GAMBLING IN ASSURANCES ON WALPOLE—GEORGE II.—THE JACOBITE PRISONERS—THE GERMAN EMIGRANTS—ADMIRAL BYNG—JOHN WILKES—YOUNG MR. PIGOT AND OLD MR. PIGOT—LAPLAND LADIES AND LAPLAND REIN-DEER.—INSURANCE ON CITIES.—GAMBLING ON THE SEX OF D’EON—PUBLIC MEETING—DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE CITIZENS.—TRIAL CONCERNING D’EON—LORD MANSFIELD’S DECISION.

For many years prior to 1774, a spirit of gambling which took the form of assurance was prevalent in the City, and so serious did it become that the legislature were compelled to notice it. This mode of speculation is one of the strangest by-ways in the annals of insurance. From 1720 much of the legitimate business had been usurped by it, policies being opened on the lives of public men, with a recklessness at once disgraceful and injurious to the morals of the country. That of Sir Robert Walpole was assured for many thousands; and at particular portions of his career, when his person seemed endangered by popular tumults, as at the Excise Bill; or by party hate, as at the time of his threatened impeachment; the premium was proportionately enlarged. When George II. fought at Dettingen, 25 per cent. was paid against his return. The rebellion of 1745, as soon as the terror which it excited had passed away, was productive of an infamous amount of business. The members of Garraway’s, the assurers at Lloyd’s, and the merchants of the Royal Exchange, being unable to raise or lower the price of stocks any more by reports of the Pretender’s movements, made sporting assurances on his adventures, and opened policies on his life. Sometimes the news arrived that he was taken prisoner, and the underwriters waxed grave. Sometimes it was rumoured he had escaped, and they grew gay again. Thousands were ventured on his whereabouts, and tens of thousands on his head.

The rebel lords who were captured in that disastrous expedition, were another source of profit to the speculators. The gray hairs of old Lord Lovat did not prevent them from gambling on his life. The gallantry of Balmerino and the devotion of Lady Nithsdale, raised no soft scruples in the minds of the brokers; and when the husband of the latter escaped from the Tower, the agitation of those who had perilled their money on his life, and to whom his violent death would have been a profit, is described as noisy and excessive. But no sooner was it known that he had escaped, than fresh policies were opened on his recapture, and great must have been the indignation of his high-minded wife when she afterwards heard this trait of City character. Devotional as is the mind of the great metropolis in the presence of mammon, there were perhaps no blacker instances of that foul spirit which sought to make money from the sufferings of gallant though mistaken gentlemen.

The advent of the German emigrants was another opportunity. In 1765, upwards of 800 men, women, and children, lay in Goodman’s Fields in the open air, without food. They had been brought by a speculator from the Palatinate, Franconia, and Suabia, and then deserted by him. In a strange land, without friends, exposed by night and by day to the influences of the atmosphere, death was the necessary result. On the third day, when several expired from hunger or exposure, the assurance speculators were ready, and wagers were made as to the number who would die in the week. In the western part of the metropolis considerable feeling was exhibited for these unhappy creatures; in the country a charitable fervour was excited in their behalf; but indubitably the greatest interest was felt by those operators in the Alley and underwriters of Lloyd’s Coffee-house, who had made contracts on their distresses, and speculated on their deaths. The benevolent spirit of England, however, soon put this speculation to an end, by providing the unfortunate Germans with food, shelter, and the means of emigration.

