[30] “That the said Commissioners shall have full power to examine all books, at all seasonable times, of such bankers as issue notes, and to take copies or extracts from any such books or accounts.”--History of the Bank of England, its Times and Traditions.--By John Francis: 2 vols. 3rd edition. Longman, Brown, and Co. [31] The Morning Chronicle. CHAP. XV. EXTENSION OF ASSURANCE.--SOCIETY FOR ASSURANCE AGAINST PURGATORY.--COMMERCIAL CREDIT COMPANY.--GUARANTEE SOCIETY.--MEDICAL, INVALID, AND GENERAL.--AGRICULTURAL COMPANY.--RENT GUARANTEE.--RAILWAY PASSENGERS.--LAW PROPERTY, AND INDISPUTABLE SOCIETIES.--DISPUTED POLICY. It has been found that there are unchanging principles which regulate commercial losses; that the lives which are sacrificed by railway accident have similar conditions; that the storm which levels the wheat has its defined courses; that the murrain which devastates the cattle is as fixed in its movements as the disease which destroys humanity. To meet these casualties, societies have been started, founded on laws originating in the doctrine of probabilities, and regulated by tables to show the chance of their occurrence. Nor is there any reason against--nay, there is every reason to believe in--their success, provided only their promoters apply themselves with diligence to collect sufficient data whereby to rule their operations. Of one society only may a doubt be evinced and a smile raised at its presumption, and this is the SOCIETY FOR ASSURANCE AGAINST PURGATORY! for supposing the threepence per week paid by the credulous peasant be sufficient to satisfy the priest, yet there is every reason to doubt that the prayers and masses of such mercenary pastors will be sufficient to satisfy God. There is something half-grand and half-grotesque in this impudent provision against an indefinite future. THE COMMERCIAL CREDIT MUTUAL ASSURANCE SOCIETY is characteristic enough of a mercantile people. Prior to the foundation of such an institution, it is obvious that there must have been some important statistical information connected with commercial losses.