longer-lived, received in many cases nearly three hundred times the amount advanced, this plan, from its great inequality, did not, as was anticipated, meet with general approbation; but one permanent good resulted from it, the first tables of the duration of human life being recorded. These were followed by Sir W. Petty's Register of the Bills of Mortality, which was succeeded by Dr. Halley's Tables, and the Northampton Tables, which are still the best authority. Assurance Companies are divided into three sorts of offices-mutual, proprietary, and mixed— terms which explain themselves. The members of Mutual Companies share all the losses, and all the profits also. The Proprietary Company work with a nominal capital, on which, on the average, ten per cent. is subscribed; the shareholders being liable to further calls if the wants of the company require them to meet engagements. The shareholders receive interest for their subscribed capital, according to the success of the undertaking in which they have embarked: on this principle funds can always be obtained to meet any claims which can possibly arise. A Mixed Company, from its name, combines the two systems—of Mutual and Proprietary. A capital is raised by means of shareholders subscribing a certain sum, protecting from loss any party assuring with them, and dividing a certain portion of the profits amongst the policyholders, either by way of bonus, or in reduction of premium, at stipulated periods.

Of Assurance Societies, established upon equitable principles, we are bound to admit, that, as far as a joint-stock association can be so, they are morally and commercially beneficial; it is clear that they present to men in the enjoyment of income, but possessing little property, a most suitable and favourable means of providing, in a greater or less measure, for the endeared or helpless relatives who may survive them. On this

subject we add some remarks from a paper in Chambers's " Edinburgh Journal," No. 373: "That only about 80,000 persons in the United Kingdom should have taken advantage of Life Assurance, being but one in sixty-two of the supposed number of heads of families, surely affords a striking view of shall we call it the improvidence of mankind, or shall we not rather designate it as their culpable selfishness? For what is the predicament of that man, who, for the gratification of his affections, surrounds himself with a wife and children, and peaceably lives in the enjoyment of these valued blessings, with the knowledge that, ere three moments at any time shall have passed, the cessation of his existence may throw wife and children together into a state of destitution? When the case is fully reflected upon, it must certainly appear as one of gross selfishness, notwithstanding that the world has not been accustomed to regard it in that light. It is unquestionably the duty of every man to provide, while he yet lives, for his own. One part of his income can be devoted by a head of a family to the necessities of the present, another may be stored up, by means of life assurance, to provide against the future; and then he may be said to do the whole of his duty towards his family, instead of, as is generally the case, only doing the half of it.” The remarks of one of our own correspondents (the Pilgrim," vide "Tegg's Magazine," No. X., page 452,) clearly and justly show the immorality, nay, the impious profanity, committed by a class of speculators, now common, who actually trade in the effects of mortality; who are daily, lynx-eyed, watching the shaft of death in a commercial spirit. We refer to the Cemetery Companies.* Our readers will only require to be reminded of the "Pilgrim's observations on Cemeteries, the most remarkable passage of which we cannot refrain from repeating: There is something revolting in the idea," feelingly, says the "Pilgrim," "of the separation of body and soul being made a commercial speculation, smelling even frightful in the connexion of death and business, which is so conspicuously presented in the formation of Cemetery Companies. Under the old system of churchyard burials, it must be confessed, the clergyman, the sexton, and the gravedigger, received fees for performing God's injunction, to return dust to dust;' but to reflect, that, when each human being passes to the other world, his death is made to contribute to the avarice and cupidity of this—that directors, and auditors, and secretaries, pounce upon his corpse; that his interment is duly entered

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* One cemetery company, constantly advertising, allows no sort of regard for decency, or even for commercial gentility, to interfere with its mercenary object. It adopts the vulgar shop practice of ticketing its prices. Vide the following:"Price for grave in perpetuity, and for monument and gravestone £3 3 0 Interment, including desk service and other fees Ditto," &c. And so on it proceeds, with its figures of traffic, as though human flesh were irreverend as carrion. A parallel to this desecration may be found in Mr. Shillebeer's existent or proposed Joint-Stock Burial Company, whose convenient patent hearses we have scen, and which we predict will become as popular as the old hackney coaches were. The patent hearse is licensed to carry the dead inside, and the living (mourners) outside.

