By this time it became pretty clear that the career of the Independent and West Middlesex was run; the valuables were removed from Baker Street; two waggons were necessary to remove the wine only; and the bubble burst. The loss sustained by the public is difficult to estimate. The confederates boasted of taking 40,000_l._ in one year; and it is probable that from 200,000_l._ to 250,000_l._ is no exaggeration. But whatever the pecuniary loss, the moral effect was much worse. It would be impossible to enumerate the examples of sorrow and suffering which ensued; yet it is equally painful to think that the cause of insurance was considerably injured. Some degree of blame rests with the other offices. They knew--they could even have demonstrated--that an institution charging such low premiums on assurances, and allowing such large sums as annuities, must fail; that it was a mathematical impossibility that it would answer; and when they found, in addition, that Hole offered their agents half the year’s premiums as commission, it was a “confirmation strong as proof of Holy Writ.” Had they applied, like Mr. Mackenzie, to the Lord Mayor, it would have been stopped in its outset, and many excellent people saved from ruin. Had he not opened the eyes of the public, there is no saying to what extent they might have carried their transactions; for though Sir Peter Laurie indisputably aided him, it is equally true that Mr. Mackenzie lost 1300_l._ by his exposure of the “Independent and West Middlesex Life and Fire Insurance Company.” The death of Mr. Beaumont, in 1841, recalls the name of one who, for nearly half a century, was a very noticeable man. But though for the last thirty years of his life he controlled the movements of a large fire and life assurance office, he was not rendered narrow-minded by his devotion to business; nor will a brief review of his career be unacceptable to those who remember his name as one of the earliest apostles of life assurance.