in 1861, is upwards of one million sterling-a damage far overbalanced by the loss of the valuable lives who also perished with the ships. It may be adduced as an illustration of the invaluable services of the Life-Boat Institution, the Board of Trade, and other kindred bodies, that during the past six years alone, 16,119 persons have been saved from shipwrecks by means of the life-boats, the life-preserving apparatus, shore-boats, and other appliances, as the annexed list shows: In 1856, 2,243; 1857, 1,668; 1858, 1,555; 1859, 2,332; 1860, 3,697; 1861, 4,624. Since its formation, the Institution has been instrumental, by its life-boats and other means, in saving 12,680 lives; and having now 179 life-boats, it requires, we need scarcely say, a large annual income to meet the demands upon its priceless services. Of this number of craft, we find there are 137 stationed in England, 20 in Scotland, and 22 in Ireland. The Ballast Corporation of Dublin having requested the Institution to undertake the management of the three life-boat stations of Dublin Bay, viz, at Kingstown, Howth, and Poolbeg, and their request having been acceded to, three new life-boats, with transporting-carriages, have been recently supplied and fully equipped. The Ballast Corporation will contribute £50 annually towards the cost of these establishments, leaving the Institution to collect the remainder of the sum necessary for their efficient maintenance, and for the quarterly exercise of their crews and their coxwains' salaries, from the inhabitants of Dublin. That it is not in the power of man to avert the storm, nor prevent the occurrence of wreck and violent death at sea, we are all aware, but it is our duty, to quote the words of the "Life-Boat Journal," to strive for safety, to continue to wrestle hard with danger, to confine disaster and death within the narrowest limits which human efforts can impose upon them. We are certain that there is no necessity to appeal to our countrymen for an adequate response to the periodical appeals for help of an Institution which is so universal in its practical exercise of benevolence and humanity, that it may be said to have adopted for its motto "For one-for all !"

There is another subject in connection with the National Life-Boat Institution, to which we would briefly advert. There are no braver men in the whole kingdom than the crews of their boats; there are none whom the generosity of the public is so slow in reaching. The cause of the latter circumstance is not hard to find. Life-boat men are stationed only on the roughest parts of the coast, and they are so remote as a rule from large towns, as to be almost completely lost sight of. Their most daring achievements and it is wonderful how daring these men are found no more than a curt acknowledgment in the columns or a provincial paper, until the secretary of the Life-Boat Institution was at the pains to furnish the journals with gratuitous paragraphs and articles, describing any event of interest. Yet many hundreds of lives are saved every year by these crews, and it has been estimated that these lives cost the Institution no greater sum than one pound each! It unfortunately happens, however, that the noble fellows who leave the shore in the midst of storm and darkness, to battle their way through the wild waves to men, women, and children,

clinging desperately to a broken wreck, sometimes perish in their hazardous undertaking, and how many besides those in the immediate locality of the catastrophe care to inquire what becomes of the bereaved families? In a country where an enormous amount of money is annually bestowed on charitable institutions, it is strange that such an evil as this should be left uncorrected. It would not be difficult to insure some provision for the families of the life-boat men, who were swallowed up in the grave from which they attempted to rescue others. Their lives, we may be sure, are The winds

as precious to their kindred as those they endeavoured to save.
of this present November may be fraught with bitter memories to many
aching widowed hearts, and many a cheerless home, depending for bare sub-
sistence on the uncertain charity of strangers. Is it right that there should
be no effort made to diminish this misery, no interest manifested in the
affairs of men, whose adventurous lives are spent in rescuing their fellow-
creatures from the jaws of death, and in preventing such scenes as that
limned in Charles Kingsley's exquisite ballad of the "Three Fishers?”

"Three fishers went sailing away to the West,
Away to the West as the sun went down ;

Each thought on the woman who loved him the best,
And the children stood watching them out of the town ;
For men must work, and women must weep,
And there's little to earn, and many to keep,
Though the harbour bar be moaning.

Three wives sat up in the lighthouse tower,

And they trimmed the lamps as the sun went down ;
They looked at the squall, and they looked at the shower,
And the night-rack came rolling up ragged and brown.
But men must work, and women must weep,
Though storms be sudden, and waters deep,
And the harbour bar be moaning.