in ledgers and journals, and forms an item in the annual account; in short, to think that his death is looked upon as a matter of business and a source of profit, shocks the feelings, and reproaches us with the cupidity of our species, which renders even our own corruption subservient to its purposes, and makes the scarce cold corpse an article of merchandise." The "Pilgrim" proceeds to reflect on Death and the solemnity of its effigies, and to contrast the sacred solitude of the old churchyard with its modern substitute-the busy, showy, noisy, worldly promenade, denominated the cemetery. "Out upon the hypocrisy," he exclaims, "which professes, that the effect of throwing open the cemetery as a public lounge is to suggest reflections on mortality to the minds of its visitors." Far from it. But it is our own opinion, that the display and ostentation of the fashionable burial-grounds are incentives to vanity; nay, we will add, to crime. One of the splendid cemeteries on the continent was, a short time since, visited by felons, who succeeded in the violation of stripping the handsomest tombs of their treasure and ornaments. Had there been no vain propitiation of the public eye, by the exhibition of gaudy trappings, in these glass-house mausolea of Carlsruhe, there would have been no inducement to sacrilege.

Having written thus far on the subject of cemeteries, a judicious friend reminds us of the good they have effected, admitting at the same time their evils. He asks us to view the now loathsome condition of many of the metropolitan church-yards; the newly-made grave opened for the accommodation of a new tenant ere its former contents have undergone decomposition; the spectacle of the partially-decayed bodies of the deceased unavoidably brought to light; the abominable effluvia and poisonous malaria escaping from the charnels and crowded sepulchres of the dead; the constant exhibition of piles of human bones, skulls to which is still attached the human hair, scaring the superstitious or too fond relative with the means of identifying the bones of a much-loved wife or child. The picture is, though melo-dramatic, true enough, and we conceive offers a forcible apology for the appropriation of newly consecrated ground, particularly if we reflect on the consequences of pestilence in a crowded city. Undertakings of such magnitude as public cemeteries can probably only be effected by the means of joint capital, and capitalists thus employed, though they may commit evil in the usual course of speculation, certainly do not desecrate the sacred tomb itself. It is conclusive that such a company has some morality in its constitution, and no doubt hundreds of the contributors to the cemetery establishments have been actuated by the warmest Christian feeling and the purest dictates of virtue. Again, our thoughtful friend has not objected to the proposition, that the concomitants of the cemetery, the funeral pageantry, &c., are open to animadversion on the plea of ostentation. He thinks that the conveyances for the dead and the living mourners are, while solemn, decent and economically planned, and he would have us take notice of the whilome jobbing of undertakers, a system not adopted by the officers of the cemetery. Indisputably, the

charges upon the burial of the dead upon the older conventionality, were exorbitant in the extreme; the materials of the funeral trappings are commonly charged double their original cost; a respectable pall cannot be hired even under a charge of five guineas in some parts of England; the services of funeral assistants are too highly paid, and 66 last, not least," the Government duty upon the hearse and coaches, and the clerical fees, form a terrible tax to the person of moderate means.

We only allude to the Gas Companies to acknowledge the good they have done, in a utilitarian sense, and to proscribe them morally on account of their cupidity; indeed, as regards the Gas Companies, we may justly complain, also, of their arrogance. If the public supply of gas emanated from parochial sources, large profits might accrue which could be applied to various municipal purposes, and especially those that are educational. Were this proposition to be adopted, employment could be afforded in London to every member of the burthensome poor.

