I may suppose, therefore, as
it was established nine years ago, that this is the ninth occasion
of publishing from this chair the banns between this institution
and the public. Nevertheless, I feel bound individually to do my
duty the same as if it had never been done before, and to ask
whether there is any just cause or impediment why these two
parties--the institution and the public--should not be joined
together in holy charity. As I understand the society, its objects
are five-fold--first, to guarantee annuities which, it is always to
be observed, is paid out of the interest of invested capital, so
that those annuities may be secure and safe--annual pensions,
varying from 10 to 25 pounds, to distressed railway officers and
servants incapacitated by age, sickness, or accident; secondly, to
guarantee small pensions to distressed widows; thirdly, to educate
and maintain orphan children; fourthly, to provide temporary relief
for all those classes till lasting relief can be guaranteed out of
funds sufficiently large for the purpose; lastly, to induce railway
officers and servants to assure their lives in some well-
established office by sub-dividing the payment of the premiums into
small periodical sums, and also by granting a reversionary bonus of
10 pounds per cent. on the amount assured from the funds of the
institution.
This is the society we are met to assist--simple, sympathetic,
practical, easy, sensible, unpretending.
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