As it is to fishermen that we must look in most cases to man our life-boats in time of need, it seems desirable to place on record in the pages of this Journal, the number of fishing-boats at each station around the coasts of England, and the number of fishermen and boys which form their crews. With this view we have obtained the following statistical account, which, we believe, is more complete than any hitherto published. We are indebted for it to the courtesy of the Hon, BOUVERIE PRIMROSE, Secretary to the Fishery Board in Edinburgh ; and it is drawnup by Mr. JOHN MILLER, the intelligent General Inspector of Fisheries in Scotland. The table is the more valuable as, since the 5th January 1850, the Fishery Board no longer keeps an account of the English fishing-boats and their crews, but only of those in Scotland. It will be seen that in the nine districts into which the coast of England is divided, there are 4,698 boats, manned by 20,459 men and boys; and that the total number of persons to whom the shore fisheries give employment is 27,954, exclusive of those engaged in the deep-sea fishing. AN ACCOUNT of the NUMBER of BOATS whether DECKED or UNDECKED, belonging to the undermentioned places on the Coast of England, that were employed in the year ended 5th January 1850, in the Shore Curing Herring and Cod and Ling Fisheries ; distinguishing the Number of Fishermen and Boys by whom the same were Manned, and showing also the Number of Coopers employed, the Number of Persons employed in Packing, Repacking, Cleaning, and Drying the Fish, the Number of Labourers employed, and the Total Number of all such Persons, together with the Number of Fish-curers. NORTH SUNDERLAND DISTRICT— 80 Miles in Extent. 

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JOHN MILLER, General Inspector of Fisheries. The above are the statistics of the boat fisheries around the coasts of England ; they do not include the Scottish or Irish fisheries, nor any account of the well-smacks or dry- bottom smacks that go off to the Dogger and Well Banks and other deep-sea fishing grounds in the North Sea. Of the well- smacks, Barking sends out 180, Greenwich 41, Grimsby 14, Gravesend 10-, Aldbro' 10, and Harwich 5; they average 50 tons and 9 men each, making a total- of 260 vessels, of 15,166 tons, and 2,320 men and boys. Of the dry -bottom smacks, we are enabled to state, through the courtesy of the Collec- tors of Customs at the respective ports, that Ramsgate sends out 96, Hull 100, and Brixham 113, averaging about 35 tons and 5 men each, or a total of 309 vessels of 11,185 tons, and 1,488 men and boys; or including well-smacks, 570 vessels, manned by 3,800 individuals, making with the boatmen a body of 24,000 fishermen in England alone, conversant with the head- lands and harbours of the coasts, with the set of the tides, and inured to every hard- ship.. We have no space to enter into the sub- jects of the best fishing grounds, of the faulty build of many of the boats, of the eatine neglect of the deep-sea fishery on the aorth coast of England and in Scotland, or of the great impetus given to the fisheries by the coast railways, which in some places have doubled the gains of the fishermen. One ton of white fish, it is said, is- daily sent off from Montrose by rail, and two tons of fish a day, including lobsters, from Norway, are despatched from Grimsby by the Great Northern, and Sheffield and Lin- colnshire railways. Cod-fish caught near the Dogger Bank, at 70 miles from Grimsby, is not uncommonly exposed for sale the following morning in London and Man- Chester. But much more yet might be done, the fish trade has not reached half its full development; more central markets are wanted in the metropolis; why not one at each large railway terminus ? From want of the facility afforded by a railway, a full- sized cod-fish that costs Id. on the east coast of Scotland, may be had on the west coast for 2d. • a lobster that costs 9d. at Montrose can be bought for 3%d. at Oban.

Steam by sea has hardly yet been applied to fishing; the attempts made with a screw steam fishing-smack by Messrs. SAUNDERS and HOWARD point to greater results than any yet attained.

In the habits of fishermen, although much altered for the better, there is room for improvement. As a class they are singularly neglected—no one seems to care for them.

O Much good might be done by the charitable and well-disposed by establishing savings' banks in all fishing villages, and inducing the men to put a part of their earnings into them. It is hardly to be credited that in the thriving and populous community of North Sunderland, with its 1,200 fishermen, there is not a savings' bank! Also by urging the men to refrain from the immoderate use of spirits, an evil which is much increased by the fish-curers making a part of their bargains in whiskey. We rejoice to see that the Duke of SUTHERLAND has directed his agents at Goldspie to put a stop to this demoralizing practice. A better class of boats for the alongshore fisheries might be introduced in the North of Eng- land and in Scotland ; the small tidal harbours, too, might be improved, ay, even by the fishermen themselves, if they would but combine and put their shoulders to the wheel. Let them see what has been done by the Coldingham fishermen, as related in the September number of this Journal. But perhaps the great want is a system of mutual insurance societies, in which the fisherman could insure his boat, nets, and gear for a small premium against accident and losses at sea; these might be combined with savings' banks, and would gradually induce habits of thrift and temperance, which must result in greater happiness to the men, their wives and families.