ABSTRACT
In overlooking the subjoined Table any person will be surprised at the small number of purely mutual insurance offices, and will discover that the mutual principle spoken of in so many prospectuses is the principle of mutual advantage between the proprietors and the assured. He will also observe how profitable a business life insurance must have been supposed to have been from the / gradual increase in the proportion of the profits guaranteed to the assured, each newcomer bidding higher than its predecessors: thus, beginning with the Guardian, which offers one-half, and going down to the Star, which promises nine-tenths of its profits to its policy-holders, until at last the proprietary bodies become so anxious to insure their fellow-citizens, that they offer to do so for nothing, and to return to them the whole of the profits accruing from their insurances.
