of publishing from this chair the banns between this institution
and the public. Nevertheless, I feel bound individually to do my
duty the same as if it had never been done before, and to ask
whether there is any just cause or impediment why these two parties
– the institution and the public – should not be joined together in
holy charity. As I understand the society, its objects are fivefold
– first, to guarantee annuities which, it is always to be
observed, is paid out of the interest of invested capital, so that
those annuities may be secure and safe – annual pensions, varying
from 10 to 25 pounds, to distressed railway officers and servants
incapacitated by age, sickness, or accident; secondly, to guarantee
small pensions to distressed widows; thirdly, to educate and
maintain orphan children; fourthly, to provide temporary relief for
all those classes till lasting relief can be guaranteed out of
funds sufficiently large for the purpose; lastly, to induce railway
officers and servants to assure their lives in some wellestablished
office by sub-dividing the payment of the premiums into
small periodical sums, and also by granting a reversionary bonus of
10 pounds per cent. on the amount assured from the funds of the
institution.
This is the society we are met to assist – simple, sympathetic,
practical, easy, sensible, unpretending. The number of its members
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Dickens, Charles – Speeches, Literary & Social
is large, and rapidly on the increase: they number 12,000; the
amount of invested capital is very nearly 15,000 pounds; it has
done a world of good and a world of work in these first nine years
of its life; and yet I am proud to say that the annual cost of the
maintenance of the institution is no more than 250 pounds. And now
if you do not know all about it in a small compass, either I do not
know all about it myself, or the fault must be in my “packing.”
One naturally passes from what the institution is and has done, to
what it wants. Well, it wants to do more good, and it cannot
possibly do more good until it has more money. It cannot safely,
and therefore it cannot honourably, grant more pensions to
deserving applicants until it grows richer, and it cannot grow rich
enough for its laudable purpose by its own unaided self. The thing
is absolutely impossible. The means of these railway officers and
servants are far too limited. Even if they were helped to the
utmost by the great railway companies, their means would still be
too limited; even if they were helped – and I hope they shortly
will be – by some of the great corporations of this country, whom
railways have done so much to enrich. These railway officers and
servants, on their road to a very humble and modest superannuation,
can no more do without the help of the great public, than the great
public, on their road from Torquay to Aberdeen, can do without
them. Therefore, I desire to ask the public whether the servants
of the great railways – who, in fact, are their servants, their
ready, zealous, faithful, hard-working servants – whether they have
not established, whether they do not every day establish, a
reasonable claim to liberal remembrance.
Now, gentlemen, on this point of the case there is a story once
told me by a friend of mine, which seems to my mind to have a
certain application. My friend was an American sea-captain, and,
therefore, it is quite unnecessary to say his story was quite true.
He was captain and part owner of a large American merchant liner.
On a certain voyage out, in exquisite summer weather, he had for
cabin passengers one beautiful young lady, and ten more or less
beautiful young gentlemen. Light winds or dead calms prevailing,
the voyage was slow. They had made half their distance when the
ten young gentlemen were all madly in love with the beautiful young
lady. They had all proposed to her, and bloodshed among the rivals
seemed imminent pending the young lady’s decision. On this
extremity the beautiful young lady confided in my friend the