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JOURNAL OF INSURANCE.

FIRE INSURANCE.

THE annexed table, compiled from a parliamentary return just issued, shows the amount of duty paid by the fire insurance offices of the United Kingdom during the year 1860. The total duty paid was £1,558,585:

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LIFE POLICIES NOT SUBJECT TO FORFEITURE. The following is an extract from the report of Hon. WILLIAM BARNES, Superintendent of the Insurance Department, to the legislature of NewYork:

"The entire forfeiture of policies by the non-payment of premiums at a certain specified date has long been a serious obstacle to the increase of life insurance. The impolicy, if not the injustice of this provision, is practically acknowledged by nearly all the companies, and the forfeiture is seldom fully enforced. I cannot but regard it, therefore, as a matter of public congratulation that the New-York Life Insurance Company has issued a table of rates of premium for life policies expressly stipulating that after the receipt of two or more annual premiums, if further payments are discontinued, a new policy will be issued to the original holder, if living, for a specified proportion of the sum insured, or, if deceased, an equitable sum will be paid to his family or legal representatives."

THE GREAT FIRE IN LONDON.

The Phoenix and the Sun are the heaviest sufferers by the London fire of 22d and 23d June, the former to the extent of about £225,000, and the latter, we believe, not much short of that amount. The Alliance will, in all probability, be the third on the list of sufferers; and following, in respect of amount of loss, the order in which we place their names, the Royal, the London Assurance Corporation, the Royal Exchange, the Atlas, the Globe, and the Liverpool and London, form a group with the Alliance. A third group will be formed by the Manchester, the Northern, the Imperial and the Lancashire. From this point the losses, we have reason to believe, will be found diminishing in amount through the following series of offices: the Unity, the Union, the General, the Westminster, the Queen, the Leeds and Yorkshire, and the West of England. which last named company will be found to have "got out of the fire" with the comparatively small loss of about £5,000; and a less sum even than that will be found sufficient to discharge the respective liabilities of the Guardian, the Church of England, the Hand-in-Hand, the Law Union, the Royal Farmers, the Provincial Welsh and the Yorkshire. The County Office has entirely escaped, its business chiefly consisting of the insurance of private dwellings and the property they contain. The losses of the Law, in respect of the extent of its transactions, will, from a like cause, be found to be very light. The State, according to the declaration of its officials, stands at nil. The Scottish offices, namely, the Scottish Union, the Caledonian, the North British and the Scottish Provincial, had no primary risk on the property; but they will be sufferers, to some extent, by guarantee to other offices. The entire amount of loss sustained by the whole of the insurance companies may be estimated at £1,200,000, a sum that will probably not fall far short of the premium income of the present year; so that the richer class of companies will have to draw upon their reserve funds for the payment of all other losses of the year; whilst, in some few cases, in order to make provisions for such payment, it may be necessary, where the capital is not fully paid up, to make a call on the shareholders.-Post Magazine and Insurance Monitor.

FIRE-PROOF BUILDINGS.

The late gigantic fire at London Bridge has tested and found wanting our present system of fire-proofing warehouses. Party-walls of immense thickness, stone staircases, iron beams and pillars have been of no avail against the spontaneous combustion of a little heap of hemp; and the proba bility, indeed, is, that one of the most valuable lives in our working hive has been sacrificed to our latest notion of fire-proofing warehouses containing highly inflammable commodities. It is instructive to know that poor BRAIDWOOD to the last protested against the use of cast-iron in the construction of our river-side warehouses. In the paper he read at the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1849, "on fire-proof buildings," he denounced the use of this untrustworthy material in the most decided manner, and pointed out that some great calamity must inevitably befall the men of the fire brigade, sooner or later, in their attempts to extinguish the vast conflagrations which were likely to take place in those extensive buildings. His own destruction has been the first testimony to the

correctness of his views. The fire raging in one of these warehouses can only be compared to that of a blast furnace, and in consequence of the cast-iron pillars speedily become red-hot, the water from the hose falling upon these pillars suddenly contracts and snaps them like so much glass, and, of course, the floors fall in at once. There is another danger to those outside these warehouses. The massive girders of cast-iron supporting the flooring of course expand with the heat; and no walls, however strongly built, can possibly withstand their lateral thrust, and down they come, to the destruction of those near at hand. We have no doubt whatever that this was the cause of the falling of the wall which killed poor BRAIDWOOD. It was proved on the inquest that there was no saltpetre in this part of the building; it was also proved that no explosion took place here at all. It has been suggested that the walls were burst out by the swelling of the cotton bales, but it is quite needless to attempt. such an explanation when we know the iron girders, heated to a white heat as they were, must have elongated nearly half a foot, pressing before them the solid wall.-London Review.

NEW INSURANCE LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS.

The following is a list of titles of acts relating to insurance companies, &c., passed at the last session of the Massachusetts Legislature :

3. To continue in force an act to incorporate the Cambridge Mutual Insurance Company.

7. To extend and alter an act to incorporate the Union Mutual Marine Insurance Company.

9. To authorize the Hingham Mutual Fire Insurance Company to hold real estate.

14. Granting further time to the Suffolk Insurance Company to close its affairs.

17. To continue in force an act to incorporate the Weymouth and Braintree Mutual Fire Insurance Company in Weymouth.

19. Relating to the Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Company. 45. To change the name of the Mechanics' Mutual Fire Insurance Company.

