[12] Sir Richard was a notability of those days, and divided civic popularity with Beckford, whose colleague he was in the representation of London in 1761. He was made Doctor of Civil Laws by Oxford University, a custom which would have been perhaps more honoured in the breach than the observance; and we owe Blackfriars’ Bridge greatly to the energy and exertions of Sir Richard Glyn, Knight, Baronet, and Lord Mayor, and--more honourable title still,--director of our first purely mutual life assurance office. We look in vain for such names as Glyn, Gosling, Ladbroke, or Beckford, among the sheriffs and aldermen of the present day. [13] That the safety of this Society was doubtful may be partly judged from the fact, that half the policies issued within the first twenty-five years had been abandoned, probably from doubt of their ultimate payment. CHAP. VIII. BUBBLE ANNUITY COMPANIES--THEIR PROMISES--EFFECT ON THE PEOPLE.--DR. PRICE--HIS LIFE.--SIR JOHN ST. AUBYN.--THE YORKSHIRE SQUIRE--ASSURANCES ON HIS LIFE--HIS SUICIDE. The bubbles which sprang up in the shape of annuity institutions were numerous. They were becoming objects of serious concern. They attracted the class which understood the least. They appealed to the finest sympathies of nature, and traded in the feelings they sought to excite. Projectors and promoters arose, and with them came societies which could do nothing but empty the pocket of the subscriber to fill that of the manager. There were annuity clubs for naval and for military men, for clergymen and clerks, for schoolmasters and for tradesmen; but as there was no special information by which to govern the rates, or as those rates were more tempting than trustworthy, the subscribers were fleeced, partly in proportion to their own ignorance, and partly in proportion to the consciences of the directors. This was the era of annuity societies, as the present is the era of life assurance. A prodigious traffic was carried on in such schemes, and a perfect rage for forming them spread through the kingdom.