Chapter I (4)

The most tempting names which could be chosen allured the world. Prospectuses of a vaunting character were passed from hand to hand. The promises of Mr. Montague Tidd, of the Anglo-Bengalee, were nothing to these. Widows were to be provided with all they required, for a nominal amount. Children were to be endowed with fortunes, for comparatively nothing. The London Annuity and Laudable Society out-heroded Herod. The coffee-houses were haunted by agents to spread the praises of a royal Lancaster. Touters--this modern title is expressive--who brought a certain number of subscribers, were allowed the privileges of most of the societies for nothing. A commission of the first year’s premium was no uncommon reward to those who attracted a new victim, and very heartless and infamous was the result. In one case a son brought the savings of a parent to a company which was sure to break. Friends insidiously recommended societies, under the guise of kindness, to their intimate acquaintance, and so long as they pocketed the heavy reward, were regardless of consequences. These associations spread from London to the Continent. Amsterdam, Bremen, Denmark, and Hanover were filled with wretched bubbles of this character, which carried misery to hundreds of homes.

The people were utterly guiltless of all knowledge on the subject. The information which had been brought forward from time to time, had produced its effect on the scientific portion of the world, but those who were practically interested, knew nothing. The young and unthinking were so ignorant or so indifferent to results, that they were content to pay only a fourth or fifth of the fair amount of premiums for their deferred annuities. The elder and more cunning--and by these the societies were principally supported--thought that the bubbles would last their time, and with the selfishness of age, were content. But in the midst of their contentment a shell exploded in their citadel. Dr. Price, an unsuccessful Unitarian preacher, and the contributor of many rare papers to the “Philosophical Transactions,” published the work which has brought his name down to the nineteenth century as a deep thinker. There had been hitherto little or no advance in the science which regulated assurance or annuities on lives. The reputation of the doctor drew attention to his work. It was there found that, not content with the tables of mortality from Breslau, he had obtained correct tables from Northampton, Norwich, Chester, and other places. He entered minutely and by name into the prospects of the various societies, he proved it to be utterly impossible for them to perform their contracts, and averred that, if some fresh arrangements were not entered into, to strengthen the existing companies, they must inevitably fail, for they were founded on principles which could not last; which must deceive the public; and which could only pay the contrivers.

It was seen that no ordinary care and research had been bestowed on his calculations. Chester, Warrington, and Shrewsbury had contributed the English portion of the statistics. From abroad, Sweden and Finland had sent the mean numbers of the living with the annual deaths for twenty-one successive years, together with a complete set of tables of the values of the annuities on single lives, both with and without the distinction of sexes, which completed the interest of a book that is yet quoted with respect. If the book itself were thus important, the character of the writer was sufficiently established to secure a favourable reception to his doctrines. He had already written on the subject, and nothing more completely evinces the general ignorance than that his two previous papers should have been devoted to topics which are now self-evident; one of them being to demonstrate that marshy ground was insalubrious; and another, to prove that the value of life in large close towns, was less than in the wide, invigorating country.

From Dr. Price the world first heard that half of the children who were born in London, died under three years of age; that in Vienna and Stockholm, half died under two; in Manchester, under five; and in Northampton, under ten. “London,” said the worthy Unitarian, “is a gulf which swallows up an increase equal to near three-fourths of that of Sweden.” The results of the work were as good as the work itself. The papers of the day quoted its opinions; the subscribers to the annuity societies took the alarm, discontinued their subscriptions, or demanded an inquiry. The rage for establishing new annuity companies was as suddenly stopped by Dr. Price, as in 1720 the old companies were stopped by the arm of the law. A partial reformation was attempted in some, the managers of others suddenly disappeared, while a still greater number finding it impossible to continue, dissolved their society and left the unhappy annuitants to regret their carelessness and digest their loss. Of course, the author did not escape abuse, and many an anathema was launched at the head of the doctor, and many an epigram pointed at him by those “who live by others’ losses.”

In 1779, he made a further attempt to contribute to the information of the public in an “Essay on the Population of England;” but the data on which he founded his opinion, was scarcely certain enough to render his conclusions of much value to the statistician. In the fourth edition of his work on annuities, he gave several valuable tables on single and joint lives, at various rates of interest, not only from the probabilities of life at Northampton, but also from the same probabilities at Sweden. His after career is well known. He was employed to form a plan by which the poor might support themselves in sickness and in old age; but which, when introduced to the senate, was rejected. He lived to see the French Revolution, and to be a prophet of good concerning it. Horace Walpole writes in 1790:--“Mr. Burke’s pamphlet has quite turned Dr. Price’s head. He got on a table at their club, and toasted to our parliament being made a national convention.... Two more members got on the table--their pulpit,--and it broke down with them.” In another letter he says:--“Dr. Price, who had whetted his ancient talons last year to no purpose, has had them all drawn by Burke; and the revolutionary club is as much exploded as the Cock Lane Ghost.” In 1791, he died, and his name has survived Horace Walpole’s sarcasms with his own revolutionary principles. The information which he presented, was various and important. Gossip it would be called by some; but it was that gossip to which the historian appeals as a confirmation of his views. The poor’s rates were estimated by him at 1,556,804_l._ in 1777. He calculated that 651,580 was rather over than under the population of London in 1769. He explained that the most obvious sense of the expectation of life, was that particular number of years which a life of a given age had an equal chance of enjoying; and he gave it as his opinion, founded on extensive information, “that the custom of committing infants as soon as born to the care of foster-mothers, destroys more lives than sword, famine, and pestilence united.”

