IN December, 1859, the Committee of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION presented to Mr. CHARLES CLIFFORD, of London, a vote of thanks,' inscribed on vellum, in acknowledgment of his indefatigable exertions in inventing and perfecting a plan for safely lowering boats at sea which had been brought into general use, and by which a large number of lives have been already saved.

How justly such was given the public may infer from the following list of ships in the Royal Navy and the Mercantile Marine, from which lives have been saved by the use of this invention, when, the officers in command state their firm belief, that but for it they would have been lost: and also that the lowering and disengaging the boat being the result of the single act of one man only, is the chief cause of its great success.

We think we shall be rendering a service to the great cause of humanity by giving every possible publicity to the list in question, as in most of the instances we record, the men saved have fallen overboard in heavy gales, and when the ship was moving rapidly through the water. In some cases the entire crews of ships, when foundering or wrecked, in collision and suddenly sunk, or on fire, owe their preservation to it. From H.M. ships, the Shannon, Racoon, Princess Royal, Archer, Trafalgar, Emerald, Diadem, Chesapeake, Mersey, and Ganges, 19 men were saved by it. H.M.S. Perseverance, from a vessel run into at night, and entirely sunk in less than 10 minutes, took off 15 men and 1 boy.

From the troop-ships, Lady McNaghten, Australasian, John Duncan, Dutchman, Clara ; 9 men. From ships chartered by H.M. Emig". Commissioners, Commodore Perry, Washington Irvine, Abe, Black Eagle, Ebba Brake, Medway, Omega, Rodney, Blundell, Admiral Boxer, Champion of the Seas ; 15 persons (2 being women). From merchant steam-ships (Royal Mail), Tasmanian and Mogdalena, also Duke of Richmond, Duke of Rothsay, and Queen; 5 men. The John Masterman, Rodney, and Merchant, by it lowered down their boats and took away the entire crews of 3 ships that were about foundering at sea, or on fire, and which had lost their own boats when attempting to lower them by the ordinary tackling; by it also, at the memorable occasion of the fire of the troop-ship Sarah Sands, " the lifeboats filled with the women and children were lowered in perfect safety." The ' Times' in its account stating that " for once in the case of a conflagration at sea the boats were lowered in safety." The official report of the chief officer of the Pomona, to the Board of Trade, when she foundered off Malta, was, that the only people saved, 18 in number, (2 being women and 1 a child,) "are indebted to Clifford's lowering apparatus for their lives." Thus we have certain accounts of more than 100 people being saved, probably not half of what have really occurred.

It is sincerely to be hoped that advantage will betaken of the World's Fair in 1862 to spread far and wide amongst the maritime countries of the world a knowledge of this life-saving invention.