ALL friends of the Life-boat cause will be gratified at the announcement that H.R.H. the DUKE or YORK, our sailor prince, who has for several years been a Vice-Patron of the Institution, has now graciously accepted the post of President of the Institution's " Life-boat Saturday " Fund, and has generously contributed to the movement. This action of His Royal Highness is another proof of the keen interest taken by the Royal Family in all movements set on foot for the well- being of the community, and will be of immense service to the "Life-boat Saturday " Fund. Successful and highly satisfactory as was the progress made by the movement in 1894, there is every reason to hope and expect that its development will be even more marked, and the proceeds secured still more largely augmented, during the current year. The old saying that "nothing succeeds like success " has certainly been well exempli- fied in this instance. It is but four years since the scheme was launched, when "the times" were as bad as could be almost, without much "betterment" since, yet now it is enthusiastically supported and being actively worked in most of the principal centres of industry in the United Kingdom. The Institution, backed up by willing friends all over the country, has done its utmost to push and popularise "Life-boat Saturday," and results would seem to have fully justified their action. The Organizing Secretaries, wherever they go, receive j a cordial reception; and should they occasionally find an inclination at first to give their urgent appeals a " cold shoulder," they soon succeed in effecting a change of front and are able to leave the apparently luke-warm city or town enthusiastic in the cause, and with preparations in full swing for a "Life- boat Saturday" demonstration or collec- tion. In view of the spread of the movement and the large proportions it has attained it has been decided to work it, on and from the 1st January next, from a central office in London instead of from Manchester as hitherto, and London itself is to be attacked and pressed into the work. Already preparations are being made for a campaign in the Metropolis in 1896, and an influential Ladies' Committee has been formed for the West End to work as an auxiliary to the "Life-boat Saturday " movement in London. The announcement recently made by the Committee of the Institution that they intend to appropriate the "Life-boat Saturday " collections, as far as possible, solely to the payment of the coxswains and crews, etc., for services, for special rewards and recognitions for exercising the Life-boats, and for grants to relatives of men lost on service and to men injured in the service, has given general satis- faction, and will it is believed prove a strong inducement to the working classes to give a helping hand.