THE Blue Book under the above title which is annually presented to Parliament has just been published for the year 1852.

It comes at an appropriate time. Wintry gales, long nights, and dark fogs are the fit accompaniments for so fearful a record of wreck and devastation. In running the eye down the column of casualties, we light upon 12 lives lost, 15 lost, 36 lost, 45 lost, 75 lost, 100 lost, " all lost," " all drowned." Could it be credited, were it not for the official accounts, with the authority for each case appended, that 1,115 wrecks, with a loss of 920 lives, occurred on the coasts, and within the seas of the United Kingdom, in the single year of 1852? Yet so it is. Of this number 533 were total wrecks, the remainder stranded and damaged, so as to require to discharge cargo.

From the Summary attached to the Register, we learn that the casualties in each month were as follows:— January, 126; February, 77; March, 32; April, 44; May, 41; June, 29 ; July, 18; August, 42; September, 85; October, 164; November, 189; December, 268.

Total, 1,115.

Of these 464 occurred on the east coast of Great Britain, 158 on the south coast, and 235 on the west coast. 128 wrecks strewed the coasts of Ireland, 5 were cast on shore at Scilly, 9 at the Channel Islands, 18 on the Orkneys and Shetland, and 18 at the Isle of Man; the remaining 80 occurred in the surrounding seas. The gales of January caused 126 casualties, as shown above, they prevailed during the whole month and the early part of February ; the spring, summer, and autumn were moderate, but on the 26th October, an easterly gale begun, that in 6 days strewed the coasts with 102 wrecks. Strong breezes and a short lull of moderate weather were followed by gales of ordinary force at this period of the year, but on the 24th Dec., a heavy storm from the S.W. burst over the country, and continued to the end of the year with such violence that, by the 29th, there was scarcely a vessel in the neighbourhood of the British Islands left at sea, some had found safety by running into port, while of others the returns show a list of 183 casualties, of which 102 were totally wrecked, making a daily average of 30 wrecks during this awful and destructive gale.

The whole loss of life during the year, as far as has been ascertained, amounts to 920.

Of these, 100 were lost in the Amazon, destroyed by fire on the 4th January, at about 90 miles from the Land's End; 13 in the Columbus, wrecked on the 6th January, near the Hook Lighthouse, Waterford, owing to the neglect of the Dunmore pilots; 12 in the John Took, wrecked January 27, on the Arran Isles, near Gal way; 15 in the Amy, wrecked March 23, at the Seven Heads, near Kinsale ; 75 in the Mobile, wrecked September 29, on the Arklow banks; 10 in the Ernesto, wrecked October 27, near Boscastle, Cornwall ; 15 in the Minerva, wrecked November .11, near the Bar of Drogheda; 15 in the Ocean Queen, wrecked December 26, at Wembury, near the Plymouth Mewstone; 45 in the Louise Emile, wrecked December 28, at Dungeness; 15 in the Haggerston, iron-screw collier, lost in the gale of December 27, off Filey; 36 in the Lily, stranded December 28, in the Sound of the Isle of Man, when her cargo ignited, and she blew up; 13 in the Alcibiades, wrecked December 28, in Ballyteigue Bay, Wexford; and 10 in the Broad Oak, wrecked Dec. 29, in Dunlogh Bay, Skibbereen; the remainder were lost in smaller numbers on the coast, or in vessels that foundered in the adjoining seas; making in all, 920.

Now, if a simple railway accident had occurred, and a single stoker had lost his life, a coroner's inquest would have been held, the whole details would have been carefully inquired into, published in every newspaper in the United Kingdom, and if any misconduct or neglect could have been found on the part of the Railway" Company or their officials, a heavy fine would have been imposed. How different in the case of losses by shipwreck. Is not a sailor's life as valuable as that of a stoker ? why then such a difference? Are 920 seafaring men to perish, and many of them, as we see by the Register, from neglect, or other causes within control, and no notice to be taken of them. We must have a Sea-coroner; we have before advocated such an appointment in the pages of this Journal, and we repeat our conviction that that would be one of the most effectual means of diminishing the number of shipwrecks.