Tue appearance in the London Times of a batch of letters on the subject, duces us to return to the war which dine of the London offices are waging which we referred a fortnight ago. The two original champions, the under. writers of the Murine, and of the Allis ace, Companies, are again in the fore. front, and they huve been joined by Mr. J. W. Jaton, who appears to be an underwriter at Lloyds, and who is so determined to have his voice heard, that he has induced the Times to pub+ lish the same letter from himself on two successive days, sith only slight Agent of the Union saa Suciety, verbal alterations, Jukes, the
is the defender of the China offices, bat he is not left alone on his side, for he is supported by a very pertinent and able letter from 0." and an equally pertinent one from An Agsurer." As Jong a8 the China offices have the oon. tributors of business on their side, as they have in this correspondence, they can afford to treat with not wadi oon. sideration the attacks of their rivals, Those who know the facts of the onse, and the real bearings of the conflict, are perfectly nware that the allegations of the noderwriter of the Marine are of the kind that would justly have drawn from Mr, Barohell lis favourite expression, Fudge! Io hia letter of the 8rd of November he formulates them, and calmly use whether they may nat be taken to have been established, They are:—1. That these so-called metual offices are not based upon sound prius ciples of mutuality, 2. That what is called a bonus is vothiug more nor lees than a deferred return of premium, 8. That such return of preminn pro perly belongs to the principal who paid the original premium, 4, That it ie sometimes passed to the credit of third parties who are known to be only noting in that capacity, 5, That the ipal may be doubly sacrificed, first by having to pay a preferential rate, and then by being deprived of the eventual return of premium. The Aireotors of the P, & O. Company, or whoever else are the real managers of the Marine Insurance Company, ought to be ashamed of having such flimsy pretexts put forth by their underwriter 48 the grounds for their suicidal action, As to the first of them, it may be said that what are "sound principles of mutuality" is a matter of opinion, but if there is anything onndor than for an office to return to its coutribators pro rate the profit made on their contributions, we should like to know of it, The second is trae enough, bat the statement is no argument; call it a bonus or a deferred premium, the result is the same; the office charges rates whioh err, if at all, on the side of axfety, aod if at the end of the year, these rates turn out to have been too high, the excess is returned to the contributors in China offices, while the London offices divide it among the shareholders, many of whom may nob have contributed @ cent. It does not take long to decide, which is the fairer of these two courses. No. 3 is another perfectly unimpeachable statement, he sting of which the writer doubtless
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.