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    584 t&fye 3Ltaiet. [Saturday,

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    power, however heterogeneous the composi...

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    Nothing So Uncertain As Human Life In Re...

    on his life , is enabled , without any sacrifice of present comfort , to leave the younger branches of his family , who would otherwise have been wholly . provided for , in comfort and independence , without at all embarrassing the heir to his estates . The farmer , holding the lease of a valuable farm determinable on the death of the survivor of three lives , but renewable on payment of a fine of £ 500 at the termination of the last life , may assure the only existing life , on the duration of which the lease depends , for £ 500 , and thus secure the means

    of continuing his farm . Or suppose a tradesman , finding himself involved to the extent of £ 2000 , but with a flourishing business only requiring time * to enable him to pay his debts . His creditors are satisfied that the money will eventually be paid , and appoint two of their number to investigate the state of his affairs every three months . By effecting an assurance on his life ,

    payable out of the profits of the business , they secure themselves against loss in case of their debtor ' s death . The application of life assurance also facilitates improvements . A man of capital enters into partnership with the discoverer of an important improvement in machinery , by which a large fortune might be realized , but for which the outlay in the first instance would be considerable : he assures the inventor * s life for

    £ 7000 for a term of seven years at a premium of £ 1 2 s . lid . per cent . Thus he protects himself from loss in case of his partner ' s death before the invention can be brought to perfection . In the case , also , of partners retiring from business , the principle is most valuable . Perhaps the arrangement is , that one shall retire upon an annuity of £ 500 : the retiring partner , to secure himself from loss in case of his partner ' s death , assures the life of the latter for a sum sufficient to purchase an annuity of like amount .

    The course of true love never runs smooth ; and perhaps one of the chief causes of this is , that the wheels of Hymen drive heavily for lack of the anti-attrition which is the god of our day . One of the most interesting features of assurance is the means it affords of removing the frowns from foreboding fathers , and of softening the hearts of irritated relations and guardians . A policy of assurance is a legal and valuable settlement on a wife , and may be marie to atone for a slender balance at the

    banker ' s . For instance , a person having a life income of £ 1000 a-year , who is desirous of marrying the daughter of a rich man , answers the objections made by the lady ' s friends as to his inability to provide for his wife and family in case of premature decease , by assuring his life for £ 8000 , and settling the policy with the necessary sum out of his income for payment of the premium . Or a merchant marries a lady with £ 5000 , part of which he desires

    to employ as capital in an old-established firm , with which he is about to form an advantageous partnership . The trustees object without a proper security for the repayment of the money in case of his death before it is replaced . An assurance is effected on his life for £ 3500 , the money lent ; £ 1500 invested on mortgage at 4 i per cent ., out of which the premium of £ 64 Cs . 3 d . is paid : and the affair is thus arranged to the satisfaction and advantage of all parties .

    We have here shewn a few only of the temporary advantages which assurance offers . The adoption of these , however , will always depend upon individual interest . But whenever a man ' s income ceases with his existence , the neglect of life assurance becomes a positive crime against his own kindred and against society . Wherein lies the difference between neglecting to provide for your household while living and leaving them to certain starvation , as far as you arc concerned , at your death ? People sometimes say they

    cannot afford to insure . But will any sane man affirm that he cannot afford Is . per week to . secure £ 100 for his family ' ( Others are afraid to insure because they may not be able to keep up the premiums . Hut the use of such an argument should teach a man the imperative necessity for assuring at once . Jf he feel . such difficulty in withdrawing so much of his income , let . him reflect , on ( lie

    frightful condition into which his family would be plunged , were he suddenly cut , off from among them . But though there may be some show of reason in the excuse , in reality there in none . In any case where income is uncertain , the amount assured should he spread over small policies : ten for £ 100 instead of one for £ 1000 . Or in the " Sovereign" a special arrangement is made , whereby , if difficulty of this kind arise , the Policy muy be surrendered for a new Policy * without

    gers . Imagine him picturing to himself that which he has seen happen to others , and from which he cannot anticipate any immunity in his own case his household gods roughly handled by strangers ; his conduct coarsely condemned by his " friends ;" the love of his children failing before the rude shocks of poverty , and their respect , by continual and bitter suffering , dwindling down to curses on his memory . It is an awful thing for a man on his death-bed to consider that , ere his corse grows cold , his widow will be haggling with the undertaker for the price of his coffin , and that his wife and children must hunger and thirst to insure hinpi a decent sepulture .

    premium . When the cold shiver runs through the frame , when the quickened ^ pulse , the fevered tongue , the patchy complexion , the short cough , and the hectic flush appear , it is too late then to rush to the assurance office and offer yourself for a life policy . Imagine the situation of a man who , suffering under slow decline , feels his energies become less and less , and his resources , at the same time , day by day , decreasing . With the prospect of a speedy dissolution , he knows that all who are dependent upon him—the victims of his neglect—must go forth to seek their bread amid the closed hands and stony hearts of

    stranany further Annual Premium , for a sum to be agreed upon , payable at the death of the assured . There are others who " intend" to assure ; but postpone any assurance , because they cannot spare enough to effect it at once for £ 1000 . The course of such persons is worse than stupidly absurd . They should insure immediately for £ 100 , or what they can afford ; and there are few who do so this year that will not assure for double the amount in the next . It should by such people also be remembered that every year decreases the chances of being accepted , save at higher rates of

    584 T&Fye 3ltaiet. [Saturday,

    584 t & fye 3 Ltaiet . [ Saturday ,

    Power, However Heterogeneous The Composi...

    power , however heterogeneous the composition of that power , she must accept at the same time its interference , or , further , its domination . The Church must be severed from the State , we are told , if she is to exercise the independent management of her own affairs . We can conceive a Church sufficiently tolerant and comprehensive to be identical with the State ; but , as matters are now , we are willing to accept the alternative of separation rather than that of thraldom .

