EVERYBODY is complaining that trade and business are bad, and that as a result any effort to raise money for charitable purposes requires an operation similar to that time-honoured one of extracting "blood from a stone" ! It is sad indeed that we have fallen apparently on bad times, but notwithstanding this it is gratifying to find—and this gives a gleam of brightness in the darkness —that there are very many selfdenying and good people about who are not to be daunted in their work for others by any obstacle or failure, unpromising as their efforts may appear.

Fortunately for the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION thousands of these good kind people seem to take a special interest in the Life-boat cause—- the work of the Institution and its branches, the heroism of the Life-boat crews, their injured members, the tears of the poor widows and orphans of those breadwinners who nobly perish as Life-boatmen in their grand efforts to rescue fellow-creatures from a watery grave. The summer months which bring—or ought to bring—sunshine and joy are those specially chosen by the Life-boat Saturday workers in which to urge the object of their appeal on the British Public, whether in the highways ! of our large cities and towns, on the J promenade and the beach of our waterj ing-places, or in the mill and the factory; and we would ask all who have any thought at all for the merits of the appeal to encourage and aid the efforts of the workers in their uphill ! and unselfish task. For fourscore years i and more the Life-boat Institution of Great Britain has been strenuously working to minimise the loss of life I from shipwreck on our dangerous shores, and hitherto the efficiency of this the oldest and largest life-saving service in the world has been maintained and supported by voluntary effort. This alone, coupled with the fact that directly or indirectly upwards of 47,000 lives have been saved as the result of the organisation, should entitle, we think, any application on its behalf for financial assistance to a response at once prompt and favourable.