feared that many might be drowned upon the
surface, from the total absence of all protection.
The boat by the Messrs. Harding has a
curious cradle-like appearance. Mr. John
Robinson, of Stepney, exhibits a twin-boat;
consisting of two boats coupled together by a
copper bar, which allows of a little "play,"
but no separation. We should think it impossible
to be capsized; and we take it for granted
that the twain contain air-cells, which would
preserve the boats from going down if filled
with water, though we did not observe this
provision in their construction. The Messrs.
Gale, of Whitby, have provided a net, as an
addition to their life-boat apparatus, by
which a knot of drowning persons may be
fished up altogether in cases of extremity;
and Mr. G. H. Gale, of Swansea, has
exhibited a hydrostatic apparatus for life-boats,
ships, &c., made of gutta percha. Mr.
Harland, of Scarborough, has invented a
cylindrical life-boat; and Mr. J. Drury, of
Hartlepool, exhibits a model and plan of a
ship and shore life-boat, made of sheet iron,
which will right herself if upset. Mr. A.
Wentzel, of Lambeth, has invented a boat,
the sides of which curve inwards so as almost
to form a deck, leaving only a narrow space
for seats in the middle. But if nearly
impossible to "ship a sea," it would be equally
impossible to get the water out, unless there
be some provision of valves for the purpose,
as we find in the boat of Mr. W. Paterson,
the valves of which have the additional
advantage of being self-acting.

Some of these models are furnished with
cork bricks and wedges stowed about the
bottom, or fixed outside the gunwale, answering
the double purpose of obtaining buoyancy,
and acting as fenders. One of these latter has
nearly half the sides made of cork. There
are several of the barge build, but so
constructed in their air-cells as to float when
the inside is full of water, up to the seats; in
fact, the bottom of these boats is nothing
but a grating open to the sea beneath. One
of the boats exhibited is made of Indian
rubber, "so thin that," as its American
inventor says, "it may be folded up, and put
into the pocket." The pocket must belong to
a very considerable "great" coat, we fancy.
But the Cloak-Boat of Mr. Matthews, of
Charing Cross, has been proved, by a trial
instituted at the request of the Royal Humane
Society, to be a practical thing. It is a very
good waterproof cloak, which, by inflating a
cylinder, is convertible into a boat in less than
one minute; and its weight is only eight
pounds. Mr. Matthews has also exhibited a
life-boat, made of his water-proof fabric, which
lies in a collapsed or flat and cloth-like state,
yet can be inflated ready for use in three or
four minutes.

The boat to which the Northumberland
prize has been awarded, is by Mr. James
Beeching, of Yarmouth. It comprises, as
previously stated, eighty-four of the points
proposed by the committee; the chief of which
are its merits as a rowing and sailing boat;
its buoyancy; that it ballasts itself; empties
itself; rights itself; is roomy for passengers;
is of moderate weight for transport along shore,
&c., &c. A rival boat of similar form,
combining strength with elegance, is exhibited by
Mr. W. R. Hawkes, of Whitby. The Messrs.
Plenty, of Newbury, exhibit also several
excellent life-boats; nor must we omit the
boat of the Messrs. White, of the Isle of
Wight. It is built of mahogany, with sides
sloped in a way to let the sea run freely in
and out. But this does not matter, as she
has air-cases along each side, and at both
ends, each in separate compartments, so that
the destruction of one will not injure the
other. The rowers sit up to their knees in
water; the water she ships and retains being,
in fact, her ballast. A rope passes down the
middle from stem to stern, so that if her
bottom were clean stove in, or ground away
upon rocks, it would little matter; the rowers
keeping their seats, and the passengers clinging
to the rope going down her middle. One
of these boats is now at Broadstairs. In the
Exhibition we have also observed a prodigious
number of models of rafts, air-tubes, air-bags,
air-belts, bulbs, and cushions, with apparatuses
of cork, Indian rubber, gutta percha, caoutchouc,
&c., all with the single-minded aim of
preserving life, and all quite independent of
the numerous efforts in the same direction,
called into prominent notice by the announcement
of the Duke of Northumberland. We
should not omit, that the Duke has set the
noble example of preparing to fit out, at his
own expense, a life-boat, and a life-boat
station, at every dangerous point of the
Northumberland coast.

This greatly increased consideration for
human life, will, we trust, awaken the
legislature to the necessity of an alteration in
the laws respecting salvage. Very recently
a gallant fellow who had been instrumental
in saving no less than seventy lives with
his own galley, was lost in a storm off
Dungeness, and his wife and family are
thrown upon the public for a charitable
subscription! The subscription is most right
and kindly in itself; indeed, nothing else
remains to be done, under existing
circumstances;—but let us only suppose that he
had saved, instead of the lives, some portion
of seventy cargoes of bear-skins, rabbit-skins,
mole-skins, deer-skins, boar's-bristles, horse-
hides, cow-hides, and other peltry—how very
different would have been the circumstances
of his widow and family! Some very earnest
suggestions on this point appeared lately in an
able article in the "Atlas" newspaper.

"Why not give a man who has saved life,
at the risk of his own, a pecuniary claim upon
the preserved person? Why not, in fact, treat
life as property? Why not give salvage for
life? If brave men are ready to risk their
existence gratis, the more the reason that they