The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-22 00:00:00

TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

We, the members of the committee appointed by
your Majesty to consider the best means of giving
effect to your Majesty's wishes in respect to a me-
morial to his Royal Highness the Prince Consort,
humbly beg leave to report to your Majesty the
result of our preliminary proceedings with reference
to the matter committed to us.

From a letter dated Feb. 19th last, addressed by
Lieut.-General the lion. C. Grey to the Right Hon.
W. Cubitt, the Lord Mayor, we learned that your
Majesty had come to the conclusion that nothing
would be more appropriate, provided it be on a
scale of sufficient grandeur, than an obelisk, to be
erected in Hyde-park, on the site of the Great Ex-
hibition of 1851, or on some spot immediately con-
tiguous to it ; and that there would also be this ad-
vantage in a monument of this nature—that several
of the first artists of the day might take part in its
execution, fur there would be room at the base of the
obelisk for various fine groups of statuary, each of
which might be entrusted to a different artist.
In accordance with the views thus expressed we
considered the condition of magnitude in the obe-
lisk to be indispensable.
We could not but be apprehensive that considerable
difficulties would have to be encountered in the ul-
terior arrangement of sculpture round the base,
whether near or at some distance—bearing in mind
tho importance of giving the necessary prominence,
in position and effect, to the statue of his Royal
Highness the Prince Consort. We resolved, how-
ever, without entering on the consideration of this
point, to confine our attention, exclusively, at first,
to the question of the possibility of finding in the
United Kingdom a monolith of sufficient dimensions
combining with an approved colour the important
condition of durability.
Our attention has, for these reasons, been re-
stricted to granites. In our inquiries we have de-
rived great assistance from the director-general of
the geological survey, Sir R. Murchison, through
whom, with the aid of his correspondents at the
quarries at present worked, we have received accu-
rate information on the points to which our
attention was chiefly directed. But we regret
to say that in most instances the granite rocks so
described to us, even when unobjectionable on ac-
count of the tint or reputed durability of the
material, have not been found capable of furnish-
ing a monolith of sufficient length. We have also
to acknowledge liberal offers of materials in com-
paratively unexplored localities; but the cost of ex-
perimental excavations and the uncertainty of the
result have deterred us from advising such under-
takings. _

The only case that has come under our notice in
which the various requisites above enumerated may
possibly be found to be combined, together with vi-
cinity to the sea and comparative facility of trans-
port, is that a mass of granite of a light red tint in
the Island of Mull, on land belonging to the Duke
of Argyll, who with great liberality has placed all
such materials on his estate at the disposal of the
committee. Our investigations have been for some
time confined to this locality ; and we have to ex-
press our thanks to the Ross of Mull Granite Com-
pany, for the important assistance they have ren-
dered us in enabling us to form an opinion respecting
the fitness of the block in question. The length,
which in the excavated portion already exceeds 115
feet, would, we consider, suffice for the intended
obelisk. There appears, however, to be reason to
apprehend that the width of the stone near the
centre would be insufficient, according to the pro-
portions of the most approved ancient examples, to
be consistent with that height. It is also by no
means certain that the block referred to has the ne-
cessary thickness in those portions which are not yet
cleared. An experienced contractor who has exa-
mined it has stated that nothing can be affirmed
respecting the fitness of the stone "until it be raised
and turned out from its present bed." For such
operations a large outlay would be required, and we
cannot but hesitate to recommend such outlay while
we have no absolute certainty of a satisfactory
result.

Although we have considered it on many accounts
desirable that a monolith of the required dimen-
sions should be obtained from some part of the
United Kingdom, we have not omitted to make
inquiries elsewhere. Knowing that large masses
of granite of good colour can be procured in
Russian Finland, as evinced by various remark-
able specimens in St. Petersburgh, we have con-
sulted competent authorities respecting the fitness
of that material. The replies we have received
cannot be regarded as satisfactory, since it appears
that the granites in question, however well
adapted for interior decoration, have not the repu-
tation of being durable in the open air.
With regard to the important point of expendi-
ture (assuming a monolith to be found in our own
country), we consider that from the variety of esti-
mates we have privately received, the novelty of
the undertaking probably rendering any approach
to accuracy difficult, we are by no means in a posi-
tion to name a sum that would represent the ulti-
mate cost ; more especially as it is the opinion of
many that the obelisk would present an incomplete
appearance unless the surface were enriched with
incised sculpture, on the principle of execution
(however different from the representations) adopted
on Egyptian obelisks. Without, however, ventur-
ing to assign a limit to the entire cost, we coneeive
we are justified in expressing our opinion that the
whole of the sum already subscribed would be ab-
sorbed by the obelisk alone.
While, therefore, we see no reason to conclude
that success is absolutely unattainable, we believe
that it would be accompanied by difficulties and by
expenditure at present wholly incalculable; nor can
we refrain from expressing our serious doubts whe-
ther, even if the mere enterprise were successful,
the ultimate effect would be such as to realise your
Majesty's just and natural expectations.
Having laid fully before your Majesty the infer-
ration which we have received and the inferences
we have drawn, we humbly await the signification
of Your Majesty's pleasure as to prosecuting our
Present inquiries or directing them to some other
mode of meeting the great object in view.

