a loan given for life annuities with benefit of survivorship; so called from the projector, Lorenzo Tonti, a Neapolitan. He proposed his scheme in 1653, to reconcile the people to Cardinal Mazarin's government, by amusing them with the hope of becoming suddenly rich. He obtained the consent of the court, but the parliament would not register the edict. He made attempts afterwards, but without success. It was not till Louis XIV. was distressed by the league of Augsburg, and by his own immense expenses, that he had recourse to the plans of Tonti. A second tontine was opened in France in 1689. The last survivor was a widow of ninety-six years of age, who, for an original subscription of 300 livres, enjoyed an income of 73,500 livres at her death. The last French tontine was opened in 1789.

The nature of the plan is this: An annuity, after a certain rate of interest, is granted to a number of people, divided into classes, according to their respective ages; so that the whole annual fund of each class is regularly divided among the survivors of that class, till at last it falls to one, and, upon the extinction of that life, reverts to the power by which the tontine was erected.