By his calculations he showed, that--

In Stockholm on an average of 6 years 1 in 19 died.
London ” ” 1 in 20-3/4 ”
Rome ” ” 1 in 21-1/2 ”
Northampton ” ” 1 in 26-1/2 ”
Madeira ” ” 1 in 50 ”
Liverpool ” ” 1 in 27 ”
Berlin ” ” 1 in 26-1/2 ”
Sweden (Stockholm excepted) ” 1 in 35 ”
Vaud, Switzerland ” ” 1 in 45 ”
Ackworth, Yorkshire ” 1 in 47 ”

The varied and valuable information of Dr. Price was of great use in stimulating the minds of those having authority, an improved register of mortality being established at Chester in 1772, and at Warrington in 1773.

The earliest endeavour to encourage a spirit of saving among the poor was made in 1773, a bill being introduced into the House of Commons, the leading provision of which was that every parish where there were four or more officers might grant life annuities, payable quarterly, to those who were willing to purchase them, according to a table annexed.

The bill was supported both by the social and political economists of the House, who had met at Sir George Savile’s, in Leicester Square, for this purpose. It had been contrived with much kindness, and framed with considerable ingenuity. It passed the Lower House by a majority of two to one; but in the Upper House was lost. The importance of measures of this character cannot now be doubted. All that tends to produce habits of thrift among our poor is exceedingly desirable. It is from them we must always hope for a large portion of our taxes, and to give them an interest in order, to place them in a fair social position, to engender habits of self-respect and independence, are considerations of vital importance; and it is, therefore, to be regretted that, at this early period of our manufacturing career, some such impulse was not given to the industrious working-man.

In 1777, several of the brokers and underwriters of the City were mulcted of their iniquitous profits. During the minority of Sir John St. Aubyn, and at the early age of seventeen, this gentleman found himself, like many more, in want of money. The scriveners of the City were ready, the extravagances of the youth supplied, an unlimited amount of cash was placed in his possession, and in return he granted to the underwriters annuities guaranteed on the estates to which he would succeed at twenty-one, assuring his life with them in the mean time to guard against contingencies. Not content with this, the underwriters made him procure the additional guarantee of a schoolfellow, for which the young scapegrace pledged his honour to his friend. When he came of age, he fortunately arrived also at years of discretion, and instituted a suit in Chancery for the destruction of the bonds which he had granted. Great was the wrath of the money-changers; but their anger was vain, and they were obliged to content themselves with the righteous decision, that on repayment of the principal, with 4 per cent. interest, the annuity bonds should be given up.

Nor was this a solitary instance in which the assurance- and annuity-mongers were overreached. The following will be found both painful and impressive as a warning.--

Residing in one of the wildest districts of Yorkshire, was one of those country squires of whom we read in the pages of our elder novelists. He could write sufficiently to sign his name; he could ride so as always to be in at the death; he could eat, when his day’s amusement was over, sufficient to startle a modern epicure; and drink enough to send himself to bed tipsy as regularly as the night came. He was young, having come to his estate early, through the death of a father who had broken his neck when his morning draught had been too much for his seat, and he seemed at first exceedingly likely to follow his father’s footsteps. In due time, however, being compelled to visit London on some business, he found that there were other pleasures than those of hunting foxes, drinking claret, following the hounds, and swearing at the grooms; and that although on his own estate, and in the neighbourhood of his own hall, he might be a great person, all his greatness vanished in the metropolis. With the avidity of a young man entirely uncurbed, enjoying also huge animal powers, he rushed into the dissipation of London, where, as he possessed a considerable portion of mental capacity, he contrived to polish his behaviour and to appear in the character of a buck about town, with some success. His estate and means soon became familiar to those who had none of their own; and as he was free enough in spending his money, and was not very particular in his company, he was quickly surrounded by all the younger sons, roysterers, and men who lived by their wits, of the circle in which he visited. With such as these his career was rapidly determined. The gaming of the period was carried to such an extent that it might truly be termed a national sin, and into this terrible vice he threw himself with a recklessness which almost savoured of insanity. Mortgage after mortgage was given on his estate; but as this was entailed, it was necessary that he should also assure his life, which was done at Lloyd’s, on the Royal Exchange, and with those usurers who added it to their other branches of business.

