ful selection of lives. The difference in the two institutions is that the former dispenses with the investment element, while the latter exacts it in connection with all their contracts. Hence the price to be paid is greater. But is not the guarantee also greater? The beneficiary under a death claim in an assessment company has for her security the hope, or promise if you please, that one thousand men will pay ten dollars each for her account. The beneficiary under a death claim in a regular life insurance company has for her security not only the actual payments of ten dollars each by one thousand men, but the definite promise to pay in full by an institution which has ample capital, assets, and surplus to back its contracts. Assessment insurance is yet on trial, and its only hope of permanent business lies in a rigid compliance with the laws of mortality and of sound business experience. THE OLD STATE HOUSE. BY SIDNEY MAXWELL. The Old State House! Within these antique walls This hall the Tory Council sat in state A jostling, hurrying throng-freeman each one, And greet thee with a thousand loving cheers! *The "Boston Massacre," March 5th, 1770. THE PRECIOUS METALS. BY DAVID N. BALFOUR. From the earliest times to the commencement of the Christian Era, the amount of the gold and silver obtained from the surface and mines of the earth is estimated to be $5,084,000,000; from the latter event to the epoch of the discovery of America,$4,363,374,000 were obtained; from the date of the last event to the end of 1842, an addition of $8,500,000,000 was made; the extensive working of the Russian gold mines in 1843, and subsequent years, added to the close of 1852, $1,400,000,000 more; the quadruple discovery of the California gold mines in 1848, those of Australia in 1851, of New Zealand in 1861, and the silver mines of Nevada and other countries bordering upon the Pacific slope of the United States, added, at the close of 1884, $7,093,626,000, making a grand total at the present time of $26,441,000,000. The average loss by the attrition of coin is estimated by Prof. Bowen at onefortieth of one per cent. per annum; and the average loss by consumption in the arts, and destruction by fire and shipwreck, at $9,000,000 per annum. The amount of the precious metals in existence is estimated to be $13,670,000,ooo, of which gold furnishes $8,166,000,000, and silver $5,504,000,000. Of the amount now in existence, $10,500,000,000 are estimated to be in coin and bullion, $2,000,000,000 in watches, and the remainder in plate, jewelry, and ornaments. Of the amount now in existence, $9,448,000,000 is estimated to have been obtained from America, $1,908,000,000 from Asia (including Australia, New Zealand, and Oceanica); $1,004,000,000 from Europe, and $1,310,000,000 from Africa. The following statement will exhibit the product of the precious metals throughout the world in 1884 : The following statement will exhibit the annual product of the precious metals at different periods: The following statement will exhibit the amount of the precious metals estimated to be in existence at different periods: The following statement will exhibit the amount of the precious metals estimated to have been obtained from the surface and mines of the earth, from the earliest times to the close of 1884 During the first period (prior to the commencement of the Christian Era,) the annual product of the precious metals was $2,000,000; during the second. period (prior to the discovery of America,) is was $3,000,000; during the third period (prior to the extensive working of the Russian gold mines, in 1843,) it was $26,000,000; during the fourth period (prior to the double discovery of the California gold mines in 1858, and the Australia gold mines in 1851,) it was $140,000,000; during the fifth period (which immediately succeeded afore-mentioned discoveries,) it was $243,000,000; during the sixth period (immediately succeeding the double discovery of the New Zealand gold mines in 1861, and the silver mines of Nevada and other countries bordering on the Pacific slope of the United States,) it was $212,000,000. The annual products of the precious metals attained its acme in 1853, when it was $285,000,000. The increase in the amount of the precious metals in existence has been greater during the last fortyyears than during the previous two hundred and ninety-four. Of the amount ($6,441,000,000) of the precious metals estimated to have been obtained from the surface and mines of the earth, from the earliest times to the close of 1884, $12,100,000,000 are estimated to have been obtained from America $6,724,000,000 from Asia (including Australia, New Zealand and Oceanica), $3,751,000,000 from Europe, and $2,866,000,000 from Africa. AMESBURY: THE HOME OF WHITTIER. BY FRANCES C. SPARHAWK. AMESBURY is only a town. It has defects that would strike a stranger, and beauties that one who has learned to love them never forgets; they linger in glimpses of wood and hill and river and lake, and often rise unbidden before the mind's eye. The poet Whittier says that those who are born under the shadow of Powow Hill always return sometime, no matter how far they may have wandered. He himself, though not Amesbury born, has found it impossible to desert the old home, full of associations and surrounded by old friends. He always votes in Amesbury, and he often spends weeks at a time in his old home. The river that he has sung, the lake that he has re-christened, the walks and drives with which he is so familiar, all exercise their spell upon him; he loves them, just as he loves the warm hearts that he has found there and helped to make warm and true. But what a stranger would first notice in coming into town is, that the houses, instead of being on land regularly laid out for building, seem to have grown up here and there and everywhere, a good deal in accordance with their own sweet wills, and without the smallest regard to surroundings. But there are handsome houses in Amesbury, and these are growing more numerous every year. The people themselves would assert that the walks and drives about the village, the hills and the river are the things to be longest remembered about the place. If they were inclined to boasting, they might say also that they had as good a right as any people in America to be considered of ancient stock, for some of the names of the earliest settlers are the familiar names in the town to-day, and few towns in America are older than Amesbury. The names Barnard, Challis, Weed, Jones, and Hoyt, appear on the first board of "Prudenshall," and that of Richard Currier as town clerk. This was in April, 1668, the year after the new town was named. Early in 1735 the settlement of Newbury (then spelled Newberry) was begun. In a little over three years a colony was sent out across the Merrimac. The plantation was at first called merely from the name of the river. In 1639 it was named Colchester by the General Court; but October 7, 1640, this name was changed to Salisbury, so that in 1638, almost two hundred and fifty years ago, Salisbury began to be settled. It seemed as if there was need of new settlements at that time to counteract the depletions in the Old World, for the Thirty Years' War was still impoverishing Germany; Richelieu was living to rule France in the name of his royal master, Louis XIII; England was gathering up those forces of good and evil which from resisting tyranny at last grew intoxicated with power, and so came to play the tyrant and regicide. For it was about that time that Charles I had disbanded his army, trusting to the divinity that, in the eyes of the Stuarts, did ever hedge a king, and at the same time thrown away his honor by |