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there shall be any such vessel already within any port, roadstead or waters of those islands, the lieutenant-governor shall give notice to such vessel to depart, and shall require her to put to sea, within such time as he shall, under the circumstances, consider proper and reasonable. If there shall then be ships of war or privateers belonging to both the said belligerents within the territorial jurisdiction of her majesty, in or near the same port, roadstead or waters, the lieutenant-governor shall fix the order of time in which such vessels shall depart. No such vessel of either belligerent shall be permitted to put to sea until after the expiration of at least twenty-four hours from the time when the last preceding vessel of the other belligerent, (whether the same shall be a ship of war or privateer, or merchant ship,) which shall have left the same port, roadstead, or water or waters adjacent thereto, shall have passed beyond the territorial jurisdiction of her majesty.

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II. During the continuance of the present hostilities between the ernment of the United States of North America and the States calling themselves "the Confederate States of America," all ships of war and privateers of either belligerents are prohibited from making use of any port or roadstead in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or in the Channel islands, or in any of her majesty's colonies or foreign possessions or dependencies, or of any waters subject to the territorial jurisdiction of the British crown, as a station or place of resort for any warlike purpose, or for the purpose of obtaining any facilities of warlike equipment; and no ship of war or privateer of either belligerent shall hereafter be permitted to sail out of or leave any port, roadstead or waters subject to British jurisdiction, from which any vessel of the other belligerent (whether the same shall be a ship of war, a privateer or a merchant ship) shall have previously departed, until after the expiration of at least twenty-four hours from the departure of such last mentioned vessel beyond the territorial jurisdiction of her majesty.

III. If any ship of war or privateer of either belligerent shall, after the time when this order shall be first notified and put in force in the United Kingdom and in the Channel islands, and in the several colonies and foreign possessions and dependencies of her majesty respectively, enter any port, roadstead or waters belonging to her majesty, either in the United Kingdom or in the Channel islands, or in any of her majesty's colonies or foreign possessions or dependencies, such vessel shall be required to depart and to put to sea within twenty-four hours after her entrance into such port, roadstead or waters, except in case of stress of weather, or of requiring provisions or things necessary for the subsistence of her crew, or repairs; in either of which cases the authorities of the port, or of the nearest port, (as the case may be,) shall require her to put to sea as soon as possible after the expiration of such period of twenty-four hours, without permitting her to take in supplies, beyond what may be necessary for her immediate use; and no such vessel which may have been allowed to remain within British waters, for the purpose of repair, shall continue in any such port, roadstead or waters for a longer period than twenty-four hours after her necessary repairs shall have been completed; provided, nevertheless, that in all cases in which there shall be any vessels (whether ships of war, privateers or merchant ships) of both the said belligerent parties in the same port, roadstead or waters within the territorial jurisdiction of her majesty, there shall be an

interval of not less than twenty-four hours between the departure therefrom of any such vessel (whether a ship of war, privateer or a merchant ship) of the one belligerent, and the subsequent departure therefrom of any ship of war or privateer of the other belligerent; and the times hereby limited for the departure of such ships of war and privateers respectively shall always, in case of necessity, be extended, so far as may be requisite for giving effect to this proviso, but not further or otherwise. IV. No ship of war or privateer of either belligerent shall hereafter be permitted, while in any port, roadstead or waters subject to the territorial jurisdiction of her majesty, to take in any supplies, except provisions and such other things as may be requisite for the subsistence of her crew, and except so much coal only as may be sufficient to carry such vessel to the nearest port of her own country, or to some nearer destination; and no coal shall be again supplied to any such ship of war or privateer in the same or any other port, roadstead or waters subject to the territorial jurisdiction of her majesty, without special permission, until after the expiration of three months from the time when such coal may have been last supplied to her within British waters as aforesaid. I have, &c.

RUSSELL.

NOTE. A similar letter has been addressed to the Secretaries of State for the Home, Colonial, War and India Departments, and to the lords commissioners of her majesty's treasury.

MASTERS OF AMERICAN VESSELS-ACT OF CONGRESS REQUIRING OATH OF ALLEGIANCE.

