The New York Herald Newspaper, December 7, 1872, Page 7

~ FRANCE. ‘Tho Parliamentary Commission to the Constitutional Com- mittee of Thirty. Natlonal Importance of the Recent Legislative Vote. Ministerial Responsibility to Magna Charta Checks and Balances. President Thiers’ Defeat and the Cabinet Alternatives. Critical Points for the Solu- tiom of the Crisis. A Chief of State Likely to Remain a Personal Centre of Power. ‘The Committee on Constitution Assembled in First Ses- sion and Organized. Project of Principle and Outline of Work for the Members. ‘CITIZEN FEAR OF A NATIONAL COUP. BM. Thiers’ Levee and Unofficial Explanation. Commerce Unsettled All Over { the Country. 2 TELEGRAM TO THE NEW TORR” TERALOS, The following special despatch to the ‘Haeraco has been received from our cor- ‘tespondent in the French capital. Parts, Dee. 6, 1872. The Parliamentary composition of the Legislative Committee of Thirty, appointed by tho National Assembly to draft a consti- tutional definition of the privileges of the French government, insures a report in favor of the absolute responsibility of the Ministry fo the-vote.of the majority and the exclusion “of the President from the Chamber during | debate. ‘The Presidential vote in the legislative “body. is reduced to a mere numerical and | ‘Political fiction by the imposition of stringent ‘limitations, and a resolute opposition is given to the plan of a partial renewal of the constit- Wonoy of the Assembly itself by the holding of dsolated dopartmental, or local, elections. The vote developes, also, an efficient oppo- ‘sition to the Cabinct project for the organiza- | tion of a second or upper chamber. i PREACANT THIERS DEFEATED DECISIVELY. | All this is regarded as exceedingly impor- | tant—which it is—from the fuct that it consti- tutes a docisive defeat of President Thiers. EXEOUTIVE ALTERNATIVES, WITH THREE POINTS OF CHOICE FOR THE CHIEF. It is considered probable that the Chief of | State aud his Cabinet will adopt, almost im- | gaining ground, «mediately, one of three courses, which are driofly ouumerated thus :— First—Resignation of the Cabinet and the formation of a new Ministry, selected from the -mombers of the Right Centre and Left Centre, thus detaching votes from the party of the | Right aud organizing a new working majority favorable to the Ministry in the Assembly. Secont—The promulgation by the Ministry | ‘of a formal declaration that it is impossible to continue the government under existing cir- cumstances, the paper being accompanied by en appeal for the dissolution of the Assem- ly. | Third-—The complete retirement of the prosent Ministry and a government acceptance | of a Oabinet constituted exclusively from the | ‘party of the Right. THR PREAIDENTIAL PERSONALITY ALMOST AT A LIFE PERMANENCY. ‘This latter idea is unlikely of realization; but, notwithstanding the improbability, it is more likel¥ to come to pass sooner than the re: tion of President Thiers. WILL THE MINISTRY &XPLAIN ? President Thiers’ government will probably make a statement of the course which the Min- | | preservers, istry intends to pursue during the session of | the National Assembly at Versailles to-day. ‘WHAT 0% SAID BY THE PEOPLE AND IN THE PRESS, The public mind remains exceedingly anx- | ious, and the situation is canvassed in all its dearings overywhere, Tho Committee of Thirty, formed yesterday by tho Assembly, is regarded as hostile to the Republic. Tho republican journals of Paris declare that the Assembly docs not represent the will of France and demand its immediate dissoln- | tiom, ant President Thiers is expected to re- | } sigan COMMERCIAL CONSEQUENCES, The news of the governmental situation whioh exists at Versailles has unsettled busi- ness of every description throughout the whole of France. ‘Pho Commiites of Thirty Assembled in Session and Duly Organized. Versaruies, Dec. 6, 1872. Bee Gommittos of Thirty appointed by the Molina Assombly yesterday, iu accordgnes | agit has been since the sth inst, NEW YORK HERALD, 8 with the motion of Minister Dufoure, Leld ite | Tae MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF first meeting to-day. The following OFFLORRS were elected by the members, viz. : Presipent—The Baron do Larcy. Vick Prestoent—M. Audiffret-Pasquicr. Secreranies—MM. Lefevre, Pourtalis and Haussmanville. ADJOURNMENT, The organization having heen completed the committee adjourned to meet on Monday, the 9th instant, when it will proceed to busi- ness. POINTS OF TIE PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION. According to the motion by which it was created, the committee ia instructed—as has been specially notified to the Hranp—to draw up the project of a law defining the