touched the ground, it was found that her seams had been payed with clay and red ochre, to keep the water out.

It seems to us that the Merchant Shipping Act has failed entirely to control this sad state of things; and, indeed, its authors contend that the provisions of the Act never contemplated touching them; for they argue and there is much force in their observations-that the common law of the land should be brought into operation to compel shipowners, like all other owners of property, to be answerable for wilful or overt acts of carelessness.

Of the 2,012 vessels lost or damaged in 1865, 82 were rigged as ships, 130 were steamships, 542 schooners, 419 brigs, 187 barques, 187 brigantines, and 196 smacks; the remainder were small vessels rigged in various ways. Of the 2,012 vessels referred to, 902 did not exceed 100 tons burthen, 793 were from 100 to 300 tons, 210 were from 300 to 600 tons, and 107 only were above 600 tons burthen.

From the table showing the parts of the coasts on which the casualties happened, it will be seen that, as usual, the greatest number occurred on the East Coast. The numbers are as follow:-East Coast, 868; South Coast, 187; West Coast, 386; N.W. Coast of Scotland, 46; Irish Coast, 146; Isle of Man, 15; Lundy Island, 3; Scilly Isles, 5.

As regards the loss of life, the returns show that the number lost from shipwreck on or near the coast of the United Kingdom, in 1865, was 698. These lives were lost in 164 ships; 124 of them were laden vessels, 33 were vessels in ballast, and in 7 cases it is not known whether the vessels were laden or light: 131 of these ships were entirely lost, and 33 sustained partial damage. Of the 698 lives lost, 275 were lost in vessels that foundered, 53 on board vessels in collisions, and 335 in vessels stranded or cast ashore. The remaining number, 35, were lost from various causes, such as being washed overboard in heavy seas, by explosions, &c. The loss of life in 1864 was 516, which was less than the number in any year since 1855. In that year (1855) the National Lifeboat Institution began to take most active steps to provide our coasts with lifeboats, having, during the previous thirty years, struggled hard for support to carry on its great and national work on our shores; but in that year the late Capt. Hamilton Fitzgerald, R.N., left the society the munificent legacy of £10,000. Its committee most wisely and promptly decided to spend the whole of the money in placing new lifeboats on the coast. Since that period the institution has contributed to the saving of 5,758 lives from shipwrecks. How many of these persons, in addition to their wives, children, and other relations, have reason to bless the name of this and many other benefactors who have given the cost of lifeboats, and who have thus aided to accomplish such a large amount of solid, palpable, good work!

The greatest loss of life, during the seven years ending in 1865, occurred in the Irish Sea, which is one of our principal highways to and from America. The number of lives lost on the coasts and sandbanks of the Irish Sea, during these seven years, is more than double the number lost on any other part of the coasts, although during the

year 1865 the number on the East coast of England was very slightly in excess of the number lost on the coasts of the Irish Channel. The most fatal winds during the year 1865 are thus given:N. 61; N.N.E. 59; N.E. 90; E.N.E. 58; E. 55; E.S.E. 56; S.E. 97; S.S.E. 60; S. 94; S.S.W. 133; S.W. 192; W.S.W. 102; W.73; W.N.W. 91; N.W. 101; N.N.W. 59=1,381.

It will thus be seen that westerly gales are far more destructive to shipping than gales from any other quarter.

Again we find that, distinguishing the casualties of the past seven years, according to the force of the wind at the time at which they happened, 678 occurred when the wind was at force 6 or under, that is to say, when the force of the wind did not exceed a strong breeze, in which the ship could carry single reefs and top-gallant sails; and that 810 only happened with the wind at force 9 and upwards, that is to say, from a strong gale to a hurricane.

Thus we observe that, in the last seven years, 118 took place in a calm, 176 in a light air or just sufficient to give steerage way, 450 in light breeze, 220 in gentle breeze, 784 in moderate breeze, 1,280 in fresh breeze, 1,217 in strong breeze, 441 in moderate gale, 836 in fresh gale, 1,873 in strong gale, 1,444 in whole gale, 505 in a storm, 693 in a hurricane, 50 variable, and 400 unknown.