AN ACT REQUIRING AN OATH OF ALLEGIANCE AND ΤΟ SUPPORT THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, TO BE ADMINISTERED TO MASTERS OF AMERICAN VESSELS CLEARING FOR FOREIGN OR OTHER PORTS DURING THE PRESENT REBELLION.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That it shall be the duty of the several collectors of the customs at the ports of entry within the United States, during the continuance of the present rebellion, to cause to be administered to each and every master of any American ship or vessel, steamship or steam vessel, which shall be about to clear for any foreign port or place, or for any port or place within the United States, the oath of allegiance, required by chapter sixty-four of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and sixty-one; which oath shall be duly taken by such masters before such vessels shall be permitted to clear as aforesaid.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the oath or affirmation aforesaid may be taken before the collector of customs at the port from which such vessel is about to clear, or before any justice of the peace or notary public, or other person who is legally authorized to administer an oath in the State or district where the same may be administered. And that any violation of such oath shall subject the offender to all the pains and penalties of wilful and corrupt perjury, who shall be liable to be indicted and prosecuted to conviction for any such offence before any court having competent jurisdiction thereof.

Approved, March 6, 1862.

JOURNAL OF INSURANCE.

1. MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANIES IMPORTANT DECISION. 2. LIFE INSURANCE-NEW SCHEME OF SURVIVORSHIP ANNUITIES. 8. AMERICAN STEAM FIRE-ENGINE IN LONDON.

MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANIES- -IMPORTANT DECISION.

THE Court of Appeals of this State has just decided the important case of HOWLAND, RECEIVER OF THE NEW-YORK PROTECTION INSURANCE COMPANY US. EDMONDS and al., EXECUTORS, &C., OF HIRAM GREENMAN, DECEASED. This decision disposes, at one blow, of the assets of most of the old mutual insurance companies formed under the Insurance Act of 1849 and its amendments.

If there ever was a legislative blunder made in any State worse than the passage of this General Insurance Act of 1849, we have yet to see it. We undertake to say, that more mistakes have been made under that act, causing the loss of more money, and more litigation has been produced by it, than by all the rest of the legislation of the State of New-York. This, we are aware, is a sweeping assertion, but it admits of proof. And in the first place, we have never yet seen a person, lawyer or layman, who was sure he understood any portion of it. Then again, eight different districts of the Supreme Court have always had eight different ways of interpreting the same provision. And, by way of climax, our Court of Appeals-staid and sober, and seldom given to joking-have rendered several successive decisions under the act, but, strange to say, each decision nullifies the one before it.

During the years from 1849 to 1853, about sixty different mutual fire insurance companies came into existence under this same act, infesting the land like the frogs of Egypt. The capital of these companies was made up of premium notes, each being required to have one hundred thousand dollars of such notes before it could commence business. They represented, therefore, a capital of about six millions of dollars. Being thus set afloat, for nearly eighteen months they apparently waxed fat, and every thing went on swimmingly; but as soon as losses began to happen the defects of the system showed themselves. With no capital but these notes, which all then supposed must be assessed, and collected only after assessment, it became impossible to realize money fast enough to pay losses; so the alternative was adopted of disputing and contesting the claims. This was continued for about a year longer, the companies struggling out a sickly existence through the twelvemonth, when one failed, and then fifty-two of them came tumbling down, like a row of bricks. It was about the year 1853 that these failures took place, and since that time the companies have been in process of liquidation. The suits that have been brought, the questions that have been raised and supposed to be decided, are innumerable. Each premium note maker conceived himself to be an aggrieved party, and vigorously contested the payment of his note; while, on the other hand, the hungry claimants urged forward the collections with the greatest earnestness.

Thus the matter has been continued year after year, and so varied have been the questions raised and decided under the general statute, that no one could recognise in the charters, as now interpreted by the courts, the companies as originally organized. In fact, the corporators would not, at present, be able to recognise their own offspring.

A good illustration of this last idea is the decision above referred to, of HOWLAND, RECEIVER, &c., vs. EDMONDS and al., EXECUTORS, &c. When these companies were formed no one conceived it possible to collect any portion of the original one hundred thousand dollars of notes, except by first making an assessment on the notes to pay the losses that had happened during the life of the policy issued on each note, and then only the amount of that assessment could be collected. The notes were given by the makers of them, and received by the parties organizing the companies, believing such to be the nature of the liability assumed. A short time since, however, the Court of Appeals decided, that, under this model statute, each of these original notes was payable without assessment, and that the proceeds must go to pay, not simply the losses which had happened during the life of the policy issued on the note, but any and all losses that might have happened at any time during the existence of the company. This decision made a complete change in the contract, as it was supposed to be by the contracting parties. Still, as the decision was law, efforts were at once made to collect these obligations, and this case of HOWLAND, Receiver, &c., vs. EDMONDS and al., EXECUTORS, &C., is now decided on one of these contracts, and the court holds that these notes cannot be collected at all, because the statute of limitations has run against them. Thus the whole five or six millions of capital is wiped out of existence, and the poor creditors (in amount over ten millions of dollars) are left out in the cold. We do not propose to discuss the merits of this decision. It is an adjudication of the court of last resort, and therefore we must accept it as law.

