Iya recent home paper, there is an elnborato and almost wondering count of a voyage made by two men across the Atlantic on an open lifexraft The writer of the article, altar descanting on the pluckiness of the adventure, proceeds not unnaturally to the uso of elt? The question of economy could not of course be cnlertained for a moment and forethought is required to vide means for its prompt extinct tion. On board the P. & 0. Ca. steamers, a fire station appointed to every man, from the frst o down. to wit, he Aunt Sally end Three throws any," "Try your Ings Gentlemen," ind the usual assortment of nigger min-stress, rod cloaked Gypsey fortune tel-lors, and acrobats, not to mention. the vendors of those ugly little wooden dolls which rothe "correct thing" to pat in your lat. These are some of the things we miss, bat our quist litle race-course has a few advantages, We argue the advisability of having such ralfs placed for safety's sake on bound our large ocean-going steamers. He wns probably not oven aware that safety rafts, of the kind used for the above mentioned voyage, are placed on the P. M.S. S. Co.'s steamers Tame, Hongkong and Shanghai; and, Uetween San Francisco, Yoker for alle know to the' contrary, on Toned the vessels of the Company trade ing elsewhere.
The mention of these rafts leads us to coi very briefly the general pre-fon Uoard "the ocean wards; and the same is ado ppted escape that horror of the nervous and by the BP. M.S. 8 Ca. But the timid, the lish crowd; every one Fil on board the staumers of, she: herent ena meee perfection, and several tings one voy:
Company is carried to a high know that the said crowd is certainly not the cleanest ud most polite in the Aigo the whole ship's Company are {rmed, without warning, from their world. And in addition to this, if weluppen to arrive late, we can quiet ordinary pursuits toassistin extingaiabtake our stand and' seo all' and an imaginary fire. Ibis mach to be everything withoatany trouble. There in the East, we bold- ove general, and the safer in wid lit ts em were more Sutsde'eteamere more eflciatly eared Ty aver, that can sur or even goat ose settlement for pory racing, for. We have written in no carping oF unfticndly spirit, but simply with the Bat i tobe regrets dates racing greatly felon offoflata youre ordinary lea of ventilating the sub- Ti is is parbapy to be alisivated interested, against loss of life by were fre. Inthe, recent Toss" of the steamer Singepor edit awas justly given to Captain Wi From the promptness with vehicle the tenmer'a boats were lowered; and in ove of the Yokohama
ton regular courseot di bined hat ties tnatituted by that exeelle uufortauate oticer. 1b would he teresting to learn if there are standing yules of the Company as. to boat prince ject, even at the expense of a few Perhaps odious comparisons. Er {uing done by steamer owners to one sare the nately of passengers, mast tend ventoally to increase dividends or profies is, for theowsers, our allow-residents in Shang" hai have a deep interest in those who down to the sea in ships, and have cause to. pray for those in pari-on the sea." tive, a8 we won thing of the kind attempted. Prox the time of the Saxon kings when, et remember to have
Conan it in that, only the other dag qs history tells us Hogh the Great of the smooth Franco seat Athelstane of Englasd rom fifteen to jevernl German running horses, horse Fequieed to lower awoy_ the port Donts a has been the sport par excel-of a P. & O. steamer, the operation being accompanied by tu amount fusion and unccrininty suggest grave reflection. It is in boat work this Kind that, speaking the P.M. 8, Door off" the palm from their frie opponents of the P. & O. From on board the former, a liferaft can be launched in two minutes, ready swith Dread, water, compass, and. sail;'and being reversible, the chance of upsetting in launching is of no moment. With the bouts, the ease is mach the same, and from' our own experience we can testify that the Vous of a certain P.M. 8, St steamer can be lowered away much quicker hat any we have ver seen from a &.O.rteamer, The whole question is as we before observed, owe of discipline ico; and it is only right tht pany should see trenrrangeamen for bone service thoroughly enrr-Bat of more importance than the efliziency of boat lowering, ber of the boats themselves.
0. Co.'s steamers are, by com-anon report, well found la this respect, émd mang other British stonmors are not Uehindband, But is there any:
1 whose day the passenger carrying steamers trad. ing to this port, and to. seo that their number of boats is in proportion to their passenger carr trace of Jobo Bull, and of young John in. particular.
Tt is not howerer of racing the mother count that we purpose to talk to-day, bat 8 that which is got ind fostered by those scions of English blood whose lot is cast in the Fast, and more particularly those who uro relegated to Shanghai. Since the commencement of Grillin's Pintes and Ladies' Parses, Shanghai, like the Houses of Parliament on a Derby dus, has beau quite unanimous in giving itself up to pleasure in the race weeks; and quite proper and natural too, for fro not these two of the few pleasant excitements which occur yearly in our model settlement. It is true, we can't compare with our friends at homo la the matter of horsemanship; but if we don't have the pleasure of seel artistic manner, sti friend whose. dubious " tailoring" we watch with lightly mingled with anxiety for his safety; or better siill, thoro is perchance an animal which, Doing our own solo and private pro-porty, is regarded by us with as much Interest as the owner of Flying Datch-ian might tlaco bestowed on the cruck, And if we do happen to be the forsuninte possessor of the winner of the Chaskuza Cup or the Ynou-ming Yuen Stakes, who shall say that our pleasure is not us grant us aren that of the fortuunte man, whom envious outsiders 8 point oat fon country coca We have travelled by *Shauso" and "Express", between this and Ningpo, and have no hesitation aflirmiing that all those steamers were, at that time, utterly ineapabile ut discharging by their own boats, from ship 10 shore, the passengers, vfticers and crow.' When either a chief, assisinnt oF will probably be some tox, Dat meanwhile "See Next, us tolite-belts, 'The Messageries mperiales und P. 3 8. 8. Ca, place the orth of euch passenger lifer bolt ready for nnmedinto wee. Shout' riot this precaution be made universal and compulsory, in all our ocean going passenger steamers? Probably 0, Ca, and owners of otter steamers do not like to bint, by this simple device, at the bare chines of a steamer coming to grief; bat come to grief they do—aud than who is to estimate remark—that is Sir Martin Gale' owner of "Blue Ruin"; or, with still grenter empressement—do you know that litle fellow? Why, thatis Bag-shaw, who won the Groat Omnium this year. As regards the fan of the frie" so to speak, we of course can't compare with out homo friends, 2s we truss oe ofthe most anusing parts of the day's enjoyment. viz. "The oad," where may be eon junibled up ther in "confusion worse confounded" every fort of robicle under the have nob ding, side by side with the baichor's cart from Whitechapel, the overloaded van feom Lambeth, the Hansom with its checky and slangy driver, or. the spicy" waggonotte, in close mity {0 the plebeian bus with amoy of counter-skippers out for holiday. And when we got on the course, we aniss all those delights of great measure to the through i lias passed but we shrewdly aus deal is owing to the fact of the horses pect that grat being coufued to so few stables, At the meeting just past, there were no less than fix Horse Races; and yet the greatest number of runners in any tone race was three! How can horse racing flourish under these circumstances? If some adventurous and blacky speculator does not start a fresh Stud, we greatly fear that. it will fall through altogether; and if it does, one Of the most pleasing sights at out meotings will be lost to us.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.