The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-03 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

A Horse Guards' order has been received at the
depot of the 91st (Argyllshire) Regiment, Chatham
garrison, announcing that her Majesty has assented
to its being in future styled " The Argyllshire
Highlanders," and clothed and equippedasanon-
kilted Highland corps. The description of the
dress now prescribed is as follows :—Highland
shako—blue cloth, with diced Highland border ;
Highland tunic, as worn in all Highland regiments;
trews of the Campbell tartan ; forage cap—Kilmar-
nock, with diced Highland border. The officers are
to wear plaids and claymores. The white jacket
supplied annually to Highland regiments will not
be issued to the 91st Regiment. The change, as
regards clothing, will not come into operation until
April, 1865, but officers hereafter joining the regi-
ment or requiring new outfits may adopt the new
costume at once.

The first division of the depot brigade of the
Royal Artillery in the Chatham district has been
augmented by 100 non-commissioned officers and
men, who have joined headquarters from \Varies,.
A party of noncommissioned officers proceed from
hettdquarture to Woolwich for the purpose of going

through a course of laboratory instruction pr
to embarking for foreign service.
Lieut.-General Sir Alexander Kennedy
Kennedy, K.C.B. and K.H,, died at 69, 0
terrace, on Saturday last, at the advanced aL
years. He entered the army as cornet September
8, 1802, became lieut, December 15, 1804, and
served in the Peninsula with the Royal Dragoons
from September, 1809, to October, 'Bl3. At the
battle of Fuentes d'Onor, he had his horse struck
down by a shell, and he was selected to command
a party of cavalry advanced to watch and report
the enemy's movements during the siege of Bada-
joz ; he was thanked for his services by Lord Lyne-
doch. He served aleo in the campaign of 1815,
and at the battle of Waterloo had two horses
killed under him, besides himself receiving two
severe wounds. While leading his squadron in a
successful charge against Count d'Erlon's corps at
Waterloo, perceiving an eagle to the left, he changed
the direction of his squadron, ran the officer through
the body who carried it, and captured the eagle,
which belonged to the 105th French Regiment of
Infantry, and is now in Chelsea Hospital. By his
death the colonelcy of the Scots Greys has become
vacant.

PAYMENT OF LIFEBOAT CREWS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN,

Srß.,.—As a letter in the Daily Telcgrepk of Friday last
from the master of the ship Fusilier, if left unexplained, is
calculated to do much injury to the National Lifeboat In-
stitution, I trust you will be good enough to insert the fol-
lowing remarks. Captain Carvosso states :--`' It is certainly
rather hard to think, after having looked on the Lifeboat
Institution as being one of the most disinterested which
we have, that, after all, it drops down to a matter of
pounds, shillings, and pence, and that, ' what shall I
get by it ?' is the principal thing thought of. How-
ever, without doubt, such is the case," &c. Now,
although in a previous part of his letter Captain Carvosso
had stated that the Ramsgate lifeboat and the steam tug
which took off the passengers from the ship when stranded
on the night of the 3d ult., were the property d the
Board of Trade, yet many of your readers, unable to 7CC011.•
cfle these two conflicting portions of the letter,will conclude,
as Captain Carvosso appears to do, that they are under the
supervision or authority of this institution, which is there-
fore responsible for any supposed extortionate or extmva-
vagant demands by their crews for payment for their ser-
vices on the above occasion.
It might be sufficient to state that the Itantsgato life-
boat and tug steamer are in no sense connected witl. this
institution, which is not therefore answerable for the
conduct of their crews ; but it cannot be too dis-
tinctly made known to the shipowners of this country and
to the general public who are invited to aid the insti-
tution, on what principles its lifeboats' crews are paid,
and on what occasions, and in what manner, claims aro
made on shipowners for services rendered to their vessels.
And this explanation is perhaps the more ne3essary
since some cases have occurred where the owners of ships
and cargoes that have been saved through the instrumenta-
lity of the institution's lifeboats have complained that any
claim should be made on them for such services, from the
supposition, or on the plea, that the lifeboats are provided
by the supporters of the institution for the purpose of sav-
ing their property, as well as the lives of their vessels'
c:ews.

Now, it cannot be too generally known that the one solo
function of the National Lifeboat Institution is to save
lives, and that for that object, and that object alone, it ap-
peals to the charity and the sympathies of the British
people; and accordingly one of the most stringent obliga-

tions which it enforces, as far as it is able, on the volunteer
crews who work its lifeboats, is that they are not to be used
for the salvage of property, " so as to interfere with private
enterprise," but to be reserved for cases involving risk of
life.

