ATLAS REMINISCENT.
Atlas Reminiscent. By Alfred W. Yeo. y (J. M. Dent and Co. ls. net.)—The Atlas Fire and Life Insdrance Company was founded in 1807, or, rather, the preliminary meetings were held in that year; an office was opened for business on Midsummer
Day, 1808; six weeks later its first fire loss occurred. "The capital was almost wholly invested in Three per Cents £56,000 was bought at 67; it was worth £25,680 more in 1824 " Later
dealings in the same security have not, we imagine, been so profit- able. Before long the present site, at the corner of King Street and Cheapaide, was acquired. Lord St. Leonards drew the deed of settlement, and drew it so well that it is still in use. (In 1808 he was a man of twenty-seven.) The Company had some illus- trious patrons,—the Duke of York, for instance, insured his life. It could not have made much profit out of him, for he died in 1827. In fact, the Prince Regent, who was declined, survived him by three years and three months. The fire risks seem to have been rash in the early days of the office; £20,000 on an Irish mansion and .230,000 on a store in Bow Lane look like formidable ventures. A remarkable instance of how profitable fire insurance is when no commercial risks are taken might be quoted, if it did not look like an advertisement. Such losses as the Tooley Street fire in 1861, which swallowed up half-a-year's income, make a just calculation of risks very difficult. Probably the private dwelling- houses pay for the warehouses. It has been calculated that the private house—especially if the great mansions are not counted in—has an average life of seventeen hundred years. It would perish some seven times over by decay before it was burnt. Mr. Brock's delightful pictures add greatly to the charm of this little book.
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