In the midst of his career there seemed a chance for his escape. It may be supposed that many intriguing women fixed their eyes on so desirable a match, and that many young ladies were willing to share the fortunes, for better or for worse, of the possessor of a fine estate. At last the hour and the woman came, and the Yorkshire squire fell in love with a young lady of singular beauty, half friend and half companion to a faded demirep of fashion, who, aiming at the gentleman herself, had committed the incredible folly of placing her friend’s charms in comparison with her own. To fall in love was to propose, to propose was in this case to be accepted, and the marriage took place. Immediately afterwards they left the metropolis--the squire’s income being much reduced by his liabilities--for his Yorkshire home, dreaming probably sweet dreams of the future, and building castles in the air, of which moderation and amendment were the foundation. For a period he kept them. A son, heir to the entail, was born to him, and soon after this he again made his way to London, for some reason which does not appear. Once more within this vortex of pleasure, his good resolutions failed him, and he was led to the same pursuits, the same pleasures, and the same vices. He forgot his wife in the charms of new beauties, he forgot his child, he forgot his home. He gambled, he betted, he hazarded his all, until one fine morning, after a deep debauch with some of his companions, where dice and cards with closed doors marked its character, he arose a ruined man. He had lost more than his whole life would redeem, the only security of the winners being his annuity bonds on the estate, and his various life assurances should he die. At the same time, he was aroused to a sense of the wrongs he had suffered; he saw that he had been the dupe of gentlemen sufficiently practised in the art of play to be called sharpers, and saw also, what was doubtless the fact, that he had been cheated to their hearts’ content. Almost mad, burning with consuming fire, he determined to be revenged. Another night he was resolved to try his luck, and by playing more desperately than ever, win back, if possible, the money he had lost, and then forswear the dangerous vice. With a desperate resolve to outwit them, in life or in death, he met the gamesters. He had hitherto arranged all the losses he had sustained, and his opponents were prepared to humour him. The doors were once more closed, the shutters were down to exclude light, refreshments were placed in an ante-chamber, and for thirty-six hours the last game was played. The result may be guessed. The squire had no chance with the men banded against him, and high as his stakes were, and wildly as he played, they fooled him to the top of his bent. Exhausted nature completed the scene, and the loser retired to his hotel. He was ruined, wretched, and reckless. He knew that if he lived it would be a miserable existence for himself and his wife, and he knew also that if he died by his own hand, not only would his family be placed in a better position than if he lived, but that the men who had wronged him would be outwitted, as the policies on his life would be forfeited, and his bonds become waste paper. His mind soon became resolved. He evinced to the people of the hotel no symptoms of derangement; but saying he should visit the theatre that night, and go to bed early, as he had been rather dissipated lately, he paid the bill he had incurred, giving at the same time gratuities to the waiters. He then wrote a letter to one of the persons with whom his life had been assured, stating, that as existence was now of no value to him, he meant to destroy himself; that he was perfectly calm and sane; that he did it for the express purpose of punishing the men who had contrived to ruin him; and, as the policy would be void by this act, he charged him to let his suicide be known to all with whom his life had been assured. In the evening he walked to the Thames, where he took a wherry with a waterman to row him, and when they were in the middle of the current, plunged suddenly into the stream, to rise no more.

The underwriter who had received the letter, communicated it to the other insurers; and when a claim was made by the gamblers, they saw that they had been duped by the Yorkshire squire, although at the fearful price of self-murder.

CHAP. IX.

GAMBLING IN ASSURANCES ON WALPOLE--GEORGE II.--THE JACOBITE
PRISONERS--THE GERMAN EMIGRANTS--ADMIRAL BYNG--JOHN WILKES--YOUNG
MR. PIGOT AND OLD MR. PIGOT--LAPLAND LADIES AND LAPLAND
REIN-DEER.--INSURANCE ON CITIES.--GAMBLING ON THE SEX OF
D’EON--PUBLIC MEETING--DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE CITIZENS.--TRIAL
CONCERNING D’EON--LORD MANSFIELD’S DECISION.

For many years prior to 1774, a spirit of gambling which took the form of assurance was prevalent in the City, and so serious did it become that the legislature were compelled to notice it. This mode of speculation is one of the strangest by-ways in the annals of insurance. From 1720 much of the legitimate business had been usurped by it, policies being opened on the lives of public men, with a recklessness at once disgraceful and injurious to the morals of the country. That of Sir Robert Walpole was assured for many thousands; and at particular portions of his career, when his person seemed endangered by popular tumults, as at the Excise Bill; or by party hate, as at the time of his threatened impeachment; the premium was proportionately enlarged. When George II. fought at Dettingen, 25 per cent. was paid against his return. The rebellion of 1745, as soon as the terror which it excited had passed away, was productive of an infamous amount of business. The members of Garraway’s, the assurers at Lloyd’s, and the merchants of the Royal Exchange, being unable to raise or lower the price of stocks any more by reports of the Pretender’s movements, made sporting assurances on his adventures, and opened policies on his life. Sometimes the news arrived that he was taken prisoner, and the underwriters waxed grave. Sometimes it was rumoured he had escaped, and they grew gay again. Thousands were ventured on his whereabouts, and tens of thousands on his head.

The rebel lords who were captured in that disastrous expedition, were another source of profit to the speculators. The gray hairs of old Lord Lovat did not prevent them from gambling on his life. The gallantry of Balmerino and the devotion of Lady Nithsdale, raised no soft scruples in the minds of the brokers; and when the husband of the latter escaped from the Tower, the agitation of those who had perilled their money on his life, and to whom his violent death would have been a profit, is described as noisy and excessive. But no sooner was it known that he had escaped, than fresh policies were opened on his recapture, and great must have been the indignation of his high-minded wife when she afterwards heard this trait of City character. Devotional as is the mind of the great metropolis in the presence of mammon, there were perhaps no blacker instances of that foul spirit which sought to make money from the sufferings of gallant though mistaken gentlemen.

