members is immediately directed to the matter, to know if it bears equally, and on all in due proportion.

The premium of insurance is no less a tax on the consumers than an impost duty; and the community is equally interested to see that it bears equally and alike on the several branches of commerce.

If arrangements could be made by insurers to class their risks, and keep each class separate, so as to obtain the results of experience for a long period of years, much would be done towards the attainment of the object in view; and although there would still, and must always remain, much for the judgment to decide, there would be fewer chances of error than there are now. The field of knowledge would be enlarged-the field of conjecture would be diminished. The consequence would be, that the investments of capital in insurance stocks would be safer, the profits more uniform, and the gradations of premium more just and equal.

In no business of the same magnitude, have those who conduct it so little of the benefits and advantages of experience to aid them. No record of the experience of their predecessors is to be found, or if they exist, they exist only in a crude, undigested, unavailable form. The transactions of all past time are to them almost as if they had never been; a loose, indefinite history or tradition is all that remains of them.

Impressed with these views, and with the importance of the subject, the insurance companies of Boston have established an office under the charge of Charles Pierson, Esq., a gentleman every way qualified for the purpose, to collect such facts as shall tend to the attainment of the data requisite for the formation of tables of premiums on more certain and satisfactory principles than the mercantile community now have; and it is proposed to publish, from time to time, such of the results of his labors as may be deemed useful to the merchant and insurer, in the formation of tariffs of premium for risks against the perils of the seas and fire. Those of capture must of necessity be decided by the judgment of the parties.

It must be kept in view, that the results of a short period, or a small amount of business, would not furnish data on which it would be safe to act, or to form opinions. The experience of a course of years, and a large number and amount of transactions, are necessary to form a basis on which it would be safe to make contracts. The office has been established but a few months, but in order to give some idea of the course of procedure, and in the hope that others who have the means may be induced to co-operate in the labor, which is very great, of obtaining the facts necessary to be known, the following statements are now given to the public. It will be perceived that they include insurance on vessels only; that they are divided into three classesships, brigs, and schooners; that they include only vessels insured on time; no vessels insured for specific voyages being included. The result shows that on fourteen millions and upwards of risks, the insurers lost upwards of one hundred and forty-four thousand dollars over and above the amount of premiums received.

Amount of Writings and Losses, on Vessels on Time, in the years 1830 and 1831, done at fifteen Offices.

Writings and Losses on Vessels on Time, from 1817 to 1834, inclusive,

Av. Rate

VESSELS.

Amount of Amount of

Prem.

Return per ct. of Additional per ct. of Writings. Premiums per ct. of Premiums. Return Premiums. Add'nal

Prem.

Prems.

Recapitulation Ships, Brigs, and Schooners, from 1817 to 1834.

Do NOT, LIKE A FOOLISH MARINER, ALWAYS CALCULATE ON FAIR WEATHER.- -Commerce, as well as life, has its auspicious ebbs and flows, that baffle human sagacity, and defeat the most rational arrangement of systems, and all the calculations of ordinary prudence. Be prepared, therefore, at all times, for commercial revulsions and financial difficulties, by which thousands have been reduced to beggary, who before had rioted in opulence, and thought they might bid defiance to misfortune.-Foster.

ART. VI. HINTS TO THE INSURED ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF MARINE POLICIES.

INSURANCE is so intimately connected with commerce, and springs so naturally from maritime adventure, that it forms a subject of the deepest interest to the merchant, and is well worthy the profound study of the statesmen of every nation, in which commercial interests are known and fostered. The utility and importance of this species of contract in a commercial country is self-evident, and is so considered by the most distinguished writers upon commercial affairs. The millions of treasure which are now cast upon the ocean, and sent to the remotest quarters of the earth, exposed to the risks of the winds, the waves, and the frail structure in which they are transported, would be unknown and unappreciated, but for the protecting influence of this maritime contract, which gives great security to the fortunes of private people, and by dividing among many that loss which would ruin an individual, makes it fall easy upon the whole society. This security tends greatly to the advancement of trade and navigation, for as the risk of transporting goods and merchandise is diminished, men will be more easily induced to engage in extensive foreign trade, to undertake hazardous adventure, and to join in important undertakings; since their failure cannot involve them, and their families, in those ruinous consequences which would be the result in a country where insurances are unknown. It is improbable to suppose that the citizens of any nation, would embark their fortunes in enterprises fraught with so much risk as is incurred in mercantile adventure, without the aid of this indemnifying contract; and foreign commerce must necessarily be confined in its operations, and narrow in its influences, without some remedy is afforded by which the enterprising merchant can feel secure in ultimately obtaining at least a portion of those riches with which his ship is freighted.

From the great importance of insurance in creating a spirit for foreign adventure and mercantile enterprise, it is natural to suppose, that it was early ingrafted into the system of maritime laws and regulations, which prevailed in ancient periods of the world; but in looking back upon the history of the ancient maritime states which have existed, we find that insurance was unknown, and that it is comparatively of modern invention. The origin of the contract is somewhat uncertain, and the honor of its introduction has been claimed and insisted upon by rival nations, each eager to acquire the distinction which the creation of so important an agent, for the advancement of commercial enterprise and prosperity, would confer upon the founder; and the time when this contract was invented is equally involved in doubt and obscurity. But it is evident that wherever foreign commerce was introduced, insurance must soon have followed as a necessary and indispensable attendant, it being impossible to carry on any extensive trade without this protection, especially in time of war. Some writers have ascribed the origin of the contract of insurance to Claudius Cæsar, the fifth Roman emperor; but if it originated at that time, it was but imperfectly known and appreciated, and bore but a faint resemblance to the form it has now assumed; and from the fact that we find it extremely difficult to determine whether such a contract then really existed, it must have been quite ineffectual and seldom used. Other authorities have given the Rhodians