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INSURANCE DIRECTORY. XXXVII
Royal Insurance Company — continued.
Extract from J. H. Hartnoll's Letter to the President of the Board of Trade,
" The success of the Royal Insui-ance Company lias been very remarkable. It was shewn in tlic
Post Magazine of the 25th August 1848, as tlie returns themselves will now serve to exhibit, that
the profits on the business of the office for the preceding four years had amounlcd to the enormous
sum of £108,641 ; ' affording a disposable surplus of X100,000, after payment of all charges for
management, and apportioning five per cent, as a dividend on the previously paid-up capit;d.' The
Directors very wisely recommended that, instead of withdrawing this sum for the purpose of distribut-
ing it among the proprietors, in the form of cash bonus, tlie sum of i;S0,2s0 slioiild be taken from
the accumulated fund, and added to the permanent paid-up capital of £178,560, wiiicii was thus
raised to £267,840. I fear that the comments which have been made from time to time in the Post
Magazine on the success of the Royal Insurance Company have had the mischievous effect of creat-
ing a desire in many of the new Life Offices to ' try their luck' in tiie Fire line. Several engraft-
ments of the kind have already been made, others are announced, and more are privately talked of.
The results that are exhibited in most of the preceding summaries of accounts are not, however, very
encouraging for such experiments. It is as hazardous to enter upon a ' Little Fire Insurance bn-si-
ness ' as the good old Duke used to say it was to enter upon a ' Little war.' "
Extract from the " Edinburgli Evening Post."
" With regard to the results of the last year, as traceable in the report read at tiie last annual
meeting of the Royal Insurance Company, we find that the premiums amounted to £49,110, 17s. 5d.,
exceeding those of the previous year by £5000. That is in the fire department alone ; and in the life
branch the premiums on new policies received during the first six months of 1852 were greater in
amount by upwards of 10 per cent, than the whole number of new premiums for the entire twelve
months included in the last report. The fact that assurances effected during 1852 would participate
in the division of profits of 1854 has, we have no doubt, added greatly to the number assured and
the amount of premiums splice the above report was issued last year.
" This statement of the actual results of the Company's operations, unprecedented in the hi^^tory
of these societies, and the high position it has attained in the scale of comparison with similar incor-
porations, constitutes the most effectual test and demonstration of its claims on the confidence of
.•issurers." .
AGENTS FOR EDINBURGH.
George Moke, W.S., 5 Fettes Row ;
AND
James Milligan, S.S.C, 4 Pitt Street.
Medical Adviser— Dr John Taylor, F.R.C.S., 2 Abercromby Place.
Surveyor — Archd. Scott, Esq., Architect, 10 Teviot Row.
AGENT FOR LEITH.
Charles Philip, Merchant.
Medical Adviser— John ColdstreAm, M.D.
THE MERCHANrS AND TRADESMEN'S MUTUAL
LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY,
AND
TRADESMAN'S FRIENDLY SOCIETY.
LONDON : CANNON STREET, LONDON BRIDGE.
MANCHESTER : FAULKNER STREET, YORK STREET.
LIVERPOOL : 21 SOUTH CASTLE STREET.
GLASGOW : 54 ST VINCENT STREET.
EDINBURGH : 1 NORTH ST DAVID STREET.
JAMES T. DOUGLAS, A§eiit.