ion of the stranger, and, with the vivid intuition of
wife and mother, had understood what part was hers to play, rushed to
the cradle, seized the sleeping child, and without saying a word,
placed it in Giustiniani's arms. The strong-passioned man looked
amazed, yet not displeased, and, after a moment's hesitation, sank on
his knees, and embraced the babe, that, awaking, curled its little
arms round his head----

A tremendous crash aloft interrupted the well-prepared peroration of
the narrator; and, to say the truth, I was not sorry that a sail was
carried away, and one of our boats stove in at this precise moment,
for I had heard quite enough to enable me to guess the conclusion of
the history of this harmless Vendetta.

WRECK-CHART AND LIFE-BOATS.

Many of our readers are probably aware that Prince Albert, in his
capacity of president of the Society of Arts, Manufactures, and
Commerce, suggested that lectures should be delivered on the results
of the different classes of the Great Exhibition, by gentlemen
peculiarly qualified by their several professions and pursuits. This
suggestion has been admirably carried out; but we propose at present
to direct attention only to one of the twenty-four lectures in
question--namely, that on life-boats, by Captain Washington, R. N.;
our individual calling in early life having been such as to enable us
to understand thoroughly the technical details, and judge of the
accuracy of the views and opinions propounded by the gallant and
intelligent lecturer.[2]

First, we will speak of the wreck-chart of the British islands
prefixed to the lecture. Round the entire coast is a prodigious number
of _black dots_, of two kinds--one a simple round dot, and the other
having a line drawn through it. They all point out the locality of
shipwrecks during the year 1850, and the latter dot shews the wreck to
have been total. The English coasts are most thickly dotted, but this
is to be expected from the greater proportion of shipping; next in the
scale is Ireland, and then Scotland, which has comparatively few black
dots, the densest portion being on the west coast, from Ayr to Largs,
where we count eleven, nine indicating total wrecks. In the Firth of
Forth there are but three, one total. A sprinkling of dots is seen
among the Eastern Hebrides, but not so many as one would expect.
Turning to England, we count about forty-five wrecks in the Bristol
Channel alone, by far the greater number