The whole loss of lives during the year, as far as has been ascertained, amounts to 989.

Of these, 18 went down with the Herdd, which sunk off the Start, after collision with a schooner at night, on 10th January; 83 in the Queen Victoria steam ship, which ran on the rocks, near the Bailey Lighthouse, Dublin, at night, and sunk 15th February; 11 (the crews of two Lossieinouth fishing-boats) were lost, 23rd February; 11 in the barque Irene, which upset in the Mersey, 26th February, during a heavy gate; 16 in the Duke of Sutherland steam-ship, wrecked at the Pierhead, Aberdeen, 1st April; 12 in the Richardson, which sunk near St. Bees Head, 22nd April; 12 in the Olive Branch, which sailed from Shields for London, 25th April, and has not been heard of since; 10 in the St.

Tudno, sailed from Newcastle, 17th May, and has not been heard of; 360 in the Annie Jane, from Liverpool, bound to Montreal, wrecked on Isle Vatersa, Hebrides, in a heavy gale, on 28th September; 59 in the Dalkousie, which foundered off Beechey Head, on the night of 19th October; 20 died on board the Isaac Wright, which was stranded on the Irish coast, and put back to Liverpool, in distress, 4th October; 15 in the California Packet, from Sligo to New York, laden with iron, which foundered 160 miles west of Ireland, on the 4th November; 60 in the Marshall steamship, which foundered off the Humber, in collision with the barque Woodhouse, at night, 28th November; 19, who were washed overboard from the E. Z., at sea, in distress, on passage from Liverpool to New York, 6th December; 10 in the Caravane, wrecked near Blackwater Head, Wexford, in a heavy gale, on 19th December; 18 in the Chatham, wrecked on the bar of Drogheda, in the night of 19th December; and 9 in the Eva screw steamvessel, which parted asunder and sunk off Lambay Island, 27th December. The remainder were lost in smaller groups; to which are to be added an uncertain, though without doubt a large, number drowned in missing ships.

How(many painful reflections is such a return calculated to awaken in every mind? That a thousand lives (which may be taken as a probable average) should be thus, every year, prematurely cut off on our own coasts alone, is indeed a melancholy fact.

There is no other calling of life than that of those whose " business is in the great waters" in which so constant and great a sacrifice of life takes place.

When the scourge of war is raging, we hear of larger numbers perishing together in a comparatively short time. We are, however, accustomed to look on war as a great but necessary evil, which the wisdom of a Divine and Benevolent Providence sees fit to inflict on his creatures at intervals of time, doubtless to promote the ultimate benefit of mankind, by the changes, which, in the present imperfect condition of this sublunary world, can, perhaps, only by such means, be brought about. We are accustomed also to look on those who perish on the field of battle, as men whose I calling and duty it is to seek such an end when their country's good shall require the sacrifice: and a renown and glory have in all ages been held to accompany such a death; all of which reasons contribute to make it a picture less gloomy and sad to look upon, than that encountered in the daily avocation of life, when the last struggle is with the elements alone, and the gurgling waters, as they close over their victim, separate him for ever from all the ties of life.

But, after all, the most painful part ol the subject to our minds is the question which forces itself on us—How much oi this sacrifice of life and consequent human misery might have been prevented? A sense of neglected opportunity is probably one of the most painful reflections which ever saddens the human breast, as without doubt it is one of the most alarming that ever arouses the long slumbering conscience at the last hour. But a nation collectively may be awakened to a sense of " neglected opportunity" as well as an individual and as with an individual, well is it if such takes place before it be too late—before lie opportunity be taken away!.