IN each succeeding Number of this Journal, it has been our painful duty to record the disasters which day by day have occurred to shipping; and our Wreck Register shows that, on an average of the whole year, about two wrecks a day take place on the coasts or in the seas of the United Kingdom. In the gales of Sept., 1851, the large number of 153 vessels were wrecked, or more than five a day. We have now, however, to lay before the public a far more lamentable account. The recent gales have burst upon our coasts with almost unexampled fury, and in the short space of one month, and before the winter could be said to have set in, have consigned to the deep many a goodly vessel with its crew, cast others as wrecks on our shores, and caused destruction of property and loss of life to an appalling extent.

On the 27th Oct., the barometer off the coast of Yorkshire had fallen to 29' 00; a heavy swell came rolling in from the N.E., and soon the wind followed. The light colliers bound northwards knew the signs of the coming storm, and bore up for the Humber or Yarmouth, as the Tyne, the Wear, and the Tees, are all bar-harbours and unapproachable. Many vessels, how- ever, could reach no shelter, and in the course of a few days 124 cases of total wreck or serious damage occurred. On the 3rd Nov. a second gale came on from the S.S.W. veered to S.E., and blew hard until the 8th. After a short lull the wind on the 11th freshened up again at east, veered to S.E. in a heavy gale, and continued between that point and S.W. until the 18th. In this interval, not less than 600 ships sought ' f O ____ shelter in the Humber, but many were caught between the Tyne and Flamborough Head, could get no refuge, and 176 vessels were wrecked, the greater part of them on the east coast of England, Thus within the short space of thirty days the unprecedented number of 300 vessels were lost or damaged, with the fearful loss of 217 lives.

We have no wish to harrow up the feelings of our readers, nor is it our intention to paint in vivid colours, as we easily might do, some of the sad scenes of desolation, of bereaved women and children rendered widows and orphans by this calamitous visitation. Gladly as we would enlist the sympathies of all in the cause we advocate, we do not wish to excite an evanescent feeling in the tender-hearted; but by a simple relation of facts and figures to appeal to the sense of duty in our countrymen, and especially to the wealthy merchants in this vast metropolis, and in the large cities of Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds, Hull, and Bristol, happily removed as they are by locality from the pain of being eye-witnesses of these scenes of distress, and ask them to aid us in the cause of saving life from wreck.

It is through the instrumentality of sailors that they have attained their present commercial greatness; and, in the midst of the many blessings and shelter they enjoy, will they deny to the mariner, who, for their protection, their comforts and their luxuries, is exposed to all the fury of the storm, that safety which may be afforded by the establishment around our coasts of a well- organized system of life-boats, and every practicable means for the preservation of life from shipwreck?