The following is a list of the mutual companies referred to above as formed under this act of 1849, and which failed about the This decision disposes of the capital of all these companies:

year 1853.

Ætna Insurance Company of Utica, Utica, Oneida County.
American Insurance Company of Utica, Utica, Oneida County.
American Mutual Insurance Company, Amsterdam.
Columbia Insurance Company, Amsterdam.

Empire State Mutual Insurance Company.

Farmers' Insurance Company of Meridian, Meridian, Cayuga County.
Farmers' Insurance Company of Oneida County, Utica.

Farmers and Merchants' Insurance Company of W. N. Y., Rochester.
Franklin Fire Insurance Company of New-York, Saratoga Springs.
Globe Insurance Company, Utica, Oneida County.
Granite Insurance Company, Utica, Oneida County.

Hudson River Marine and Fire Insurance Company, Crescent, N. Y.
Hudson River Mutual Insurance Company, Waterford.
Jamestown Farmer Insurance Company, Jamestown.
Knickerbocker Insurance Company, Waterford.
Mohawk Valley Insurance Company, Amsterdam.

Mohawk Valley Farmers' Insurance Company, Amsterdam.
National Protection Insurance Company, Saratoga Springs.
New-York Central Insurance Company, Cherry Valley.

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· New-York Indemnity Insurance Company, Broadalbin, Fulton Co. New-York Protection Insurance Company, Rome.

New-York State Mutual Insurance Company, Newark.
New-York Union Mutual Insurance Company, Johnstown.

North American Mutual Insurance Co., Brasher Falls, St. Lawrence Co.
Northern Protection Insurance Company, Camden, Oneida County.
Orleans Insurance Company, Albion, Orleans County.

People's Insurance Co. of the State of N. Y., Kingston, Ulster Co.
Poughkeepsie Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Poughkeepsie.
Rensselaer County Mutual Insurance Company, Lansingburgh.
Salem Fire Insurance Company, Salem, Washington County.
Schoharie County Mutual Insurance Co., Coblesville, Schoharie Co.
Star Insurance Company, Ogdensburgh, St. Lawrence County.
Steuben Farmers and Merchants' Insurance Co., Bath, Steuben Co.
Susquehanna Fire Insurance Company, Cooperstown, Otsego County.
Tempest Insurance Company, Meridian, Cayuga County.
Utica Insurance Company, Utica, Oneida County.

United States Fire Insurance Company, at Saratoga Springs.

United States Mutual Insurance Co., West Potsdam, St. Lawrence Co. Washington County Mutual Insurance Co., Granville, Washington Co. Western Insurance Company of Olean, Olean, Cattaraugus County.

LIFE INSURANCE-NEW SCHEME OF SURVIVORSHIP ANNUITIES. We have been accustomed to think that life insurance had reached the dignity of a complete science. So much talent has been employed upon the subject, and tables have been calculated with so much exactness, based upon the experience of years, that certain facts as to climate, &c., of any particular place being given, the average length of life in that locality is a proposition of easy solution. Perhaps the best proof of the accuracy of these calculations, and the care and prudence with which this important interest in our midst is managed, may be found in the success that has attended nearly all the life insurance companies doing business in this State. Examine, for instance, the reports of those leading companies, the Mutual Life of New-York, the New-York Life and the New-England Mutual, all of which show an increase of accumulated assets truly remarkable, and, of course, extremely satisfactory to policyholders.

Yet, although the management of this species of business has met with so great success that we have been led to almost believe there could be nothing new under the sun in the way of life insurance, it seems that the prudent and ever-vigilant officers of the Mutual Life of New-York have, within the past year, perfected a new scheme of survivorship annuities, which deserves special notice. Heretofore it has been usual for life companies to issue policies, making, for instance, the amount insured payable, on the death of the insured, to the surviving wife or children. To this species of insurance there are very serious objections. A man dies, having taken out a policy, say of ten thousand dollars, in favor of his wife. This money comes into her possession when she is without experience in money matters, and totally unacquainted with any way of investing her funds. The wisest know so well the hazards they incur in making in

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