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    Untitled Article

    and thus the new office at once receives a number of lives which would otherwise not have been assured at all . It ought really to be remembered , and the consideration would disarm much animosity , that a new office is not a competitor to steal away business , but a propagator of a great and beneficial principle , carrying blessipgs home to a circle which another has failed to reach , and really aiding its elder brethren by the force of example . An assured life is valuable in a neighbourhood , for no one can so gracefully urge the adoption of life assurance as he who has assured his own life . It is the knowledge that class interests would work well when appealed to , with the peculiar advantages especially applicable , which led to the formation of

    assurance offices for the several professions . " The Law Life , " which is the pet of the legal profession , has enormous funds at its disposal ; and finds an agent in every lawyer in the kingdom . "The Church of England " addresses itself to the clergy , for whom it particularly sets aside a portion of its profits . The medical profession has also an office devoted to its interests . The author , the painter , the sculptor , the musician , men who give nuts to the world and scarcely have the shells for their trouble , have hitherto had no association , with tables adapted to their peculiar professions . And yet to no men is the adoption of assurance more important , nor would any more gladly avail themselves of its benefits were the system rendered possible to them .

    Men engaged in literary , scientific , and artistic pursuits are frequently chargeable with improvidence by those who reap both benefit and pleasure from their exertions . But people occupied in the ordinary or mercantile affairs of life can form no estimate of the question . They know nothing of the abstract world in which the author moves , nor the incompatibility of what would be called " business habits /* with the feverish state of his imagination . -

    The uncertainty of income , even with successful writers , makes " provident habits , " as people term them , a thing of difficulty . The tradesman , or salaried person , or man of ascertained income , may regulate his expenditure , and pass through his hum-drum existence in the favour of commercial minds . But let him try to think of an income oscillating between £ 600 and £ 100 per annum . Let him try to imagine a man disenthralled from

    the close and studious labour of months into actual , successful , and triumphant print , and he will have some idea of his own absurdity when he talks of " improvident habits , " and " ill-regulated expenditure . " His merit lies in his account books , an author ' s in the emanations of his genius . Many a writer would leave his study and conduct an office with more acumen than he that was " to the manner born , ' but the casting up of ledgers and imaginative pursuits are seldom compatible .

    Ihe Athen-iKum Life Assurance Society , while it commends it itself to the public generally , has been established especially on principles' " adapted to the feelings , views , and wants of literary men , artists-, and musicians . " It proposes to institute a Provident Fund to be raised by the mutual contributions of the members . The first five hundred assurers who desire to participate in this benefit , will agree to leave a tenth portion of the Hums for which they are assured for the purposes of this fund , which will be thus applied : —

    I . To keeping up the policies of members who having paid five annual premiums shall be unable to continue them . This aid , which will bo continued for five years , is not eleemosynary , but to be regarded as a loan , to be repaid to the Society at the convenience of the assured , or to be deducted from the policy when it becomes duo . II . To grant small loans , on deposit of the policy , to those members who may require temporary assistance . III . To qualified members who really need it , tho directors will have the diHcrotionury power of granting Huch an amount as will purchase in tho . Society an annuity not exceeding £ 100 during the lives of such members and their widows .

    IV . To divide among tho . surviving members Ht the end of twenty yearn from the date of tho list being cloned , tin ; whole of the remaining and unapplied portion of the fund . A similar fund \ a also proposed to be raised by applying a portion of the entire profits of the Society for Huoh of the original shareholders as may become distressed . It in proved by statistical inquiries that nearly five per cent , of the adult population of the kingdom arft constantly incapacitated from following their occupations , and a great portion become permanently invalided . As a provision ftgainflft thi <*

    state of things , the " Athenaeum" proposes to grant policies to secure certain sums payable during sickness , or when accident or other casualty shall prevent the assured obtaining his livelihood . A very important feature is the introduction of a system new to this country , but worthy of general adoption—the granting of policies payable to the holder . The assignment of a policy , though of frequent occurrence , is attended with expense and vexatious delays . The Athenaeum policies , on the contrary , may be transferred as readily as a banknote , and all delay and publicity in the assignment will be avoided .

