to place lifeboats where they are wanted on
our coasts, and to recognise, reward, and chronicle the deeds of those
who distinguish themselves in the great work of saving human life.

Let us put a question to you, good reader. If France, or any other
first-rate Power, were to begin the practice of making a sudden descent
on us about once a month, on an average, all the year round, slaying
some hundreds of our fishermen and seamen each time; occasionally
cutting off some of our first-class emigrant ships, and killing all on
board--men, women, and children,--thus filling the land with repeated
wails of sorrow, with widows and with fatherless children: What would
you do?

What!--do you say that you "would fortify every island on the coast,
plant Martello towers on every flat beach, crown every height with
cannon, and station iron-clads in every harbour and bay, so that the
entire coast should bristle with artillery?" That sounds well, but what
guarantee have we that you really would act thus if France were to
become so outrageous?

"Common sense might assure me of it," you reply.

So it might, and so it would, if we had not evidence to the contrary in
the fact that our country _is_ thus assailed month after month--year
after year--by a more inveterate enemy than France ever was or will be,
and yet how little is done to defend ourselves against his attacks,
compared with what might be, with what _ought_ to be, done!

This enemy is the storm; but, like France, he is not our _natural_
enemy. We have only chosen in time past to allow him to become so. The
storm has been wisely and beneficently ordained by God to purify the
world's atmosphere, and to convey health and happiness to every land
under heaven. If we will not take the obvious and quite possible
precautions that are requisite to secure ourselves from his violence,
have we not ourselves to blame?

There are far too few harbours of refuge on our exposed coasts; the
consequence is that our fishing-boats are caught by the storm and
wrecked, and not unfrequently as many as a hundred lives are lost in a
few hours: Who is to blame? A large vessel goes on the rocks because
there is no lighthouse there to give warning of danger; a post has been
neglected and the enemy has crept in: Who neglected that post? After
the ship has got on the rocks, it is made known to the horrified
passengers that there are no ship's lifeboats aboard, neither are there
any life-belts: