Fire Insurance.
TO Tl{E EDITOR OF THE T7iM2ES. Sir.-your .correspondent B. P. in this day's Times conveys tite important di-covery that " few persullns are aiaree of tble ar anr proflts derived by Insur.tcc Companies from, the' apparent tSniialU premiums paid'by insurers, arnd tfinhe procees labrhat'hellals- - calctltation to place -s4 ;tbd matter in a trine light.' l takc lea7e- t, say is more false light could- not be sheeT upon the subject. There- ardfew persons romnParatirely wha as sliarelholdenrs d .roOtflmow 'whatthoseprAfitshave.becn. andarelikely tobe, WThey kn6-w ddr practiets tegults, and not hiUe tbeories, that the profitsrv'0bewrt amsazinly smiall, and must be provohinglyless, But your correspondent NV. S. in yesterday's Thnes, eviTeri:ly one and the same illuminated with B; P. of to.d2y, offirs3i'tewtl w]ich he combines the gs. p04 for duty, with thec7:4 pidd for prg- mlium, frma which he infers t4a; the e:pcnst of insuring ib as 4O{.to' 1, wvhile the risk on assumed data is much IceS, andthertore thnC- tte promitmn ought to be reLtiid. Si.pernce pcr centJin hiswyisdomi woulmd'akc handsome proot, This calculation is too anFt:d andg fallacious. io desetve a forrial repesti:ior. The prem?ium to the *isk iS as tO L 000, and, what sould becosne of ary set of dupes iu'-,- might be artless enough to gdlopt your correspondetlt'snottons maf be ieadilv imagined, wheu it is known that no 1}ss than 20 in- surance offices have broken up witbin the lasig 1 years, leaving tl.e shareholders nminus some hutndreds of thousand ronnds upon .the premiums which thie orcce B. -P. tells the public yield auch amazing profits. The information published in,a previous letter by a gentlenmn wbIP fills the office of Digsttict Sueveyor for Warylebounelthat in hI& district only it; houises had been consumned in 17 ycars, is not to be -taken as sufilciest data whereon to ground an estimate of tdleexpenser of in- surane'. - For one house consuined, so as-to comc within the dietrict surveyor1s'fee-book for rebuilding, we have 5lJ partial aceidents4 and some of themn coat thoasands to tbe fflice, althougIt orly a oeiir or two may be cohsamed. In a fire-eflice in which I am-fhtetested, we have fad lJ o't hese partial accidentg in less than four years in the patish of' AMaryl6bone ; and I am persuaded we don't rirnre D fliftieth part of the properay in that parish. *TI:ese partial biursrayx, and the large expenses of engine establishtentt, and of a smanage- ment which at best mnust be cumbrous and difficrult, onght to hL t tkem into account by those who prefer theoretical estimnstes to th- sata guide of experience. Thie drift ol'tbese writi.gs is evidently to revive the idea of starling a fire-office for Mlarylebone, which has been before Jzid aside, owing to the interests of the 'parishiioners- being so largely pre-occrrp3ed_ Now is the time, certainly: any tlhing will go down' now, if ever; but don't let the public be deccived by suci gross mnisstatemrents as those I have roticed. am. Sir. AN (ThD 1NSURER. Nov. 29. FIRE iNSURdACE.