Ata public meeting in St, James's Hall, London, in April last, presided over by the recent Commander-in-Chief of the China Fleet, Admiral, the Hon, Sir Edmund R. Freemantls, x.0.n., said:—Ladies and Gentlemen,—I have been deeply impressed. with the great value of The Nisslons: to Seamen Society, and with the good work it is doing. It has been my lot for the last three years, ending in May last, to be on the China Station, and whilst there I had an opportunity of personally acquainting myself with the efforts of this Society to provide for seamen; and this may, perhaps, be some excuse for my occupying the Chair. Let us look a little at what the aim of this great Society is. Our aim is to Jock after and care for the spiritual welfare of those who go down to the sea in ships whose business is in the great waters. It has been said with regard to the personnel of the Mercantile ™ no, that it is nob as satisfactory as we as English people might wish for. Although, pert itis not quite as good as it ought to be, I think you will all agree that a vast change has taken place for the better in recent years. The men are more sober, more steady, more thrifty, and I think that one of the things that has done much to bring this about is the holding of Divine Service on board ship, a practice now frequently observed in the merchant service. It should not be forgotten what The Missions to Seamen has done in this important matter. I firmly believe that it is due to their efforts that the custom of Divine worship has become so general on board ship as it is. It is the invariable custom ard Her Majesty's ships now to begin the daily work with a short meeting for prayer. And this might also become the custom in the merchant service. I am sure you will all agree with me that this daily practice is of very great value. The stopping of the ordinary work of the ship for those five minutes, and the assembling of all the ship's company together, and the reading by the Chaplain, or, by the Commanding officer, of a few prayers, has an extremely good effect. And I do not believe that those minutes are wasted atoll in regard to the daily work done in the ship. But very much to the contrary.
Now perhaps I may state shortly of what our merchant service consists. Accordin, toa recent return, £954,000,000 worth goods is carried by the British merchant
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.