Is a man's life worth four pounds seven shillings and twopence ? The wind moans and pipes through the trees n the garden, and comes rumbling down the chimneys of our lodging by the sea. There rises from the beach a solemn roar of waters. Through plashes of rain on the window-pane, through the twilight gloom of a spring evening wrapped in he wild night of storm, we look out on the glancing of white lines of surf, and at the upward rightning of the rockets from a vessel in distress.

As if defiant of the little flash of man's distress, the black cloud is ablaze; and, for an instant, we make out a, brig distinctly. Had we time, we could count the men upon her deck. Darkness descends again as the floor under us is shaken by the mighty jarring of the thunder. Our hearts eat in the presence of no holiday spectacle. We came hither for sea air and health, choosing a spot where there is a bold coast, a fine sea, and only a small fisher hamlet near us. Here, we learn, there are many wrecks. The frail child we brought with us has fled from the window to her sofa in the farthest corner of the room, and ies there panting with her hands before her eyes.

I dare not leave her to go down to the wild shore. And what can I, weak invalid, do when the very boatmen can do nothing but assemble in a hopeless crowd upon the beach? About them are hovering their mothers, wives, and daughters, who will resist by entreaty and force any attempt to put out through such a surf.

The women on the shore here have their way; and so God comfort the wives and mothers of those out at sea.

I did not lift next morning the corner of the sail covering that by which my old pilot was watching solemnly. He sat on the great heap of sea-weed that now fringed the shore.

" How many, Jem ?" I asked, after I had stood by him for a long time in silence.

" Change for six fi'-pun' notes under yon sail," Jem answered.

" How can you jest " " Four tight sailors, a boy, and " he turned the sail from the face of a drowned seven-year old girl, her hair like that of our own ailing little Ethel. Jem finished his pipe gloomily.

I sat beside the spread sail in a reverie of selfish pity.

" When you preached for the vicar, sir, last Sunday," presently said Jem, " you talked something like as if money was dirt. Perhaps it is.

Perhaps that's dirt under the sail." The nurse was bringing Ethel in her arms towards us, and I motioned her away, although the child cried bitterly to come to me and her rough sailor friend. This morning her walk must not be upon the shore.

" To be sure," said Jem, a little grimly, " it's not dirt when there's life in it. What a many sorts of change people may take out of five pounds." » From DICKEKS'S Ml the Tear Hound, July 21,1860.

" What do you mean ?" " Why, there was all hands lost last night for want of a life-boat here. My son-in-law is coxswain of the nearest life-boat, but that's thirty miles from us. We've lots of wrecks, but never a boat yet. There are boats wanted, belike, in hundreds of other places where there are only poor people ashore, though there are none the kinder rocks and shoals at sea. We can't set up a boat." " A few five-pound notes," I said, " would not have done it for you." " Look here, sir," said Jem. " My son-in-law, he's but a rough fisherman who knows his trade, a stout lad, and not stupid on salt water. He gets 81. a-year for being coxswain of the lifeboat at his place, and very proud he are for so to be. Once a-quarter he goes out with the boat's crew, men like himself, for exercising in rough weather, and they get their day's pay too, as is fitting. They've a boat that'll do anything bat go out walking ashore by itself, and that lives in a home of its own, handy to the sea, ready to slip out on a wreck at a minute's notice. What he tells me is, which is the only learning he's got from books kep" in the boat-house, that when the money that has been spent in setting life-boats up about the coast is squared against the lives saved, there's a life for every four pound seven and twopence.

That's the sum. So, the more five-pound notes go that way, the fewer of us will go this way;" and he laid a wrinkled finger on the sail.

" But you couldn't tell 'em anything from the pulpit, sir, unless it wor in charity sermons, about what is to be bought with fi'-pun' notes. Ah, dear! I wish I had a lot of 'em !" When, a week after the storm, I went in search of a physician to the seaport Jem had named, and, whilst waiting his time to return with me when he had seen his patients on the spot, I walked sadly by the ripple of a placid sea, and came by accident upon the life-boat house. It was a neat stone building with some show of architecture in it, with a verandah east and west sheltering forms upon which pilots and others might sit under cover in foul weather. I had been told that, at this town, boat-house and boat were the gift of a lady of fortune, and it was evident that she was one who did not give with two fingers. The wide folding-doors opening upon the sea were closed and locked. A boy with a shrimp-basket, at my request, went off in search of Bill the coxswain, who had charge of one of the keys; and Bill was talkative enough when he found whence I came, and whither I was about to return that evening, also that I would take a bit of parcel back with me from his wife to her old father, and that I did really care very much to know what he could show and tell me. But what he told me caused me to make more inquiry, to get books and papers, and, at last, to write as I now do, while I sit watching the night through by the bedside of my little Ethel, with the moan of the night wind and the measured dash of the sea filling up all pauses in my thoughts.

