The extent of the means for saving life at present is comprised in the following meagre statement, which we copy from the Northumberland Report*:— " In Scotland, with a seaboard of 1,500 miles, there are eight life-boats: at St.

Andrews, the Tay, Arbroath, Montrose, Aberdeen, Wick, Ardrossan, and Irvine.

Some of these boats are in tolerable repair: that at Wick is quite new, others are quite unserviceable. The boats at Aberdeen, Montrose, and St. Andrews, have been the means of saving 83 lives. There are Manby's mortars at 10 stations, and rockets at eight stations; the latter have been instrumental in saving 68 lives. Orkney and Shetland are without any provision for saving life; and with the exception of Port Logan, in Wig- tonshire, where there is a mortar, the whole of the west coast of Scotland, from Cape Wrath to the Solway Firth (an extent of 900 miles, without including the islands), is in the same state.

" In England and Wales, with a seaboard of 2,000 miles, there are 75 life-boats; of these, 45 are stationed on the east coast.

On the shores of Northumberland, from Berwick-on-Tweed to the Tyne, there are seven boats, or one for every eight miles; there are three at Shields; 15 on the coasts of Durham and Yorkshire, or one for every 10 miles; in Lincolnshire, four boats, or one for every 15 miles; on the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk, from Cromer to Southwold, there are 10 boats, or one for every five miles; a fact highly creditable to the County Asso- ciations. There are life-boats also at Aid- borough, Harwich, and Broadstairs.

" On the south coast, from Dover to, the Land's End, a distance of 420 miles, there are seven life-boats, but none at Penzance, where most needed. At the Scilly Isles there is one inefficient boat; the same at St.

Ives and Bude; and a little better one at Padstow. So that from Falmouth, round the Land's End, by Trevose Head, to Hart- land Point, an extent of 150 miles of the most exposed coast in England, there is not a really efficient life-boat. In the Bristol Channel the North Devon Association main- tains three life-boats in Bideford Bay; there is a new life-boat at Ilfracombe, and one at Burnham. On the south coast of Wales, from Cardiff round to Fishguard, a distance of 200 miles, there is one life-boat at Swan- sea, and that unserviceable. There are 12 boats on the west and north coast of Wales: some in a very defective state ; and nine in good order at five stations in the important port of Liverpool, liberally supported by the Dock Trustees, and having permanent boats' crews. These boats, as before mentioned, have brought on shore 1,128 persons during the last 11 years, thus proving the value of ife-boats when kept in an efficient state and properly managed. In all there are 28 boats, one half unserviceable, to supply the wants of a seaboard 900 miles in extent, from the Land's End to the Solway, including the ports of Liverpool and Bristol.

" In the Isle of Man, which from its posi-tion near the centre of the Irish Sea, and in the midst of a great part of the traffic of Liverpool and Belfast, Glasgow and Dublin, has its shores much exposed to wrecks, there is not a single life-boat. The four boats established here by the exertions of the late Sir WILLIAM HILLARY, Bart.—a name honourably associated with that of Mr. THOMAS WILSON, formerly M.P. for the City of London, as founders of the National Shipwreck Institution—have been allowed to fall into decay, and hardly a vestige of them remains.

" From official returns, it appears that many of the coasUguard stations on the shores of England and Wales are supplied with rock- ets or mortars, at the expense of Govern- ment, and some stations have both. There are 73 stations which have rockets, 30 which have mortars, and 41 which have both mortars and rockets. At first sight this seems a fair proportion, and so it would be if the rockets were efficient; but the returns go on to say, at 24 stations rockets have burst, and at 42 stations lines have broken. In some instances the rockets were old, in others badly made, and the lines in the same state. Yet even with these draw- backs, rockets and mortars have proved most useful. At 22 stations where a record has been kept, not less than 214 lives have been saved by them, besides several crews at Caistor, near Yarmouth, and many lives at eight other stations, where no account has been kept of the number.

" The veteran Captain MANBY may reflect with just gratification in his declining years that the mortar he was instrumental in bringing into use as a means of saving life has proved very serviceable.

" In Ireland, with an extent of 1,400 miles of coast, there are eight life-boats, and they are inefficient. Yet there is no part in the United Kingdom in which wrecks are more frequent than on the coast of Wexford ; and when we consider that, in addition to the cross-channel trade, the whole of the foreign trade to Liverpool, Glasgow, and Belfast, passes through the Irish sea, the frequency of wrecks on the east coast of Ireland need not create surprise.

" There are 25 stations in Ireland at which there are either rockets or mortars; but here, as well as elsewhere on the coasts, lines have broken and rockets have burst; the rockets, too, might be better distributed.

Yet notwithstanding these minor evils, which may be set right without any great difficulty, the testimony in Ireland, as well as in England, is decisive as to the value of the rocket in effecting communication with a stranded vessel, and thus saving life from shipwreck.

" Fully admitting the good service that both rocket and mortar have rendered in their present state, the Committee have formed a strong opinion that the rocket and line may be greatly improved. The maximum range now attained with DENNETT'S 9 Ibs., or CARTE'S 12 Ibs., life-rocket in fine weather is 350 yards, but in stormy weather, such as that in which wrecks usually occur, it seldom reaches 300 yards. On many parts of the coast such a limited flight would not reach a stranded vessel; it seems desirable, there- fore, to make every effort to increase the range, whether by an improvement in the rocket, or by substituting a lighter line of Manilla or other hemp; and, considering the importance of the object and its intimate connexion with the life-boat, the Committee maybe permitted to express their earnest hope that the experiments on this subject which they understand have been set on foot, will be continued with as little delay as possible until a favourable result is obtained."