The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-10 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

Exchange.—Bankers' bills, 1051 to 106. Stocks
are quiet : Erie, 22 ; Illinois, 69t ; New York Cen-
tral, 721. Cotton dull, middling Upland, 134 14c.
Breadstuffs declining. Corn higher.
.Provisions
dull.

ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTI-
TUTION.

A meeting of this institution was held on Thurs-
day at its house, John-street, Adelphi, Thomas
Chapman, Esq., F.R.S., V.P., in the chair. There
were also present Admiral Sir Thomas Herbert,
K.C.8., Alexander Boetefeur, Esq., Captain Wash-
ington, R.N., F.R.S. (hydrographer of the Ad-
miralty), Colonel Palmer, Sir Edward Perrott,
Bart., Admiral Bullock.
Mr. LEWIS, the Secretary, read the minutes of
the previous meeting.
The silver medal of the institution was voted
to Lieut. Dyer, R.N., and Mr. George Farrin,
gunner of her Majesty's ship Ajax, in testimony
of their intrepid services, in conjunction with many
others who:had been previously rewarded, in saving
life from the brig Neptune, of Whitehaven, which
was wrecked off Kingston on the 9th of February
last. Lieut. Dyer had been twice swept away by the
surf, but was providentially saved, and Mr. Farrin
received, on that disastrous occasion, a serious
wound on the head from which it was said he still
suffered.
The silver medal of the institution was likewise
presented to Mr. John Large, master gun-
ner in the Royal Artillery, in acknowledgment
of his brave exertions in wading into the
surf at the peril of his life and aiding to rescue
three out of seven of the crew of the schooner
Harmony, of Waterford, which, during a heavy
gale of wind, was wrecked in Freshwater West
Bay, near Milford.
A reward of £2 was granted to Charles Gilbert,
fisherman, of Sutton-bridge, on the Lincolnshire
coast, for his prompt and very laudable services in
rescuing, at considerable risk of life, four men,
whose boat, during squally weather, had sunk,
placing her crew in a most dangerous position.
Gilbert observing the accident, pushed off imme-
diately to their help, and arrived at the spot just
in time to save them from a watery grave.
A reward of .£l3 was also voted to the crew of
the Arklow lifeboat, belonging to the institution,
for pulling off, in reply to signals of distress from
two vessels, which had, however, afterwards got
out of danger. It often happens that a vessel has
a signal of distress flying, and that there is every
reason to suppose her in extreme danger, when the
lifeboat's crew are quickly at their posts, but they
go off only to find on arrival at the vessel that, by
a change of wind, or other unforeseen cause, she
has escaped the danger, and that the services of the
lifeboat are not required; yet the crew of the latter
may have to incur as much risk in going out and
returning to the shore through a heavy surf as if
they had returned freighted with a shipwrecked
crew. Such services are, indeed, sometimes of the
most trying description that the lifeboatman is
called on to encounter, as all the dangers and ex-
posure which he may have undergone have been to
no purpose. Yet in such cases it will not do to
hang back until it is certain that the shipwrecked
crew are in the last extremity, for it would then
too often happen that the far greater disappoint-
ment and grief would be experienced of seeing the
vessel and her crew enguiphed, when the means of
safety were already on their way, but too late to
be of auy avail.
A reward of I:12 was likewise granted to a num-
ber of poor fishermen of Blasket Island, on the
ee
xo aesrtt
ioof Kerry, f n
sinrescuoirn
rescuing
i very
5r
personlasufrdoamblea abnoadthbuemionan:
ing to the ill-fated ship Middlesex, of New York,
which during a fearful gale of wind had been aban-
doned in a sinking state, with 53 persons on board,
in the Atlantic, in March last. After enduring
great suffering on the ocean for many days, the
poor shipwrecked men were ultimately observed by
the islanders, who found them in a most exhausted
state, and brought them ashore at much risk of
life, two of the sufferers falling dead on reaching
the land. The survivors were taken into the cot-
tages of the islanders and treated most kindly by
them for several days, during which period it was
found impracticable to communicate with the main
land.

It was reported that the Institution had sent en
Wednesday a large lifeboat, 35 feet long, accom-
panied by a transporting carriage, to Selsey, on the
Sussex coast. The London, Brighton, and South
Coast Railway Company had readily given thew a
free conveyance over their line. Some members of
the Society of Friends and others had contributed
£lBO towards the cost of the lifeboat, which amount
had been collected by Mr. IL B. Wilkinson, and
Mr. Joseph Beck.
_.
The Institution had also lifeboats ready to be
forwarded to Campbeltown, in Scotland, and St.
Ives, in Cornwall, and others were building for
several other places.
manufactured
It was stated that the society
its lifeboat stations with barometers,
days
ytsheagmoo
as most
by Negretti and Zambra, and
Observatory, Green-
Mr. Glaisher, of the Royal
make them withowhichut
difficulty the daily indications
out
erifi continued
e as t
usualo sap pbl yy
serviceable t
owfitehhe.
instrumentsT i charts,aorne
difficulty intelligible and servi
of heldinstitution, to the he
to offer th •
spteacttioorn of fof lifeboats,t h e
io
Guernsey, it decided_ _ noted,
t . -
institution,
new lifeboat,
w
illiterate
A t
a pool.) thetihe e coast.pian meeting
of A
his reportrec erecent
r visita s read t o from the
lifeboat ins
paymmts, amounting to n coast, all of which
various ilsifeobnoat establishments.
The committee earnestly a
so-
ciety.s
tiition on the Sussex and K t
, to enable
he found in good order.
appeal to
,towtehreepmobaldioe
foron
heavy demands on t
num-
bering one hundred
assistance
The Proceedings
thha eneinar themclosed.
e . meet
lifeboats,the now continued

Ey letters from Malta we learn that the order
lately issued relative to the minute examination of cast-iron
ordnance has begun to be carried into effect, including that
of our sea-service cannon, which has been strictly searched
there by Captain Boyle, of the Royal Artillery, Inspector
of Warlike Stores. The result, we aro told, in the St. Jean
d'Acre, 101, was that, according to the new regulations,
nearly three-fourths of herguns werepronounced unservice-
able, to the great astonishment and consternation of the
Admiral commanding. The inqury is to extend to every
ship as soon as possible, and this first result is not encourag-
ing, though we may add that, practically, litttle fear of
guns bursting need be entertained, except under extreme
circumstances. It is satisfactory to add that they enter-
tain no scruples whatever in using then. The naval store-
keeper at Malta has in store no adequate supply of guns to
replace them. Wo have not yet heard of this examination
having as yet been extended to our home ports.—Army
and Navy Gazette.