The whole loss of lives during the year, as far as has been ascertained, amounts to 1,549.

Of these, 13 were lost in the Embla, wrecked near Blyth in a snow-storrn, on the 7th of January; 290 in the Tayleur, wrecked at Lanibay Island January 21st; 23 in the W. H. Dairies, wrecked at Vatersa Island, in the Hebrides, on the 27th January; 16 in the Charles Jones, wrecked on a rock oft' Esha Ness, Slietland, January 31st; 10 by starvation, on board the wreck of the Bona Dea, which was boarded off Mizen Head, and the survivors rescued, February 11th; 11 by the upsetting of the life-boat of the Liverpool Steam-tug Company, when trying to save the crew of the Cherokee, stranded in a gale in the West Hoyle, February 18th; 14 in the Essex, lost on the Scroby Sand, on the same day; 480 in the City of Glasgow steamship, missing since the 1st March, on which day she sailed from Liverpool for Philadelphia; 11 in the Bonito, which foundered off the Start, in collision with the Ann Kimball, in the night of March 24th: 199 in the Favorite (of Bremen), which sunk near the same spot, in collision with the Hasper, in the night of March 29th ; 21 in the Europa transport, which was burnt at sea, May 31st; 11 in the fishing-lugger Happy Return, lost near the Dudgeon, October 18th; 12 in the Oxefia, wrecked on Hasboro' Sand, November 17th; 23 in the Mary Graham, wrecked at Sanderland, in the night of November 22nd ; 40 in the Nile steam-ship, wrecked near Portreath, in the night of November 30th; 16 in the Rovigno, which sunk near Hasboro' Sand, in the night of December 4th; and 14 in the London, wrecked on Burnham Flats, at night, December 6th. The remainder were lost in smaller numbers, exclusive of many more lost in ships that are missing.

Of the 1,204 lives enumerated above, 210 were lost in two ships, which foundered at sea in collision, a casualty which the Registers show to be greatly on the increase, viz., the collisions in 1852 were 57; in 1853, 77; and in the year 1854, 94 in number.

The increase in the loss of lives has, however, been still greater; the Register for 1852 showing a loss of 920 lives; for 1853, 689 lives; and for the year 1854, the deplorable loss of 1,549 lives.

The annexed engraved Wreck Chart graphically points out the site of each one of the above casualties; and who can contemplate the untimely death of so many hundreds of human beings in one short year, without emotion, if he but think of the amount of suffering that they must have caused not only to those who have fallen victims to the stormy elements, but also to their widows and orphans ? And who that is able, after looking at such a chart as this, can withhold his helping hand from a Society like that of the Royal National Life-Boat Institution, which is now making the most strenuous exertions, by the establishment of suitable life-boats on exposed points, to lessen this destruction of human life from shipwreck on the coasts of the British Isles ?.