responsibilities of Ministers aud for regulating the rolations of the several powors of the State, and it is expected that it will report a bill declaring that any Minister who shall be censured must resign, and excluding the President from debate in the Assembly, but granting to him, by way of compensation, a limited veto power. It ia also inferred from the poli cal compo- sition of the committee that any proposition for a dissolution of the Assembly will be re- jected, and that nothing more radical than a partial renewal of the Parliamentary Cham- ber ouce a year or once every two years, like to the American Senate, will be entertained. CITIZEN APPREHENSION AND SOLEMN ADVICE, The Bien Public says the complexion of the committee makes the public situation all the more precarious. While the Executive and the Assembly are equally adverse to a coup, the countyy cannot tolerate the present state of affairs. It intimates that the French nation should spontaneously intervene—which is in- terpreted to mean | that it should continue to Soud in petitions in support of ML Thiers and his government, eee oar cael AK CABINET A UNIT. President Thiers has resolved that thors shall be no change in the Ministry anlil the report of the Committee of Thirty ia pre- sented, Then, if the. report is unfavorable to him, he will oppose it in the Assembly. M. THTERS’ RECEPTION OF HIS FRUENDS. An official reception was given at the Execu- tive residence last night, which was nume- rously attended. M. Thiers freely conversed with his friends on the politicat crisis. The President regretted that a partial re- newal of the Assembly seemed impossible, and declared he was determined to adhere to the policy announced in his message. MORAL FORCE PLATFORM OF THE EXTREME LEFT. Ata meeting of the Extreme Left to-day it was decided not to move for the dissolution of the Assembly until the question had been thoronghly agitated by means of petitions, ‘The Si¢cle started this idea and it is rapidly Petitions for the dissolution | are coming in from all parts of the country. THE ELECTORAL FRANCHISE LAW. The Assembly Committee charged with the consideration of the electoral law have decided to recommend that the voting franchise be | given all males over twenty-five years of ago who have lived one year in the districtin which they vote, and that the duty of voting be made compulsory. Bullion in Flow to the Bank. Pants, Dec. 6, 1872. The specie in the Bank of France increased 600,000 francs during the past week. SAVED FROM THE DEEP, Another Survivor of the Burned Missouri at Nassau. omental Smith's Heartrending Story—Drifting for Three Days and Nights on a Boat’s Keel—Landing at Abaco After Eight Days—Existing Sev- enteen Days on Water and Raw Crabs. TELEGRAM TO THE NEW YORK HERALO. Havana, Deo. 5, } Via Key West, Dec. 6, 1872, Richard Smith, another survivor of the burned steamer Missouri, has arrived at Nassau. Smith was the man who abandoned Conway's boat and swam to the capsized boat for the pur- pose of righting her. Conway cut the painter con- necting the two boats and they driited out of sight of each other. THRRE DAYS ON THE BOAT'S KREF, Smith and Alfred Steward drifted with the | voat bottom upwards for three days at the mercy | of the waves. On the fourth day they managed to right the boat, and, making a sail from life- they proceeded and landed on the most weatern key of Abaco vn the seventh day, STEWARD DIKS AFTER LANDING. After landing Steward died ‘rom @ fever pto- duced by exhanstion. Smith caught alittle rain water on the ninth day, and that, with prickly pears and soft shell crabs, sustained him until the seventeenth day, when he was taken off the island and brought to Nassau, He goes to New York on the steamer Columbia. DEEP SEA TELEGRAPHS. The Aspinwall and West Indies Cable Still Silent—Confasion of Management and No Messages, TELEGRAM TO THE NEW YORK HERALD, PANAMA, Nov, 27, 187 The Aspinwall and Jamaica cable is still silent, It probably witt not be repaired for some time. Str Charles Bright, who tas charge of this cabie, is at loggerheads with the West India Cable Company. No tarii for through business has yet been agreed upon, nor will any be fixed antil the trouble between the managers is settled, The conduct of business on the West India Gom- pany'’s lines (the cable from Cova to Kingston, Jaw, 4c.) i very uygaliniacrory 10 She pwbtloy To Tax Porcy HovpEKs:— ‘The trustees of this company having, after a critical examination of the thirty years’ experience of the company, aud on mature deliberation, unant- mously reaolyed once more to reduce the rates of premium jor insurance, it 18 rin their benalf that the outetne members should be informed of the causes which have led to this important meas- pee ony of the effect which it will have upon their ‘The rates of premium first used by this com- pany were borrowed, of necessity, from English companies. In the year 1853 alterations and re- auctions were recommended by Mr. Charles Gill, the frst Actuary of the company, and adopted by the trustees. In 1868 Mr, Sheppard Homans, then Actuary, proposed further corrections, many of them reductions, in the table of rates, which, after tavestigasion, were adopted on his recommenda- ion. In & recent atatement to the public of the finan- cial condition oF the company on the It of Octeber last, in which are given the results of some thirty years’ active business, it ts stated that of all the cash premium receipts nearly fifty per cent of the same has been returned to the policy holders, Far the greater part of this large return consisted of payments on the part of the assured over and above the actual cost of the assurance which the premiuins were invended to secure, THEORY. To understand this it is premised that the busi- ness of the company 18 founded upon what is called the American table of mortality, aud four per cent interest for money. The table does not materially differ from other# in use, except in the assump- tion that, ven number now living at the age, say 35, none will survive the age 96. i Ene principle of life contingenoies it is found that the true amount to be paid at the beginumg ofevery year to assure a sum payable at death 1s variable, being smaller at the younger and greater at the older ages, Tunis variable ranges from $7 70 at age 25 to $061.54 at age 95. to insure $1,000, on the supposition that the management of money will be without-expense. These variable amounts are called the annual cost of insurance. But as all business operations are attended by expenses, a certain amount, usually a percentage of these costa, is added, and the reault is another series of variable amounts called oMice premiums. But to pay & constantly increasing premium every year would be attended by serious inconve- niences, and it has become the custom, in conse- quence, for the company to charge and the assured to pars fixed sum every year, of which the value is such that ita ultimate effect will be the same as that of the variable payment. It 1s a kind of aver- ay being too large at toe younger and too small at the ol The practice of the company has been to add forty per cent of the net rate to cover ordinary expenses, Then, takimg the age Ol 35 a8 an example, we may write :— Net premium.. Forty per cent . $18 94 . 1% Annuat office premium . 38 This sum is made of three distinct parts, namely — 1st—The amount it must contribute to death claims for the firat year, called the cost of insurance, discounted one year........... +. $8 5: 2d—The reserve, or fund which must be hel by the le ed to provide against the defi- ctency in the net and uniform premium to pay, its contribution to death claims at the ighor ages. (The gsi tion is that #5 2AENB NT cour per i Wy eeeesseee 10 32 ~u—Provision for yeatly expenses, forty per ceut of items 1 and 2 Pevoeteeseecnee hewn a — Premium as before. soe one 826 38 This pr¢mium is cemputed in advance from an assumed rate of interest and of mortality. It 1s, therefore, the theoreti premium, but must nevertheless bo paid by the assured, ‘The assuimp- tions made in ita c ‘uction call for the largest sum which was ever believed to be necessary. EXPERIENCE. {n practice, however, the Mutual Life has found this premium much larger than was necessary in every year of its existence. To determine what surplus accrued in any given year the premium was resolved into its component parts, as above described, and the over-payments separately com- puted, with the following results, namely :— First—Only about three-quarters of the sum which the premium contributed to pay death Claims was needed, The remaining one-quarter ‘was surplus, Second—The interest has been from six to seven per cent on the reserve, instead of four per cent, a8 assumed, This excess has contributed largely to surplus. Third—The ratio of expenses to receipts during the whole existence of tae company has averaged only tem per cent, and during the year 1871 was less than eight per cent, and the provision of forty per cent of the net premium for expenses has here- tofore been much in excess of what was required. The surplus from this source has been very great. The result is that large dividends have been re- tarned to policy holders from their over-payments. The majority of the members have left their divi- dends with the company to.accumulate in the form of reversionary additions to their policies, The company has now been in existence thirty