47. In addition to an act to incorporate the Arkwright Mutual Fire Insurance Company.

55. To reduce the capital stock and the number of the Directors of the National Insurance Company in Boston.

69. To incorporate the Fall River Mutual Fire Insurance Company. 72. In addition to an act to incorporate the Howard Fire Insurance Company.

101. To incorporate the Nonantum Fire Insurance Company.

117. Extending the time for paying in the capital stock of the Phonix Insurance Company.

150. To incorporate the Cape Cod Mutual Fire Insurance Company. 152. Concerning the form of Policies of Fire Insurance.

170. In regard to agents of Insurance Companies.

185. To incorporate the Mutual Protective Fire Insurance Company. 186. To regulate the forfeiture of policies of Life Insurance.

189. Relating to the term of Insurance Companies.

JOURNAL OF NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

PRICES OF IRON PROPELLERS.

A LATE number of the Savannah Republican contains an article on purchasing steamers, containing the following table, which is said to be "furnished by a leading ship-yard in Glasgow, Scotland, and may be relied on by those who would embark in the business:"

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OFFER TO THE LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION.

A gentleman has intimated his intention to bequeath to the National Life-Boat Institution £3,000, on the condition that the society will, on the receipt of his legacy, place a first-class life-boat, thoroughly equipped, on some exposed point of the English coast, and another on the Scotch coast, and will undertake thereafter to keep them permanently in a state of efficiency. He also stipulates, that in the event of his increasing his bequest to £4,000, a third life-boat, on the same conditions, shall be placed on the Irish coast. The National Life-Boat Institution has now 112 life-boats under its charge. The late Mrs. SHEDDEN WATSON has bequeathed to the National Life-Boat Institution £500, to enable it to plant an additional life-boat on the coast, to be called "The Brave ROBERT SHEDDEN." Mr. SHEDDEN, who was Mrs. WATSON's son, and was a lieutenant in the royal navy, had made a voyage around the world in his own yacht. Mrs. WATSON was, up to the period of her death, an annual subscriber of £10 108. to the Life-Boat Institution.

NEW MODE OF PROPELLING BOATS.

An experiment of a very interesting character was tried in the docks of the Grand Surrey Canal, Rotherhithe, London. Mr. JAMES CARTER, a gentleman of a very ingenious bent in the application of mechanics, has for some years been elaborating a scheme of propelling river crafts of all sizes by atmospheric pressure. A discharge of air is effected beneath the vessel, acting downwards on the water and upwards on the sloping side of the boat, which is made flat for the better attainment of a due resistance. A crazy barge, of the "fly-boat" shape and capacity, was fitted up with boiler, engine and air-pump, got together

in haste, and but ill-adapted each to each. As for the engine, it was described as of "two cats' power;" and yet the force attained was sufficient to tow a heavy ladened lighter. One evident and palpable recommendation of the machinery is, that its chief motive agent is exempt from wear and tear. There is no concussion, no friction of any kind in those parts immediately connected with the propulsion of the vessel.

INTERESTING TO YACHTMEN.

It will be seen by the following paragraph, from an English paper, that the grand British regatta of July next was open to comers from all the world:

"The Royal Mersey Yacht Club having decided on holding a general regatta on the 4th and 5th of July next, on the Mersey, her Majesty has graciously expressed, through her secretary, her intention of presenting a £100 cup to the club, to be sailed for by yachts belonging to any royal or national club. In other words, the competition will be open to all the world. A general subscription has been entered into by the members of the club, in order that the regatta may be conducted on the most liberal and extensive scale, and many liberal donations have already been received. A full programme will be issued in due time.”

The Liverpool Mercury, of the 12th, published the following telegraphic despatch from the Board of Trade in London: "Hoist signal down-dangerous winds may be expected." Vessels did not leave port in consequence.

THE DERELICT ERIN-GO-BRAGH.

In the Court of Admiralty, Dublin, on the 11th March, 1861, a petition was opened on behalf of the association of Lloyd's Underwriters of London, which stated that, in the month of November last, L. M. WILSON, of Quebec, timber merchant, had shipped at Quebec a large cargo of timber, on board the ERIN-GO-BRAGH, of Liverpool, which, by the bills of lading, duly signed by THOMAS FLAVIOR, the then master, was consigned to the order of the shipper; and that, after having taken that lading, the bark proceeded in the prosecution of her voyage to the United Kingdom, and on that voyage became dismasted, and was abandoned at sea. The cargo having been insured at LLOYD's, was paid for by them as a total loss; and the bills of lading thereupon endorsed to them, that body became the legal owners of the cargo, should it ever be recovered. It appeared that the vessel, after being abandoned, drifted towards the western coast of Ireland and was discovered; and eventually, after four days continued exertions, was brought in as a derelict by the ROVER, a steamer belonging to the Atlantic Steam Navigation Company. That steamer having commenced proceedings in the Court of Admiralty for salvage, the Queen, in her office of admiralty, intervened, assuming the property to be derelict, subject to the claims of the salvors and to all claims of rightful owners. The Queen's advocate now withdrew his opposition, and a decree for the plaintiff was consented to.

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