IN a recent number of this Journal, after explaining the reasons which had led to the transfer of the Life-boat Establishments of the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Royal Benevolent Society to the Royal National Life-boat Institution, we expressed the hope, that whilst actively and prosperously doing each its own work, the two Societies would mutually assist and recommend each other. Acting on this desire, we propose to give a brief description of the origin and progress of the former Society, and to explain ihe special claims which it possesses for public encouragement, and more especially for the support of British seamen themselves.

In January of the year 1839, a philanthropic gentleman residing at Bath, JOHN RYE, Esq., on perusing an account of a recent shipwreck, attended with serious loss of life, became much impressed with the calamitous consequences of such disasters, and formed the resolution to attempt the formation of a Society which should mitigate them, alike by affording relief to the widows and orphans of those unfortunate men who might be drowned, and by assisting with clothes, food, and money, those, scarcely less fortunate, cast alive on the strand, and thus relieving them from the humiliating necessity of begging their bread when journeying, often half-naked and barefooted, from the scene of their disaster to their native parish, or the sea-port where they might again seek employment and subsistence in their hazardous avocation.

The miserable condition of these poor men was at this period often greatly aggravated, owing to the numerous imitators of shipwrecked and distressed seamen amongst professional mendicants—vagabonds, who ever prefer thriving on the industry of other* to gaining an honest livelihood by the sweat of their own brows! The hapless castaway was thus constantly mistaken for one of those mendacious characters, and driven from door to door, an object of suspicion and disgust, instead of meeting with that sympathy and Christian charity which a providential infliction entitled him to expect.

Mr. RYE at once called to his aid Rear- Admiral Sir JAHLEEL BRENTON, Bart., then Governor of Greenwich Hospital, and a prospectus showing the objects of the proposed Society was prepared by Mr. RYE, and published with an accompanying address by Sir JAHLEEL BRENTON, appealing to the sympathies of the British public, and soliciting a general subscription of half-acrown and upwards from every person able and willing to promote so humane and national an undertaking.

After the circulation of the prospectus a public meeting was convened, which met on the 21st of February, 1839, when the Society was formally instituted under its present title, and a Committee of Management formed, Admiral Sir GEORGE COCKBURN being elected 'President of the Society.

On the 2nd of March following, Her Majesty the QUEEN was announced its patron, and measures were at once adopted to procure the services of Honorary Agents in the principal towns of the United Kingdom, and especially on all parts of the coasts.

On the 8th of May a public dinner took place at the London Tavern in behalf of the • Society, at which donations and subscriptions to the amount of 11002. were received.

On the same day, a melancholy loss of life occurred by the loss of three Mount's Bay fishing-boats off the Land's End, when the whole of their crews, consisting of 20 persons, unhappily perished, leaving 7 aged parents, 12 widows, and 35 orphans, to mourn their loss. The sum of 80L was immediately applied by the Society to the relief of the surviving relatives, which formed the first instalment of that comprehensive system of relief, of which this valuable Society has since been the dispenser; which, with God's blessing accompanying it, has been the instrument for conveying solace and comfort to so many a widowed breast, and which has lightened the heart and countenance of so many an honest mariner cast houseless and homeless on the world's wide stage by the iury of the pitiless storm.

From that period the importance and resources of the Society have been progressive until now, when its annual income averages 9,000?., its Honorary and other Members number 51,500, and it possesses nearly 500 Honorary and other Agents throughout the United Kingdom. In the 16 years since its first formation, it has afforded relief to 14,442 widows, orphans, and aged parents of drowned fishermen and sailors,. besides aiding 38,064 shipwrecked persons.

The character of the relief afforded by this Society is as follows :— 1st. It boards, lodges, and conveys to their homes, " all destitute shipwrecked persons" to whatever country they may belong, through the instrumentality of its Agents.

2nd. It affords temporary assistance to the widows, parents, and children of all mariners and fishermen who may have been drowned, and who were members of the Society.

3rd. It gives a gratuity to mariners and fishermen, who are Members, for the loss or damage of their clothes or boats. The membership of the Society is obtained by an annual subscription of 2s. fid. to its funds.

The following memorandum and scale, which was sometime since published by the Society, explain the manner and amount of the relief afforded to persons eligible for it:— " It has been resolved by the Committee of Management, with a view of impressing upon the fishermen and seamen the benefits derived by them from the benevolent operations of the Charity, and to encourage them to a more steady payment of their subscriptions, that the subjoined graduated scale of relief be adopted and published.

" But as the ability of the Society to grant relief on so liberal a scale must necessarily depend on the continuance of the subscriptions of the charitable public, it becomes important that the Committee, in promulgating their intentions, should guard themselves against thereby establishing any claim as a matter of right, though they resolve to use every exertion in their power, fully to carry out the scale now adopted, subject to the state of the funds, and always with strict reference to the number of years the Member has subscribed.

" The Widow of a Member of one year's standing, he being a Member at the time of the accident, will, in case her husband lose his life in pursuit of his calling, be relieved with 3L; and 5s. for every additional year of Membership ; Orphans under 14 years of age 15s. each; and Is. 3d. for every additional year of Membership. Parents, when there is no widow or orphans, the same as widows, if they were dependent. Fishermen, Members, losing their boats, nets, or clothes by wreck, 30s. Mariners, Members, losing their clothes by shipwreck, 30s. The fishermen and mariners to receive 2s. 6d. additional for each year of Membership.

