and not liable to
recur, but extending their destructive ravages to every sea and to every
coast--each year sweeping thousands to a watery grave, and certain to
continue their devastating effects to thousands yet unborn; augmented,
in the number of their victims, in proportion as our commerce shall
extend itself over the globe.

To all who revere the naval glory of Britain--to all who duly estimate
the commercial greatness of their country, or who profit by its
success--to all who feel the humanity and the policy of preserving the
brave defenders of the state, and the hardy conductors of that commerce,
from those dangers, to which, in the exercise of their arduous duties,
they are continually exposed--this Institution cannot appeal in vain.

Every class must feel how deeply it is connected with the national
honour, and the maritime interest of their country, that all the means
which the bounty of a wealthy and a liberal people can supply, and all
the efforts which experience and humanity can prompt, should be devoted
to so sacred a cause.

Each in his respective sphere is earnestly solicited to bear a
part--the great and the affluent, and those residing in the interior of
the kingdom, by their influence and their contributions--the active and
the zealous, by their energetic efforts--those on the coasts, by the
more hazardous exertions of enterprise and bravery--and all, according
to their power and their stations, to promote the success, and to
recompense the endeavours of those who voluntarily encounter the
greatest perils, for the rescue of the unhappy mariner, of every nation,
who may be in danger of shipwreck on our coasts.

The accomplishment of so many and such important objects, on a scale
commensurate with the frequency and the extent of the misfortunes they
are intended to alleviate, requires the combined efforts of numerous
public bodies and zealous individuals--preconcerted arrangements on
every dangerous coast, and considerable pecuniary resources.

Under these convictions, I presume most earnestly to recommend, that
public meetings should be held in those maritime counties and great sea
ports of the united kingdom which have not yet come forward in this
cause, for the formation of district or local associations on all our
coasts, regulated in their internal concerns by their own committees, as
departments of, and in direct communication with, the parent
Institution, having an union of funds, of object