WE have had frequent opportunities to witness the high value which our own countrymen attach to the medals of this Institution, some 600 of which have been voted to them for acts of gallantry; and we have much satisfaction in extracting the following account from the Nassau Guardian, of the presentation, by the Lieut-Governor of the Bahama Islands, on behalf of this Society, of a similar mark of honour to Mr. ROBERT SANDS (a man of colour) master of the schooner Oracle, of Nassau, West Indies, in admiration of his gallant services on the occasion of the wreck of the ship William and Mary, on the 3rd May last.

His Honour the Lieut.-Governor, on Monday last, at Government House, presented to Captain SANDS of the schooner Oracle, the silver medal which had been awarded him by the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Lives from Shipwreck, through the benevolent representations of Major D'ARCY, in command of the garrison here. The humane and very meritorious exertions of Captain SANDS in rescuing so many (160 persons) of his fellow-creatures from a watery grave, and which procured him the medal, were pointedly alluded to by his Honour in the remarks he made, and elicited an answer fuil of warm genial feeling.

We are enabled to publish the Lieut.- Governor's address upon presenting the medal.

" Government House, Nassau, "31st October, 1853.

" CAPTAIN SANDS, " I HAVE much pleasure in seeing yott for the purpose of presenting to you, in the presence of Major D'ARCY, commanding the troops, and other gentlemen here assembled, the silver medal of the Royal National Shipwreck Institution, voted to you by that beneficent body, in approbation of your exertions in saving from drowning the passengers of the ship William and Mary, bound from Liverpool to New Orleans.

" Your disinterested conduct on this occasion has attracted very general attention, not only in England but in America, and, contrasting so strongly as it did with the discreditable abandonment of those passengers by the master of the William and Mary, it has reflected great honour upon yourself.

" Major D'ARCY spontaneously made the representation which has elicited from the Royal National Shipwreck Institution (whose rewards are usually limited to shipwrecks on the coasts of the United Kingdom), the silver medal which I am about to present to you, in admiration of your humane and prompt exertions on the occasion ; and the Committee of Management of that Society congratulate you on having been made the happy instrument, under Divine Providence, in rescuing from inevitable destruction so large a number of your fellow creatures.

" The late lamented Governor GREGORY was also fully alive to the important services to humanity, rendered by you and your crew, in saving the passengers of the William and Mary, the particulars of whose wreck his Excellency reported to His Grace the Duke of NEWCASTLE, Her MAJESTY'S Secretary of State for the Colonies ; and it has devolved upon me, in compliance with his Grace's instructions, to express to yourself and the crew* (at the time) of the schooner Oracle, the sense which Her MAJESTY entertains of the service which you and they rendered on this occasion— a service not limited to the saving of life, in the particular instance, but enhanced by the example of generosity and courage shown to the numerous body of your fellow-colonists engaged in an occupation so trying to the character as that of wrecking.

" I have already caused the despatch containing these sentiments to be published, as due to yourself and crew, and as an incitement to others to act, in the true spirit of Christian philanthropy exhibited by you, on similar occasions-of distress.

"It is no ordinary meritorious service which has obtained for you this medal, which I now present to you, and the expression of Her Gracious MAJESTY'S Royal approbation, which I have just communicated to you : by it, and its publicity, those of your calling are raised, deservedly, in the good opinion of society, which, I trust, they will ever worthily maintain, by imitating the noble example you have set.

" It will be gratifying to me hereafter to learn that you have received some further pecuniary recompense for your conduct on the occasion referred to, and I hope that whenever an emigrant vessel, among the many which take this route, may again unhappily, by the violence of tempests, variable currents, or other cause, be shipwrecked in the Bahamas, the misfortunes of the passengers may be promptly relieved by similar kind-hearted assistance to that which you rendered in the case of the William and Mary.

" C. R. NESBITT, Lt.-Governor." Captain SANDS expressed his thanks and gratification at the communication he had received, and the testimonial presented to him, and seemed proud of the better estimation in which the wreckers are held : observing that in the performance of the services he had rendered, he acted upon feelings which arose out of sentiments early inculcated by the example of his parents.

* " WILLIAM SANDS, mate; BENJAMIN ROBERTS, JAMES ROBERTS, OCTAVIUS DORSETT, JOHN CASH, and RICHARDSON SANDS,".