



Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)






AN APPEAL TO THE BRITISH NATION,

ON THE Humanity and Policy

OF FORMING A NATIONAL INSTITUTION,

FOR THE PRESERVATION OF LIVES AND PROPERTY

FROM SHIPWRECK.

BY SIR WILLIAM HILLARY, BARONET.

AUTHOR OF "A PLAN FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A STEAM LIFE BOAT AND FOR THE
EXTINGUISHMENT OF FIRE AT SEA;" "SUGGESTIONS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT AND
EMBELLISHMENT OF THE METROPOLIS," AND "A SKETCH OF IRELAND IN 1824."


_THIRD EDITION._


LONDON:
PRINTED FOR GEO. B. WHITTAKER,
AVE-MARIA-LANE.

1825.




TO

THE KING.


SIRE,

From Your Majesty's exalted station as Sovereign of the greatest
maritime power on earth, and from the ardent zeal with which You have
graciously extended Your Royal patronage to every measure which could
promote the welfare and the glory of the British Navy, I have presumed,
with the utmost deference, to dedicate the following pages to Your
Majesty.

With the most dutiful respect, I have the honour to subscribe myself,

SIRE,

Your Majesty's
Most devoted subject and servant,

WILLIAM HILLARY.




INTRODUCTION

TO THE

SECOND EDITION[A].


The few pages of which the present edition is composed, were principally
written under the circumstances there stated, which had forcibly called
my attention to the fatal effects of those ever-recurring tempests,
which scatter devastation and misery round our coasts, where the veteran
commander and his hardy crew, with their helpless passengers of every
age