In behalf, however, of the owner of property—in behalf,

it may be said, of mankind—in order that valuable property,
wrought and accumulated by the " wear and tear" of man's
brain, and by the "sweat of his brow," might not be irre-
vocably lost in the depths of the sea—in cases when no
other help is available, or when the sea is too heavy to admit
of the service being performed by any other description et
boat, the institution allows its crews to use their lifeboats,
after obtaining the sanction of its local representatives, with.
the understanding-Ist, that every care is taken of the boats ;
2d, that they run their own risk of receiving adequate re-
muneration for any services they may render, tlle institu-
tion having no funds available to pay them for saving pro-
perty; 3d, that they do not on any accouut make exorbitant
demands for payment in proportion to the service rendered;
and, lastly, that they pay to the institution two shares,
i.e., an equivalent to the share of two of themselves,
of any salvage award rece.ved, to cover risk of damage

to the lifeboat. This last clause is added with the object
of preventing the men from using the lifeboat when-
ever it would be practicable to perform the service in any
of their own boats, and also in justice to the supporters
of the institution, who have net subscribed to it for the
preservation of property, but of human lives. In point
of fact, the lifeboats are, on such occasions, lent to thfir
crews under certain stipulations, and we are accustomed
to think that all parties are benefited by such an arrange-
ment. Valuable property is saved at the cost of a small
per centage on its value ; the hard-working boatmen, on
whose goodwill and cordial co-operation the institution is
entirely dependent for the efficient working of its life-
boats, are kept in good humour with the work by the
little advantage that may occasionally thus acerue to
them through the means of their lifeboat ; whilst the in-
stitution is sufficiently benefited to cover risk of damage or
loss. Sorely no liberal owner of ship or cargo can object
to such an arrangement, which, after all, benefits himself
more than any one else.
The question of payment for salvage of property, whether
by the aid of lifeboats or ordinary boats must always be
a difficult one, which will be often matter of dispute, and
not unfrequently of litigation, since the Merchant Shipping
Act only requires that a "reasonable compensation" shall
be given. In cases, however, where an agreement cannot
be come to by the two parties immediately concerned, any
two local magistrates can settle the point, unless the parties
at issue appeal from their decision to the Admiralty Court.
With a few brief remarks on the subject of payments

for saving lives and property on our coasts, I will con-
clude. On the former head the National Lifeboat Insti-
tution have established a uniform rate of payment for such
services by the crews of lifeboats, varying from 10s. to £2 per
man according to the nature and amount of risk of the ser-
vice, and whether performed by day or night; and it is only
in very exceptional cases, of rare occurrence, that their
crews are allowed to ask for any further payments from the
owners of ships or property. Indeed, this institution even
deprecates the raising of large amounts to reward such ser-
vices through the medium of the public press by enthusiastic
or talented writers, as tending to stamp them with a merce-
nary character, to make the men depreciate all ordinary
payments at other times, and as being, in a certain sense,
unjust to the crews of lifeboats at less fortunate localities,
where as noble and self-denying services have been quietly
performed, with none but the inhabitants of a rural or fish-
ing village to commend, and where the payment of 10s or
£1 has given entire satisfaction.

On the latter head—saving property—it is to be re-
gretted that our coast boatmen often make exorbitant
demands for services rendered by them, asking sums
of twice or thrice the amount which they expect to get, and
which they will subsequently gladly accept, There are,
however, other aspects from which to view the question,
The shipowner is apt to measure such services by too low M
standard—to look on them in the same light as those per-
formed on the wharf or in the store, to be adequately
yth must liVO all the
remunerated at the rate of a daily wage--forgetting that
these men have often large and valuable boats to maintain
year(som ertoiumned, scosting
supportL3oO otrh le
their
families
; that they
ne fruits of their
intervals e
coasts,totno supporti loan
themselves,
the
owners they must
o f
ships dis-
labours at sometimes long of time ; and that unless
on these occasions they receive sufficient to keep up and
theirre-
boour
and of the nation, These men,ts,
and to
aap
npl re-
place ce ea
r ffrom
property,
like the
rest of us, have their characters varied, if not formed, by
circumstances. Their lives, like ours, in the language of
our great poet, " are of a mingled yarn, good and ill to-
gether." Shabby or heartless treatment on the part of a
shipowner or master will
produce the natural result of
ill feeling and extortion on theirs. Let us endeavour to do
anything that may be within our province to improve
them; and, in the first place, by showing towards them a
spirit of justice, of forbearance, and of sympathy, instead of
denouncing them for faults which may be only the natural
results of treatment they may have received.—l am, sir,
yours, ko,

J. R.. WARD, Captain R.N., Inspector of
Lifeboats to the National Lifeboat Institution.
14, John-street, Adelphi, Feb. 1.

MIDLAND RAILWAY.—The directors of this com-
pany have decided to recommend to the proprietors a divi-
dend on the ordinary stock for the half -year end ing Dt comber
31, 1863, at the rate of seven per cent per annum.

MR. GLAISHER IN LIVERPOOL.—On Monday
evening Mr. Glaisher lectured in St. George's-hall,
Liverpool, on behalf of the Prince's Park Young Men's
Mutual Improvement Society; and yesterday afternoon ha
delivered a lecture, also in St. George's-hall, for the benefit
of the "rising generation" of the town. Daring each dis-
course Mr. Glaisher narrated the history of the balloon to
his hearers, remarking that it had never formed part of his
plan to seek to effect an improvement in balloons, but that
he had simply used them for purposes of science. Some
time since he was induced to give a pledge that he would
not again ascend, as he had previously done, to a height of
six or seven miles, unless a native of some other country
ascended to a greater height than ho had done, in which
ease, as an Englishman, he could not of course consent to
be beaten. The lecturer was most enthusiastically received,
and was respectfully recommended not to attempt such high
ascents on account of the extreme danger to which he
posed himself.

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