years. In every one of these thirty years it has issued a policy to a person aged thirty-five, who 18 now living, and who has paid each year's pre- mium in full, and has left his diviaénds or overpay- — to his credit in the form of additions t6 his Polic; The ratio of the present cash value of the addi- tions now credited to each of the policies, to the amount of money paid by each, will be found oppo- site the years designated in the following table :— rear Per Year Per Year Per af Issue, Cent. of Issue, Cent, of Issue. Cent. 27 1862, see ol 1852. over permet to be twenty-seven per cent of tne jum paid, and that even upon the policy which has been but one Nag! in force, by far the most ex- pensive ; whereas the greatest reductiun in the pro- posed nl scale of rates is less than twenty-two per cent. There can, therefore, be no doubt of the safety of the proposed measure, or of the ability of the new policies to take care of themselves, to pay their own Way, and accumulate a surplus, It will be appatent from an examination of the Edo | table, that if the premiums upon those thirty policies bad been made twenty-two per cent less than they were, by diminishing the percent- age addition for expenses, the result would have veen that the policy-holders would have retained the cifference in their own pockets. The compa- ny would have been just as sound, for, as will be seen by the facts above stated, it would have held the same Rene reserves on each policy, but the dividends or over payments would have been smaller. Without disturbing any old policies, it is now pro- posed to put in force a new table of rates for new policy-holders. In these new rates a change is made in the percentage for expenses other than death claims, reducing it from forty per cent to ten percent, Upon whole life policies the effect is to reduce the premiums twenty-one and four-tenths percent. Upon other classes of policies the reduc- tion is not 80 great. No change other than a re- duction in the provision tor working expenses is proposed or made. When the computations for dividend are made each premium will receive the precise surplus which it earns. The low premium will receive a comparatively small dividend, because it will have earned less. The high premium will receive its surplus Peet i eeane @ same basis as hereto- fore, and its dividend, far from being diminished, will be enhanced by the introduction of newly se- lected and younger lives. Should any of our old or present policy-holders, having policies capable of being surrendered, wish to take advantage of the new and lowered rates, in such case, as they will make a new contract with the company, they will, on surrendering thetr old policies, receive trom the company their surrender vaiue in cash. Asa matter of information it may be stated that on policies five years old or less the exchange thus effected will be of some eae gain to the hotder. On older policies there would be uo in. omhe company has made ample provision for the fulfilment of every one of its outstanding con- tracts, Even if it should cease to-day to insure any new members its fund would be sufiicient to pay every death claim, as presented, and to return yearly to licy holders a surplus, Ite assets would, in the course of a few yea.s, begin to de- crease, but the last dollar would be on hand to pay the last legitimate demand. The surplus accruing under such circumstances, however, would neces- sarily be considerably less than if its new business were continued. New lives, in youth and heaith, admitted to the company, bring a reduction in the proportionate ave! Josses by death. Present members have been benefitted in tis way. New members will shortly have the same advantage in their tarn, and meantime will receive their insur. ance at fair and safe rates, while the comer, is entirely mutual in ite operations, and both new and old members must mutually benefit each other, It is no less the interest than the duty of the trustees of the company to take care that no plan or change shall now, or at any time, be adopted, which would in the least interfere with the rights, the safety or the advantages of the old policy-hold- evs, a8 they and their friends are themselves in- cluded among the number. ‘The faith of the policy-holders in the soundness of the company and the conservative and careful management of its Trustees ought not, therefore, to be Shaken by the attacks which are made upon it by interested and unscrupuions persons who are envious of tts position and feat acknowledged success . S. WINSTON, President. W. H.C. BARTLETT, Actuary. The Mataal Life rance Company of New York. ‘The undersigned, as a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurauce Company, tas received a communication from Mr. Stephen Kngltish, 137 Broadway, reflecting asevercly upon the management of that company and upon the personal character of tts President, ‘This tetier las veew very wideay cirouiated, aad the friends of the company d¢em it entitted to respectiul notice. I have no personal acquaintance with Mr. English, and can only mfer tho ject of the letter irom the bitter spirit which pervades it. The personal reflections upon the dent of the company are but repetitions of charges which have been made in years past, and are now gathered up in form calculated to promote serious apprehension. They have all been long since made the occasion of the fullest investigation by the trustees and by legislative committee, and have re- sulted in nothing sufficient to impair confidence in his character as a safe custodian of so high a trust. The trustees have again and again expressed this opinion of bis fidelity, The present eminent position of the Mutual Life Company is, in their opinion, the most unanswer- able testimontai of his zeal, fid: tity and efficiency aa an oficer. I can only reaffirm, in the strongest term, as an individual member, what the trustees have unitedly done under their signatures, that the company is in the best poasibie condition for the security of its members; {ts funds are most judiciously cared for and invested and are sulicient to meet any possible lability, id that the administration is guarded by the trustees with the utmost serutiny which the delicate nature of their trust demands, and that the entire manage- ment is surrounded by all the checks and guaran- tees which long and careful experience has sug- gested for the perfect safety of the insured, With respect to the important change of policy recently adopted by the company—namely, a re- duction of premiums upon new policies to be is- sued—I can only say that it was recommended by the eminent Actuary of the company after most deliberate investigation, received the maturest re- view by the appropriate committees and was adopted by the Board after full discussion of its nature and consequences. The fact that for many years the annual dividend returnable to the in- sured amounted to a considerable proportion of the premium received, and that the company had ised through every variety of experience with the same substantial result, led to the inquiry whether it was not safe to the company and just to the insured, and therefore the sonndest policy, to diminish the annual casn payments rather than toexact more than was absolutely required for the sake of subsequently returning @ portion of it to the payers? Jt was clearly shown that this change could be effected without prejudice to old policy-nolders, who would receive upon the annual adjustment of profits their pro rata share of their contributions, and that the business of the company would gradu- ally lapse from the old system into the new, with equal justice to all concerned. It would be mani- festly improper for me, an individual member, to discuss a question which the Board has thus de- liberately adopted; but if it shall be found that the Pree have taken a step unwarranted by expe- rience they will as promptly retract it. GEORGE S$. COE, OPINIONS OF DISTINGUISHED ACTUARIES ON THE COURSE OF THE MUTUAL LIFE IN- SURANCE COMPANY. ———- —-— New Yor, Dec. 4, 1872. Mecsra. K12UR8 WRIGaT, SHRPPARD HOMANS gad D, PARKS Fackuser, Consulting Actuaries, ,-“y. GENTLEMEN—As the public mind ia Agita od upowt the subject of the reduction Of rates ™ ‘fe Thaur- ange by the Me nal Life Insurance Company of thla city, we respectfully request from you your views upon the circular issued by that company, and which we enclose herewith. Your tong connection with tife insurance, and your character as trusted experts in the business, together with the fact that as Actuaries you occupy positions independent of individual companies, will give your views great weight with the public and with us. We are, gentlemen, your obedient servants, William H. Beers, Vice President New York Life Insurance Company; John E, De Witt, President United States Life; Lewis ©. Grover, President of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company; N. D. Morgan, President North America Life Insurance Company; H. B. Hyde, Vice President Equitable Life Assurance Society; Robert L, Case, President Security Life Insurance and Annuity Company; L. W. Frost, Acting President Continental Life Insur- ance Company ; Henry Stokes, President Manhattan Life Insurance Company; C. Stanton, President Knickerbocker Life Insurance Company; Andrew Glil, President Guardian Life; James A. Taber, Secretary Merchants’ Life; Fred. Schwendler, Vice