AMONG those men distinguished in the annals of their country for their exertions in the cause of humanity in saving life from ship- wreck, the name of Sir WILLIAM HILLARY must always claim a foremost place, not only as having personally assisted at saving 305 lives, but especially as the original proposer and one of the first founders of the National Shipwreck Institution. And it is an imperative duty on those who are endeavouring to tread in his steps, as well as a grateful task, to place on record in the pages of the Life-Boat Journal a memoir, however brief, of one who laboured so long and so zealously in the cause.

Passing at once over the earlier years of his life, we learn that white a young man Mr. HILLARY spent two years in Italy as equerry to the late Duke of SUSSEX during the wars of the French Consulate, and among other youthful adventures he coasted round the Islands of Sicily and Malta in an open boat, having always had a great love for the sea. When at Malta he formed an intimate acquaintance with Baron HOMPESCH, the last Grand Master of the Order of the Knights" of St. John of Jerusalem, where he became connected with that illustrious Order. Re- turning to England he married and settled in Essex, at Danbury Place (now the episcopal Palace of the See of Rochester), and in 1803, on the renewal of the war with France, he raised, and for many years commanded in person, on exposed parts of the coast, the 1st Essex legion of Infantry and Cavalry, amounting to 1,400 men, the largest force then offered by any private individual for the defence of the country. He expended in this cause upwards of 20,0002. of his patrimony, and in consideration of this and other services the dignity of a Baronet of the United Kingdom was conferred upon him in 1805 by KING GEORGE the THIRD.

About the year 1808, owing to the loss of large West India property, Sir WILLIAM left Essex and settled at Fort Anne, a beautiful spot near Douglas, in the Isle of Man, commanding a magnificent view over the Irish Sea, and looking down directly upon the entrance of the harbour. It was during his residence here that he witnessed some of those numerous wrecks, and was present at several of those harrowing scenes, that working upon a generous and humane dis- position, led him to turn his thoughts towards devising a remedy for an evil of such fearful magnitude. It is probable that the wrecks of the Government cutter, the Vigi- lant, and some other vessels in Douglas Bay, in which Sir WILLIAM HILLARY personally assisted in saving life, and the total wreck of H. M. brig Racehorse, on Langness Point, in the Isle of Man, all of which occurred in the year 1822, were the more immediate causes which, roused his energetic mind to place the whole subject of shipwrecks before his countrymen, and boldly appeal to them whether they would quietly look on and see hundreds of their fellow-creatures annually perish on the shores of the United Kingdom, when the means of rescue were within their reach.

This appeal to the nation, published in February, 1823, was warmly responded to; it struck a sympathetic chord in the hearts of too many to permit of the subject being any longer overlooked; it met with the especial support of its best and most persevering friends, Mr. THOMAS WILSON, then one of the representatives in Parliament for the City of London, and the late Mr. GEORGE HIBBERT, an eminent West India merchant, who was returned M.P. for Seaford in two successive Parliaments; and by means of their extensive influence, a public meeting was convened at the London Tavern on the 4th March, 1824, which was numerously attended. It- was most appropriately presided over by Dr. MANNERS BUTTON, then Archbishop of Canterbury, who thus gave the sanction of the Church to this effort in the cause of humanity, when the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck was founded and established on a permanent That must have been a proud day for Sir WILLIAM HILLARY. To find the cause he had long silently worked for, publicly and eloquently advocated in the metropolis of the kingdom by various influential men, including among them the ever-to-be revered name of WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, was a triumph he might justly boast of, and it must have excited a deep feeling of thank- fulness in his heart that his long-cherished object had at length been brought into action.

Returning to the Isle of Man, he occupied himself in establishing a district Association, which was formed in the year 1826, with Sir WILLIAM as President, in which office he was warmly supported by the Lieutenant- Governor, and other officers of the island.

The first life-boat, built by PLENTY of New- bury, and presented by the Parent Institution, was stationed in Douglas Bay. In the following year a life-boat was placed at Castletown; in 1828 one at Peel; and in 1829 a boat, built at Douglas, was stationed at Ramsey. Thus the four chief harbours of the island were provided with life-boats; they were also supplied by Government with MANBY'S mortar apparatus, and by the Ship- wreck Institution with one set of TREN- GROUSE'S rocket apparatus for communicating by line with a stranded vessel.

It was high time that the coasts of that island were guarded by life-boats, as wrecks continued to be fearfully frequent. In a recent Parliamentary Report, it is stated that in the 25 years between 1821 and 1846, not less than 144 wrecks occurred in the Isle of Man, that 172 lives were lost, while the value of property destroyed was esti- mated at a quarter of a million of money ! In the year 1825 the City of Glasgow steamer was stranded in Douglas Bay, when Sir WILLIAM HILLARY, backed by his veteran coxswain ISAAC VONDY, assisted in saving the lives of 62 persons; in the same year they saved 11 men from the Leopard brig, and 9 from the sloop Fancy, which became a total wreck. In December, 1827, accom- panied by his son, the present Baronet, Sir WILLIAM aided in saving 17 men from the Swedish barque Fortroindet, which became a total wreck on St. Mary's rock, in Douglas Bay; in the year 1830 he saved 7 men from the sloop Eclipse, which became a total wreck, 5 from the sloop Fancy, and 9 from the sloop Anne, a total wreck on the Pollock rock; but the crowning mercy of this year was the saving 22 men, the whole crew of the mail steamer St. George, which on the 20th November drove from her anchors in a S.S.E. gale and became a total wreck on St. Mary's rock. On this occasion Sir WILLIAM was washed overboard among the wreck, and was with difficulty saved, having had six ribs fractured and being' otherwise much hurt. Lieut. ROBINSON, R.N., Mr. WILLIAM CORLETT, and, as usual, ISAAC VONDY, pilot and coxswain, shared the danger in this perilous exploit, for which two gold and two silver medals were deser- vedly awarded by the Parent Institution.

