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234 WILLIAMS' CASE.
too narrow a basis to be applied to all England; and are the result
of observations confined to too short a period of time, and are made
without any discrimination whatever as to class, occupation, or
sex. It must also be recollected, that the improved condition of
the people, since those tables were formed, has added much to
the average duration of human life. The Northampton tables are
those however, which have been adopted by most of the insurance
offices in England, as those upon which they still depend in cases
of insurance for lives.
The Equitable Insurance Company of London is said to be the
most wealthy and extensive institution of the kind in Europe.
This company, from their own observations and experience, have
formed tables, such as they have deemed safe to follow, with a
view to profit. These tables, called the Equitable Tables, have
been often resorted to as guides, and have been from time to time
revised by the actuaries of the institution, (g) The next set of
tables are those of Sweden, which appear to have been constructed
in a very satisfactory manner, upon returns carefully collected in
the years 1755 to 1776, and corrected from other returns from the
years 1775 to 1796, and from 1801 to 1805, from the population
of the whole of Sweden and Finland, These tables may be
trusted as accurately exhibiting the chances of mortality amongst
the whole population of those two countries, but not the relative
chances amongst the different classes of that population. But the
climate of those countries, the severe and fatal changes of the
seasons, and other peculiarities, influencing health and longevity,
differ so greatly from those of most other countries, as to render
this set of tables, unaided by other evidences, insufficient for the
determination of the exact average mortality amongst the popula-
tion of any other and different regions, (h)
The last and most recently constructed set of European tables,
are those formed about the year 1825, by John Finlaison, the
actuary of the National Debt Office of England. These tables
were deduced from observations upon the life annuitants of the
English government, composed of all classes dispersed over all
England, and amounting to nearly twenty-five thousand people,
during a period of more than thirty years. But, against these
tables it may be objected as against those of Sweden, that they
appear to be based upon a view of the population of the whole
(g) 9 Westm. Rev. 393.—(h) 1 Malth. Popu. b. 2, c. 2,; 9 Westm. Rev. 386.
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