Upon our island coast touch, in each year, ships that afford permanent employment to about 250,000 men and boys. Every year, about 1,000 j vessels suffer upon the shores of Britain, wreck ! total or partial, and sometimes 500, sometimes 1,500 (in the very last year 1,646) lives have been lost.

In the first half only of this current year, the average of twelve months of disaster has already been attained. Of the total wrecks, nearly one-half the number is found to arise from errors in seamanship or other preventable causes, and 17 in 100 have occurred to unseaworthy vessels. Some also are lost (there have been eight lost in one year) because they have been provided with defective charts or compasses. It is the duty of some one to secure the timely condemnation of old vessels, which are now sent out until they sink at sea, and bring to an untimely death the men they carry. Of the ships lost, only 1 out of 4 is lost in a storm. Oversight, ignorance, neglect, and false economy, are more cruel than storms. Wrecks themselves are in a great degree preventable. But here only the question is, how to prevent loss of life by wreck within sight of the British shores ? The wrecks on our coasts last year were more numerous than they have been in any former year of which record is kept. The excess was caused by two violent gales. In the gale of the 25th and 26th of October, there were 133 total wrecks | and 90' casualties. The number of lives lost in that one gale on our shores was within 2 of 800.

The loss of life would have been great had the dead-list not been more than doubled by the loss of 446 lives in the Royal Charter. After a rest of five days, the winds blew again on the 1st of November; and, in that second gale, 29 lives were lost in the wreck of 38 vessels. There were also 2 great wrecks on other days to swell the death-list. In the beginning of spring, more than 400 lives were lost at once in the Pomona.

56 were lost in midwinter with the Blertie Castle. These were all deaths on our shore. Of wrecks at sea nothing is said. It has been found that the proportion of accident has become much greater than it used to be in British, as compared with foreign vessels. Putting out of account the coasting-trade, and reckoning the oversea trade only, the chance of accident to a British ship is once in 175 voyages; but that, to a foreign ship, the average of accident is only once in 335 voyages; accidents upon our coasts, therefore—strange fact!—are twice as likely to occur to a vessel that is at home as to the vessel of a stranger.

One accident occurred to a vessel aged more than a century, one to a ship between 80 and 90, and another to a ship between 90 and 100 years of age. Sixty-four wrecks were of ships more than 50 years old; but it is between the ages of 14 and 20 that ships have appeared to suffer most. The age next in liability to misfortune was between 20 and 30; then the comparatively new ships, between 3 and 7, suffered most. Of the wrecks last year, more than 600 were on the east coast, less than 500 on the west coast, and less than 150 on the south coast. On the Irish coast there were but 99 wrecks against 68 in the preceding year, but wrecks on the Isle of Man increased in number from 6 to 28.

The value of the property lost by the wrecks on our coast last year was nearly 2,000,0002., the lives lost were, as before said, 1,645; but as there were more wrecks, and more losses than ever, so were there also more lives saved from wreck than ever. About 300 were saved by life-boats— nearly as many by the rocket and mortar apparatus —1,000 by luggers, coast-guard or fishermen's boats, and small craft—nearly 800 by ships and steam-vessels, and 6 by the heroism of individuals.

Last year, as in the previous year, it was the south-west wind that proved most disastrous.

Of the two most fatal gales, Admiral Fitz-Roy has pointed out that they were foretold by both thermometer and barometer, and that their advance could have been telegraphed from the southern to the eastern and northern coasts in sufficient time to insure full preparation. "It is proved," writes the admiral, " that storms are preceded by distinct warnings, and that they advance in particular directions towards places where their influence is felt some time after it has become marked elsewhere. Therefore, information may be conveyed by telegraph in time to caution those at a distance who are likely to be visited by bad weather." Of the message, swifter than the wind, no use has yet been made for the protection of our sailors.

Warning was again neglected of the yet more terrible gales of this year. In the lost Yarmouth fishing-boats alone and the adjacent dozen miles of coast, nearly 200 men perished, and they have left 200 children fatherless.

The courage and humanity of the boatmen of our coast appear in the return of lives saved.

We must not think of the rocket and mortar apparatus and the life-boat stations as the sole dependence of the shipwrecked mariner whose eye strains towards British ground expecting help.

But the life-boat can brave storms in which a coast-guard boat or fisher-boat could not venture to put out; it has a trained crew, and every provision for the rescue of men from a wreck; it is ready to slip out to its work at a minute's warning, and the men saved by a life-boat very commonly are men whom nothing but a life-boat could have saved.

