[707] Ordonantien ende Placcaeten, ii. p. 307. Groote Placaet-boeck der Ver. Nederlanden, i. p. 796. Magens, p. 397. [708] Ordonantien ende Placcaeten, ut supra, p. 335. Groote Placaet-boeck, i. p. 828, and in the additions, ii. p. 2116. [709] The changes which this institution afterwards underwent, with an extract from its regulations, may be seen in La Richesse de la Hollande. Lond. 1778, 4to, i. p. 81. [710] [The marine insurers are called in this country _under-writers_, because they write their names under the policy. Under the authority of statute 6 George I. cap. 18, two corporate bodies, called the _Royal Exchange Assurance Company_ and the _London Assurance Company_, were chartered by the crown. There are at present seven marine insurance companies in London:--the two old chartered companies above-mentioned; two established immediately upon the passing of the act of the year 1824, the _Alliance_ and the _Indemnity Mutual_; the _Marine_, established in 1836; and the _General Marine_ and _Neptune_, established in 1839.] [711] Dictionary of Commerce. [712] Krunitz, Oekonomische Encyclopedie, xiii. p. 221; where an account may be found of other companies. [713] Winkelmanns Oldenburgischen Friedens- und der benachbarten Oerter Kriegshandlungen. 1671 fol. p. 67. [714] [The publisher of the present volumes pays upwards of £200 per annum for insurance on his stock in trade, and therefore feels strongly the force of this observation.--H. G. B.] [715] Life insurances have been forbidden by the laws of France and of many other foreign states, as being of a gambling nature, and opening the door to a variety of abuses and frauds. ADULTERATION OF WINE. No adulteration of any article has ever been invented so pernicious to the health, and at the same time so much practised, as that of wine with preparations of lead; and as the inventor must have been acquainted with its destructive effects, he deserves, for making it known, severer execration than Berthold Schwartz, the supposed inventor of gunpowder.