President Germania Life Insurance Company; George B. Satterlee, President Eclectic Life Insur- ance Company; F. E, Morse, Vice President Com- monwealth Life Insurance Company; James H. Frothingham, President World Mutual Life Insur- ance Company; Charles N. Morgan, President Excelsior Life Insurance Company; Edward Jones, Presicent of the National Life Insurance Company; C. W. A. Bouck, President Brooklyn Lite Insurance Company, New Yors, Dec, 6, 1872. GENTLEMEN—We are in receipt of your favor of the 4th inst., asking our opinions in regard to the reduction of premiums tobe charged for life in- surances by the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, a8 set forth in the published letter of its Actuary, Professor Bartlett, to which our at- tention is specially directed. We have examined that circular with care; its precise meaning is not clear, while some of its statements seem inaccurate. It is gravely proposed to reduce the cost of life insurance by reduving the rates of premium, But the Actuary of that company, of all men, ought to know that, in @ mutual company, the cost to the insured can only be reduced by reducing the work- ing expenses. For the premium, so far as it is found to exceed the actual cost, is returned to the in- sured, with interest, from year to year. Mutual rates are designedly, and certainly ought to be, higher than the probable cost; the excess forms the capital, the balance wheel, the perennial reservoir, which exalts contingency into certainty. This has been most abundantly vindicated in the history of the “Mutual Life” itself, The language of Professor Bartlett's letter is quite inaccurate where it speaks of reducing the margin of the premiums from forty per cent to ten, and may have misled many, as it has puzzled us. For in only one of the present premium columns is the margin as high as forty per cent and in some it is only twenty-one per cent; so that only a few of the margins are reduced to the extent he mentions, To state it accurately, all the various additions tothe net premium for expenses and contingen- clea are to be reduced to ten per cent, and the rate per thousand for an ordinary life policy ona person aged thirty, which is now $2: 70, will then be $17 82, while for a five-year endowment policy the charge willbe from $20 to $199, the propor- tionate reduction being thus greatest where the premium is teast and the risk of the company the | heaviest—a self-evident error which needs no further exposure from us. ‘The next section of the Professor's letter provides: for the retention of the surplus—accruing from these new rates—until it amounts to one (originally stated as two annual premiums) annual premium, which is to be retained as a margin for contingen- cies not provided against in the lower premiums; but this very course will make the average outlay 1 the insured for the first ten years greater than now, and cause the company to retain on hand a Much larger surpius than it now does, At present the average surplus on hand for each policy is only about forty per cent of the annual premium, while on the new plan it will in time become at least 100 per cent. The two following sections of Mr. Bartlett's letter may be regarded as necessary sequences to the one just mentioned. They are as follows:— 2. That these credits be held to be assessable to | meet any deficit that may arise from any circum- stances whatever. 3, That im case of death the whole of the re- versionary credit to be paid to the heirs, as at present. ‘The fourth and last we would fain believe a mis- print; but we are assured to the contrary, as it is the sate in all the publications, viz. :— 4. That existiog. policy-holders may have the option either to leave their policies undisturbed and pay thetr old rates, receiving. of course, their proportional dividends and reversionary credits, or to take out new policies, with their existi eredits addea, and pay tne new rates correspo ing to their then present age, provided they sub- ject themselves to a new medical examination and are pronounced assurable. It ig diMcult properly to characterize its terms, and we are quite sure that no intelligent present policy-hoider will care to accept the second option it affords, as he would thereby forfeit all hie share in the present reserves except as to dividends. As to the general plan, it isa virtual abandonment of those cardinal principles of security and equity upon which the claims of the Mutual Life Insurance Company to the confidence of its policy-haldera and of the community have rested. It cannet be car. ried into effect without injustice ta existing policy- holders aad a decrease in their security, If carried out at all the reduced rates anould