There is a fund annually granted by this nation for the acknowledgment of gallant services in saving life at sea. It is spent, not in reward, but in thankful recognition of a generosity bounded by no national distinctions. Now, it is an American captain who saves 30 English lives, maintains them in his ship for 40 days, and joins his owners in refusing compensation. Now, it is a French custom-house officer, himself unable to swim, who has plunged into the sea to save a drowning Englishman, or who totters from a sickbed to help in the rescue of »n English wreck upon his coast. Now, it is a Genoese captain who saves a crew of 14 men, maintains them for three weeks, and will not be paid. Now, it is a Greek and now a Dutchman, now a Dane and now a Portuguese, who has braved death and storm for the help of imperilled Englishmen. The Maltese seaman of the Royal Charter none forget.

The public recognition of the duty for which all hearts are so ready, as regards the saving of wrecked men upon our shores, has for its best evidence the life-boat. There were last year 158 life-boat stations on the coasts of the three kingdoms.

Many of these are maintained by the harbour commissioners, dock trustees, or other local representatives of shipping interests, of the ports at which they are found. One or two are maintained by the generosity of individuals; but the great majority—92 last year, and after a few months this year, 103—are under the management of the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION. This Institution relies on the public for its means, but has a subsidy of about 2,000/. a-year from the BOARD OF TRADE, which spends also another 2,000/. on the maintenance and use of the mortar and rocket apparatus. On the Institution just named, the country depends for the maintenance and advancement of an efficient life-boat system. What is its history, and what is it about ? It was founded six-and-thirty years ago, and is actively represented by a committee mainly composed of mercantile men and officers in the navy, including the Chairman of Lloyd's, the ComptioUeT general of the Coast-guard, the Hydrographer of the Admiralty, Deputy-master of the Trinity-house, and others, presided over by His Grace Admiral the Duke of Northumberland. The committee sits in London, and, on the part of the Institution, its business is to build, station, and maintain in repair life-boats of the most perfect description ; to furnish them with all necessary appurtenances, including boat-houses, and carriages for the conveyance of boats to the sea; also to provide, through a local committee, for the proper management of each boat and the exercising of its crew. The Institution also grants money, medals, and votes of thanks to those who have risked life in the effort to save shipwrecked men. It collects and turns to account the newest and best information on the construction of life-boats, the management of boats in surf and storm, the best method of restoring animation to drowned men in whom a spark of life may linger, and whatever else may be found serviceable to the cause it represents.

It has been reported to the committee of this Institution, by coast-guard officers and Lloyd's agents, that there are many points upon our coast at which a life-boat station is still urgently required.

Two years ago, the Institution possessed 70 boats.

A year ago, it possessed 81 boats. At the annual meeting held this year, it was reported that the Institution bad placed on the coast 12 more boats (one of which is the free gift of Miss BURDETT COUTTS*), and had others in course of building, which would raise the force of their fleet to 103, * The following ladies and gentlemen have presented the cost of life-boats' and their equipments to the Institution :—Lady KOLLE, for Exmouth life-boat establishment, 3151.; Members of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, for Walmer life-boat, 160!. 7s. j Mrs. ANN WOOD, of Eltham, for Hornsea life-boat, 150!.; a Friend, per Admiral HARGOOD, for the Skerries life-boat, 150!.; Miss BURDETT COUTTS, for Silloth life-boat, ISO!.; JAMES KNOWLES, Esq., Eagley Bank, for Southport life-boat, 1991.; W. M'Ksraxu, Esq., Bath, for Seaton Carew and Fraserburgh life-boats, 360!.; a lady whose life was saved from drowning, for Carnsore life-boat establishment, 300!.; Royal Victoria Yacht Club, for Grange, Isle of Wight, life-boat and car- the largest life-saving fleet that the world has ever seen. Each boat, apart from any help it might give to a wreck, has been out once a*quarter in picked rough weather, if possible, for exercise of the men, and for test of the efficiency of all its tackling. For such exercise, in stormy weather, every man has had a day's pay of 5s., and for duty at wrecks the payment has been 10s. a man per day, and 1Z. for night-work. 5,000 stout men of the coast manned the life-boat fleet, and pulled oars during the last year in its service, The cost of managing is as little as it can be.

But the exertions made last year compelled a large expenditure in excess of income. Great care is taken, by a minute system of reports and frequent inspection, to secure the constant readiness and sustain perfectly the right equipment of each boat.