The advent of the German emigrants was another opportunity. In 1765, upwards of 800 men, women, and children, lay in Goodman’s Fields in the open air, without food. They had been brought by a speculator from the Palatinate, Franconia, and Suabia, and then deserted by him. In a strange land, without friends, exposed by night and by day to the influences of the atmosphere, death was the necessary result. On the third day, when several expired from hunger or exposure, the assurance speculators were ready, and wagers were made as to the number who would die in the week. In the western part of the metropolis considerable feeling was exhibited for these unhappy creatures; in the country a charitable fervour was excited in their behalf; but indubitably the greatest interest was felt by those operators in the Alley and underwriters of Lloyd’s Coffee-house, who had made contracts on their distresses, and speculated on their deaths. The benevolent spirit of England, however, soon put this speculation to an end, by providing the unfortunate Germans with food, shelter, and the means of emigration.

The trial and execution of Byng were productive of a similar mania. At each change in his prospects, slight as his chances ever were, the underwriters raised or lowered their premiums, the assurers were elevated or depressed. This victim of the most dastardly ministry that ever misgoverned England, had but little sympathy from the speculators on his life; and it is difficult to say whether their power, importance, and position,--for jobbers and underwriters then were merchants and men of family,--did not in some degree inflame the feeling for blood which had seized the people. It is certain it did not mitigate it. When Wilkes was committed to the Tower, policies were granted at 10 per cent. if he remained there a specified time. King George, when he was ill, and Lord North, when he was unpopular, were both scheduled in the brokers’ books as good subjects. When Minorca was lost, and the premier Duke of Newcastle “began to tremble for his place, and for the only thing which was dearer to him than his place, his neck,” there were plenty to open policies on his life, and plenty to avail themselves of the chances which threatened him. As soon as he resigned his premiership, assurances were entered into on the continuance of the new Pitt ministry in power; and when the duke reassumed office, fresh engagements were opened on the chance of his remaining in place. Successes or disasters were all the same to the assurers; the seals of a prime minister, or the life of a highwayman, answered equally the purpose of the policy mongers; and India or Minorca, Warren Hastings or Admiral Byng, were alike to them if they could put money into their purses. They made wager policies on the lives of the high-minded Jacobite, and they did the same on every batch of felons left for execution. Assurances were entered into on the life of the Regent Orleans of France; and when he was succeeded by Louis Quinze, they insured, not the lives indeed, but the continuance of his mistresses in the favour of the monarch. Day by day during the trial of the Duchess of Kingston for bigamy, there were frequent expresses from West to East with information of the proceedings, which, according to its chances, varied the premiums and excited the cupidity of the assurers. There was absolutely nothing on which a policy could be opened, but what was employed as a mode of gambling. Scarcely a nobleman of note went to his long account, without an assurance being opened during his illness, by those who had no interest in his life. These policies, especially those on political offenders whose existence trembled in the balance, were most mischievous. A pecuniary interest in the death of any one is fearful odds against benevolent feeling; and it was hardly to be expected that men should throw what influence they possessed into the scale of mercy. The power of opening merely speculative policies on private persons was also demoralising, and perhaps dangerous to life itself. It was not possible--it was not in human nature--to have money depending on the existence of the inmate of your home without watching him with feelings which the good man would tremble to analyse, and even the bad man would fear to avow. People then opened policies on the lives of all in whom they were socially interested; and under the plea of provision, acquired an interest in their relatives which was almost fearful and sometimes fatal, from its intensity. There is no doubt that the system was false and hollow. The son then insured the life of his father; the father opened policies on the life of his son: and when thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of pounds were dependent on it, who shall tell the feelings of the son, or dare to judge the sensations of the father, if sickness or disease opened a golden prospect? The mind shrinks from the horror of the idea, and recoils indignantly at the thought that such sacred relations of life should be thus sordidly regarded. But the argument might be carried further; for to many a dark mystery might a clue be given, in the remembrance that a pecuniary interest might have existed between the murdered and the murderer!

Nor was this all. One life was commonly pitted against another. Thus, Lord March, afterwards notorious as the Duke of Queensberry, laid a wager with “young Mr. Pigot,” that Sir William Codrington would die before old Mr. Pigot. As the latter, however, happened to be dead when the wager was laid, young Mr. Pigot refused to pay; so Lord March went to law, and compelled him to do so. Another adventure excited still more the cupidity of underwriters and assurers, and produced larger and more varied policies than any, except on the sex of D’Eon, whose career is sketched at the end of this chapter. It was spread in the papers that a country baronet had laid a heavy wager that he would go to Lapland, and in a given time, bring home two females of the country and two rein-deer. This, which was originally only a bet between a couple of foolish young men, created a mania at Lloyd’s: policies were first opened that the baronet would not return within the time; then, that he would not return at all; then, that he would die before he reached Lapland. The next movement was to speculate on his returning with the women; and this increased the premiums enormously, immense sums being risked on the childish enterprise. Merchants and men of rank joined in the assurances; and when the adventurer came back with his Lapland deer and Lapland ladies, large sums were paid by those underwriters who had speculated on his failure.

