The Proposed Legislation for the Regulation of Insurance Companies

The remarkable change which has taken place within the last two or three years in the position and circumstances of these institutions has very much tended to allay the desire, so generally expressed formerly, for legislative interference, with a view to their better regulation. The impression, by which so many well-informed persons seemed to be actuated, that they might be multiplied with advantage almost indefinitely, appears now to have become thoroughly eradicated; and in its place a conviction seems to have arisen that the country cannot support a very large number of these Companies, and that the sooner the existing ones even are reduced in number the better. Be this as it may, we cannot but regard the rational and moderate ideas now prevailing on this subject as a vast improvement on the extravagant notions heretofore generally entertained with regard to it; and, if reliance could be placed on the continuance of this better disposition, we think our readers will agree that the necessity for legislative interference has, in a great measure, passed away, and that the Assurance Companies might now be left to pursue their course guided by their own discretion and untrammelled by further restrictions.