The Prince of Wales, who took the chair at a
dinner in aid of the London Lifeboat Saturday Fund on Monday, gave an interesting survey of the operations and resources of the National Lifeboat Institution, which was founded in 1824. The total receipts in 1849 only reached 2354, but in the following year a great effort was made, and the prosperity and usefulness of the Institution have gone on steadily increasing. At this moment the Inttitution owns two hundred and ninety-five lifeboats, and last year rewards were granted for the saving of upwards of seven hundred and fifty-six lives. The great feature of recent years has been the develop- ment of telegraphic and telephonic communications, and the Prince announced that, while the Royal Commission in their Report stated that they "did not feel justified in recoramending the connection of more light-vessels with the shore until the ethereal System had been more fully tested," the recent experiments conducted by Signor Marconi seemed to have solved the difficulty in a most complete manner. In the concluding part of his speech the Prince explained the malted in which the Lifeboat Saturday Fund was applied, illustrated the heavy demands that from time to time had to be met by the Committee in order to secure local efficiency, and emphasised the fact that the lifeboats were manned entirely by volunteers, adding that the cases of gallantry rewarded by the Institution were by no means confined to men.
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