    The Society enters upon business with a paid-up capital of £ 100 , 000 , thus giving the security of a proprietary company ; while , proposing to divide 70 per cent , of the profits among those assured on the participating scale , they secure all the advantages of a mutual association without incurring any liability . Such are some of the advantages held forth by

    the " Athenseum , " and we earnestly recommend them to the consideration of the professions to which they are particularly offered . There is no class of men who more require perfect freedom of mind . Anxiety and fear for the future have been destructive of the finest efforts of genius . Fettered by forebodings , the brain loses its elasticity and imagination its force . We cannot avert all the evils that flesh is heir to ; but we can , by combined

    operation , very greatly mitigate their severity . We would that all literary men and artists would at once assure their lives * The sacrifice is but momentary . The paltry premium will be readily made up by the increased capacity for labour . The ordinary requirements of our existence are but healthy stimulants to exertions ; but the prospect of leaving those we hold most dear to contumely and want , or of seeing them pining around us while we are rendered incapable by sickness , has driven many a noble brain to madness and embittered many a dying hour .

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    THE BLOOMER REVOLT . Dress is the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual man , typified to the sense ; whence we are to conclude that all Englishmen approximate to each other in a remarkable degree , even more than each man does himself at different times . Thus at present there is a general desire in the Englishman to signify that his intellect is a lax-wristed intellect , choked , as it were , with two huge bows that cross its moral gullet and expand over each shoulder . And every Englishwoman wishes you to understand that her genius exactly resembles that of the Honourable Mrs . Crunch / . Mrs . John Bull and the Misses J . B . have precisely

    the same amount of the unknown quality a ? which that fashionable lady signifies by the make of her berthe or charming arrangement of her chatelaine . The model at which all Englishmen aim , without quite reaching it , is the waiter : the clergyman ranks next to that Hamlet of modern fashion ; the perfect gentleman is a waiter in all but the ease with which he bears the outward garb of absolute nullity ; the undertaker cannot be reckoned on the same level with the perfect gentleman ; the Puseyite is ihe mediicval perfect gentleman in the costume of the nineteenth century , as it might have existed in olden time—a sort of archaeological journey to the middle ages and back again .

    In the United Statea , however , they laugh at our "Old-World" notions of licence , and are making mince-meat of fashions , which are to be retained only for the drawing-room . There Mrs . Bloomer lias set Woman on being the Grand Turk , in Oriental costume . So do extremes meet ! The old Grand Turk is met in the new Far West—only it it is a woman—ra sort of harem-scare ni version of the MusNiilman . And , what is more , the journals are discussing " the dress excitement" with a

    heat that pertains to something serious . Is it to be petticoats or Turkisms , Greek jackets , jean " upenccivs , " and flowing trousers ju . st full enough ( o cofreeal " the limb , " but terniiiiutirrg in a Iroot that defies mud ; or aha . ll it he the petticoat—the . self-same hallowed garment , floating in drawingroom , or draggling in the mud , or—but we r * eed not recall to the harrowed feelings of our lady readers what things are related to nave happened in high winds .

    Presidential election , Abolition , Nullification , Cuba invasion , Mormon Ism , « re obscured hdtove ! the fire of this last discussion , Mrs . Bloomer it * accused of having borrowed the idea from on « of that class whom in England we only narno with the utmost atretch of liccnce , by excessively circuitous

    allusions to Magdalen hospitals . Bat , right of wrong , Mussulman or Christian , the " Bloomer " costume is now quite the rage—in discussion and is getting into real use in several parts of the Union . It has been excessively difficult to change ft costume , on critical grounds . Charles the Second failed to introduce the pleasing Hungarian typG } the red-heeled experiment was a failure ifi England . Paul of Russia ' s attempt to suppreua

    round hats was among the proximate causes of his death . Beards , or no beards , defy dictation . But our transatlantic cousins , with their trenchant notions , are proposing to make a universal change from the one costume to every costume . How absurd , says the Home Journal , to have any one fashion to be worn b y all ; why this servility , this voluntary suicide on the Procrustes'bed of Fashion J Look at Broadway , with its bob-tail coats : —

