wherewith Fanny Hennings was accustomed
to salute her transcendental nose. The chairman spoke with enthusiasm
of the noble deeds accomplished by the Ramsgate lifeboat in time past,
and referred with pride, and with a touch of feeling, to the brave old
coxswain, then present (loud cheers), who had been compelled, by
increasing years, to resign a service which, they all knew better than
he did, taxed the energies, courage, and endurance of the stoutest and
youngest man among them to the uttermost. He expressed a firm belief in
the courage and prowess of the coxswain who had succeeded him (renewed
cheers), and felt assured that the success of the boat in time to come
would at the least fully equal its successes in time past. He then
referred to some of the more prominent achievements of the boat,
especially to a night which all of them must remember, seven years ago,
when the Ramsgate boat, with the aid of the steam-tug, was the means of
saving so many lives--not to mention property--and among others the life
of their brave townsman, James Welton (cheers), and a young doctor, the
friend, and now the son-in-law, of one whose genial spirit and extensive
charities were well known and highly appreciated--he referred to Mr
George Durant (renewed cheers), whose niece at that moment graced the
gallery with her presence.

At this there was a burst of loud and prolonged applause which
terminated in a roar of laughter, owing to the fact that Mr Queeker,
cheering and waving his hands in a state of wild enthusiasm, knocked the
neck off a bottle of wine and flooded the table in his immediate
vicinity! Covered with confusion, Queeker sat down amid continued
laughter and rapturous applause.

The chairman then went on to say that the event to which he had
referred--the rescue of the crew and passengers of the Wellington on the
night of the great storm--had been eclipsed by some of the more recent
doings of the same boat; and, after touching upon some of these, said
that, although they had met there to do honour to the crews of their own
lifeboat, they must not forget other and neighbouring lifeboats, which
did their work nobly--the brave crews of which were represented by the
coxswains of the Margate and Broadstairs lifeboats, who sat at that
board that night as honoured guests (loud cheers, during which several
of the men nearest to them shook hands with the coxswains referred to).
He could not--the chairman went on to say--sit down