since that time a great number of similar institutions have arisen. In the extent of its transactions Fire Insurance has already far exceeded its prototype, Maritime Insurance, the duties payable, in the year 1832, at about the same rate on the average, having amounted in respect of Fire Insurances to the sum of 753,1951., and in respect of Maritime Insurance, to 210,000l. only. Such has been its progress in Great Britain. On the Continent, in 1754, a Company in Paris was enabled by charter to effect fire insurances, but it may be collected from Pothier (a) that they were comparatively little used upon the continent in his time. At the present moment the character and credit of the English offices stand so high, that they are frequently, and, it is believed, very generally, resorted to by our continental neighbours.

We have thus attempted to trace the progress of insurance upon lives and against fire from that against maritime risks, and our object in doing so has been to explain the grounds upon which the law most reasonably presumed (b) originally, that persons who entered into contracts respecting the former, were acquainted with, and had in their contemplation the customs of merchants and legal rules affecting the latter, and intended that these new contracts should be construed and controlled by the same means. Without such an introduction it might indeed appear singular that duties unknown in any other contract (c), and terms even at variance (d) with the words of the instrument executed between the parties, comparatively foreign and incongruous in cases of fire, and more particularly of life insurance, but the propriety of which in maritime insurance is obvious, should have been imported into

(a) Pothier Tit. Des Assurances, Sec. 1.

(b) See Judgment in Hutton v. Warren, 1 M. & W. 466.
(c) e. g. The communication of material facts.

(d) The sum mentioned, for instance.

these policies. It might also be difficult to comprehend and impress upon the mind the fundamental rule, that in all questions respecting life and fire insurance we must be governed by the analogous decisions of the courts and general law relating to maritime insurance.

DEFINITION OF INSURANCE AND THE TERMS EMPLOYED.

Insurance is a contract by which the one party to it, in consideration of a gross sum or of periodical payments, engages to indemnify the other party to it, or his representatives, from any loss, not exceeding a stipulated amount, which the latter may sustain by reason of the happening of a given event. Such is its legal definition and effect; and the following are the technical terms usually employed in describing its different parts. The person who is to make the indemnity is called "the Insurer;" the person to whom or to whose representatives it is to be made, "the Insured or Assured;" the payments are called "the Premiums ;" and the event insured against "the Risk." Lastly, the written instrument by which the insurance is effected is termed "the Policy."

PART I.

INSURANCE UPON LIVES.

THE risk in that branch of insurance called Life Insurance, is the death of the person whose life is the object of the security, and the insurer undertakes by the policy to pay the assured or his representatives a sum of money, either whenever that event may take place, if the insurance be for the whole life; or upon the happening of that event within a certain limited period, or before the occurrence of some other uncertain event, where the policy is effected for a term. Thus if A. be entitled to an estate, or a sum of money in the event of B. surviving C., in order to secure himself against the possible loss of it, A. applies to an insurance company to insure the life of B. against that of C.; and if B. dies before C., A. may then demand from the Company the amount of the insurance. In such a case the insurance is in form almost a wager that B. shall not die before C., but in point of legal effect it is very different; for although the policy stipulates that a certain sum of money shall be paid, yet in truth the assured can only demand such a sum as shall recompense him for the loss he may have sustained by the event. Consequently if the sum which A. was entitled to receive was 1007., and he had insured in the amount of 1000Z., he would not be enabled in a Court of law to recover from the Company the 1000l., but only the 100%. which he had lost.

THE PURPOSES TO WHICH LIFE INSURANCES MAY BE applied.

A system of security like this, it is evident, admits of almost endless modifications, and in a country where the power of disposition over property is unfettered, the purposes for which it

may be required and to which it is applicable can hardly be enumerated. The most simple and obvious are those which its originators had in view, namely, where the husband or parent upon whose exertions or professional emoluments a wife and family depend secures a provision for them by the insurance of his own life. The sum thus secured may either be payable at once upon his death, or by way of annuity to the individuals intended to be benefitted, or it may be payable to his personal representatives, and thus the father may retain a disposing power over it by his will, and be enabled to apportion it according to the various necessities of his offspring. A person advancing money to a young man for the purpose of establishing him in a profession or in business, may thus secure himself from the contingency of the loss, which the early death of the borrower would occasion. The creditor, too, of a person who derives his only means of payment from a life estate, or a place or employment, may protect himself by insuring his debtor's life during such a period as may enable him to satisfy the claim. The possessor of a lease for a life or lives, renewable upon the payment of a fine, which is the common tenure of the lessees of College and, in many instances, of Ecclesiastical property, may, by insuring the life of the person or the survivor of the persons upon whose death the lease ceases, relieve himself from all anxiety lest he should be unprepared, if suddenly called upon to pay the fine. The owner of copyhold land may also provide for the payment of the fine upon the death of the person for whose life it is granted, or upon the death of a trustee who may be the tenant to the lord. The purchaser of the life interest of another in an estate or other property, by insuring the life of the vendor, may render this precarious bargain a secure investment. The grantee of an annuity may likewise insure the life of the grantor, and so entitle himself to a restoration of the capital he may have expended in its purchase. The utility, however, of this security

is not confined to the circumstances of the party effecting it at the time of its inception. Although a life policy is not transferable at law, the beneficial interest in it may be assigned in equity, and the person who has insured his own life may, upon any emergency, render it the subject of a sale or of a pledge. Such are a few of the more prominent objects to which this security is capable of being applied, but as these are to a certain extent limited by the restrictions which the law has imposed upon persons who may effect insurances as the assured, it will be more convenient to consider in the first place, though at some slight sacrifice of order, who may act in that capacity.

WHO MAY BE THE ASSURED, AND HEREIN OF THE REQUISITE NATURE OF THEIR INTEREST.

As a policy of Insurance does not contain stipulations obligatory upon the assured, it may be effected in favour of any person, even though an infant or married woman; and being property of a personal nature, an alien may sue upon it and recover the amount in the English courts even though resident abroad (a), so long as the state to which he belongs is not actually at war with this country. At common law it seems, too, to have been unnecessary that at the time of effecting the policy (b) the assured should have had any interest, which might be prejudiced by the happening of the event insured against; and hence, notwithstanding the rule of law which was well established, that a policy is not a positive engagement for the payment of the sum of money mentioned in it, but merely for an indemnity against any loss not exceeding that amount, which the assured may sustain, (c) some time after

(a) Pisani v. Lawson, 6 Bing, N C. 90.

(b) Rhind v. Wilkinson, 2 Taunt. 237. But see Sadlers' Company v. Badcock, 2 Atk. 554.

(c) Godsal v. Boldero, 9 East, 72.