Tests of Success.

It is not sufficient that the amount of the funds should increase, but the total sum assured and the premium income should either increase, or, at all events, be permanently maintained; or, to speak more precisely, in every office of (say) less than 60 years' standing, the premium income and the sums assured should be increasing, and in older offices should be at least maintained; and any life office which does not satisfy this condition must be held to be lacking in one of the essential marks of success. It is, therefore, essential for every office to secure a constant accession of new business, and for this purpose it must take measures to attract customers; and here again the same principle may guide us which I have already laid down, namely, that a life insurance office must be considered a commercial undertaking, and must be managed upon commercial principles.