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    Tfe. 501. Oct. 29, 1859-1 THE LEADER. 12...

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    ITALIAN CONFEDERATION. Tfbom a correspon...

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    English Life Assurance In The United Sta...

    trouble ourselves about the affair , were it not a truly public matter , affecting not only the interests of joint-stock companies , but of commerce and trade generally . . It seems that a very proper and cautious rule exists that such data shall be furnished by each English company as shall enable the public officers of the State to examine annually into the validity and stability of each institution . To this there can be no possible objection , nor does any ever appear to have been made . As it is the custom of most English offices only to have quinquennial valuations of their policies made , it doubtless is imposing extra expense and trouble to make such returns annually , but the rule seenis always to have been complied with when applied for—and to the very letter by the International .

    In June last certain official insurance commissioners at Boston made an official report on the International to " The Honourable the Senate and House of Representatives" of Massachusetts , which , we will venture to say , is unparalleled as a state document . Were it not confirmed byrepublication here we should be inclined to doubt its genuineness , and should be apt to consider it a violent newspaper article , got up for some malign nant or trade purpose . A searching inquiry into

    the affairs of the company could not be objected to ; but the report in question is not confined , as every official document of every European Government would be , to a plain unvarnished statement of facts ; it launches into abuse which would he thought unbecoming and derogatory in the most violent newspaper in our country . As one instance of its slang , " we may cite its description of one of the company ' s reports as " laying on-a general and liberal coat of whitewash . "

    It goes , most unnecessarily and irrellevantly , into a general history of the formation of the company and of its founder , reviving long since settled matters , but sinking all the facts that would prove that the disputes of twenty years since have all been satisfactorily adjusted , and that the early expenditure and those who caused it , have for many years been obliterated , and its founder has now nothing to do with the company . So that , if there were any truth in the slanderous gossip this report revels * , it has long been corrected to the satisfaction of the shareholders and policyholders , and to the public at large . Indeed , a careful perusal of the report , personal and malignant as it is , would alone justify the company . It tells us ' tliat " the manner in which the

    very properly put the Boston valuation , into the hands of another of the highest and most acute of our actuaries , Mr . F . G . P . Neison , a gentleman entirely unconnected with the Society , and his clear ,, elaborate , explicit , and ample statement , which will be found in another -portion of our paper , proves the American Commissioners _ to be grossly mistaken and absurdly ignorant , if not malicious , and slanderous . That any public Government should have received such a statement , and sanctioned any document so palpably tinged with the virulence of partizanship , is as strange as it is alarming . What company or trader will be safe that may thus have a reputation , for solvency reported away under a semi-government authority . In the particular instaiififi wft have cited it is not of such

    importance , as the International will , only come more brightly and clearly out of the purgation : having thus had given to it an opportunity of making a full statement in reply , which must be perfectly satisfactory to all connected with it ; and which must even raise it in public estimation . This , however , mig ht not be the case with every individual , nor with a less fixed and firm association . As far as the public are concerned they should be put on their guard against documents bearing official recognition , and which , therefore , acquire so much influence in the « yes of law-revering Englishmen . We are sorry to be obliged to come to the conclusion that the views when

    Boston report has ulterior ., ; especially we consider more closely some of the . very extraordinary insinuations contained in it . Perhaps the whole mystery is explained when we find "the Report " concluding with a prayer that some further legislation- may be made to protect the citizens of the . State against the operations of foreign Life Assurance Companies . " Hiric illee lacTirymcer But it is a new phase of rivalry to conceal an attack in an official Government report , and we shall really feel an interest in observing whether the names of Elizur Wright aaid George W . Sargent ( the commissioners ) have , can , or will ever , appear connected with a home and American Life Assurance Company . *

    data of the policies was finally placed before us demonstrates that the ultimate authority at the parent office , London , is honest enough to face rio-id investigation . " Again , it tells us the office "Is regulated by a special private Act of Parliament , which makes each and every stockholder , past and present , liable to the last farthing of his property for every claim against the ' eompany ; " and also , that as regards the United States , " the gentlemen who have act «| k < as the local board of directors in New York , of the 'American branch' ( where 100 , 000 dollars of . the assets nrc invested ) , are many of them of the highest respectability , and of such responsibility that they , probably , could make up the deficiency of the society ' s funds , and still remain rich . "

    This then proves that the state of the policyholders is doubly secured , and that in no case could they by auy means be damaged . ^ With respect to the sharoholdors , then , it remains for them to notice in what way they please this strange , and wo must say , erroneous document . Ike head and front of the charge of the commissioners is that , according to thoir valuation , the society has ^ 200 , 000 less assets in hand than it ought to Gave . This , if ovon the fact , would be no injury to the assurors , as wu have seen four times the amount could bo called up immediately it was

    wanted . But the really publicly important part of the business is that this is not the fact , nor anything like the fact , and that the company really possesses a very handsome surplus . We do not pretend to dooide such complicated matters as tho valuation of a Hfo assurance business , but the diroctors of tho Company have not only called upon their own eminent consulting aotuarv , Mr . W . S . 13 . Woolhouso , to make a speoial valuation of the Society ' s assets and liabilities up to the end of its last ' financial year , the result of which appears to us perfectly satisfactory , but , in order to avoid all cavil or suspicion of favoritism on the part of an officer of two Society , they have also

    Tfe. 501. Oct. 29, 1859-1 The Leader. 12...

    Tfe . 501 . Oct . 29 , 1859-1 THE LEADER . 1203

    Italian Confederation. Tfbom A Correspon...