"Widows whose husbands were either drowned or killed, who may have received, temporary relief, having orphan children under 14 years of age, are at liberty to apply for further relief through an Agent, but such application is not to be made within twelve months from the first grant.

" In addition to the foregoing advantages which peculiarly attach to the Members of the Society, it is to be borne in mind, that they partake in common with aU their shipwrecked brethren of the blessings of the Charity, which boards, lodges, and conveys to their homes aM destitute shipwrecked persons, and that on these occasions also, every attention is paid to the circumstance of Membership or not, when any distinction can be made." The scale above referred to is as follows :— Nutnbcr of Years a Member 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 SCALE OF TEMPORARY RELIEF TO BE GRANTED TO Widow or Parents Dependent.

3 0 0 3 5 0 3 10 0 3 15 0 4 0 0 4 5 0 4 10 0 4 15 0 5 0 0 5 5 0 5 10 0 5 15 0 6 0 0 6 5 0 6 10 0 6 15 0 7 0 0 7 5 0 7 10 0 7 15 0 8 0 0 Widow andOne Child.

3 15 0 4 1 3 4 7 6 4 13 9 5 0 0 5 6 3 5 12 6 5 18 9 6 5 0 6 11 3 6 17 6 7 3 9 7 10 0 7 16 3 8 2 6 8 8 9 8 15 0 9 1 3 9 7 6 9 13 9 10 0 0 Widow and Two Children.

4 10 0 4 17 6 5 5 0 5 12 6 6 0 0 6 7 6 6 15 0 7 2 6 7 10 0 7 17 6 8 5 0 8 12 6 9 0 0 9 7 6 9 15 0 10 2 6 10 10 0 10 17 6 11 5 0 11 12 6 12 0 0 Widow and Three Children.

5 5 0 5 13 9 6 2 6 6 11 3 7 0 0 7 8 9 7 17 6 8 6 3 8 15 0 9 3 9 9 12 6 10 1 3 10 10 0 10 18 9 1 1 7 6 11 16 3 12 5 0 12 13 9 13 2 6 13 11 3 14 0 0 It will have been observed that a leading feature in the structure of this Society is, ithat it is in part supported by the subscriptions of the seamen themselves, and partly by the contributions of the benevolent ; and that so also the relief which it affords is not altogether of a gratuitous character, except in the case of shipwrecked men sent to their homes, who are not Members; yet those Members of the Society who are relieved, or those widows and orphans who are so, receive a much larger return for the annual subscription of 2s. 6d. than they otherwise could do, by means of the contributions of the charitable public, and of the gratuitous services of the Honorary Agents, a body of gentlemen whose services are of so important a character, that without their aid such a Society could scarcely exist, or, at least, could not extend its sphere of action over a whole kingdom.

Now we look on this mixed character of the assistance afforded by the Society as a most happily devised thing ; and that apart from the fact of a much larger sum being thus obtained for effecting the objects of the Society. On the one hand, it is not creditable for a person who is able to help himself, and to provide against adversity, to leave all to be done for him by the charity of the benevolent; whilst, on the other hand, Widow and Four Children.

6 0 0 6 10 0 7 0 0 7 10 0 8 0 0 8 10 0 9 0 0 9 10 0 10 0 0 10 10 0 11 0 0 11 10 0 12 0 0 12 10 0 13 0 0 13 10 0 14 0 0 14 10 0 15 0 0 15 10 0 16 0 0 Fishermen or Mariners for lOM of Boats or Clolbes.

1 10 0 1 12 6 1 15 0 1 17 6 2 0 0 2 2 6 2 5 0 2 7 6 2 10 0 2 12 0 2 15 0 2 17 6 3 0 0 3 2 6 3 5 0 3 7 6 3 10 0 3 12 6 3 15 0 3 17 6 4 0 0 Amount of Subscription paid up by Member 0 2 6 0 5 0 0 7 6 0 10 0 0 12 6 0 15 0 0 17 6 1 0 6 1 2 6 1 5 6 1 7 0 1 10 0 1 12 6 1 15 6 1 17 0 2 0 0 2 2 0 2 5 0 2 7 6 2 10 0 2 12 6 none of us can afford to stand independent of each other in this world. God has bound us all together in a social chain, no link of which we may with impunity disrupt ; and neither can we be too niggardly to give or too proud to receive, without an infringement of that sacred law which commands us to love one another, or without acting in disobedience to those everlasting principles which unite all the sons of men into one family, the children of the God of love.

In advocating the claims of this Society, we say then to the public generally, to the affluent in particular, you can find no more just claimants on that superfluity of this world's goods with which God has blessed you, that you may be his almoners, than those who have, by His dispensation, been brought to poverty and woe; and this Society, through its excellent organization, will insure you a judicious and impartial distribution of your aid.

To the seamen of our country we say, subscribe all of you ; you know not but that yourselves, or those near and dear to you, may one day need the Society's aid. If you should do so, you will have the proud satisfaction of putting your own shoulders to the wheels, which shall then carry you or them through a period of distress, and you will feel yourselves far above the degrading ' position of the mendicant, who ever cries give! give! but is never willing to labour or do aught in return. If you or yours should never need, such aid, you will have the grateful sense of having benefited your own brethren in their affliction; and we need not remind you who has said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it to one the least of these, ye have done it unto me.".