4.  For a penny a day, a young man or woman of twenty may secure an annuity of L26 per annum, or of 10_s_. per week for the whole of life, after reaching the age of sixty-five.

5.  For a penny a day,—­the payment commencing from the birth of any child,—­a parent may secure the sum of L20, payable on such child reaching the age of fourteen years.

6.  For a penny a day, continued until the child readies the age of twenty-one years, the sum of L45 may be secured, to enable him or her to begin business, or start housekeeping.

7.  For a penny a day, a young man or woman of twenty-four may secure the sum of L100, payable on reaching the age of sixty, with the right of withdrawing four-fifths of the amount paid in, at any time; the whole of the payments being paid back in event of death occurring before the age of sixty.

Such is the power of a penny a day! Who would have thought it?  Yet it is true, as any one can prove by looking at the tables of the best assurance offices.  Put the penny a day in the bank, and it accumulates slowly.  Even there, however, it is very useful.  But with the assurance office it immediately assumes a vast power.  A penny a day paid in by the man of thirty-one, is worth L60 to his wife and family, in the event of his dying next month or next year!  It is the combining of small savings for purposes of mutual assurance, by a large number of persons, that gives to the penny its enormous power.

The effecting of a life assurance by a working man, for the benefit of his wife and children, is an eminently unselfish act.  It is a moral as well as a religious transaction.  It is “providing for those of his own household.”  It is taking the right step towards securing the independence of his family, after he, the bread-winner, has been called away.  This right investment of the pennies is the best proof of practical virtue, and of the honest forethought and integrity of a true man.

The late Joseph Baxendale was the constant friend of the working people who co-operated with him in the labours of his life.  He was a man of strong common sense, and might have been styled the Franklin of Business.  He was full of proverbial wisdom, and also full of practical help.  He was constantly urging his servants to lay by something for a rainy day, or for their support in old age.  He also used to pension off his old servants after they had ceased to be able to work.

He posted up Texts along his warehouses, so that those who ran might read.  “Never despair,” “Nothing without labour,” “He who spends all he gets, is on the way to beggary,” “Time lost cannot be regained,” “Let industry, temperance, and economy be the habits of your lives.”  These texts were printed in large type, so that every passer-by might read them; while many were able to lay them to heart, and to practise the advices which they enjoined.

On other occasions Mr. Baxendale would distribute amongst his workpeople, or desire to be set up in his warehouses and places of business, longer and more general maxims.  He would desire these printed documents to be put up in the offices of the clerks, or in places where men are disposed to linger, or to take their meals, or to assemble preparatory to work.  They were always full of valuable advice.  We copy one of them, on the Importance of Punctuality:—­