The trial and execution of Byng were productive of a similar mania. At each change in his prospects, slight as his chances ever were, the underwriters raised or lowered their premiums, the assurers were elevated or depressed. This victim of the most dastardly ministry that ever misgoverned England, had but little sympathy from the speculators on his life; and it is difficult to say whether their power, importance, and position,—for jobbers and underwriters then were merchants and men of family,—did not in some degree inflame the feeling for blood which had seized the people. It is certain it did not mitigate it. When Wilkes was committed to the Tower, policies were granted at 10 per cent. if he remained there a specified time. King George, when he was ill, and Lord North, when he was unpopular, were both scheduled in the brokers’ books as good subjects. When Minorca was lost, and the premier Duke of Newcastle “began to tremble for his place, and for the only thing which was dearer to him than his place, his neck,” there were plenty to open policies on his life, and plenty to avail themselves of the chances which threatened him. As soon as he resigned his premiership, assurances were entered into on the continuance of the new Pitt ministry in power; and when the duke reassumed office, fresh engagements were opened on the chance of his remaining in place. Successes or disasters were all the same to the assurers; the seals of a prime minister, or the life of a highwayman, answered equally the purpose of the policy mongers; and India or Minorca, Warren Hastings or Admiral Byng, were alike to them if they could put money into their purses. They made wager policies on the lives of the high-minded Jacobite, and they did the same on every batch of felons left for execution. Assurances were entered into on the life of the Regent Orleans of France; and when he was succeeded by Louis Quinze, they insured, not the lives indeed, but the continuance of his mistresses in the favour of the monarch. Day by day during the trial of the Duchess of Kingston for bigamy, there were frequent expresses from West to East with information of the proceedings, which, according to its chances, varied the premiums and excited the cupidity of the assurers. There was absolutely nothing on which a policy could be opened, but what was employed as a mode of gambling. Scarcely a nobleman of note went to his long account, without an assurance being opened during his illness, by those who had no interest in his life. These policies, especially those on political offenders whose existence trembled in the balance, were most mischievous. A pecuniary interest in the death of any one is fearful odds against benevolent feeling; and it was hardly to be expected that men should throw what influence they possessed into the scale of mercy. The power of opening merely speculative policies on private persons was also demoralising, and perhaps dangerous to life itself. It was not possible—it was not in human nature—to have money depending on the existence of the inmate of your home without watching him with feelings which the good man would tremble to analyse, and even the bad man would fear to avow. People then opened policies on the lives of all in whom they were socially interested; and under the plea of provision, acquired an interest in their relatives which was almost fearful and sometimes fatal, from its intensity. There is no doubt that the system was false and hollow. The son then insured the life of his father; the father opened policies on the life of his son: and when thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of pounds were dependent on it, who shall tell the feelings of the son, or dare to judge the sensations of the father, if sickness or disease opened a golden prospect? The mind shrinks from the horror of the idea, and recoils indignantly at the thought that such sacred relations of life should be thus sordidly regarded. But the argument might be carried further; for to many a dark mystery might a clue be given, in the remembrance that a pecuniary interest might have existed between the murdered and the murderer!

Nor was this all. One life was commonly pitted against another. Thus, Lord March, afterwards notorious as the Duke of Queensberry, laid a wager with “young Mr. Pigot,” that Sir William Codrington would die before old Mr. Pigot. As the latter, however, happened to be dead when the wager was laid, young Mr. Pigot refused to pay; so Lord March went to law, and compelled him to do so. Another adventure excited still more the cupidity of underwriters and assurers, and produced larger and more varied policies than any, except on the sex of D’Eon, whose career is sketched at the end of this chapter. It was spread in the papers that a country baronet had laid a heavy wager that he would go to Lapland, and in a given time, bring home two females of the country and two rein-deer. This, which was originally only a bet between a couple of foolish young men, created a mania at Lloyd’s: policies were first opened that the baronet would not return within the time; then, that he would not return at all; then, that he would die before he reached Lapland. The next movement was to speculate on his returning with the women; and this increased the premiums enormously, immense sums being risked on the childish enterprise. Merchants and men of rank joined in the assurances; and when the adventurer came back with his Lapland deer and Lapland ladies, large sums were paid by those underwriters who had speculated on his failure.

The “London Chronicle” remarks, in 1768, “The introduction and amazing progress of illicit gaming at Lloyd’s Coffee-house is, among others, a powerful and very melancholy proof of the degeneracy of the time. Though gaming in any degree is perverting the original and useful design of that coffee-house, it may in some measure be excusable to speculate on the following subjects:—

“Mr. Wilkes being elected Member for London; which was done from 5 to 50 guineas per cent.

“Mr. Wilkes being elected Member for Middlesex; from 20 to 70 guineas per cent.

“Alderman Bond’s life for one year, now doing at 7 per cent.