DERBY.

CLARENDON.
WILLIAM CUBITT.
Westminster, April 14. C. L. EASTLAKE.
To this report General Grey has sent the follow-
ing replY

My dear Sir Charles,__,rhe Osborne, April 19.
Queen commands me
to acknowledge the receipt
her
Majesty the report from the
committee named by
on the subject of the proposed national memorial to
the Prince Consort.
iler Majesty cannot refuse herament to the ma-
sons so clearly and strongly put forward in the re-
port which induce the committee to a"ibt the „.
pedicncy of any further attempts to find a
mono-
lith that would fulfil the conditions on which her
Majesty's choice of an obelisk as a distinguishino,
characteristic of the proposed monument main;
depended..
Her Majesty sees, therefore, no alternative but to
acquiesce in the abandonment of the idea of an obe-
liQk, and to request the committee to turn their at-
tention to the possibility of finding some other mode
in which the great object in view may be most
satisfactorily effected.

Her Majesty's wish is to leave the committee quite
free to recommend whatever may appear to them to
afford the best hope of a satisfactory result ; and she
would merely throw out as a suggestion whether
the opinions of some of the foremost architects of
the day might not be advantageously taken as to
the means of combining the groups of statuary men-

tioned in my letter to the Lord Mayor (amongst
which of course a statue of the Prince would be
prominent) with sore other design.-1 remain,
yours very faithfully, C. GREY.
Sir C. Eastlake.

TILE IWIAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT
INSTITUTION.

The following are extracts from the annual re-
port, just published, by the National Lifeboat Insti-
tution :

As indications of general confidence, it may be
stated that during the twelve months three more of
the old local lifeboat establishments have, at the
request of their managing bodies, been transferred
to this society, namely, those at Dundee, Scar-
borough, and Dublin Bay.
Lifeboats.—During the past year the institution
has placed fifteen new lifeboats on the coast, viz., at
Whitby, Selsey, St. Ives, Landdwyn, Southport,
Irvine, Campbelltown, Winterton, Great Yarmouth
Dungeness, Scarborough, Aberystwyth, Plymouth,
Kingsgate, and Dundee. Others are in course of
construction for Blakeney, Norfolk, Kirkcudbright,
Kingstown, Poolbeg, and Howth, for which trans-
porting carriages and boat-houses had beencon-
structed.

The institution now possesses 120 lifeboats on the
coasts of the United Kingdom, and one on the island
of Guernsey. Of the 15 boats added to its fleet
during the past year, no less than 10 have been tho
special gifts of individuals, and the cost of another
was collected amongst some members of the Society
of Friends and presented by them to the institution.
The society's lifeboats have, during the year 1861,
saved 289 persons from different wrecks, nearly the
whole under circumstances of peril which could not
have been encountered by any ordinary boats. On
79 other occasions they have gone off to the aid of
vessels in apparent danger or in reply to signals of
distress, but where their services have not eventu-
ally been required. For these several lifeboat ser-
vices upwards of £l,OOO were granted.

The lifeboats of the institution were manned last
year by nearly 6,000 persons, and it was only on one
occasion tne committee had to report accident at-
tended with loss of life, viz., to the Scarborough
lifeboat. On the 2d of November last, when pro-
ceeding to a wreck during a dreadful storm, the
boat got into a position where she was dashed re-
peatedly against the sea wall, and was nearly
knocked to pieces. Although she did not upset, yet
all her crew were thrown out of her ; unfortunately
two of them perished, one having been crushed be-
tween the boat and the wall, and the other drowned
through neglecting to put on his lifebelt.
On this occasion Lord Charles Beauclerk, William
Tindall, Esq., and Mr. John Iles, unhappily, but
nobly perished, having been swept away by a heavy
surf while intrepidly engaged in attempting to save
the boat's crew. In this case the destroyed boat had
been presented to the society but a few weeks before.
Immediately after the accident, the cost of another
was generously given to the institution by Mrs.
Cockroft, a lady resident at Scarborough.
Barometers.—The committee have the satisfac-
tion to state that they have placed 45 barometers
at the different lifeboat stations of the institution.
Attached to each barometer is a chart, on which the
daily indications of the instrument are registered.
By means of this diagram the boatmen and fisher-
men are enabled readily to observe the progressive
rise and fall of the mercury. It is gratifying to
know that the barometers are highly appreciated cn
the coast, and that, in several striking instances,
they have been the means of warning seafaring men
of the coming storm, which would otherwise pro-
bably have overtaken them in mid ocean, and proved
their destruction.