Except a little interest from funded capital, and the subsidy before mentioned, from the Mercantile Marine Fund of the BOARD or TRADE, the LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION is obliged to look wholly to the public for augmenting the life-boat fleet. But it is to be remembered, also, that this kind of expenditure does not represent all that has been done; the central Institution often grants its funds in aid of local efforts, and of the life-boatmen's pay, about 1,0002. a-year collected from among their neighbours never enters into the accounts of the Society. The sympathy of all hearts with the work also produces savings that are, in fact, gifts, not represented on the balance-sheet. A.

railway company, for example, or a steam-packet company, is proud to convey a life-boat to its destination free of charge.

The cost of a life-boat is not much under 200i.

It should be strong, buoyant, as swift as possible in a heavy sea, constructed to discharge at once the water that it ships, and to right itself when upset, and it must also supply the greatest possible amount of stowage-room for passengers.

The ingenious carriage contrived for its transport along the coast, as well as for its run to the sea and instant launching, costs from 601. to 1002., and the boat-house about another 14W. Every man of the crew is supplied with a cork life-belt, which he is bound to wear whenever he goes afloat in the craft. The belts hang against the walls of the boat-house, and the boat's equipment is there kept always ready for immediate use.

The establishment of a life-boat station having once been set up on the coast, 302. a-year is the average cost of its maintenance.

Among the publications of the Institution is a riage, 2111.; M. A. C. S., for Porthcawl and Portrush lifeboats, tool.; A. W. JAFFRAY, Ksq., for Llanddwyn, St. Andrews, and Thurso life-boats, 560i; Messrs. JAFFRAY and SONS, London, for North Berwick life-boat, 180Z.; the Hon. Mrs. AGAB and T. J. AOAR R BABTES, Esq., M.P., for Lizard life-boat establishment, 269Z. 13s. Id.; WM.

IUSHLEIGH, Esq., and the Hon. Mrs. RASHIEIGH, towards the cost of the Fowey life-boat, 1001.; Messrs. MACFIE and Soss, Liverpool, for Banff life-boat, 1SOZ.; a Friend, for Newquay and St. Ives (Cornwall), Tyrella (Co. Down), and Buckie, Banfishire, life-boats, 720!.; GEORGE GAT, Esq., Bristol, for Penarth, Glamorganshire, life-boat, 2001.; some members of the Society of Friends, for Selsea, Sussex, lifeboat, 150J.; The Misses BROWN, in memory of a deceased relative, for Llandudno life-boat, 2001.

set of Instructions for the Recovery of the Apparently Drowned, which cannot be too widely diffused. They are founded upon principles laid down by the late Dr. MARSHALL. HALL, and had been made the subject of extensive inquiries by the Institution before they were officially presented by it as the best practical advice that science can afford. These rules are easily remembered and easily acted upon, and there is no person to whom the knowledge of them may not, by some unhappy chance, become a matter of the deepest consequence.

So here is the substance of them:— Cause no delay by removing the body to a dwelling-house, but act instantly, in the open air.

Send for a doctor, blankets, and dry clothes, but wait for nothing. Endeavour at once to.

restore breathing and maintain warmth, and persevere in the endeavour, not for minutes but for hours.

To Restore Breathing, clear the throat by placing the body on the ground, face downwards, with one arm under the forehead. Fluid will escape by the mouth, the tongue will fall and leave the windpipe open. Cleanse and wipe the mouth. If breathing do not follow, or be very faint, endeavour to excite it artificially. To do this, first turn the body rapidly upon its side and stimulate the nostrils with snuff or smelling-salts, or the throat with a feather. If that fail, instantly replace the body on its face, setting a folded coat under the chest to press upon it and aid" in forcing out the air. Then turn the body gently to one side and a little beyond, and briskly back upon its face, keeping up these two movements alternately, at the rate of about fifteen to the minute, now and then varying the side. Aid the expulsion of air from the chest by brisk simultaneous pressure with the hand upon the back between the shoulder- blades each time that the body is placed on its face.

Let the body never be turned on its back.

To Maintain Warmth, dry the body and wrap it in a blanket, leaving, except in severe weather, the face, neck, and chest exposed.

After Breathing has been Restored, and not until then, rub the limbs upwards; use hot flannels, &c. Give first a teaspoonful of warm water, afterwards small quantities of wine, brandy and water, or coffee. Keep the patient in bed, and encourage sleep.

Another of the publications of the Society, founded upon inquiry among the expert boatmen on our coasts, gives clear directions for the Management of Open Boats in Heavy Surf and Broken Water. This little book has been translated into French, Spanish, and Swedish, and has been circulated extensively throughout Her Majesty's fleet. In putting out to sea, or in coming to land when the weather is rough, all the peril is upon the broken sea, and life depends on a distinct understanding of the dangers to be battled with, and the right way of overcoming them.

I could say more; but Ethel is awake, and, wandering in fever, talks with the child drowned in the storm that scared away her little rest of health.