apply not only to (ature memabora, but also to all existing policy ATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1872—TRIPLE SHEET. -* i holders, sick amd well, without neooasttating changes in extsting contracts, by impose dew - conditions, which may be prejadicial to their inter- ests a8 well as to their security. The reserves of the old policies are in effect to be used a8 a capital stock, to bear the expense of getting new business at stock rates, which must considerably exceed the margins of the new premiums. But this expense to the old members cannot be reimbursed to them by profits derived from the new oves at any {uture time, because they are mutual members and entitled to any surplus that may ever accrue from their own premiums, How far it is competent for the trustees of « strictly mutual corporation to admit persona to memberskip upon terms more favorapie than have been, and continue to be, exacted from existing members, is a question of law, a4 well as of mathe- matics and equity; but if new members are to be admitted into the Mutual Life atthe expense of those already insured—as will be (he case if the plan is carried into effect, and the security of the latter be lessened thereby—then it is an injustice, of which every policy-holder ta that company has a right to complain. Nothing can expres our views better than the language of a life company only second to the ‘“Mu- tual” in size, which thus announces its intention not to reduce its rates :— “Nothing containing any element of hazard is truly safe unless more than apparently sale; & {an mutual company has no resource whatever evond the premiums charged upon its policies; wherefore these premiums must be apparentiy higher than any loreseen contingency will exhaust, or future solvency is in peril." The cash premiums of the Mutuat Life received from 1843 to 1871 were $64,677,770 23, as shown by its published statements, and the working ex- penses were $10,533,680 58, or 16.29 per cent. The expenses could not well have been much tess if the premiums had been lower. By the reduction proposed by Professor Bartlett the premtums would have been about $53,000,000, which would have made the expenses not much, if any, less than 20 per cent, or double the margins now proposed on new policies, A company to be entirely composed of such policies could not stand without a large capital behind tt, and no person of much common sense can contend that what is too weak to stand alone can add strength to anything. . We are unhesitatingly of opinion that the reduec- tion of premiums as proposed by the Mutual Lile Insurance Company of New York is unwise, (le- ficient in security, unjust to existing policy-holders and prejudicial to their rights and interests, and deserving our unqualified disapproval. We are confident, however, if the trustees of the Mutual Life should carefully reconsider this Matter, they will that they are about to take a atep Snakeckate by their own experience or tat of any other company, and will decide to refrain from tt. i ELIZOR D rHOMANS, Consulting SHEPPARD HO! Actuaries. D. P. FACKLER, Pe rma rae Hasserein,—On Friday evening, December 6, at the residence of his father, 300 Mott street, Ja J. HABBERLIN. Notice of funeral in to-morrow's paper. For other Deaths see Ninth Page. Burnett's Miniature Toilets.—Klegant ASSORTED COLORED BOXES, containing a completo Toilet Appendage, admirably adapted to the Toilet Table and traveller's porunanteaa. AC ‘ABLE HOLIDAY ee holesale by druggists’ sundry menevery where. A.=For a Styiti direct to the manufactur street, h and Klegant Hat go , ESPENSCHEID, 118 AMPION SAFES, 251 and 252 Broadway, corner of Murcay street. A.—Herald Branch Office, Brooklyn, corner ot Fulton avenue and Boerum street, Open trom 8 A. M. to 1°. M. On Sunday trom 3 to #1", M, A.—Percmptory Sale of an Entire Stock of JEWELRY, DIAMONDS, CORALS, &C, Must be closed before January 11, 1878. VICTOR BISHOP, Fifth Avenue Hotel, RIGHT HAND SIDE (NORTH HALF) ONLY, he stor tely occupied by Bi p & Kein, A Popular Treatise on Gems—Fourth edition. Latest discovories of Diamonds, &c., by Dr. L, FEUCHTWANG. Price $5 per copy. L. & I. W, FEUCHTWANGER, 56 Cedar street, New York. A.—Remeay for Sore Throat and Hoarsencss,—KENDALL'S BRONCHIAL TROCHES edily relieve; keep them in the pocket this change- able weather. traordinary Drawing. J. B. . W Wall street; Post office box 4,685, New York. A.—As a Remedy for Colds, Rheumatism, Neural; c., the RUSSIAN VAPOR BATHS, 25 East Fourth street, are unequalled. Burke's Hi at popular prices. Seal Skin Batchelor’ the world; the only true and perfect dye; harmless, reli- us. At all druggists. 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