WE have much pleasure in extracting from the French Life-boat Journal the following interesting account of services performed by the life-boats of the " Societe Centrale de Sauvetage des Naufrages," during the first quarter of the present year :— " Since January 1st this year (1868), our life-boats have, on ten occasions, been out, in answer to signals from vessels in distress; they have saved 80 persons and 5 vessels from certain loss, and have given aid to 38 other vessels. These boats are stationed at Audierne, Omonville, He de Groix, lie de Molene, Portrieux, Carteret, Etel, and St. Malo. Those of Audierne and Etel have been out on two occasions.

The crew of St. Malo saved a brig from shipwreck, having 58 persons on board, of which 24 were passengers.

" The services of the boats of Molene, Carteret, and Etel deserve to be specially mentioned, on account of the dangers incurred and the difficulties surmounted by their crews. In the first case the object was to rescue from death 2 fishermen, thrown on a rock, rendered inaccessible by the tempest.

At Etels the courageous rescuers, repulsed by the violence of the wind and the sea, were obliged to renew their efforts several times before reaching 3 unfortunate sailors lashed to the masts of their vessel, and threatened at every moment to be carried off by the waves.

" The service of the Carteret life-boat has been related in the March number of this Journal. An English vessel, the Fanny Palmer, having been perceived in distress, and the state of the sea not permitting any other boat to leave the port, the life-boat put out immediately, taking a pilot and a sailor, who piloted the ship to the port of Jersey. We owe to the kindness of His Excellency the Ministre de la Marine the communication of the report, addressed on this occasion by Lieutenant ARAGO, commander of the state cutter Alcyone. This report consists of new details of the greatest interest; the following are a portion of them:— " The head quartermaster DUVAL, second in command of the Alcyone, and an excellent pilot of the coast, asked me, as a special favour, to allow him to embark in the lifeboat, in order to offer the benefit of his knowledge to the English captain. The boat was directed towards the brig, and succeeded in boarding her, thanks to the energetic efforts of its valiant crew, stimulated by the imminence of the danger at the moment when the Captain, FIZTGERALD, was on the point of deciding to run his vessel ashore with the faint hope of saving his men.

" The pilot DUVAL, and the sailor DUTOT, of the Alcyone, succeeded in getting onboard, and flew to the rudder, in order to change the vessel's course. The Fanny Palmer would have been infallibly lost, both the ship and all on board, if she had gone a cable's length farther in the same direction.

The English crew was entirely demoralized at the sight of the life-boat, which had again left. ' Save us' Save my vessel! Take us where you like!' said the English captain to DUVAL ; ' I promise you two hundred pounds if you will get us out of this danger.' " Thanks to the able dispositions taken by my assistant; thanks to the precious aid of the sailor DOTOT ; thanks, above all, to the calmness and self-possession of these two superior men, the English crew renewed their energy a little in order to work her; and, towards six o'clock in the evening, the pilot DUVAL was fortunate enough to moor the Fanny Palmer in the port of Gorey (Jersey). As for the life-boat, after having attempted in vain to return to Carteret, the coxswain steered it before the wind, into the entrance of Port Bail, situated about two miles to leeward. The sea was tremendous at the entrance of the passage ; the boat was raised so high by a wave that it upset, and its mast stuck in the sand.

The breaking of the mast alone allowed it to self-right; it capsized again, and was at last, without further damage, rowed into port by its brave crew. The head pilot DUVAL and the sailor DUTOT were conveyed to their vessel the next day by the Bpcassine, which I had despatched to look for them. These two excellent men refused the generous recompense, which had been offered to them, and brought back a very eulogistic certificate from Captain FITZGERALD, testifying to their great disinterestedness, and declaring that, without their help, his vessel and his crew would have been lost.

" The head pilot DUVAL, and the sailors DUTOT, VIGOT, and MENAGE, of the Alcyone, who formed part of the life-boat's crew, have received the sum of 55 francs by way of indemnity from the hands of M. Du CHATEL, President of the Committee of the Central Society at Carteret. These sailors have just begged me to give this sum as a gift, in their name, to the ' Soci&e Centrale de Sauvetage des Naufrages.'" In acknowledgement of his brave and disinterested conduct, the French Society has bestowed its silver medal on the pilot DCFVAL, and' on the rest of the life-boat's crew, its medal of bronze; and the Emperor Napoleon has since decorated DITVAL with the Legion of Honour.

We notice, in connection with the distribution of these honorary distinctions to lifeboat men, a custom, which does not exist in this country, viz., that the French Society awards its medals to the life-boats themselves as well as to their crews; having, in the cases here narrated, given its silver medal to the life-boat at Carteret, and its medal of bronze to the one at Etel.

I In referring to these services of the j French life-boats and their brave crews, ! we congratulate the " Societ Centrale de ! Sauvetages des Naufrages," on the rapid progress it is making in the humane and honourable work which it has undertaken, and in which we shall always rejoice to see it the successful rival of the English NATION A.L LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, on -whose model it has been organised..