ADMIRAL, FitzRoy, the skilful sailor, the travelled naturalist, the earnest Christian, and the best friend of the population which fringes our sea-girt isle, and the zealous coadjutor of the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, has gone to his rest. Death has prevented the continuation of those labours a cessation from which would have prevented death. Rarely has anything been heard more touching than the account given of this heroic man's struggle to do the work he had set himself to do. " Impaired in health from excessive mental study, reduced in body from mental fatigue," he still asked " to what extent will it be safe to go on ?" and when his medical adviser bade him rest from his labours, he still begged permission 0 to finish some matters he had on hand;" among them, to reply to M. LE VERRIER, who, second only to himself, has helped humanity at large by bringing meteorology to bear practically on the safety of our sailors and fishermen.

Would that the advice had been taken! While we mourn his untimely loss, let his hope that it will be eloquent to many of our overwrought thinkers and workers, who, in their limitless enthusiasm, forget their limited powers of endurance, and discount the future.

A hasty glance at the busy life of the late Admiral will show that his more recent work is by no means his only claim to be reckoned among the friends of science. Born on the 5th of July, 1805, he entered the Navy in October, 1819, and in 1824 obtained his commission as lieutenant. After serving on the Mediterranean and South American stations, he became, in 1828, flag-lieutenant to Rear-Admiral OTWATY at Rio Janeiro.

On the arrival at this station of the two vessels Adventure and Beagle, appointed by the Admiralty to survey the Southern coasts of America, he was commissioned in December of the same year as Commander of the Beagle, acting under Captain KING, the senior officer of the expedition. And now began the great work of the early portion of Admiral FrrzRoy's life. After taking surveys and making important hydrographical observations in South America, he returned to England in 1830, completing his official duties in connection with the survey in 1831.

In this year occurred a striking instance of the kind and honourable character of the Admiral. He had brought to England three Fuegians; and being unable to send them back by other means, for he would not permit them to return alone in a merchant vessel, from which they might have been landed away from their tribe, he chartered a small vessel to convey the natives, under his own charge, to Terra del Fuego. Happily, he thought of extending the object of the voyage, and for this purpose succeeded in obtaining the help of the Government, who again commissioned him to proceed to South America in command of the Beagle.

Prompted by his love for science, Admiral FitzRoy spared no pains to render this expedition as complete as possible. It was he who proposed to the Admiralty that a naturalist should accompany the expedition.

Mr. DARWIN was appointed; and thus, indirectly as well as directly, he has rendered the second voyage of the Beagle one of the most famous on record. The important scientific results of this expedition, which returned in 1836, after an absence of five years, are known to all. With Mr. DARWIN'S celebrated journal, they form the subject of an excellent work written by the Admiral.

In 1841 Admiral FitzRoy was elected M.P. for the city of Durham, and in 1843 was appointed Governor of New Zealand, holding this appointment three years. But it is the meteorological researches of the Admiral which have caused his name to be so widely known. His " forecasts " have become household words, and have been commended to scientific men by the philosophic caution with which they were given, Admiral Fitzroy did not speculate on the weather; he never pretended to prophesy.

Day by day he slowly felt his way along the dark and little-trodden paths of meteorological science, hoping to discover as the end of patient research, some general law underlying the many scattered facts he collected. Many of theses researches he gave in the pages of the Lifeboat journal. His system of "storm warning" although but a few years old, will soon be universally employed throughout Europe, thanks to the co-operation of such men as LE VERRIER, BUYS BALLOT and GLAISHER. The results of the first year's use of them commanded the appreciation of both scientific and practical men, in spite of the very natural prejudices of both; but now they are looked upon as essential as a life-boat or a light-house at our ports; and the man who would neglect them is regarded as foolhardy by his brother seamen.

Admiral FITZROY was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in the year 1851; and elected a member of the Committee of Management of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION  in 1859. He was also a F.R.G.S., and a correspondent of the French Academy of Sciences. He was twice married —in 1836 to the daughter of Major General O'BRIEN; and after the dearth of this lady, he married the daughter of MR SMYTH of Yorkshire, who survives him. A son and two daughters remain by his first marriage and an only daughter by the second marriage.

Besides a Government blue-book on meteorology, the Admiral recently published a large volume, entitled the Weather Book, in which he embodied his principal results, and detailed his method of " fore-casting." The Admiral was the youngest son of the late General Lord Charles Fitzroy, by his second marriage with Lady FRANCES ANNE STEWART.

At a Meeting of the Committee of the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION on the 4th of May last, Earl PERCY, M.P., its President, in the Chair, Mr. CHAPMAN, Deputy-Chairman of the Institution, called attention to the sudden death, on the 30th April, of Admiral FITZROY, and said "that as a member of the Committee he took considerable interest in the affairs of the NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION and science and the Life-boat cause had lost a sincere friend in the gallant Admiral'.

The Committee unanimously passed the following resolution, and ordered it to be communicated to Mrs FitzRoy:-

"That this committee desire to express their sincere regret at their distinguished colleague Admiral FitzRoy F.R.S. who had so cordially and zealously co-operated with them in carrying out the important objects of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION for the the preservation of life from shipwreck on the coasts of the United Kingdom". "That the Committee also desire to tender their heartfelt sympathy and condolence to Mrs. FitzRoy and other members of the late much-lamented Admiral's family, on the occasion of their irreparable bereavement".

On receipt of the foregoing resolution MRS FITZROY forwarded to the Secretary of the Institution the following feeling reply: 

"DEAR SIR - May I request the favour of your laying before the Committee of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION my grateful thanks, and those of other members of my dearly-loved, and deeply lamented husband's family, for the kind and true expressions of regret and condolence expressed in the address forwarded to me this morning? and to yourself let me express my sincere thanks for the letter accompanying it." My noble husband sacrificed his life far more than the man who loses it on the field of battle, or the deck of a man-of-war, hotly contending with a foreign foe—more even than those brave men of whom England is so justly proud, who man the life-boat to rescue their fellow creatures - for he continually perilled his life; he gave himself, and all he held dearer than life, for his country: he still held fat to his post - clung to the helm as long as life lasted; and when that enthusiastic spirit was all but worn out, his poor mind succumbed.

" All that is left for me to say is, "God's will be done," however mysterious in its working. May my dearest husband's memory be honoured to the utmost, is the crying wish of nil most disconsolate widow, 11 May, 1885. " M. I. FitzRoy."

We may add that a benevolent lady, resident in Cheltenham, has placed at the disposal of the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION 8001. for the purpose of establishing a life-boat station at Anstruther, N.B., accompanied by a request that the life-boat may be named the " Admiral FitzRoy" , in commemoration of bis scientific efforts to discover the Law of Storms, with the benevolent view to diminish the Loss of Life on our Coasts." Thus, while the noble man has ceased from his arduous work, this humane undertaking will contribute materially to perpetuate his memory amongst our sea-coast population for whom he laboured so zealously.