The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1855-9] LIFE .INSURANCE. 305
on the subject to Mr. Hayter ; a recent application
having been refused.
Amidst the labour and anxiety that weighed upon
me during the period of the Sunday Observance
attention for the furtherance of
agitation, I had no spare
this useful measure, nor was it until the beginning of the
year 1851 that I was able to take the next step. Then,
however, I spoke to Sir George Cornewall Lewis on the
subject. I proposed that Government should give up
to the fund the proceeds of the unclaimed money
orders, which I estimated at about "1,100 a year, and
I explained to him a plan which I had in view for
extending the utility of the association, by including not
only life insurance, but also guarantees for the conduct
of the insured. He agreed in the opinion that the
association should be helped in its present difficulties,
but, objecting to anything in the shape of charity,
was not inclined to go further ; and in this position
matters remained for the time. On my brother's
appointment, however, later in the same year, I
directed his attention to the matter, and, in a short
time, he produced a plan which, satisfying the
Treasury, procured for the society its required
assistance.
The first step in accordance with this sanction was
to induce an office of undoubted stability to take upon
itself the society's liabilities ; and to this the Atlas
Assurance Company assented upon receiving the sum
of .2,000, which was drawn from the void order fund.
It was arranged that thenceforth the whole of this fund,
amounting at the time to about ,1,400 a year, together
with the interest on its previous accumulation, which
constituted a principal of about "12,000, and lastly, all
the money found in such "dead letters" as could not
be returned to the writers, should be applied towards
VOL. n. x