    " The commonest law of beauty , for a male figure , demands broad shoulders and narrow hips—yet here is a universal fashion , which so clips the skirts that the edges stand out with the curve at the waist , and make a man ' s hips look as progenitively big a $ a woman ' s . There is the same uninquiring servility as to every male fashion that comes up—beards and hats , cravat-ties and waistcoats , troiisers and shirt * bosoms . Lately , eiren ( and we never knew anything droller in the whole history of fashion ' s caprices ) , there could scarcely be found a young man in NewYork ^ the edges of whose hair were not turned under from ear to ear , like the roller of a curtain * with the barber ' s eurling-tongs !

    ' ? Against the slavery of fashion our Republican country is properly the place for the first revolt . Of all the weeds of monarchy and aristocracy , such servile imitation of the exterior of others is the most rank and unprofitable . It extends to other apings of our superiors , quite as easily . * Every one of Alexander's followers , ' says Montaigne , carried their heads oft one side as he did ; and the flatterers of Dibhysius ran against each other in his presence , and stiinibled at ; and overturned whatever was under foot , to seem as purblind as he . Deafness has been affected for the same reason ; and because the Emperor hated his his wife , Plutarch records that the courtiers repudiated theirs whom they loved : and , which is yet more , uneleanness and all manner of diesolutenees has been

    in fashion . " We repeat , that we see signs which look to us as if the present excitement as to one fashion were turning into a universal inquiry as to the sense or propiiety of any fashion at all . " Is not this anarchy frig htful ? Next we shall see Englishmen wearing garbs that best suit their aspect and avocations : shopmen democratically giving up the attempt to be mistaken fot Lords and Baronets ; even Lords probably , such is the depravity of human nature , giving up the attempt to look like waiters ; working-men content to look

    like working-men , and not like seedy gentlemen employing the most inept of tailors ; girls content to look lovely , and various as the Jinta of their hair ; and Ihe world in general content to become picturesque . No ; that cannot be : to be picturesque is what no Englishman would ever submit to be thought—vulgar . Beatity is for the theatre , the painter ' s studio , and other haunts of vice . Kespectability is always ugly : if it for an instant ceases to be so , it begins to doubt itself . In the

    United States they are not tormented by these considerations , because they are Republicans , and Republicans are never respectable . Handsome is that handsome does : if English wives wer £ to become handsome , away with conjugal fidelity , witli our institutions , our Monarchy , < Ste . You cannot remove one inch of the social fabric without pulling down the whole—so firmly is it built I Englishmen , then , will continue to dress themselves like bricks—all alike .

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    KNCU . IHII J'KRMNd ON THIi flOVBIlNMKNT ITALIAN OUTUAOKS IN ITALY . Si'iftrr ih not extinct in Kngland . The Biihjolned passages arc extracted from tt letter by a man whose name , Jf we had permlanioii to wtitc it , would add « MifrOpean reputation to the magnanimity of the things said : — " Gladstone . '*! letters , I trust , will open the eyes of those who are Momnolent at the Hide of tluinanity . Tho Hiimc order of things exists at . ( tome as ; U . Naples . In ft iinpoKsihle to engage an American ship a , nd crevfr ,. to

    reduce in a single hour the island fortress in which tho Neapolitan patriots are imprisoned ? Oa th , o firat of October , t shall bo ready with my twenty pounds towards this service .. It may be unlawful to offer a reward for the seizure of certain men wh-o are lawless ., Out abroad huve i ! avowed my opinion , and I repeat it , that he who is above the law , in out «/ the law ; that he who forcibly takes that station , may and ought to be forcibly ejected from it * * * U ntil noino dreadful example }\ na awakened from their lethargy tho nations of the Continent , and chattered the tliroaoa their pcrfidione rutara

    Untitled Article

    Aug . 16 , 1851 . ] & $ t fUafce * . 775

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1851, page 775, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1896/page/11/