The Eight Hon. C. 1. Ritchie, M.P., President of the Board of Trade, said in the House of Commons on the 14th February, 1896 :— " It is not the intention of the Board of Trade to interfere with the excellent work of the Royal National Life-Boat Institution." The Eight Hon. J. Bryee, M.P., when President of the Board of Trade, said in the House of Commons on tke 18th August, 1894::— " The National Life-Boat Institution deserves the confidence of the people." The Eight Hon. the Lord Mayor of London, when presiding at a meeting at the Mansion House on the 13th June, 1894, said:- — " The Royal National Life-Boat Institution is one of the most meritorious and useful voluntary institutions in this the greatest maritime country of the world. Indeed, there is perhaps no society which better deserves the financial support of the citizens of London." The Eight Hon. the Earl Speneer, K.G., when First Lord of the Admiralty, stated at the Annual Meeting of the Life-Boat Institution on the 21st April, 1894 :— " A work like this is done entirely voluntarily without assistance from the State, and in this country I think we take a great pride in this. The Institution has a great claim on the country. ... It does a great and a national work. On this account it has a claim on the generosity and liberality of the people." The Eight Hon. A. J. Mundella, M.P., when President of the Board of Trade, said at the Annual Meeting on the 18th March, 1893 :— " No Government department could ever do the work as well as the National Life-Boat Institution. No Government department would ever maintain that alertness and alacrity which the. Governors of that Institution always exhibited; and no Government department could ever evoke that generous sympathy with heroism which has characterised the work of the Institution. I trust the time will never come when the English public will abdicate their duty and their highest privilege of supporting such a noble Institution." The Eight Hon. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Bart,., M.P., wJien President of the Board of Trade, stated at the Annual Meeting of the Life-Boat Institution on the 30th April, 1892:— " In the work of saving life at sea the Life-Boat Institution takes the larger part, not only as regards the number of lives saved and money spent, but also as regards the efficiency of the work done. I have never had brought before my notice one single case in which the crews of the Life-Boats have failed to do their duty." The Eight Hon. Sir A. B. Forwood, Bart., M.P., when Secretary to the Admiralty, stated in public at Liverpool:— " The Admiralty have no machinery whatever for working the Life-Boat Service, and I am decidedly of opinion that the best, and indeed the only way that this work can be carried on is by the existing organisation.".