From that date to
the present time it has unremittingly carried out the great ends for
which it was instituted.

Let us glance at these in detail, as given in their publication, _The
Lifeboat Journal_.

The objects of the Institution are effected--

"_1st_, By the stationing of lifeboats, fully equipped, with all
necessary gear and means of security to those who man them, and with
transporting carriages on which they can be drawn by land to the
neighbourhood of distant wrecks, and by the erection of suitable houses
in which the same are kept.

"_2nd_, By the appointment of paid coxswains, who have charge of, and
are held responsible for, the good order and efficiency of the boats,
and by a quarterly exercise of the crew of each boat.

"_3rd_, By a liberal remuneration of all those who risk their lives in
going to the aid of wrecked persons, whether in lifeboats or otherwise;
and by the rewarding with the gold or silver medal of the Institution
such persons as encounter great personal risk in the saving of life.

"_4th_, By the superintendence of an honorary committee of residents in
each locality, who, on their part, undertake to collect locally what
amount they are able of donations towards the first cost, and of annual
contributions towards the permanent expenses of their several
establishments."

In order to see how this work is, and has been, carried out, let us look
at the results, as stated in the last annual report, that for 1864.

The lifeboats of the Institution now number 132, and some of them were
the means of saving no fewer than 417 lives during the past year; nearly
the whole of them in dangerous circumstances, amidst high surfs, when no
other description of boats could have been launched with safety. They
also took into port, or materially assisted, 17 vessels, which might
otherwise have been lost. The number of persons afloat in the boats on
occasions of their being launched was 6,000. In other words, our army
of coast-heroes amounts, apparently, to that number. But in reality it
is much larger, for there are hundreds of willing volunteers all round
the coast ready to man lifeboats, if there were lifeboats to man.
Although nearly every man of this 6000 risked his life again and again
during the year, not a single life was lost.

Nearly all these boats have been supplied with transporting carriages
and boat-houses by the Institution. The cost in detail is as follows:--

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