Of the host of Joint-Stock Companies which have existed, and which now do exist, there is none so formidable and so destructive to the very frame-work of society as the Railway Associations. These gigantic schemes, the result of a joining of hands between two great sciences, that of the counting-house and that of the foundry, have had so sudden an effect upon society, that a panic, an unavoidable panic, must ensue. Who can dispute the alarming evils of the railway? Set aside the utilitarian principle, what a bold-faced, careering, demon of national disorganisation is the locomotive power! The gain of the few, as respects the operations of railway science, is the loss of the many; thousands are by steam-engine and tram-work, in these days, driven away, prostrated, expatriated, utterly ruined. Humanising customs, loved and revered from antiquity, and associations, are broken up or hidden in the all-pervading clouds of steam and smoke, whilst new habits, new associations arise, which all take to with discomfort. Towns renowned for traffic and social enjoyment, the gradual growth of ages, now show upon their foreheads the mark of Cain, and are desolate and gloomy; a miserable ci-devant post-boy hangs round the door of the neglected hotel, a sad memento of Jehu's saturnalia; his companion-figure is a wo-begone, solitary waiter, in rusty black, standing transfixed, with a towel in his hand, looking, in ensemble,as frigid as if frozen to the spot.

The consequences of a sudden separation of those ties which previously united all classes of the community, are evident. That “anguis in herba," the Anaconda of many folds, the sinuous railroad, trails over all the land, has coiled about the sinews of the country, and succeeded in strangling every thing living and inanimate, that appeared inimical to its progress. The railroad has, we say, sown the seeds of distraction throughout the kingdom; reckless of consequences, this powerful engine of capital is brought to bear upon the defenceless and feeble, regardless of the families it has pauperised; of the local interests it has destroyed; of the revenue it has so sensibly diminished. Property in such a town, the proceeds of a life's labour, saved through every hardship, is suddenly torn

from the possessor, and carried away in the train of the new Phoenix of science; but the purse-proud shareholder thinks only of the value of his scrip, and evinces utter apathy for the misery he is causing to his brother man.The Joint-Stock proprietor, however, is yet to be seen kneeling upon his hassock in the sacred edifice, blind to his wilful hypocrisy ! He cannot justly console himself with the fallacy, that there is compensation in store for the spoliation he has helped to accomplish, in the advantages which are expected to arise out of a daring but hazardous experiment. We do not, as dispassionate observers, perceive whence the weal is to come. The railroad monopoly is certainly effecting extraordinary changes, which surprise and startle, but are not productive of human happiness. Humility is laughed to scorn by the monopolisers; Charity is neglected; the brightest tenets of the Christian faith are trifled with, in the absorbing excitement of acquiring riches by steam. And every effort of the capitalist helps to drain the fast sinking funds of provincial trade. Although the expenses of railroad transit and labour form an enormous item, yet the new employment open is confined but to a class; and the advantage is but slightly participated in by the legion of disinherited, whose case we have taken up. Locomotive power is a meteor that we gaze at with wonder, but also with fear; for like the elemental phenomenon, it is the indication of storm and trouble.

The advocate who talks thus wildly, of new towns to spring up in lieu of the old ones annihilated, of the virtue and humanity of sparing animal distress, is not a philanthropist, but a weak and selfish casuist; and if he dwell on national aggrandisement as a consequence of steam, he theorises at this juncture of Railway progress with a delusive chart and a false compass.

We must not allow to escape from our animadversion, one bare-faced profanity permitted in Railway traffic, almost unexampled in the history of commerce; viz., the unrestricted desecration of the Sabbath permitted on every line issuing from the metropolis. Heavy passenger and luggage trains run systematically on the sacred day set apart by the consent of all Christians, for peaceful, quiet, and devotional purposes. The practice is most reprehensible; an intolerable exponent of commercial turpitude. The reflection, however, reminds us that Government has shewn its disapprobation of this and other Railway evils already. Parliamentary Committees are now, we believe, engaged in examining evidence on the details of Railway management generally, and Parliament will doubtless, in the course of the current session, entertain measures of a corrective and amelioraring nature. As opposed to every description of Railway abuse, we may add, too, that as respects Joint-Stock Associations generally, Sir Robert Peel purposes introducing a Government measure with the express object of protecting public interests; we trust the Minister's design aims at something beyond mercantile utility, beyond the mere framing of a statute, as occurred so lately as the session of 1842, for the adjustment of internal quarrels between Joint-Stock Companies, by amending the law relative to legal proceedings arising out of their affairs. Whilst on the