6 SEPTEMBER 1851, Page 2

Intimately connected with the half-yearly railway meetings, of which we

last week chronicled the close, is one which seems to indioate some advance in social organization—the half-yearly meet- ing of the Railway Passengers Assurance Company. This com- pany enables any traveller by railway, at a very low premium, to insure, in the event of any accident, a sum of money, to cure him- self if he survive, or be paid to his relatives should he die. It has only been two years in existence ; it has had to struggle both against the natural distrust of novelties, and a • relne- tance to contemplate fatal casualties, like that which deters people from making their wills ; and yet it has already 874 agencies, and is in operation on fifty lines of railway. The transactions of the half-year which ended on the 30th of Tune left a balance in favour of the company of rather more than 7001. These small be- ginnings indicate a growing spirit of foresight in the minutest details of life, and a disposition to cultivate the principle of asso- ciation in our nature. With all their blunders, and the knavery of not a few of their more active agents, joint-stock companies in general, and assurance companies in particular, appear to be slowly preparing the way for some such social change as less practi- cal speculatists seek to effect by laws and regulations.