The “London Chronicle” remarks, in 1768, “The introduction and amazing progress of illicit gaming at Lloyd’s Coffee-house is, among others, a powerful and very melancholy proof of the degeneracy of the time. Though gaming in any degree is perverting the original and useful design of that coffee-house, it may in some measure be excusable to speculate on the following subjects:--

“Mr. Wilkes being elected Member for London; which was done from 5 to 50 guineas per cent.

“Mr. Wilkes being elected Member for Middlesex; from 20 to 70 guineas per cent.

“Alderman Bond’s life for one year, now doing at 7 per cent.

“On Sir J. H. being turned out in one year, now doing at 20 guineas per cent.

“On John Wilkes’s life for one year, now doing at 5 per cent.--N.B. Warranted to remain in prison during that period.

“On a declaration of war with France or Spain in one year, 8 guineas per cent.

“But,” continued the same journal, “when policies come to be opened on two of the first peers in Britain losing their heads at 10_s._ 6_d._ per cent., and on the dissolution of the present parliament within one year at 5 guineas per cent., which are now actually doing, and underwritten chiefly by Scotsmen, at the above coffee-house, it is surely high time to interfere.”

Such was the opinion of the journalist; and the following extract from “Every Man his own Broker,” is a further proof that legislation of some kind was absolutely necessary:--

“Another manner of spending the vacation formerly, was in insuring the lives of such unfortunate gentlemen as might happen to stand accountable to their country for misconduct. I am not willing to disturb the ashes of the dead, or I could give an account of this cruel pastime, the parallel of which is not to be met with in the instance of any civilised nation; but I hope we shall hear no more of such detestable gaming; therefore, as a scene of this kind fully laid open might astonish, but could not convey instruction, humanity bids me draw the veil, and not render any set of men unnecessarily odious.

“A practice likewise prevailed of insuring the lives of well known personages, as soon as a paragraph appeared in the newspapers announcing them to be dangerously ill. The insurance rose in proportion as intelligence could be procured from the servants or from any of the faculty attending, that the patient was in great danger. This inhuman sport affected the minds of men depressed by long sickness; for when such persons, casting an eye over a newspaper for amusement, saw their lives had been insured in the Alley at 90 per cent., they despaired of all hopes, and thus their dissolution was hastened. But to the honour of the principal merchants and underwriters, they caused an advertisement, some years since, to be fixed up at Lloyd’s Coffee-house, declaring that they would not transact business with any brokers who should be engaged in such infamous transactions.

“Insuring of property in any city or town that is besieged, is a common branch of gambling insurance in time of war, but ingenious gamesters, ever studious to invent new and variegate old games, have out of this lawful game (for insurance in general is no more than a game at chance) contrived a new amusement, which is, for one person to give another 40_l._, and in case Gibraltar, for instance, is taken by a particular time, the person to whom the 40_l._ are paid is to repay 100_l._; but if, on the contrary, the siege is raised before the time mentioned, he keeps the 40_l._

“In proportion as the danger of being taken increases, the premium of insurance advances; and when the place has been so situated, that repeated intelligence could be received of the progress of the siege, I have known the insurance rise to 90_l._ for the 100_l._ A fine field this opens for spreading false reports, and making private letters from the Continent. But how infinitely more harmless to trifle with property than to affect the life of a fellow-subject, or to injure him with the public, to serve a private end!

“Of sham insurances, that is to say, insurances without property on the spot, made on places besieged, in time of war, foreign ministers residing with us have made considerable advantages. It was a well known fact, that a certain ambassador insured 30,000_l._ on Minorca in the war of 1755, with advices at the same time in his pocket that it was taken.”

At length the legislature interfered, and in order to hinder the growth of gambling in life assurance, it was enacted, that “no insurance shall be made on the life of any person, or on any event whatsoever, where the person on whose account such policy shall be made _shall have no interest_, or by way of gaming or wagering; and that every such insurance shall be null and void.

“It shall not be lawful to make any policy on the life of any person, or on any other event, without inserting in the policy the name of the person interested therein, or for what use, or on whose account such policy is so made.

“Where the insured has an interest in such life or event, no greater sum shall be received from the insurer than the amount of the interest of the insured in such life or event.”[14]

This statute was some time before it came into effective operation. It was after this that policies and wagers were carried on to such an incredible degree in the trial of her Grace of Kingston. The underwriters were fully aware that their movements were illegal; but the spirit of gambling by means of assurance was too common to be put down at once by an act of parliament, and in 1777, a singular instance of the determination to grant wager policies came before the public eye. Charles Genevieve Louise Auguste d’Eon de Beaumont, popularly known as the Chevalier d’Eon, was the cause of a trial before Lord Mansfield, as to the validity of a policy without an insurable interest. The career of this man or woman, for the question was long doubtful, was familiar to the public, and will illustrate the excitement of the period. Equerry to Louis XV. doctor of law, ambassador and royal censor, employed in a confidential mission to the Russian court, and said to be a favourite of its empress, D’Eon came to England with a reputation ready made. He soon quarrelled with le Duc de Nivernois, ambassador from the most Christian King, and as D’Eon proved unsuccessful in his attempt to injure his grace, he was so incensed that he disclaimed all connection with the court and ambassador, declared that the peace had been accomplished in England by the agency of French gold; denouncing also, in no measured terms, those who had been accomplices, and pointing almost by name to men who, under the guise of patriotism, had betrayed their country. As a patriot’s capital is his public character, the accused parties waxed wroth, defied their calumniator, and talked of prosecuting him. The people, unwilling to lose their faith in English probity, took the part of their countrymen, and mobbed the knight wherever he appeared.