During the past year, the number of collisions reported was 354, of which 114 occurred in the daytime and 240 at night. In 1864, the number was 351; that being an excess of the number of collisions reported in any year since 1855.

We know of nothing more distressing than a collision between two powerful ships far out at sea. On a recent occasion, when the screw steamship Osprey, of Liverpool, and the steam sloop-of-war Amazon came into violent collision, nothing but the calm that brooded upon the waters off Start Point saved hundreds of lives from being lost. Indeed, if the survivors had not fallen in after the collision with some fishing smacks, about twelve miles outside Torbay, when they were pulling their boats about the Channel, with a compass which had gone wrong, and with no food or water on board, we should have had today to lament a frightful addition to the list of deaths.

Amidst this desolation and havoc, it is very satisfactory to find that the means used in saving life from shipwreck on our coast have made, and are making, the most encouraging progress. There are now nearly 200 lifeboat stations on our shores, and nearly the whole of them belong to the National Lifeboat Institution, whose activity and usefulness have commanded, not only the admiration of the British people and parliament, but also that of nearly every maritime power throughout the world. Indeed, it is a remarkable fact, that during the past few years kindred institutions have been established on the coasts of many of these nations; while at one of our thriving colonies in the antipodes, it is reported to the institution, they have built self-righting lifeboats equal to those of the mother-country.

Again: the Board of Trade support 249 life-saving rocket-apparatus

NO. 12.-VOL. XXXV.

4 P

stations, which are worked by that valuable body of men-the Coastguard. These, in conjunction with the provisions of lighthouses and floating light-vessels, and lifeboats on nearly all of the most difficult points of navigation on our coasts the gradual improvement of natural harbours of refuge; the decoration of the Albert medal by her Majesty the Queen, and the rewards of the National Lifeboat Institution to our boatmen and fishermen for noble efforts to save life from shipwreck; all these admirable provisions testify to the unceasing skill and liberal care for the safety and deliverance of our tens of thousands of seafaring men, which their perils, acting upon a benevolent public, have drawn forth.

At present, nearly every class co-operates with the institution. The resident gentry and others, at its lifeboat stations, give their superintendence; the boatmen give readily their personal services for stipulated payments; the railway and steam-packet companies convey the lifeboats carriage free; and the public support the institution liberally.

The Lifeboat Society is infinitely more than an office or an agency. It is an organization of intelligence, a focus to which information converges, and a centre from which it radiates. By the circulation of facts which it maintains, it interests the whole public, awakens sympathy, excites to effort, and is continually submitting itself and its work to general supervision. It lives on its proper merits, and every shilling it receives may be said to be given under the valuable law of "payment for results." Thus, though it may be possible at the present moment to say that the institution has not reached this or that place on the coast to supply its wants, we are to remember that it is chiefly owing to what the institution has done to interest the public in the subject, that isolated cases of deficiency attract even casual notice; while the principle of progress at work in the institution is a guarantee that at no distant date every want when pointed out, or as it arises, will be promptly supplied.

All this comes of private benevolence, energy, and zeal; and so striking is the result, that the principle has, as we said before, commended itself to nearly every other maritime country in the world.

We feel assured that an institution of such national interest and importance will continue to receive a large amount of the sympathy and support of the British public, in aid of the maintenance of its noble life-saving fleet of one hundred and seventy-two boats; and that no society has a stronger claim for that sympathy and support than the National Lifeboat Institution is testified by the gratifying fact, that its lifeboats and other means, preserve every year, under Providence, hundreds of our hardy sailors from a premature grave, and many homes from the desolation of widowhood and orphanage.

NAVAL AND MILITARY ENGINEERING.-Portsmouth and its

Neighbourhood.

Under the title of Naval and Military Intelligence-which intelligence applies to the subject of Engineering-we meet with the following information in the Times about the 3rd of November. The subject is an important one, as dealing with the efficiency of Portsmouth Harbour; and we have been led to believe that the naval engineering concerned in that great subject was always supposed to be carried out. But it appears we were mistaken.