Nothing daunted by the sufferings he had undergone, we find this gallant man, now 63 years of age, foremost at the wrecks of the schooner Mary and the brig Erin in 1831, and in the following year at the rescue of the crew of the Parkfield, a large Liver- pool ship, stranded in a S.E. gale in Douglas Bay, from which 54 men were saved by the life-boat. This was, we believe, the last occasion on which Sir WILLIAM personally assisted at a wreck, although as President of the Local Association he continued his countenance and support to the exertions of others, among whom the name of Captain Quayle is conspicuous as having earned two silver medals. In the course of 16 years the Parent Institution voted 5 gold medals, 12 silver medals, and a sum of about 160/. in rewards for distinguished services in saving 305 lives from shipwreck on the shores of the Isle of Man; a proof both of the frequency of wrecks in this island and of the gallant conduct of the Manxmen.

Another labour of love was the planning a tower of refuge on St. Mary's, or Conister rock, in Douglas Bay, the foundation stone of which was laid by Sir WILLIAM, assisted by Archdeacon PHILPOT, on St. George's day, 1832, and carried out by public sub- scription, towards which Sir WILLIAM con- tributed most liberally. These rocks are covered by the sea at high water, but now the tower affords a sure refuge to any ship- wrecked mariner who may unfortunately be cast away upon them.

But the works which chiefly occupied the latter years of his life were the esta- blishment of a Sailor's Home at Douglas, the seeking the removal of the Harbour dues, which, in his opinion, were the cause of many of-the wrecks, and the advocacy of the improvement of the harbours of the island generally, and especially the con- struction of a harbour of refuge in Douglas Bay. Having been an eye-witness of the loss of life and destruction of property caused by the frequent wrecks of shipping in south- easterly gales, he naturally looked for a remedy for such disasters, and the erection of a breakwater in the Bay presented itself as the most obvious one. A constant re- sident on the spot for 30 years, he must have been aware that the loss of property incurred by the four wrecks of the City of Glasgow steamer, the Fortrmndet Swedish ship, the mail steam-packet St George, and the Liverpool ship Parkfield, all wrecked within seven years (to say nothing of the.

many smaller craft), was estimated at 25,000?., a sum that would amply suffice to build a breakwater pier, to extend from the Two-Gun battery into 18 feet at low water, or 40 feet at high water spring tides; and although he has not lived to see it, the measure he advocated, sooner or later, will be carried out. What has been denied to the cause of humanity will have to be con- ceded to national policy.

Our limits warn us that this topic and many others that engaged the pen of Sir WILLIAM (as the great importance of the fisheries of the island, which, besides 400 stranger boats and 90 smacks, employ 600 native boats, manned by 3,800 men and boys, producing 80,000!. a-year), can only be briefly adverted to. He was the author of a pamphlet on the " Naval Ascendancy of Great Britain," " On the Christian Occupation of the Holy Land," and of a " Letter to the Shipping Interests of Liverpool on Steam Life and Pilot Boats," in which he repeated a valuable suggestion that he had made as early as the year 1825. But the last public act of his life was to preside at a meeting held at Douglas, in March, 1845, to memorialize the Government in favour of a harbour of refuge in Douglas Bay, at a time when his health was so precarious that he was carried from his residence at Fort Anne to the Court-House in a chair. A few mouths later, on an official visit to the island of a member of the Tidal Harbours' Commission, Sir WILLIAM evinced the deep- est interest in bis inquiries, supplied him with valuable data relative to- wrecks, and urged on him the paramount necessity of improving all the harbours in the island.

Enfeebled in body yet vigorous in mind, Sir WILLIAM sunk to rest on Tuesday, the 5th January, 1847, at the advanced age of 78, and was buried in the churchyard at Douglas, followed to the grave by crowds who had been eye-witnesses of his heroism and self-devotion in saving the life of the shipwrecked mariner.

Sir WILLIAM HILLARY left a son and daughter;—Sir AUGUSTUS, the present Baronet, who has a silver medal for services in the boat with his father at the wreck of the Fortroindet in 1827, and a daughter, married to Captain PRESTON, who has a large family, one of whom is serving his.country in the Royal Navy. Both" the above gentlemen are members of J;he Parent Committee of Management.

The, questions will naturally arise, what has been done to perpetuate the memory of the projector of the National Shipwreck Institution? and in what state are the Isle of Man life-boats ? It is grievous to be obliged to record that hardly a vestige of them exists, and what may remain is quite unfit for use. Such, alas! is poor human nature ; the ruling spirit that animated and gave life to all-around him has departed, and all is fallen to the ground. But surely it is not too late to repair an error, and we believe we have full authority to state that a life- boat, of the most improved construction, to bear the respected name of Sir WILLIAM HILLARY, will be immediately built by the Parent Institution, and be forwarded to Douglas before the equinoxial gales shall strew the shores of its Bay with wrecks. And we feel satisfied that the residents of the Isle of Man will organize a life-boat's crew and maintain the boat in an efficient state ready for immediate service, in grateful remembrance of the labours of one who assisted in saving 300 lives in Douglas Bay, and who always had the welfare of the island at heart.