SINCE writing the preceding article we have been again shocked by the intelligence of another of those frightful accidents at sea, which we now as regularly look for in the newspapers of the day as we do for the murders, garotte robberies, and swindlings, which also seem to be on the increase amongst us, and which reflect such disgrace on us as a civilized and Christian com- munity.

Thus we read in the journals of the 1st December, under the heading of " Loss of an Atlantic steamer," accounts of the total destruction at sea of the iron-screw steam ship Le Lyonnais, which was run into at midnight, on the 2nd of November last, when one day's sail from New York, by the American bark Adriatic, by which catastrophe about 130 human beings are supposed to have perished.

It appears that the unfortunate vessel was struck amidships by the bark, with such force as to knock a large hole through her side, and to injure the sectional bulk- heads. Every effort seems to have been made to save the ship, but the fires were almost immediately extinguished and the steam-pumps were choked by the cinders, and although attempts were continued until 3 p.m. on the following day to keep her afloat by stopping up the leak with sails and other contrivances, and by baling until all hands were exhausted, the stern gradually settled down in the water, and it became necessary to take to the boats. These, however, being insufficient in number to embark all on board, a raft had been care- fully constructed during the day, capable of carrying 50 persons. Between it and the six boats the 150 persons on board were distributed. One of the boats, how- ever, said to be a life-boat, which had been previously injured by the collision, got foul of the raft and speedily filled and sank, those on board her being then transferred to the raft. All appear to have remained by the ship until the morning of the 4th of November, when three of the boats left in company, steering to the north-west: the Captain, with the raft and the two remaining boats, staying by the ship. One of the three first-named boats parted from the other two during the night cf the 4th, and is the only one out of the whole which has since been heard of. This boat, under the command of the second officer, with 18 persons on board, was the remaining life-boat, the ship having been supplied with two. Those on board her suffered great hardship: for three days they were running before a heavy gale of wind, with occasional falls of snow, and it was not until the 9th November, or six days after leaving the wreck that they were picked up by a Bremen bark, having two of their number frozen to death, the remainder mostly more or less frost-bitten. It is pre- sumed that the raft and the other boats all perished in the gale of wind which arose shortly after their leaving the wreck.

Our object in thus briefly reciting the circumstances of the last wreck of a, passen- ger steamer, is not merely to place it on record, but to advance it in further proof, if further proof be wanted, of the imperative demand that exists for increased protection of life in these swarming hives of human beings, whom commerce, colonization, and other necessities of the world are constantly urging across the seas, in fulfilment of the Divine command to replenish and occupy the earth.

It might be said that the Lyonnais being a foreign vessel, this is not a case to be held up as a waining and admonition to the British shipowner or the British authorities; if it were not also recorded that " she was one of six iron-screw steam-ships built during the past and present years, by Mr. JOHN LAIRD, of Liverpool—each ship being constructed with watertight compartments, and built in the strongest manner, according to the regulations of the English Board of Trade, and being well fitted and formed in every respect." We have then presented to us in this sad disaster, the still more sad matter for reflec- tion, that in a passenger-steamer, built with every modern improvement: furnished ac- cording to the strictest requirements of the English Board of Trade; and even having one more life-boat than would be required by the law in this country, and that an English life-boat; that in such a vessel it was thought sufficient to have life-boat accommodation for 38 persons only, and the whole boat accommodation on board left no less than 50 persons unprovided for, who had to be embarked in mid-Atlantic in a mere extempore raft, which could scarcely be expected to hold together through a gale of wind. We repeat in all serious- ness, it is a sad reflection, that in the present age of the world, a Christian community should rest satisfied with a state of things which consigns 50 out of 150, or about one- third of any number of human beings packed on shipboard, in the event of disaster at sea, to a raft, an instrument which ought only to be known to t)S through the Bin-serf tale of Robinson Crusoe.

In endeavouring to arrive at the true source of this sad, and to us mysterious fact, we find three open to us from which to se- lect. Either, as a community, we are in- different to the loss of life at sea, and think that the annual drowning of two or .three thousand human beings a matter of sufficient consequence to call for any serious attempts to prevent the same. Or, secondly, it may have been considered impossible to find ship-room for a sufficient number of boats to accommodate every person on board an emigrant ship or other passenger-vessel. Or, thirdly, it may have been found impracti- cable, owing to the great expense which would be entailed by providing so many boats in a service open to competition, and in which the cheapest rather than the safest passage would, as a general rule, be rather embraced by the passengers themselves We will consider each of these suppositions mersed, and no other serious result would in ton.