“On Sir J. H. being turned out in one year, now doing at 20 guineas per cent.

“On John Wilkes’s life for one year, now doing at 5 per cent.—N.B. Warranted to remain in prison during that period.

“On a declaration of war with France or Spain in one year, 8 guineas per cent.

“But,” continued the same journal, “when policies come to be opened on two of the first peers in Britain losing their heads at 10s. 6d. per cent., and on the dissolution of the present parliament within one year at 5 guineas per cent., which are now actually doing, and underwritten chiefly by Scotsmen, at the above coffee-house, it is surely high time to interfere.”

Such was the opinion of the journalist; and the following extract from “Every Man his own Broker,” is a further proof that legislation of some kind was absolutely necessary:—

“Another manner of spending the vacation formerly, was in insuring the lives of such unfortunate gentlemen as might happen to stand accountable to their country for misconduct. I am not willing to disturb the ashes of the dead, or I could give an account of this cruel pastime, the parallel of which is not to be met with in the instance of any civilised nation; but I hope we shall hear no more of such detestable gaming; therefore, as a scene of this kind fully laid open might astonish, but could not convey instruction, humanity bids me draw the veil, and not render any set of men unnecessarily odious.

“A practice likewise prevailed of insuring the lives of well known personages, as soon as a paragraph appeared in the newspapers announcing them to be dangerously ill. The insurance rose in proportion as intelligence could be procured from the servants or from any of the faculty attending, that the patient was in great danger. This inhuman sport affected the minds of men depressed by long sickness; for when such persons, casting an eye over a newspaper for amusement, saw their lives had been insured in the Alley at 90 per cent., they despaired of all hopes, and thus their dissolution was hastened. But to the honour of the principal merchants and underwriters, they caused an advertisement, some years since, to be fixed up at Lloyd’s Coffee-house, declaring that they would not transact business with any brokers who should be engaged in such infamous transactions.

“Insuring of property in any city or town that is besieged, is a common branch of gambling insurance in time of war, but ingenious gamesters, ever studious to invent new and variegate old games, have out of this lawful game (for insurance in general is no more than a game at chance) contrived a new amusement, which is, for one person to give another 40l., and in case Gibraltar, for instance, is taken by a particular time, the person to whom the 40l. are paid is to repay 100l.; but if, on the contrary, the siege is raised before the time mentioned, he keeps the 40l.

“In proportion as the danger of being taken increases, the premium of insurance advances; and when the place has been so situated, that repeated intelligence could be received of the progress of the siege, I have known the insurance rise to 90l. for the 100l. A fine field this opens for spreading false reports, and making private letters from the Continent. But how infinitely more harmless to trifle with property than to affect the life of a fellow-subject, or to injure him with the public, to serve a private end!

“Of sham insurances, that is to say, insurances without property on the spot, made on places besieged, in time of war, foreign ministers residing with us have made considerable advantages. It was a well known fact, that a certain ambassador insured 30,000l. on Minorca in the war of 1755, with advices at the same time in his pocket that it was taken.”

At length the legislature interfered, and in order to hinder the growth of gambling in life assurance, it was enacted, that “no insurance shall be made on the life of any person, or on any event whatsoever, where the person on whose account such policy shall be made shall have no interest, or by way of gaming or wagering; and that every such insurance shall be null and void.

“It shall not be lawful to make any policy on the life of any person, or on any other event, without inserting in the policy the name of the person interested therein, or for what use, or on whose account such policy is so made.

“Where the insured has an interest in such life or event, no greater sum shall be received from the insurer than the amount of the interest of the insured in such life or event.”[14]

