within the last twenty-five years) from which the premiums for life-assurances and the rates for life-annuities were computed; the result of which has been, on the one hand, an enormous and unnecessary accumulation of wealth in the Equitable Society, and an enormous loss, on the other hand, in the Government Life-Annuity Office,—a loss amounting, it is said, to millions.

The merit of De Parcieux's table consists in the fact that it has been deduced from proper data, viz., enumerations of the living, and also of the deaths, each classed according to the ages; both which sets of observationsamong sufficiently numerous classes, and extending over a sufficient space of time-are indispensably necessary for the formation of an accurate table of mortality.

A decided proof of the excellence of De Parcieux's table, and of the sufficiency of the data from which it has been derived, is afforded by the comparative table on page 32, exhibiting the expectation or mean duration of life according to the various tables of mortality therein mentioned; by reference to which it will be seen that it very nearly agrees in its results, at different ages, with those of the three best and most authentic and accurate tables hitherto published, and applicable to this country, viz., the Carlisle table, that called the Equitable Experience, and Mr. Finlaison's table,—taking, in the last case, a mean between the expectations for males and females.

Dr. Price's Northampton Tables.

In 1769, the public attention was particularly directed to this species of inquiry, by the publication of

Dr. Richard Price's celebrated Observations on Reversionary Payments, which furnished copious information on this subject, and powerfully contributed to its solid and accurate illustration and advancement. The chief design of this work was to give instructions to persons desirous of forming themselves into societies, for the purpose of making provision for their widows, or for themselves at the time of old age. The book also contained accounts of the principal of those societies, with dissertations on the probabilities and expectations of life, the medium duration of widowhood and marriage, observations on the method of forming tables of mortality for towns, and two new tables of that kind constructed from the burial-registers kept at Norwich, Chester, and Northamptona. The latter of these, usually called the NORTHAMPTON TABLE, is that upon which Dr. Price placed the greatest dependence, and which, as has been before observed, was, until lately, exclusively used by the Assurance Offices; although the rate of mortality shown by it, has long been known to be decidedly above the general average of the mortality of England, as well from the increased healthiness of the kingdom, as from

• The registers of Northampton referred to, consisted of accounts kept in the four parishes into which the town is divided, -namely, those of All Saints, St. Sepulchre, St. Giles, and St. Peter; of the number of males and females christened and buried in the whole town, including Dissenters. The whole of these accounts had been kept from the year 1741, and in All Saints' parish, which includes the greater part of Northampton, they had been commenced in 1735; and contained the ages at which the several persons died. Observations on Reversionary Payments. Edit. 1772, p. 254.

its own original defects. In the fourth edition of Dr. Price's work, 1783a, these tables were very considerably improved, in consequence of the author having been furnished with abstracts of mortuary-registers kept for the purpose.

Swedish Tables.

In Dr. Price's work was also published a return of the annual deaths in all Sweden and Finland, forming that which was then called the SWEDISH TABLE of Mortality, with the medium numbers of the persons living in those countries, including the distinction of the sexes, for twenty-one successive yearsb.

The most complete edition of this work is entitled Observations on Reversionary Payments, the Doctrine of Life-Annuities, and Political Arithmetic; with additions by the author's nephew, Mr. William Morgan, Actuary to the Equitable Society. London, 1803. 8vo. 2 volumes.

From the year 1749, returns of the annual births and deaths, at each age, in all Sweden and Finland, excepting Swedish Pomerania, the Isle of Rugen, and the town of Wismar, have been made by order of the Government to Commissioners appointed to look after their execution. The entire number of persons, of each age, is also returned once in three years, and in both the enumeration and the registers the sexes are distinguished. Mr. Peter Wargentin, secretary to the Royal Academy of Science at Stockholm, was one of those Commissioners, and in the Transactions of that Academy from January to March, 1766, he inserted a memoir on the mortality of Sweden, in which was an abstract of the returns for the nine years, from 1755 to 1763, both for the whole kingdom and for Stockholm separately. In this abstract, the numbers are stated both of the living and of the annual deaths, in each interval of age, for periods of three years each, ending 1757, 1760, and 1763. At his death in 1783, he had also prepared similar comparisons for the years 1765 to 1769, 1772, and 1774 to 1776; from all which he deduced a medium statement, which he sent to Dr. Price not long before his death. In 1791, Mr. Henry

A second set of Swedish tables was afterwards published in Mr. MILNE'S Treatise on Annuities, founded on returns, both of the number living and of the deaths in all Sweden and Finland, during twenty years, ending with 1795, the number living, and the deaths, being each classed according to the different ages. These returns constitute complete and perfect data, for constructing an accurate table of mortality for the country in which the observations were made: and it is deeply to be regretted that similar observations have never yet been made in this country, where life-assurance so extensively prevails, and where it must be an object of so much importance to ascertain the precise values of the different interests depending on the contingencies of human life.

Other Authors on Life-Assurance.

Before proceeding to exhibit the improved Tables of Mortality hereinafter described, it will perhaps be proper to inform the reader that the best and most recent works on the subject of life-assurances are the following; from which, together with those already noticed, and some others, the present volume has been compiled. The Doctrine of Life-Annuities and Assurances analytically investigated and practically explained, by Mr. Francis

Nicandor was appointed one of the Commissioners for these returns, and in 1799, he commenced a publication of them, from 1772 to 1795, in eight memoirs, printed in the same Transactions from July, 1799, to December, 1801; to which, in 1805, he added three other memoirs, extending from 1796 to 1803. MILNE'S Treatise on the Valuation of Annuities. Vol. i., Introd. p. xxviii.

Baily; London, 1813. 8vo. 2 vols. A Treatise on the Valuation of Annuities and Assurances on Lives and Survivorships, by Mr. Joshua Milne; London, 1815. 8vo. 2 vols.; in which is contained much new and valuable matter, in addition to all that was previously known concerning the history and principles of the science. A Comparative View of the various Institutions for the Assurance of Lives, by Mr. Charles Babbage; London, 1826. 8vo. A View of the Rise and Progress of the Equitable Society, by Mr. William Morgan; London, 1828. 8vo. To these may be added Mr. Morgan's elaborate articles on Annuities and Insurance in Dr. Rees's Cyclopædia; Mr. Milne's articles on Annuities, Law of Human Mortality, Bills of Mortality, &c., in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica; Mr. William Frend's excellent paper on Assurance in the same work; and the explanatory dissertations on the subject of Insurance and Interest and Annuities, in Mr. J. R. Maculloch's Dictionary of Commerce; London, 1832. Svo.

To the above list must also be added the learned and elaborate articles written by Mr. Gompertz, and published in the Philosophical Transactions of 1820 and 1825; together with the Reports (made in 1825 and 1827) of the Committee of the House of Commons, on the laws relating to Friendly Societies, on which occasions all the most eminent actuaries and other mathematicians, who had devoted their attention to this subject, were examined. In these Reports, the comparative merits of the Northampton and Carlisle tables are particularly considered; and the testimony of the several actuaries examined deserves the most serious attention of every person interested in the subject of life-assurance.