rnish suitable protection. No one
competent to judge will doubt that every individual on the Griffith
might have been saved had she been provided with life-boats. The avarice
of proprietors has generally prevented their use, though the cost of a
sufficient number for each steamer would not exceed _one thousand
dollars_. The lives of hundreds of men, women and children are of little
account to a corporation, when weighed against a thousand dollars of
their capital stock. Life-boats cannot save their _burning property_,
and why impair their own interests for the saving a few hundred lives
now and then? We have the approbation of every _disinterested_ citizen,
when we suggest to Congress some law which shall compel steamboat owners
to protect their passengers in case of accident, by suitable life-saving
apparatus. Fire-proof paints and other incombustible materials are very
wisely demanded, but our navigation is exposed to a thousand other
dangers, which can be guarded against by no other means so effectually
as by life-boats; and it should be within the duties of the inspectors
to see that steamers are in all instances furnished with a sufficient
number of them to contain their full complement of passengers.

* * * * *

M. LAMARTINE has left Paris to visit his estate in the East.

_RECENT DEATHS._

JANE PORTER.--As in the case of the recent death of Miss Edgeworth, it
is singular that so little notice has been taken of the demise of Jane
Porter, one of the most distinguished novelists which England has
produced. Miss Porter may be said to have been the first who introduced
that beautiful kind of fiction, the historical romance, which has added
such amusement and interest to English literature. The author of
"Thaddeus of Warsaw" and "The Scottish Chiefs" has done much to deserve
the lasting respect and gratitude of her country.

The family of this excellent woman and able writer, according to the
_Illustrated News_, is of Irish descent. Her father was an officer of
dragoons in the British service; he married a Miss Blenkinsopp, of the
Northumbrian house of Blenkinsopp, which Camden styles "a right ancient
and generous family." Miss Porter's father died in the prime of life,
and left his widow with five almost infant children, in slender
circumstances. The great talents of this orphan family raised them to
affluence and distinction. Three of the children were sons; of these,
the e