This statute was some time before it came into effective operation. It was after this that policies and wagers were carried on to such an incredible degree in the trial of her Grace of Kingston. The underwriters were fully aware that their movements were illegal; but the spirit of gambling by means of assurance was too common to be put down at once by an act of parliament, and in 1777, a singular instance of the determination to grant wager policies came before the public eye. Charles Genevieve Louise Auguste d’Eon de Beaumont, popularly known as the Chevalier d’Eon, was the cause of a trial before Lord Mansfield, as to the validity of a policy without an insurable interest. The career of this man or woman, for the question was long doubtful, was familiar to the public, and will illustrate the excitement of the period. Equerry to Louis XV. doctor of law, ambassador and royal censor, employed in a confidential mission to the Russian court, and said to be a favourite of its empress, D’Eon came to England with a reputation ready made. He soon quarrelled with le Duc de Nivernois, ambassador from the most Christian King, and as D’Eon proved unsuccessful in his attempt to injure his grace, he was so incensed that he disclaimed all connection with the court and ambassador, declared that the peace had been accomplished in England by the agency of French gold; denouncing also, in no measured terms, those who had been accomplices, and pointing almost by name to men who, under the guise of patriotism, had betrayed their country. As a patriot’s capital is his public character, the accused parties waxed wroth, defied their calumniator, and talked of prosecuting him. The people, unwilling to lose their faith in English probity, took the part of their countrymen, and mobbed the knight wherever he appeared.

In the mean time, doubts arising as to his sex, his calumnies were all forgotten, and a new interest was attached to the chevalier, by the assertion of some that he was male, and of others that he was female. This was something fresh for assurance brokers, and the question was mooted at Lloyd’s. At first wagers were made; but as there was no present mode of deciding whether this extraordinary individual was man or woman, they were quickly abandoned.

It was decided, therefore, that policies should be opened on his sex, by which it was undertaken that on payment of fifteen guineas, one hundred should be returned whenever the chevalier was proved to be a woman. At first he pretended to be indignant, and advertised that on a certain day and hour he would satisfy all whom it concerned. The place was a City coffee-house, the hour was that of ’Change, and the curiosity of the citizens was greatly excited. The assurances on this eccentric person’s sex were greatly and immediately increased, policies to a very large amount were made out, wagers of thousands were entered into, and to the rendezvous thronged bankers, underwriters, and brokers. The hour approached, and with it came the chevalier, who, dressed in the uniform of a French officer and decorated with the order of St. Louis, rose to address the assembly. It is easy to imagine the breathless attention of the listening throng (for a million was said to depend on his words), the eager interest of some, the cool cupidity of others, the ribaldry of more, and the astonishment of all, as with an audacity only to be equalled by his charlatanry, he said “he came to prove that he belonged to that sex whose dress he wore, and challenged any one there to disprove his manhood with sword or with cudgel.” The spirit of the citizens had long passed away, commerce had sheathed the sword of chivalry, and none grasped the gauntlet for the honour of London. Bankers, brokers, and underwriters gaped at one another aghast; and though the boldness of the speech pleased many, it was far from satisfactory to those who came with the hope of winning a wager, or claiming their assurance money. The knight departed in triumph. Large sums were said to be offered him to divulge his sex. “I know for certain,” says a writer of the day, “that there were sums offered to him, amounting to 30,000l.” However this may be, it was thought necessary to settle the question, if possible; and one of the first actions tried after the act to prevent gaming in assurance, arose from a policy on the sex of D’Eon, in which it appeared that Mr. Jaques, a broker, had received several premiums of 35 guineas, for which he had granted policies undertaking to return 100 whenever the chevalier was proved to be a woman. The form of the contract was as follows:—

“In consideration of thirty-five guineas for one-hundred received of Roebuck and Vaughan, we whose names are hereunto subscribed, do severally promise to pay the sums of money which we have hereunto subscribed, on the following condition; viz., in case the Chevalier d’Eon should hereafter prove to be a female.”

From this day the star of the chevalier waned in England. He turned fencing-master, but with difficulty obtained a living. He assumed female attire, but his hour was over. He had ceased to be a curiosity to the many; the “death brokers,” as Horace Walpole calls them, could make no more by him; and with the assurance on his sex ceases the interest of Chevalier d’Eon, in the context of this volume. His name is only interesting to the reader from the fact that Chief Justice Mansfield adjudicated on his case, and that an important decision was arrived at in the legal history of this science, when his Lordship declared that a policy of assurance, although not even on life, when entered into without an insurable interest, was against the purport of the act recently passed, and contrary to English notions of morality.