Three corpses lay out on the shining sands,

In the morning gleam as the tide went down,

And the women are weeping and wringing their hands
For those who will never come home to the town;
For men must work, and women must weep,
And the sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep;

And good-bye to the bar and its moaning."

As concerns the welfare of our fishing craft, coasters, and sea-going vessels, the system of meteorological telegraphy so ingeniously devised by Admiral Fitzroy, and which gives warnings, or cautionary notices of gales of wind, or storms, thus placing them on their guard, or preventing them putting out to sea, has been attended with the most efficacious results. It is a significant fact of the general spread of education, and of the spirit of inquiry at the present day, that no event of any moment at all passes away unnoticed. Even what, at this time of the year, cannot be unexpected, a heavy storm, attracts the public attention far and wide. Storms are not regarded, as in the plenitude of ignorance they once were, as visitations and punishments for the iniquity of man, but they are looked upon as natural

phenomena, which, for wise and good purposes, have been designed to accomplish beneficial ends; and if these phenomena are productive of loss of life and property, or injury to mankind, science is properly called on to predict their occurrence, and to devise means of escape or salvation. Science is expected to warn, that the danger may be avoided, and to find efficacious means of help for those who need it, when danger overtakes them. Thus it is, in this busy world of ours, some of the men of science are expected to be watchers and warners, and to look to the safety of the general workers on shore or at sea. As the sentry to the army in the field, so the meteorologist should be to the concourse of sailors on the fickle sea. It is he that should look out afar, and sound the warning in time. Any person who crosses Carlisle-bridge may observe, rising above the roof of the office of the Ballast Board, at the corner of Westmoreland-street, a yard or staff, with a halyard attached. From this tackle are suspended, as warnings to the vessels lying in the Liffey, the storm-signals of Rear-Admiral Fitzroy, adopted by the Board of Trade, and now in use all round the coasts of the United Kingdom, as well as abroad. It would be hardly possible, without the aid of a diagram, to convey anything like a correct impression of the manner in which this apparatus is worked. We may observe, however, that in addition to the staff and halyard, it consists of a drum and a truncated cone. When the meteorological instruments, under the personal supervision of the Admiral in London, foretel important changes of weather, the result is immediately telegraphed to every signal station, and precautionary measures at once taken. Thus, when a gale is anticipated from the northward, the cone, apex upwards, is hoisted half-mast high; for one from the southward an inverted cone is similarly elevated. When it is likely that a succession of gales may be looked for, the drum is suspended at the same altitude, while for dangerous winds, probably at first from the northward, the drum surmounted by a cone, apex upwards, is used, and the exact reverse for winds from the southward. For night signals, lights in triangle or square lanterns are employed instead of the drum and cone. The system of Admiral Fitzroy is still but a tentative experiment, but each month has hitherto added useful facts, and increased our acquaintance with the difficult, though not uncertain, varieties of the subject. Meteorology is in a very early state as a science, and the practical arrangements for rendering it useful are not so wide-spread nor so complete as hereafter, with longer experience, they will be. In some places, because the storm signals have sometimes been displayed without the anticipated bad results following, sailors, misled by their characteristic feelings, have become inclined to slight their warnings. But in this they are not justified, for storms will often take a cyclone course, and leaving untouched certain geographical areas, may sometimes make it seem that the storm signals might have been hoisted in mistake. It does not follow that they should interfere abitrarily with the movements of vessels, and that these are to remain waiting to avoid a gale that, after all, may not happen. All that the cautionary signals imply is the necessity for their being on their guard, and prepared for any emergency,

"For storms are sudden, and waters deep."

Defective as Admiral Fitzroy's meteorological telegraphy may yet be, it has, without question, proved an invaluable aid to the work of the National Life-Boat Institution, and a desideratum, the advantages of which it would be impossible to overrate, to the cause of "those who go down to the sea in ships."