The extract which we have made refers to two subjects. The first is the obtaining of tidal water from Langstone Harbour by a channel into Portsmouth Harbour, in the upper or interior part of Langstone by the Hilsea Lines. Relating to this subject the Times says:—

"We have certainly, as a rule, been unfortunate in our military engineering, and especially in carrying out the plans for the defence of our coast line. Forts have been planted on the overhanging brows of fast perishing sand cliffs, only to topple over into the sea; while others have been built on swampy land, so unstable and treacherous that keep and magazine have cracked through, their earthen ramparts having slid from their base and filled up the surrounding fosse. The most remarkable of all the instances of failure, however, are those in which the War Department and the Admiralty have each an interest. These departments seem invariably at cross purposes. To be convinced of the disadvantages of this opposition, it is only necessary to examine the present condition and intended outline of the connecting water channel between the harbours of Portsmouth and Langston, in front of the Hilsea lines of defence.

"The Admiralty engineers, in designing this channel, in the first instance, had to give a means of communication between the two harbours for gunboats of from 8 feet to 9 feet draught of water, calculating also that this depth of water, with a proportionate width of channel, giving an ingress to Portsmouth Harbour from that of Langston that would very materially increase the total volume of water in the former, and increase its tidal scour to an extent which would compensate for the water space subtracted from the harbour by the new extension works of the dockyard. As the channel connecting the two harbours had to be formed on the site of the old channel, and in front of the new lines of defence at the entrance of Portsea Island from the mainland at Hilsea, the work, of course, fell to the Royal Engineers, and now began the antagonism between two public departments.

"What the Admiralty desired to have in the new channel they will not have. The channel will not possess, by about one-half, the breadth or depth, and consequently volume, of tidal water laid down. as the main conditions of its construction by the Admiralty engineers,

the designers of the new extension works of the dockyard at Portsmouth, and the conservators of its harbour. Portsmouth Harbour may be irretrievably ruined by such a course of procedure; but at all events the departments' will have had their fight out!"

It is tolerably clear from the foregoing, if we are to give credit to what is said, that the old adage is again verified about too many cooks. As the channel into Portsmouth Harbour by Hilsea had not only to be deepened, there being a bank extending about a mile between the level of low water in each harbour, but, in order that any volume should flow through it, width of that channel of course was necessary. This supply, therefore, that Portsmouth was to have had, to make up for the amount it would lose, that is, to be shut out by the newly projected works, is to be denied, and Portsmouth Harbour is to take its chance! Well; we will say nothing of the scheme here. But as it is evident that the ebb will be running away through the natural entrance to Langston, how much water Portsmouth might receive, were the channel really formed both as to breadth and depth, by Hilsea, will yet remain an open question.

The other subject alluded to by the Times refers to the point of Southsea Beach, the conservation of which is a most important one, and in which, had naval authorities been consulted, there can be no doubt that considerable expense might have been saved to the country. On this subject the Times says:—

"To another class of failures in military engineering belong those instances arising from natural and unavoidable causes, owing to the imperative necessity for taking a fixed position and covering it with a defensive work irrespective of consideration of any expenditure of time or money. These positions are generally found on the salient points of the coast line jutting out in front of river or harbour channels, and exposed to all the adverse influences of wind and weather, and the ever-grinding action of the tides and shingle. One of the most important of the whole series of the works now being erected to defend Spithead and Portsmouth Harbour against ironclad fleets is the extensive fortification, now about one half completed, on Southsea Castle Point, at the entrance to the Portsmouth Harbour channel.

"Southsea Point, from its importance as being at the entrance of the channel leading into Portsmouth Harbour from Spithead, has been occupied as a defensive position from time immemorial. The work now erecting there is necessarily far more extensive and formidable than any preceding one, or than was necessary previous to the introduction of iron-clothed ships of war. Following the configuration of the beach line, its front represents two sides of a triangle, with the apex in the centre. At the apex will be the 'keep,' the lines right and left being massive earthworks of about 1600 feet in their combined length, with embrasures cut in them for mounting 22-ton guns, or as much larger as can be constructed, which will be fought through iron vertical shields fixed in the embrasures of 13 inches in thickness.