===========+==========+
|Lifeboat and her equipments|300 pounds|
+---------------------------+----------+
|Transporting carriage |100 pounds|
+---------------------------+----------+
|Boat-house (average cost) |150 pounds|
+---------------------------+----------+
|Total |550 pounds|
+===========================+==========+

The sums granted last year for the saving of 714 lives by lifeboats,
shore-boats, etcetera, amounted to nearly 1,300 pounds (about 1 pound 16
shillings 6 pence each life!) Fifteen silver medals and twenty-six
votes of thanks, inscribed on vellum and parchment, were also awarded
for acts of extraordinary gallantry.

The income of the Institution in 1863 amounted to 21,100 pounds.
Fifteen new lifeboats were sent to various parts of the coast in that
year.

It is interesting to observe in the report the persons by whom donations
are sometimes given to the Institution. We read of "100 pounds from a
sailor's daughter"; and "100 pounds as a thank-offering for preservation
at sea, during the storm of 31st October last." Another thank-offering
of 20 pounds, "for preservation from imminent danger at sea," appears in
the list. "100 pounds from `a friend,' in gratitude to God for the
preservation of his wife for another year"; and "20 pounds from a
seaman's daughter, the produce of her needle-work." Among smaller sums
we find 1 pound, 6 shillings, 9 pence collected in a Sunday school; 3
pounds, 18 shillings, 8 pence collected in a parish church, as a New
Year's offering. Last, and least in one sense, though by no means least
in another, 1 shilling, 6 pence in stamps, from a sailor's orphan child!

The prayer naturally springs to one's lips, God bless that dear orphan
child! but it has been already blessed with two of God's choicest
gifts,--a sympathetic heart and an open hand.

Small sums like this are not in any sense to be despised. If the
population of London alone--taking it at two millions--were individually
to contribute 1 shilling, 6 pence, the sum would amount to 150,000
pounds! Why, if everyone whose eye falls on this page--to descend to
smaller numbers--were to give a shilling, it is not improbable that a
sum would be raised sufficient to establish two lifeboats! [See Note
1.]

But there are those who, besides being blessed with generous hearts, are
fortunate in possessing heavy purses. We find in the same report
donations of from two hundred to two thousa