Shipwrecks and Loss of Life.—The committee
always feel that it is one of their most painful duties
to refer to the distressing loss of life that annually
takes place on the coasts of the United Kingdom.
Notwithstanding all the services of the lifeboats,
and the rocket and mortar apparatus, the casual
observer might prematurely conclude that they were
nearly abortive, inasmuch as the yearly total loss
of life from shipwrecks appears to be little diminished.
When, however, it is remembered that the trade of
these islands has so increased, even since 18.55, that
nearly 20,000 vessels have, in 1860, been entered
inwards and cleared outwards beyond the number
of the former year, it will at once be seen how vast
the increase of risk of life has been, for those 20,000
vessels had probably on board at least 120,000 men
and boys.
Although the committee deeply regret to have to
report that 884 lives perished last year from ship-
wrecks on our coasts, yet every friend of humanity
must rejoice with them in the gratifying fact that
4,624 lives were rescued during the same period from
these disasters. Of these 743 owe their lives imme-
diately to the services of lifeboats. These are tangible
and unmistakeable results, which have elicited not
only the heartfelt gratitude of the wrecked men them-
selves and their families, but have also excited the
sympathy and liberality of a large proportion of the
British public, who look upon the National Lifeboat
Institution as one of the most important establish- ,
ments of the country. Actuated alike by that pene-
trating influence, Divine sympathy, high and low,
rioh and poor, may join hand in hand in united
efforts for a common good. Illustrative of such noble
emulation, there are amongst the recent offerings to
the institution the sums of XlO from a " Shipwrecked
Friend," ss. from the "Savings of a Child," and £5O
from a British Admiral, Sir J. Hope, K.C.8., who,
amidst the untiring exertions of an arduous com-
mand, found time to think of the claims on his be-
nevolence from his distant home, and forwarded the
above generous contribution from the China seas.
The number of lives saved during the year 18.61,
as shown by the official returns of the Board of
Trade, is as follows :—By lifeboats, 743; by rocket
and mortar apparatus, 447 ; by ships' own boats,
shore boats, steamers, &c., 3,406 ; by individual
exertion, 28; total, 4,624.

As observed before, the persons saved by lifeboats
were rescued under the most dangerous circum-
stances, and few of whom could have been saved by
any other means. One case will show the character
of such services :

On Feb. 10, in the fearful gale from the east which
caused such destruction to shipping and terrible
loss of life on the east coast, the brig Providence, of
Shields, coal laden, was driven on the Long Scarr
Rocks, between the mouth of the Tees and Hartle-
pool. The Seaton Carew lifeboat, belonging to the
National Lifeboat Institutionlwas quickly launched,
and proceeding to her assistance, through a high
surf, took off her crew, eight in number, and landed
them in safety. She had scarcely done so when she
was again called to the aid of the brig Mayflower,
of Newcastle, also coal laden, which had gone ashore
on the East Gare Sand, off the Tees mouth. The
lifeboat also took off her crew of eight men, and
safely landed them. "I wish you had been here on
that disastrous Saturday and Sunday (9th and 10th
February)," writes the honorary secretary, the
Rev. J. Lawson, of the Seaton Carew branch ;
" I am sure you would have been gratified to
see the gallant way in which our crew worked,
though composed, as you known, chiefly of lands-
men. They were going from 9 a.m. on Saturday
until 11 a.m. on Sunday, without rest, and not only
attending to our own lifeboat, but helping to man
the West Hartlepool boat when short of hands."*
The total number of persons saved from ship-
wreck frcm the establishment of the institution in
1824 to the year 1861, either by its lifeboats, or for
which it has granted rewards, is 12,272.
Rewards—lt is hardly necessary to state that
the rewards of the National Lifeboat Institution
are not limited to the crews of its lifeboats. As the
Bek-coasts of the British isles extend upwards of
`);000 miles, of ccurse it would be utterly imprac-
titakqe
tol station lifeboats ou many points where
Trrha,,
r eat a few fishermen are found to reside.
ere,Lw
ever, these men are nearly always ready
to risk their lives and little property to succour
their shipwrecked
'A
nctim fellow creatures. Although im-
p eIY to render such services, yet the
committees
estliave
reaso
to believe that the rewards

sltva*itliloiTnahmsehASeieh,
presented, in 1859, by
aKatoseurrsaeCiaLreEwsql"..bostilewts
pflower, of New-
ved the iollowi,a,he.,!),oat has been on her
Brig Eliza, of 'Middleborough, 7.; following crews :
castle, 8 ; brig !Providence, of Shields
Watson, of Sunderland, 5; total 28, barque Robert