"

After the ceremony was over, there was an amateur theatrical
performance, to the great amusement not only of the young folk, but of
the crowd of spectators who filled the hall.

ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION.

_March 15th, 1884._

The Prince of Wales presided, not for the first time, at the annual
meeting of the Lifeboat Institution, which was held at Willis's Rooms on
the 15th of March, 1884. The Secretary, Mr. C. Dibdin, having read the
report, the Prince of Wales said:--

"Ladies and Gentlemen,--Before calling upon the noble duke (the
Duke of Argyll) to move the first resolution, I wish to say a
few words. You have all of you, I feel convinced, heard with the
greatest interest the report which has just been read by the
secretary, and I think we must all be unanimous in the opinion
that that report is highly satisfactory as regards everything
connected with this institution.

"The National Lifeboat Institution, having been founded in 1824,
has now reached its sixtieth anniversary, and I think you will
all agree with me that there is no institution throughout our
country which is of greater importance or more demands our
sympathy and assistance. From our geographical position as a
sea-girt isle, and from the immense colonies which we have
acquired, the mass of ships that travel to and fro and reach our
islands is almost too vast to enable us even to realize what
their number can actually be. Those vessels naturally encounter
tempests, the results of which are shipwrecks and loss of life.
The risks especially which that valuable and important
community, the fishermen on our coasts, have to run from the
beginning to the end of the year must be well known to you all.
It is especially to save their lives, and not only theirs, but
the lives of all who travel on the sea, that this great national
institution has been founded. Strange to say that
notwithstanding the great improvements which have been effected
in navigation and in the different scientific inventions which
have been made, there is no doubt that an increase of shipwrecks
annually occurs.

"I may mention that it must have been of interest to those of
you who visited the Fisheries Exhibition last year to notice all
the models of boats, contrivances for fishing, and apparatus for
saving life which were there shown to