IN the July Number of the Life-Boat Journal for 1852, will be found a brief account of the Foreign Life-boat Stations on the coasts of France, Belgium, Holland, and Denmark; we are gratified to learn from a recent traveller, that there is a prospect of similar means of saving life from shipwreck, being established on the shores of the Baltic and in the Gulf of Finland. The subject is one of such general interest, and especially to the Members of the Shipwreck Institution, and to our fellow-labourers in the cause of humanity, that we trust we shall not be considered guilty of indiscretion, in giving an extract from what was intended only for a private communication. Our correspondent writes " In all cases, on my journey, the subject of the preservation of life from shipwreck, and the proposal for the establishment of an improved form of life-boat, with a trained crew, was most favourably received.

At Stockholm, thanks to the extreme kindness of Rear-Admiral Sir EDMUND LYONS, G.C.B., then our ambassador at that Court, the Minister of Marine, Admiral ULNER  at once laid the case before the King, and it was proposed to have prepared a wreck-chart of the coasts of Sweden for the last few years, with a view to determining which were the most exposed points, and where life-boats would be most required. Commodore ARNERSTEDT begged a copy of a drawing on a working scale, of one of Mr. PEAKE'S designs for a life-boat, including all the recent improvements in form and fitting, which the experience of building some 20 such boats has taught us. To this request, of course, I readily acceded.

" The well-known and accomplished authoress, FREDRIKA BREMER, in whose company I had the pleasure of passing five days, on a voyage on the Gotha Canal, from Gottenberg to Stockholm, entered into the subject with her usual enthusiasm, and related to me several instances of intrepidity on the part of Swedish fishermen, in going off to stranded vessels even in their own frail boats, thus proving how well they deserve to have the advantage of an efficient life-boat. At this lady's house, too, I had the gratification of meeting Several officers of the Swedish navy, who all expressed great interest in the subject, and bore testimony to the numerous wrecks that occur on the coast of Sweden. All were desirous to obtain a copy of the Report of the Northumberland Life-boat Committee, and all expressed their high appreciation of the princely liberality of His Grace, our President, in freely circulating such useful information in so beautiful a form.

" As might be supposed, the countrymen of the world-wide CHAPMAN, the wellknown author of Architectural Navalis Mercatoria, scanned with a critical yet no unfriendly eye, the lines of the several designs for life-boats, and all agreed that the drawing on the large scale, a copy of the boat recently built for the Prussian Government, appeared to combine every point that could be desired—stability, safety, the power of self-righting, and of freeing itself of water, with sufficient speed to pull off a leeshore in a gale. The points of the Scandinavian coast, within the Baltic, most subject to shipwreck, I was informed, are Sandhammer and Falsterbo, at the south extreme of Sweden, the Aland Isles, at the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia, and the east coast of the Island of Gothland, which lies in the fair track of all vessels homeward bound from the Baltic. Count Platen, our Honorary Member, was absent at the German baths at the time of my visit to Stockholm, but I was assured of his readiness to aid the cause by any means in his power.

"At St. Petersburg the subject was equally well received; having, through the courtesy of Sir HAMILTON SEYMOUR, G.C.B., our Minister at that Court, been presented to the Grand Duke CONSTANTINE, Lord High Admiral of the Russian Fleet, an opportunity was afforded me of explaining the object of my visit, namely, to enquire what other countries had been doing towards the saving of life from shipwreck, and to offer the results of our experience in this country, where, alas! our wrecks are tenfold those of any other coast. His Imperial Highness entered warmly into the subject, examined with attention the plans of boats laid before him, asked particularly as to the organization of the National Shipwreck Institution, and who were its principal members, then referred the whole question to the Standing Scientific Committee of the Admiralty, of which Admiral RICORD is President, with directions to report how far life-boats would be applicable to the coasts of the Russian dominions in the Baltic.

" In conversation on these subjects, with the officers of the navy and others, I found some difficulty in inducing them to credit the amount of wrecks annually around the shores of the United Kingdom, when I said that 1100 casualties to shipping had occurred in the course of the year 1852, of which 520 were total wrecks, I was met by the exclamations, Impossible! Incredible ! and nothing but a reference to the printed Annual Report of the Institution for April last, where the details are given, and showing the wreck chart with its sable border of black dots, which accompanies the Northumberland Report, appeared to convince them, though, I believe, against their will. With us in England, familiarity with such scenes, appears to have induced apathy, and we go on from year to year, each year being more disastrous than the last, without any wellnatured effort to devise a remedy." The establishment of life-boats on the shores of the Baltic, is of more importance to England than may at first sight appear.

The average number of ships that pass the Sound annually is about 15,000; of these about 3500, or nearly one-fourth of the whole are British ships, and, although since the improvement in lighting and buoying the coasts and shoals, there has been a great decrease in the number of wrecks, still 13 British ships a-year is no uncommon occurrence.

Besides Gothland and the Aland Isles already mentioned, the extensive reefs of Falsterbo and Sandhammer, on the south coast of Sweden, have proved destructive to many vessels, and it may be feared that the unlighted, dangerous shoals, named Wader Oarne in the Sleeve, half way between Christiania and Gotheborg, and in the direct track, has proved equally so, although no record of the losses may remain. The low land and shoals of Dager Ort (with the cliff, marked by a light 538 feet above the level of the sea, and from its elevation too often obscured by fog,) is a well-known danger at the entrance of the Gulf of Fin- land, and has been fatal to many vessels.

At all these points, as well as at others, among the numerous islets appropriately termed the Skargord, or " Rocky Garden," which front the coasts of Finland and Sweden, life-boats might prove very useful; and we confidently trust, in accordance with the good example set by Denmark and Prussia, they will ere long be placed there.