Now as to the first: What are the general characteristics of the English people ? Is a high or a low value attached to human life amongst us, as evinced by our public or pri- vate acts, our institutions, our literature, our public press, or any other of the many in- dexes of the principles and motives by which we are governed'/ We feel confident that it may be honestly asserted, that no people on the face of the globe attach a higher value to human life than we do, who ordi- narily take greater pains to afford it every possible protection, or who have a greater horror of the shedding of human blood. We must therefore look elsewhere to account for this apparent contradiction to our usual habits.

Our second supposition, up to a recent period, would, we think, have been entitled to some weight to a certain extent, as it has doubtless been considered by most persons that it would be impossible to provide a suf- ficient number of boats in any vessel carry- ing a large number of passengers, to afford accommodation to all. Yet sack a supposition is not sufficient to account for the inferior character, as well as inadequate number, of boats, especially as regards life- boats, in such vessels, or for the little in- ducement that has been offered to scientific men to make any improvement in them. At the present time also, as we have elsewhere attempted to show, such an argument would carry no weight with it whatever, for through the instrumentality of the collapsible life-boat of the Rev. E. L. BERTHON (the in- valuable qualities of which we shall not cease to promulgate), first class life-boat accommodation may be provided for any number of persons that a ship can carry.

Had, indeed, the unfortunate JLyomia-is been provided with- one only of Mr. BERTHOH'S boats, such as that which was exhibited on the Serpentine in 1854, we feel confident that the fifty or sixty unhappy people who were placed on the raft might have been conveyed in safety through any gale of wind that could have arisen; whilst, if she had been filled by a sea breaking over her, she would not even have been very deeply immersed and no other serious result would have followed such an accident than the temporary inconvenience of the water until pumped or baled oat. Our second suppo- sition must therefore likewise fall to the ground, and we are driven to the conclusion embraced in the third, viz., that the real obstacle has been that all-potent one of pounds, shillings, and pence.

We indeed firmly believe that the great and only difficulty that has stood, and now stands in the way of fall and perfect life- boat accommodation on board passenger- ships is that of the expense. We shall en- deavour to show that this also is more an imaginary than a real one, The argument of the owner of any such ship we may presume would be, that by ex- pending a more than usually large sum on the boats of his vessel, either he most forego a serious amount of the usual profits on such a speculation, which already amount to no more than a reasonable interest on the capital he has invested in it, or else that he must raise proportionally the amount of passage money to the passengers, who would (in the majority of instances) prefer a worse article at a cheaper rate, and that by offering a better one than people would chose, to have, he would be merely transfer- ring his own profits to the pockets of more unprincipled men than himself, whilst the people he sought to benefit would be no better off than if he had continued to take as little interest in their safety as his neigh- bours.

Of course if the legislature were to take into their own hands the safety of this floating portion of the community intrusted to their care, which it is to be hoped they will ultimately do, it would only be neces- sary to make it imperative that every pas- senger vessel leaving the British shores, under whatever flag, should be provided with complete life-boat accommodation, when the above objection would fall to the ground, and the parties who would really pay for the increased means of safety would be those who ought to do so, viz., the pas- sengers themselves. Even, however, if the legislature should continue to decline such interference beyond its present insufficient amount, we think we can still show that the objection on the score of expense is alto- gether a fallacy. We have no doubt that we shall be overstating the expense of Mr. BERTHON'S boats, if we assume that accom- modation in them for every 100 passengers would amount to 200?.; we will, however, infer it to be that sum. Now suppose that on every long passage, such as to Australia, India, the West Indies, or to Alexandria, each passenger were charged 10s. over and above the ordinary passage money, expressly for the life-boat accommodation, which would be thereby insured to him. How few we may presume would object to such a payment! Yet such a charge alone would pay the whole first cost of the life-boats of the ship in four voyages. As however such boats would be calculated to last for many years, the shipowner could not consistently look for more than a fair interest on the capital expended by him. We will suppose then that the small sum of Is. were charged on each voyage, and that his vessel would average only four voyages in the year, that is to say, two outward and two homeward, here would be for each 100 passengers 400 shillings, or 201., and therefore 10 per cent, interest on the 200?. expended in providing each 100 passengers with life-boat accom- modation of the first description. The ship- owner would in this case be better off than he is now, as at present he derives no return on the cost of his ships' boats apart from that included in the general passage-money.

Whilst we much mistake if a people who seldom leave their own homes on " terra firma," without patiently handing out shil- lings in all directions in the shape of fees to waiters, porters, chambermaids, coachmen, guards, " et hoc genus omne,"—we much mistake if such a people, inconsistent as they may be in some respects, would be so strangely perverse and blind to their own interests as to grumble at paying Is. each long voyage on shipboard, for the more effectual protection of their own lives.