    As far as respects doctrine , we should not expect much of unanimity or of toleration , at all events in . the first instance , from the newly assembled synod . Its members might meet with professions of amity sincere enough until the conflict of opinion arose to rend the veil of Christian cnarity ; then would ensue fierce debates and angry recriminations common to all assemblies , and especially to those to whom the right of discussion is unwonted , and

    from which even celestial minds are not exempt The majority would lay down a rule of faith and practice so strict as to leave the minority no choice but to submit or secede . This would be an inconvenience ; but it is inseparable from independence of legislative action , and one for which no remedy can be found until the majority learn their duties towards the minority , as well as their own rights But , as matters are now , this inconvenience is preferable to the present thraldom .

    Redress for practical grievances , however , would reasonably be looked for from the new assembly . No single official of the Church would have , as now , the power of crushing one of its ministers , however powerless , or of ignoring his claims for justice , and for a due investigation of his alleged offences . One duty of the synod , probably exercised through a committee , would be the inquiry into all such cases of alleged injustice ; an arbitration between the contending parties ; and on the refusal of one to plead to its jurisdiction , the justification of the other , and his restoration to his

    position in society and in the Church . With the existence of such a court of appeal as this , the exercise of irresponsible power would be impossible . The case of Mr . Harvey , late of Antwerp and now of Boulogne , as against the Bishop of London , is one of a host of which such a synod would take cognizance . Indeed , had such a synod been in being , the case would' never have come before the public at all . As it is , it is one of the most painful and perplexing with which we have ever had to deal . The tangled skein of the dispute has remained unravelled for years ; and after lay and clerical

    dignitaries have been appealed to in vain , public opinion is called upon to undertake the task . In the long series of documents before us , in which Mr . Harvey shows himself a man conscious of his wrongs and determined to obtain their redress , we are told of the various occasions on which the Bishop has interposed his authority to prevent his appointment to certain foreign chaplaincies , or to aid in procuring his dismissal from them . We learn how , in spite of his alleged unfitness for the duties of chaplain at Antwerp , he was licensed to those of an English curacy by the same diocesan by whom his

    unfitness had been pronounced . We find the unwillingness of the rest of the Episcopate to allow him to exercise his duties under their jurisdiction , without his being reconciled to the Bishop of London ; and we see that prelate demanding , as the condition of an amnesty , a public apology of his own dictating , accompanied nil the while by a pertinacious refusal to state the grounds of his hostility to Mr . Harvey . All this is stated clearly and without contradiction , and an ultimate appeal made to public opinion . The verdict of the Press , Conservative and Liberal , has been given long ago ; and

    if that of the public coincides with it and is unfavourable to the Bishop , of which there seems but little doubt , his lordship , we conceive , has only himself to thank for it . He inay contend that the verdict is given on ax partc statements , and such to n great extent we admit to be the case ; but , it will be asked , whose fault is it that they are ex partv ? Why docs not the Bishop avow the causes of his opposition , and justify to the world the course which now presents him in so unfavourable a light ? The public would give him fair play as well as Mr . Harvey ; now it can only suppose that he cares not for its opinion , or fears the result of an avowal .

    With such a case as this the dealing of a synod would b « prompt and prcremptory . The charges against Mr . Harvey would he ascertained . If frivolous , he would bo reinstated ; if substantiated , lie would he condemned . If no' charges were forthcoming , his absolution would follow an a matter of course . Hut , pending the assembly of a

    Commons , the representatives of those religious bodies tnko part in their discussion , and in the votes by which they arc- determined . This is only explainable on the ground of the connection between Church and State , and the confusion between apiritual and temporal intcreatn induced thereby . If the Church claims tho protection of the secular

    have shown that its safest und most dignified position is one of impartiality and reserve . Parliament , too , as at present constituted , is confessedly a most unfit arena for the discussion of matters of faith and practice affecting any particular sect or party of religionists , except ho far as these may bear upon the general interests of the realm . What would be said of the fairness of uniting members of the Church of England , to decide upon doctrinal points or ceremonial observances for tho Catholics , the Unitarians , or the Society of Friends ? And yet , when Church mattura am canvassed in the House of

    The people of the Anglican Church are not docile enough to submit to decrees made by their spiritual rulers , in the framing of which they have not themselves participated . They would prefer that such should emanate from Parliament , or , much as they dislike arbitrary and irresponsible dictation , from the Crown itself . But the Crown ' s best province is that of administration , and the Executive cannot afford to peril its popularity by the patronage of one party amid the many into which the religious world is divided . The events of the last seven months

    Convocation as it now exists is powerless . Prorogued by the Crown immediately on its assembling it meets only to register its own vassalage ; and even if its present ephemeral existence were continued , so as to be coextensive with that of the other estates of the realm , one element of power would be wanting to it , the presence of the laity to share in its deliberations . Without this no church assembly can be complete or satisfactory to the Protestant mind .

    the ruler of the see of Exeter and a large section of his clergy and laity , the forced resignation of Mr . Bland at Norwich , and the reluctant and unrequited abdication of Mr . Bennett at Knightsbridge , besides numberless minor sores and grievances connected with ecclesiastical administration , daily revealed in different parts of the country , tend to strengthen this conviction , and to induce from it a practical result .

    THE PRIEST , THE BISHOP , AND THE SYNOD . The conviction that the troubles and difficulties of the Church can only be composed and solved through the assembling of a synod or council of her members , is daily gaining ground among those who pay even ordinary attention to the signs and exigencies of the times . The differences which have lately occurred in the dioceses of Manchester and Worcester , the uncompromising hostility between

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 21, 1851, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21061851/page/12/