The picture presented by the statistics of the National Life-Boat Institution is altogether very dark and sad. It has nobly led the van in the interests of a noble purpose, but there is abundant evidence that the work so well begun is still incomplete. If our readers think so, let them assist to build the life-boat, and launch it on its errand of mercy; to man the lifeboat, by remembering the gallant men who "with a will" bend to its oars and share its perils, and when the storm hurtles harmlessly against their walls, and the rain dashes against their panes, keening and sobbing, as it were, for the fate of those at sea, how pleasant must the reflection be, that they have through the seething breakers held out the hand of help and rescue to their perishing fellow-man, and enabled him to make a homecircle as happy and thankful by his presence, as it would have been desolate and tearful had there been a "Dead Reckoning."

LOST AND FOUND.

THE mysteries of every-day life are called realities because of their frequency, and in consequence of their close connection with us, we imagine that we know and understand them. Remove some of those things which have come under our immediate notice to another place remote, and they assume all the characteristics of fiction and romance on account of the difference of habits and manners from ourselves, of those to whom they have reference. The world in which we live is to us a sealed book, through the cumberous and moth-eaten covers of which we seek in vain to read these pages in which are written great and mighty truths. Time and experience, that should be the two great expounders, are the covers of the book, and human passion and prejudice the seals set upon its pages, not to be removed. Men and women act in the world, in matters of vital importance, as if they had no predecessors, or that no traveller trod the paths which they pursue through life, although the highways and by-paths which lead to good or evil have been travelled by countless millions, passed away and forgotten, save in the land-marks which they have made on their journeyings, and which are disregarded or unseen by the many wayfarers who follow in their footsteps. Errors that have been occurring from natural causes, year after year, and day after day for centuries, come on people with surprise; and vice and depravity, ending in disaster and misery, are regarded as a misfortune, instead of a positive and necessary consequence.

In the beginning of July, in the year which closed the last century, as the evening drew towards dusk, a tall, fashionably-dressed man entered the

pretty little town of R- on foot. His wearied gait, and travel-soiled clothes, showed that he had walked far on that scorching day. Although his dress was shabby, there was an air and style of breeding about him that could be observed at a glance. His eyes were deep set, and of an uncertain grayish colour. The outlines of his face were sharp, and a hooked nose, and a firmly-compressed mouth, above which grew a formidable moustache, gave to him a semi-military air. The appearance of the stranger attracted the attention of numerous persons who sat in groups, or lolled over half-doors, enjoying the refreshing coolness of the evening. Shoals of idle urchins followed him, for the two fold object of asking for money and to gratify their curiosity, but their solicitations in regard to pecuniary affairs passed unheeded, and the object of their scrutiny silently and rapidly entered the small hostelrie of the village, the only one it could boast. "This way, sir," said Tim Slevin, who acted as groom, boots, and waiter, as he pointed to a long, dark room, covered with saw-dust, on the walls of which were tin sconces for holding candles on festive occasions. Ricketty forms stood ranged beside dirty tables that appeared never to have been washed, while the odour of gin and tobacco-smoke was most perceptible.

"I suppose you come a long way entirely, to-day, sir," continued Tim. "We would have the place clean and made up for your honoar if the mistress knew you were coming, but you can go into the parlour when the guager and two other gintlemen are off, which wont be very long now, as they are half gone' already."

"How far is it from here to the large boarding-school for gentlemen ?" inquired the stranger, unheeding Tim's garrulity.

"Not far at all, sir," replied Tim, who was taken quite by surprise at the prompt manner in which he was addressed. "It is not more than a mile off, and if you like I will show you the way and welcome. I hope you don't think I was too bould when I was spaking to you about the gauger ?”

"I will go myself to the school presently, after I have had supper, which you will order at once," said the stranger.

"What would you like, sir, bacon and eggs, and tay, or milk punch, or if you could wait I will get you chops from Tim Daly, the butcher; he is not in bed yet, though he has to go to the fair at daylight in the morning?"

Anything you have in the house will do me,' observed the stranger, who could not help smiling at the self-imposed importance of Tim, whose round, red face, and serous blue eyes showed that the gauger and his friends were not the only persons who had been enjoying themselves at the "Two Rangers."

When the stranger was left alone he sank into a deep reverie, and as his piercing eyes gazed on vacancy, or into the past, he drew fantastic figures with a small cane, which he held in his hand, on the dirty saw-dust which covered the floor. Why be alone, Gerald Wayland-what joy or pleasure can you find in the past? yours has been a sad and bitter fate, and your presence was a curse to all who knew you!