the probability of being accepted as an object of commiseration at an exorbitant price, the contemplation in itself generally operates as a re straint. Pretty much the same feelings engross a man who proposes an insurance on his life, when he is going to a climate which is generally considered less healthy than England. The Asylum Proprietary Company, confines its business exclusively to these cases. The sum secured by the policy is paid without increase or diminution-the premiums are calculated in each case, to accord with the particular risk; and as the Company derives its support from such cases only, the Directors are not called on to protect the interests or to consult the wishes of persons differently circumstanced. A prospectus of the ASYLUM COMPANY will be found in the Appendix. APPENDIX. No. I, ASYLUM LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY, No. 70, CORNHILL, LONDON. 14 ASSURES THE LIVES OF OFFICERS AND OTHERS TRAVELLING, DIRECTORS. SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH, M. P. President. THOMAS FRANKLAND LEWIS, Esq. M. P. Vice President. C. W. HALLET, Esq. FOSTER REYNOLDS, Esq. J. RICHARDS, Esq. MEDICAL OFFICERS IN LONDON, JOHN MASON GOOD, M. D. F. R, S. Guildford Street. M THE importance of Life Insurance to those who, in mercantile and professional pursuits, derive limited or fluctuating incomes from personal exertions, has been universally felt and acknowledged; and if so salutary a mode of providing for families, be sought by men who are capable of active exertion, or can promote their objects by a residence in a healthy country, how much more desirable must the benefits of such a system be to those who labour under bodily infirmities, or are obliged to prosecute their efforts in climates uncongenial to their constitutions. Important as this last consideration must be to a very large portion of mankind, it is a matter of surprise that no equitable system has hitherto been formed for the protection and security of persons under such circumstances. The Directors of Life Institutions, generally, not having procured the necessary data for accurately ascertaining the law of mortality in foreign countries, permit their fears to exaggerate the danger of a hot climate, until they almost bring themselves to believe that immediate death awaits those who venture within its influence. A proposer for insurance is frequently obliged to have recourse to various Offices, without the certainty of attaining his object at any; and, after great loss of time, and having his mind agitated by the contemplation of imaginary perils, he is frequently rejected; or if accepted, considers himself an object of favour, indebted to the compassion of the Institution, for granting him Assurance at a premium which he and the Directors (who always err on the side of caution) believe to be excessive-30, 50, or even 100 per cent. The same observations apply with still greater force to the cases of persons subject to slight deviations from health-persons who, though far from being in a dangerous state, are not considered as select lives, and are therefore rejected as altogether uninsurable. Many who are conscious of some slight bodily ailment, or supposed hereditary taint,-a constitutional debility, or some peculiarity of form,-are deterred from making proposals, by the apprehension that after they have disclosed circumstances of extreme delicacy, and subjected themselves to exposure by referring to their friends, to satisfy one Board of Directors, they may be rejected as altogether ineligible in that Institution, and be driven to make similar exposures to another Board of Directors, on the chance of being again rejected, or left no other alternative than the payment of an extravagant rate of premium. In many instances, especially in the case of Pregnant Females, it is desirable that the parties should be kept in ignorance of an Assurance being effected on their lives. In others, persons are unable to furnish certificates or satisfactory evidence of the precise date of their birth: and many, from the death of medical attendants, and other fortuitous circumstances, are unable to comply with the forms generally required by Life Institutions. Persons suffering from rupture, are frequently not inclined to make known their situation to a Board of Directors who profess to confine their Assurances to select life only, and who would therefore discuss, with appalling perspicuity, the measure of danger attendant on the slightest deviation from robust health and strength. Officers on half-pay sometimes decline to insure their lives, lest they should at a future day be called into unhealthy climates, at the risk of forfeiting their Policies, or submitting to an exorbitant rate of premium for the extra risk. Thus Life Insurance, to which every prudent and well-disposed man turns his thoughts, is withheld from the very persons who, from precarious health or particular circumstances, are peculiarly entitled to receive consolation and to court indemnity. The Directors of the Asylum Life Assurance Company have ascertained, by great care and research, the true law of mortality for various climates and diseases; for the purpose of extending to persons, from whom the benefits of insurance have hitherto been altogether withheld, a certainty of effecting their object, in an Office established exclusively for the reception of such cases: thus relieving Proposers from the unpleasant feeling consequent on a knowledge that their particular cases make the Directors less anxious to grant insurance to them, than to persons differently circumstanced. The ASYLUM COMPANY confines its business to assuring the lives of Persons going beyond the limits of Europe-predisposed to hereditary or other Constitutional maladies-of delicate healthof peculiarity of form, whether natural or accidental labouring under mania, melancholia, or any kind of chronic disease unac· companied with immediate danger-females in a state of pregnancy,--persons engaged in unhealthy occupations, and those, who, from inadequate testimonials, uncertainty of date of birth, or other causes, would be subject to rejection, or an exorbitant rate of premium at other Offices. A Assurances will be granted at premiums proportioned to the risks not only with reference to the general healthiness of the climate, but also to the particular service intended. For instance, the civil, military, and maritime services in the different Presidencies in the East Indies, will be charged at different rates of premium. Officers and others, who are subject to be called abroad, although not under immediate orders, will be charged the ordinary rate of Premium according to the Table of the Economic Life Office, until they actually sail; from which period, until their return to Europe, they will be required to pay a rate accurately according with the mortality of the climate and service for which they are destined.-They will thus secure the right of going abroad at any period, at a rate of Premium fixed and agreed on from the commencement of the Insurance. Persons of delicate health, or suffering from the effects of Tropical Climates, Rupture, Gout, or slight Chronic disease, |