THE SCOTTISH PROVI- DENT INSTITUTION
By M. A. Steuart
Yet another centenary history reminds us of the importance of the financial concerns founded at or near Queen Victoria's accession. Mr. Steuart's modest little account of the Scottish Provident Institution, which is published by the office at Edinburgh, shows that it was initiated in May, 1837, and that the guiding spirits were William Fraser, a printer, and James Cleghorn, who with Thomas Pringle edited the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine—the precursor of Blackwood's. Cleghorn and Pringle's quarrel with Blackwood is notorious, as the publisher had his own case stated in tht first number of his magazine. Cleghom was an experienced actuary and laid down the principles on which the business has since been conducted. Dying a year later, he was followed by his young partner, James Watson, who remained as manager and director till 1893 and was succeeded by his son, who retired in 1928. This long family connex- ion doubtless intensified the wisely conservative policy that is characteristic of Scottish insurance offices. As Mr. Steuart points out, the office, like others, needed all its reserves when in the Great War it decided to continue the policies of serving soldiers without charging extra premiums. The crisis was sur- mounted, at a cost of a million and a half, and the institution resumed its steady progress.
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