TWENTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT.              127
 

We trust that our Pohcy-holders will perceive
that while we are making every improvement prac¬
ticable in the method of conducting our business,
we are careful to take no step of fundamental
importance without due consideration and abund¬
ant testimony as to its justice, safety, and pro¬
priety.

Other changes as it respects the declarations of
dividends, and their employment and use by the
insured, are under consideration, and will be
developed and adopted whenever they can be
done with safety and propriety, and under the
provisions of our Charter.

A few years more will complete a generation of
assured lives in the experience of this Company,
when we will have passed from speculative un¬
certainty as to the cost of insurance, and as to
what we may or may not do, to the solid certainty
of ascertained facts, when we can move forward
fearlessly and safely in all useful and practicable
improvements and reform.