A NOTIFICATION appeared in the Gazette of the 13th March last, stating that the Queen had been pleased, by warrant under the royal sign-manual, to institute a new decoration, to be styled the Albert Medal, to be awarded in cases where it shall be considered fit, to such persons as shall, after the date of the warrant, endanger their own lives in saving, or in endeavouring to save, the lives of others from shipwreck or other peril of the sea. It is further ordained, that the names of those upon whom Her Majesty may be pleased to confer the decoration shall be published in the London Gazette, and a registry thereof kept in the office of the Board of Trade. Any one who, after having received the medal, again performs an act which, if he had not received such medal, would have entitled him to it, such act shall be recorded by a bar attached to the riband by which the medal is suspended.

It is also stated that the medal shall be awarded only on a recommendation made to Her Majesty by the President of the Board of Trade. It is, lastly, ordained that, " in order to make such additional provision as shall effectually preserve pure this most honourable distinction, that if any person on whom such distinction is conferred be guilty of any crime or disgraceful conduct which disqualifies him for the said decoration, his name shall forthwith be erased from the registry of individuals upon whom the said decoration shall have been conferred, and his medal shall be forfeited; and every person to whom the said medal is given shall, before receiving the same, enter into an engagement to return the same if his name shall be so erased as aforesaid under this regulation." Her Most Gracious Majesty, whose partiality for the sea and regard for the sailors of her empire are proverbial, has thus given a further evidence of her kindness of heart, of her sympathy with human suffering, and of her appreciation of deeds of heroism. It only remains for us to express the hope, as regards the medal itself, that, like its sister decoration, the " Victoria Cross," it will be reserved for very distinguished services alone, and that it may only be bestowed after very full and careful inquiry in every case—on which its permanent value will much depend.