    ITALIAN CONFEDERATION . Tfbom a correspondent ^ After awaiting the good pleasure of the despot of the Tuileries for a month or more , the" deputations from the Duchies were honoured with an interview at St . Cloud on the 16 th , during which the oracle was pleased to favour them with a repetition of the imperial platitudes which have issued in profusion from the Napoleonic mouth and pen since the cessation of the Italian war . Having at length received direct confirmation of that which they before had but too much reason to know—namely , that it was neither the will nor the policy of the

    French Emperor to aid them in becoming independent , it would now be well that the DucMes should feel that they are left to themselves to work out their policy of annexation with Piedmont , and that they should vigorously hestuthemselves to accomplish their designs , mdopendently of friend or foe . The present is . the right moment for taking a decided course , and initiating ' the movement wh ich may result . in the lull accomplishment of their wishes . It is clear almost to demonstration that the actual cessation of hostilities between Italy and Austria is intended by the latter to last only until her exhausted treasury shall be in some decree replenished- —thanks , in

    part , to the ten millions sterling of which poor Piedmont Js to bo mulcted through the good offioos of her French friend and ally—and the season of the year again comes round " when kings go forth to battle . " It would bo well , then , if Central Italy could bo induced to make use of tho present opportunity , and assume an attitude which should convince both Franco and Austria that , after having declared her wishes , she intends to make them respected , and will cany them out , spite alike of Austrian intimidation and French cajolery . Aooording to tho fiat of Napoleon , Parma and Piaoenza will bo given to Piedmont , but if Tuscany is to enjoy tho same privilege , it will be due to her own good sword and wise oounoils , as this forms no part of tho French

    Eiacertain it is that if he is permitted to arrange matters as he likes , the future state of Italy will but slightly differ from the past . He boasted of the 4 indertaking the late war for an " idea" ; to the Tuscan deputation he declared that the war had brought them great advantages : since he feels that such is the case he could , not do better than content himself with having realised his " idea , " and generously suffer "the Italians to follow up , in their own way , the advantages which he has obtained fbr them . The articles of the treaty signed at Zurich embrace the eonfederative union ofthe different States of the Peninsula , including Austria , in virtue of her Venetian possessions , with the honorary presidentship of the Pope . It might have been hoped that the long time employed in discussion at Zurich would have sufficed to convince the consulting powers of the absurdity and impracticability of such a scheme under existing circumstances . That a federative union of the Italian States under proper regulations and restrictions would he for the advantage of Italy admits not of the shadow of a doubt .. But it is no less patent that any attempt to make powers coalesceactuated by principles so diametrically

    , opposite and antagonistic as those which sway liberal and progressive Piedmont , persecuting and' mediaeval Rome :, bigotted and cruel Naples , and aggressive and unscrupulous Austria , must within a few months result in . total failure , and , most likely , disastrous revolution . The idea of the federative union of the Italian States -is not new ; so far from this , it . is ' anterior to the time of Lorenzo di Medici . Independence , combined with union , was the object and tendency of the policy of all the States of the Peninsula from the eleventh to the fifteenth century , when the

    numerous small republics and petty princes were reduced to a few princi p al States , each having its own government , and being in fact independent of the rest . With the object of attaining , maintaining , and defending this real independence , the great leagues of the eleventh century were formed , includin g the cities of . Piedmont , of Lombardy , Venice , Bologna , and Romagna . In tlie thirteenth and fourteenth centuries arose the party leagues of the Guelphs and Ghibelines , of Tuscany and

    middle and upper Italy , which tended the one to dominate over the other . Towards the end of the fourteenth , and beginning of the fifteenth , century , leagues were formed for the defence of particular States against others ,. to prevent usurpation and undue aggrandisement . On the settlement of the Italian States in the fifteenth century , by the treaties of Lodi and Naples , leagues > vere entered into for the maintenance of peace and * reneral union throughout the whole of Italy .

    During this epoch , the Popes , . Cosimo , and afterwards Lorenzo di Medici , strove to put an end to war , to re-establish peace , and to organise fresh leagues , to counterbalance existing private leagues , au < f thus maintain a just equilibrium among the Italian States . This principle of the balance and counterpoise of forces , understood by Italy alone in the fifteenth century , l ? egan in the sixteenth to be applied to Europe generally , and subsequently formed the basis of European international relations . After that it was universally allowed that confederation was far more sound national policy than conquest . The conception of tho federative system , in preference to the employment of force , which prevailed during the sixteenth century , and gra dually extended over the whole of Europe , was due to Homy the eomwnawiuu

    Fourth . It is seen , then , that me u » the Italian States for private or general leagues is of old date , and continued down to tho time when the Peninsula was divided into nearly the same urinciPftl States of which it is now composed . Who * this , union was broken for Italy ' * misfortune , then commenced her troubles from foreign invasio and domination , and tho annihilation of a most aU the native Italian powers . Yet during aces of servitude the earnest dosiro of emanoi-Son and the supreme wish of independence have Con transmitted * from generation to ^ ration . w , ti , « viow of recovering their lost freedom

    and political standing , leagueshave . beenattempted Sue after time . The plan of confederating Italy , in order eucctually to . oppose foreign age * esBion , Las boon always kept in view , Jroin the sixteenth century downward ^ by the House o * . Savoy , wlioh , oven after the decay of Italian power ra erencral , maintained the valour and glory of the ftalian arms . Profiting by the traditions of cml

    peror ' s plan of adjusting Italian attau'S . politioal heretics and unbelievere still persistently oling to the notion that the Tueoan throne is a « stinea to be filled by one of the Bonaparte family { whether or no this is the design of the Emperor ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 29, 1859, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29101859/page/15/