In the mean time, doubts arising as to his sex, his calumnies were all forgotten, and a new interest was attached to the chevalier, by the assertion of some that he was male, and of others that he was female. This was something fresh for assurance brokers, and the question was mooted at Lloyd’s. At first wagers were made; but as there was no present mode of deciding whether this extraordinary individual was man or woman, they were quickly abandoned.

It was decided, therefore, that policies should be opened on his sex, by which it was undertaken that on payment of fifteen guineas, one hundred should be returned whenever the chevalier was proved to be a woman. At first he pretended to be indignant, and advertised that on a certain day and hour he would satisfy all whom it concerned. The place was a City coffee-house, the hour was that of ’Change, and the curiosity of the citizens was greatly excited. The assurances on this eccentric person’s sex were greatly and immediately increased, policies to a very large amount were made out, wagers of thousands were entered into, and to the rendezvous thronged bankers, underwriters, and brokers. The hour approached, and with it came the chevalier, who, dressed in the uniform of a French officer and decorated with the order of St. Louis, rose to address the assembly. It is easy to imagine the breathless attention of the listening throng (for a million was said to depend on his words), the eager interest of some, the cool cupidity of others, the ribaldry of more, and the astonishment of all, as with an audacity only to be equalled by his charlatanry, he said “he came to prove that he belonged to that sex whose dress he wore, and challenged any one there to disprove his manhood with sword or with cudgel.” The spirit of the citizens had long passed away, commerce had sheathed the sword of chivalry, and none grasped the gauntlet for the honour of London. Bankers, brokers, and underwriters gaped at one another aghast; and though the boldness of the speech pleased many, it was far from satisfactory to those who came with the hope of winning a wager, or claiming their assurance money. The knight departed in triumph. Large sums were said to be offered him to divulge his sex. “I know for certain,” says a writer of the day, “that there were sums offered to him, amounting to 30,000_l._” However this may be, it was thought necessary to settle the question, if possible; and one of the first actions tried after the act to prevent gaming in assurance, arose from a policy on the sex of D’Eon, in which it appeared that Mr. Jaques, a broker, had received several premiums of 35 guineas, for which he had granted policies undertaking to return 100 whenever the chevalier was proved to be a woman. The form of the contract was as follows:--

“In consideration of thirty-five guineas for one-hundred received of Roebuck and Vaughan, we whose names are hereunto subscribed, do severally promise to pay the sums of money which we have hereunto subscribed, on the following condition; viz., in case the Chevalier d’Eon should hereafter prove to be a female.”

From this day the star of the chevalier waned in England. He turned fencing-master, but with difficulty obtained a living. He assumed female attire, but his hour was over. He had ceased to be a curiosity to the many; the “death brokers,” as Horace Walpole calls them, could make no more by him; and with the assurance on his sex ceases the interest of Chevalier d’Eon, in the context of this volume. His name is only interesting to the reader from the fact that Chief Justice Mansfield adjudicated on his case, and that an important decision was arrived at in the legal history of this science, when his Lordship declared that a policy of assurance, although not even on life, when entered into without an insurable interest, was against the purport of the act recently passed, and contrary to English notions of morality.

FOOTNOTE:

[14] 14 Geo. 3. c. 48.

CHAP. X.

FRAUDULENT ANNUITIES--ACT TO PREVENT THEM.--SALVADOR THE
JEW.--DAVID CUNNINGHAM THE SCOTCHMAN--HIS CAREER--HIS ANNUITY
COMPANY--ITS SUCCESS--HIS DOUBLE CHARACTER--HIS FATE.--MORTUARY
REGISTRATION.--JOHN PERROTT--HIS PASSION FOR CHINA--TRICK PLAYED
HIM.--CURIOUS FRAUD.--WESTMINSTER SOCIETY.--PELICAN.

When it was found that a fraudulent system of assurance would no longer be permitted, a fraudulent system of annuities usurped its place, and parliament was once more compelled to legislate. By an act passed in 1777, it was determined that, “owing to the pernicious practice of raising money by the sale of life annuities having greatly increased, and being much promoted by its secrecy, the particulars of all deeds, bonds, &c., for granting these annuities shall, within twenty days of the execution thereof, be enrolled in the Court of Chancery, otherwise such bond shall be void. All future deeds also for granting annuities, to contain the consideration and the names of the parties; and that if any part of the consideration be returned, or is paid in bills not honoured, or is paid in goods, or any part retained under pretence of securing the future payments of the annuity, or under any other pretence, the Court may order the deed to be cancelled. All contracts with persons under twenty-one to be void; and no solicitor, scrivener, or broker, to take more than 10_s._ per cent., under penalty of fine and imprisonment.”

