AT the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT if, held at the London Tavern on Thursday the 26th day of March, 1874, His Grace The DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, P.O., B.O.L., President of the Institution, in the Chair, the following Report of the Committee was read by the Secretary;— ANNUAL REPORT.

THE Committee of the ROYAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION have once mote the satisfaction to present to its supporters and the British public their Annual Be- port; and they have special gratification in doing m, from the circumstance that this is the jubilee year of the Society, it having been first established in 1824.

This commemorative period appears a suitable time for a brief consideration of its past history and present position.

Founded in the above-named year by the exertions of the late Sir WILLIAM HILLARY, Barb,—whose personally gallant sad long services in saving life from Ship- wreak to the Isle of Man are well known —by Mr. THOMAS WILSON, M.P., and other philanthropic gentlemen, under the title of the " ROYAL NATIONAL INSTITUTION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LIFE FROM SHIPWRECK  it devoted the limited funds at its disposal to the bestowal of honorary and pecuniary rewards on boatmen and others who were the means of saving ship- wrecked persons, and to occasional grants of money to local Associations, towards the purchase and repair of Life-boats, In the year 1826 the late Mr. GEORGE PALMER. MP. for South Essex, joined the Committee, and two years afterwards his excellent plan of Life-boat was adopted by the Institution, and continued to be used for upwards of twenty years, during which period it contributed to the saving of hundreds of lives from Shipwreck.

In 1850, however, a fresh impetus was given to the great and national work of the Society. The late Admiral the DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND) had become its President, and the late ADMIRAL, WASHINGTON and other earnest and practical men were added to its Committee of Management, which then decided to undertake the establishment of Life-boat Stations round the coasts of the United Kingdom.

In 1852 its -first Life-boats were placed OB the coast of Northumberland, their cost being generously defrayed by its President.

In 1854 it modified its title to that of "The ROYAL, NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION Established in 1824 for the preservation of Life from Shipwreck." From that period it has steadily progressed in the enlargement of its sphere of operations; and On this its Jubilee Anniversary, it stands in the high position of having placed efficient Life-boat establishments wherever they are as yet needed, and having the large number of 240 Life- boats on the coasts of the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands.

Arrived at that gratifying position, the Committee desire to acknowledge their deep sense of the responsibility they have undertaken in the fulfilment of this important national duty, and to express their thankfulness to Almighty God for vouch- safing so "successful an issue to their exertions. They likewise thankfully acknowledge the generous support they' have received from their countrymen and countrywomen, and would especially refer to those who have liberally presented to the Society the entire cost of Life-boat establishments, and who, in some cases, have munificently endowed them.

The Committee have to refer with extreme regret to the death during the past year of their esteemed Chairman, Mr. THOMAS BARING, M.P., who, for a period of twenty years, -co-operated with them in carrying on the great and national work of the Institutional

They have'elected as Mr. BARING'S successor, their '_ much respected and able Deputy-Chairman, Mr. THOMAS CHAPMAN, F.E.S.

Mr. GEORGE LYAL, has also been elected Deputy-Chairman; and the Bight Hon.

STEPHEN CAVE, M.P., one of the Trustees of the Society, in succession to Mr. BARING.

The transactions of the Institution during the past year may be thus sum- marised under the usual headings:— the last -Report four- teen new life-boats have been placed on the coast; two of them at new stations, and twelve to replace old or inferior boats.

Transporting-carriages have been supplied to ten of them, and for some new boat- houses have been built The Stations at which these new Life- boats have been placed are as follows:— ENGLAND.

Sunderland.

Seaton Carew.

Blakeney.

SUFFOLK 5 » SUSSEX Dunwich.

Thorpeness.

Chichester Harbour.

Plymouth.

CORNWALL LANCASHIRE SCOTLAND.

FIFESHIRE . . St. Andrew's.

KINCARDINESHIRE Stonehaven.

The Lizard.

Southport.

IRELAND.

Co. DUBLIN . . Skerries.

Rogerstown.

Arklow.

WICKLOW During the past year the Society's boats have saved the lives of four hundred and seventy-one persons, nearly all under cir- cumstances of peril that would have pre- cluded any ordinary boats from venturing out to sea.

The Committee much regret to have again to report a serious accident to one of its boats; the Stonehaven Life-boat unfortunately upset on the bar at Aberdeen when running for that harbour in a heavy gale, on the 27th February last, by which disaster the Coxswain and three others of her crew unhappily perished, and the boat, being carried against the pier, was so seriously injured as to be rendered useless. The Committee are once more, by this sad accident, reminded of the dangerous character of the work they have undertaken to superintend, which necesarily involves, on many occasions, serious risk of life to the brave men who per- form it.

They have had the melancholy satisfaction to vote the sum of £250 in aid of the local subscriptions for the relief of the bereaved relatives of the deceased men.

Shipwrecks.—Although the " Wreck Register for 1873" has not yet been pub- lished, there is no doubt that it will show, from various causes, a marked diminution in the number of Shipwrecks on our coasts.

One of the principal causes has been, no doubt, the infrequency of heavy gales during nearly the whole of the year.

In the months of November and December, 1872, the storms were unusually heavy, calling incessantly on the services of the Life-boats, which, during those eight weeks, contributed to the saving of upwards of 800 lives from various wrecks.

The succeeding month of January was also very stormy, and the Life-boats did some noble services on numerous occasions.

Their services during the whole of the year may thus briefly be summarised wrecked on the Kentish Knock Sands, ' ' Essex, on the 22nd October. The Sands : are 26 miles from Ramsgate, and the boat I and steamer were absent from their station ; 17 hours. The poor rescued men had ; been in the maintop of the wreck 26 hours, ' despairing of ever being saved, when the , Life-boat came to their help.

Bat the assistance rendered to ship- wrecked crews on our coasts is by no means limited to Life-boats, as great services in saving life are constantly' performed by shore and fishing boats, in addition to the hundreds of lives which are saved every year by means of the rocket-apparatus, belonging to the Board of Trade, and worked so efficiently by the Coastguard and the Socket Volunteer Brigades.