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228 WILLIAMS' CASE.
Isaac Newton. (b) In the year 1746, M. Deparcieux published his
Observations on the Bate of Mortality as it occurred among the
nominees of two tontines in France, from 1695 to 1740; and on
great numbers of monks and nuns in France, who died in the century
preceding, (c) Subsequently to which, Abraham de Moivre, then
of England, published his Essays on the Doctrine of Chances, and
on Annuities. And it is said, that towards the close of his life,
which happened in 1754, he was consulted on all questions relating
to chances, gaming, and annuities, and by his answers chiefly sub-
sisted, (d) In the year 1740, Thomas Simpson, an eminent English
mathematician, published a Treatise on the Nature and Laws of
Chance; soon after which he published a small volume on the
Doctrine of Annuities and Reversions, deduced from general and
evident principles, with useful tables shewing the values of single
and joint lives. And in the year 1752, appeared his work entitled,
Select Exercises for Young Proficients in Mathematics, (e) In the
year 1771, Doctor Richard Price, an eminent Englishman, pub-
lished his celebrated work in relation to this matter, entitled, 'Ob-
servations on Reversionary Payments,' &c. The seventh edition
of which enlarged and improved by William Morgan, was published
in 1812. (f) The public attention, in Great Britain, had not only
been thus repeatedly called to this subject, by the publications of
these eminent men; but a very great importance had been given to
it by the formation, or legal incorporation, from the year 1706 to
1765, of many societies and bodies politic, for the granting of
annuities and insurances upon lives; (g) and still more so, by the
government's undertaking in 1692; and still continuing to raise
revenue by the sale of annuities for life and for years, (h) In re-
ference to which governmental interest in the matter, it has been
lately taken up in the House of Commons, and investigated with
great care, (i)
la every judicial inquiry, instituted for the purpose of ascertain-
ed) Rees' Cyclo, e. Newton; 1 Niebuhr's Rome, 285; 16 Westm. Rev. 328.—
(e) Finlaison's Report, &c. 8; 2 Price Obser. 454—(d) Rees' Cyclo, v. De Moivre;
9 Westm. Rev. 421.—(e) Rees' Cyclo, v. Simpson,—(f) Since that time Arthur
Morgan, in the year 1834, published a set of 'Tables shewing the total number of
persons assured in the Equitable Society (London,) from its commencement in
September, 1762, to January, 1829,' &c.—(f) 1 Price Obser. 72,97,104,109,110,
142,158; 9 Westm. Rev. 389.—(h) 4 W, & M. c. 3, s. 18; 5 W. & M. c. 5 and 20;
1 Ann. Stat. 2, c. 5.—(i) The report from the select committee on life annuities, 4
June, 1829; The report of John Finlaison, actuary of the national debt, on the
evidence and elementary facts on which the tables of life annuities, constructed by
him, are founded, 31 March, 1829,
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