A long course of evil doing had led to this enactment. From the commencement of the eighteenth century, Jews, and Christians worse than Jews; usurers, and bankers worse than usurers; had habitually sold life annuities: before this, it was less common, being reserved almost entirely for usurers and goldsmiths. It was a branch of business of which, little as the seller might know, the annuitant knew nothing. But if such men as Snow the banker, Samson Gideon the founder of the house of Eardley[15], Fordyce the insolvent banker, and Colebrooke the bankrupt East India director, undertook to grant payments, it may easily be guessed, that they were either unmercifully fleeced, or got nothing at all, when the great millionnaire was in the Gazette. Nor was the practice confined to these men; Exchange Alley was pre-eminent in buying or in selling annuities, in undertaking to pay, or in willingness to receive any amount of money. They were as ready to assure the life of, or to promise an annuity to a country clergyman, as they were to trade in the fall of a prime minister, or to traffic in the blood of an admiral. They took the hoard of the servant with as much coolness as they coined false intelligence; and when a reverse of fortune made them penniless, it involved hundreds of innocent persons with them.

The frauds which now attend the loans of money to the spendthrift, are nothing compared to the gigantic scale with which, under the name of annuities, they were then carried on. If a man granted one on a fine estate for a consideration, that consideration was rarely paid in money. The unhappy borrower was obliged to take whatever he could get. Thus the stock-jobber made his prey receive consols at a price much above that of the market. The merchant gave him a bill of lading for some indifferent kind of merchandise. The banker handed him long-dated bills, and sometimes was a bankrupt before they were due. The large tradesmen--many of whom then, as now, surreptitiously carried on the trade of money lending--got rid of goods which were otherwise unsaleable. One piece of plate did yeoman’s service to its owner; into whatever transaction of the kind he entered, it was always introduced. It was valued at 600_l._ to the recipient, and it was always bought back by the usurer for 70_l._ This man, a wealthy jeweller named Salvador, was a specimen of another class, common enough in the middle of the eighteenth century. His shop in Cornhill was the general resort of those who wanted money and could give good security. He ran from his house to ’Change Alley twenty times a day, to ascertain the price of the funds, in which he dealt largely; and his agony was excessive when it went against him. He would tear his hair and gnash his teeth; he truly rent his heart, but not his garments, for the latter cost money. During these paroxysms, the youngsters of the day were made to suffer most exorbitantly, and one of them openly calling him Shylock Salvador--the name he was usually known by--nearly paid the penalty of his life; for the incensed Jew threw himself on the young profligate and almost killed him. The idiosyncrasy of this man made him mad when he lost his money, and as mad to regain it. Yet he evinced touches of benevolence which redeemed his character, and traits of kindness which made him much loved and respected by all his tribe. To Christians he was as mischievous as a monkey, taking a delight in giving a crown piece to a beggar, and then following him to demand it back, under pretence that he had given it instead of a penny, with which, however, he always failed to redeem it.

It need not be added that he was loud in his reprobation of the act against gambling in annuities, as it promised to strike a deep blow at his profits. The bill met with much opposition, especially in the upper house, but while the Earl of Abingdon deemed it his duty to denounce its unconstitutional tendency, and to declare, “it was not calculated for the genius of a free nation,” the Earl of Mansfield, a higher authority, said, his experience had long since taught him that some bill was wanting to put a stop to the usurious contracts and fraudulent transactions which had been practised for many years, and which were now carried to an height of enormity.

At this period, various brokers and merchants devoted their capital entirely to annuities, and many most honourable men experienced a pleasure in aiding the endeavours of the poor, scorning at the same time to take a mean advantage of the spendthrift; but there were others who would have jobbed in the lives of their fathers, and sold their own souls to perdition in their love of mammon.

There were also the annuity companies which were unsafe, because they were unsound in principles, and of which Dr. Price said that they cared little about it; and that in addition to these there were likewise fraudulent companies established by fraudulent men; let the following sketch bear witness.

Among those who misemployed their capacity in the formation of bubble annuity societies, was one David Cunningham, whose career, so far as it can be gathered, is a strange illustration of perverted powers. Born in the shire of Inverness, of which his father was a native, bred a presbyterian, with the confined if respectable notions of the class, and meant “to wag his pow” in a pulpit, from whence in due time he is even said to have held forth; Cunningham might have been respectable and respected, had not his zeal for proselytism with a fair daughter of his flock carried him beyond the borders of propriety. Like Adam Blair he sinned, but unlike Adam Blair he repented not, and suddenly disappearing from his native place, he left the victim of his passion to repent her misdeed, and his parents to bear the agony of an only son’s shame. As a boy he had been remarkable for acuteness and ability, had at an early period devoted himself to arithmetical studies, and, indebted to the pedlar--then the only communication between town and country--for some odd books which treated of the science of mathematics, had studied them to so much purpose that if the money had been spent on his secular which was spent on his spiritual education, he would probably have been a great mathematician and possibly a good man. Possessed of a fine person and specious address, nothing is known of him until twenty years afterwards, when he appeared in London with a tolerable supply of money, and more than a proportionate supply of audacity. Here he commenced the vocation of schoolmaster. At this time the preaching of Whitfield and Wesley was a passion. Parties of titled people were made up to hear them exhort and used up ladies of rank experienced new sensations when Wesley expounded the religion they had neglected, and Whitfield described the tortures they would endure. Among the votaries of the new apostle, who, with the restlessness of genius soon aspired to lead where hitherto he had followed, was David Cunningham.

