The Express.
London, England, 1863-12-26 00:00:00

THE LATE HEAVY GALES.

At no recent period have the disastrous effecta of
skews bees more severely experienced than during the
hurricane of the 2nd sad 3rd JAIL In order to realize, corn.
y, the destructive character of the storm, we must
=tivl
oar attention to the coasts of the British Isles, where
it blew with unexampled fury for 48 boars, and where it
coosigasid to the deep .many a goodly ship and her crew,
ceasing destruction of property sad loss of life to a truly
appalling extent. It is not our peones to barrow up the
fringe of the reader, nor is it our intention to dwell on the
sad wanes of desolation of bereaved women and children
rendered widows and orphans by this truly calamitous
ria-
tatioa ot the storm of the 2nd and 3rd inst We shall, there-
fore, oily remind the reader of the few siroplestremeate of
the services of the lifeboats during the recent gales, as they
readied the National Lifeboat Institution from its zealous
honorary secretaries OS the meat, feeling assured that
those facts have appealed with irresistible force to
the sew of duty on the Fart of many of our
constrymen who have hitherto withheld from the lifeboat
ears their support. It is supposed that upward. of 230
vowels were wrecked during those two disastrous days, and
that the loss of life was proportionately great. It is, how-
ever, very gratifying to tied that, owing to the gallant and
persevering exertions of the crews of the lifeboats, 246
persons were happily snatched, under God, from *enamors
shipwrecks on various parts of oar omit. The lifeboat is
but • little vessel to contend with • cauldron of see on •
stormy night, like that which was recently experieciord at
Holyhead and Bud. Haven, bat her rowers are stalwart
wastherbeatee meet, whose sacred object is to
human life, and who peril their own in that so e enter-
prim The thing is altogether characteristic of our country—
the build of the lifeboat, her hardy crew, and her system
of mainteseace by volnatery contribution. Well may
foreigner shipwrecked on oar rut recapitulate, as their re-
tors home, the great efforts made on the room'
of the United Kingdom to succour them in the
boor of their deep distress ; sod well may
Begliehnies in all parts of the world testify their high ap-
procinion and thankfulness for the eminence amongst them
of an aeration simply and goodly desigeed for the " pre-
servation of life from shipwreck," as its founders forty
years ago described it. The institution we feel savored
doss posers, and cannot fail to pones, the sympathise of
the public, so long as it ran publish monde of deeds ea
valiant as those that marked the services of its lifeboats on
the dad and 3rd inst. We may add, that during the year
which is now closing, 373 lives bre been saved by the boats
at the National Lifeboat Institatios. When we remember
that every life saved by lifeboats has been rescued under
==as circumstance, it will at oar be seen what great
has been cordoned by the lifeboat Institutioo, not
only only on the poor men thealealvea, bat also on their
wives and children. who would otherwise be widows and
indica Agra 301 lives have been rescued is the same
period by share boats, to the crews of which the society has
granted riewerde,thias making a totalof 679 persons saved from
shipwreck daring the year, through the instrumentality
of this great and valuable institution. Sines the begin-
ning of the year (1863) the institution bin also expended
show 13,0004 on its various lifeboat establishments on the
coasts of Eeglaad, Scotland, sod Ireland. The number et
lives saved either by the lifeboats of the society or by
epeeist exertions, for which it his granted rewards sines
its tornados, is 13,530. How inadequately mwords
express the segregate amount of misery which the saving
of so many thousands of lives must have prevented I It
can only have been fully appreciated by the potion them-
selves and by their relatives and friends, whose expressions
of gratitude for such important benefit's are often of the
more feeling character. Since the establishment of the
institution it has granted 82 gold medals, 733 silver medals,
sad 17,7301. is rah, for saving life from shipwreck, is
sdditioo to 80,0001. expended by the society ms its lifeboat