He still kept on his school and made use of his gifts in prayer, which were very remarkable, to procure introductions to the better class of London society, among whom he moved with an air of pious humility, alike distinguished for his toadying and his teaching. These he used as levers for the artful design of forming an annuity company--next to religion, annuity companies being the fashion--to be founded on a new principle for indigent persons and widows. This principle was, that it should be partly self-supporting and partly philanthropic, and that annuities bought by the poor should be aided by the charitable contributions of the rich.

Cunningham was rather late in the market, for the volume of Dr. Price, which dispersed the assurance bubbles, was on the point of publication as he made his announcement; but the Scot was a crafty man, and his prospectus breathed benevolence, not personal benefit; it talked of charity and forgot allusion to per centages. Others might weary themselves in striving to establish a purely self-supporting institution, Cunningham struck into a new path. He showed that of the existing companies some did not ask enough, and some demanded too much. Other societies were often carried on in taverns; his fastidious taste revolted from the idea. The whole mind of this scheming man was bent upon betraying the public, and he determined to establish an Imperial Annuity and Charitable Pension Society, the terms of which should be lower than all others, while any awkward questions as to its responsibilities should be checked by pointing to a long list of patrons, against whose names should be placed large sums as donations and subscriptions. Directors were not more difficult to procure then than now, but Cunningham chose to be his own manager, and to represent his own board. Persons of rank were as proud of seeing their names to a charity as at the present day, and so plausible and persevering was the Scotchman that he soon procured duchesses and peeresses to herald his speculation.

He was shrewd enough to vary his premiums to the position of the applicant. He would take less than the established rates under cover of a charitable institution; and the poor brought their money to him because they could buy a larger annuity with less cash than anywhere else. He tempted the general public with low rates of premium as he pointed to the character of a board which never met. He would sell a life annuity for whatever he could get, as he never refused an offer; and, with a list of patrons like that which he paraded at the head of his advertisements, it was almost impossible to doubt the solidity of the company. His speculation answered. He had a large office; he employed a considerable number of dependants; and the money which he gained easily he spent freely. More customers came to his office than to any other’s; for while the poor sought him with their savings, the rich advised with him as to investment. He was consulted by widows, and made the trustee of orphans. No one inveighed against mammon with more solemn sanctity, and no one received money with a more demure aspect. He gave great parties; he contrived to connect his name with a certain class of the aristocracy; he dabbled in literature, and, like an enthusiast of the present day, who is said to tell those who connect themselves with his office that neither they nor their children, nor their children’s children, can ever know want, he succeeded in impressing on the public a conviction of his worth.

The remarkable character of this man enabled him to play many parts. In his office, and with the Hallifaxes, the Dents, the Glyns, and the Ladbrokes of the time, he was the close, cool, methodical man of business. Punctual to his time, his lightest word his bond, and ready with his payments; he was respected in the City. Connected, as it has been seen, with the sect of Whitfield, he seemed a reverent, devout attender on the rites of religion. Though he gave up preaching when he had attained his object, he yet retained a prominent position in the chapel where he once held forth. But it was afterwards whispered by those who knew him well, that he had another and less worthy character. That some one marvellously like him was seen in places which sectarians hold in horror; that when with persons he could trust, his orgies were as wild as the worst of a wild time; and close observers might have added that the sweet smile and the unctuous bearing were but the cloak to cover his real designs, had not his purse and his reputation disposed them to be short-sighted.

The game he meant to play is uncertain, as his career was cut short by the publication of the work of Dr. Price, on reversionary payments, which had drawn notice to these societies generally. Some were discovered to be false and hollow; others merely founded in ignorance. Attention became naturally pointed to their framers. Questions were asked as to the promoter of the last new company, which were more easily asked than answered. Cunningham took the alarm, withdrew his cash in gold from the bankers, told his subordinates to continue the business until he returned, and left an address for his correspondence.

From that time he was heard of no more, and the only conjecture that could be made, was from the intelligence that a vessel trading to Ireland had been wrecked, and that one of the bodies was that of a gentleman supposed to be David Cunningham, the founder of the Imperial Annuity and Charitable Pension Society.

The misery caused to all whom this man had wronged was great; but it is impossible to teach wisdom, and recent annals have shown us that the world, in this respect, has not grown wiser as it has grown older.

The act just given, entitled, “An Act to prevent Gambling in Annuities,” struck a severe blow at annuity companies like these, as well as at those which were for the sake of gambling merely, or for which an unfair consideration had been given. It might be evaded by some, or it might be defied by a few; but it at least had the effect of sending the purchasers to those legitimate offices from which alone they were certain of receiving their due.