SERVICE, UNITED STATES LIFE-SAVING. 



749 



neighbors, and it was impossible to obtain fur- 

 ther concessions from the Great Powers with- 

 out risking everything. The Skupshtma was 

 closed on July 25th. In the latter part of 

 August the entire Ministry resigned, and M. 

 Ristitch was intrusted with the formation of 

 a new Cabinet, which was announced in the 

 early part of October, as follows: President 

 of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs, 

 Ristitch ; Interior, Miloikovitch ; Finances, 

 Jovanovitch ; War, Leshyanin ; Worship, Was- 

 silyevitch ; Justice, Lazarevitch ; Public Works, 

 Alimpitch. The Skupshtina assembled again 

 on December 3d. Of six deputies named by 

 the Skupshtina, Prince Milan selected M. Tas- 

 kakovitch as President, and M. Vasitch as Vice- 

 President. In his speech from the throne he 

 declared that the equal rigbts of Servian sub- 

 jects of all religious denominations should be 

 recognized. 



On August 22d the Servians celebrated si- 

 multaneously the independence of Servia, Prince 

 Milan's birthday, and his accession to the 

 throne. The Prince issued a proclamation in 

 which he announced a future era of peace, 

 thanked the nation for the sacrifices it made 

 during the war, congratulated the country on 

 the accession of territory, and promised help 

 to the families of those killed or injured during 

 the hostilities. 



SERVICE, UNITED STATES LIFE-SAV- 

 ING. This institution was formally established 

 during the past year, by an act of Congress ap- 



proved June 18, 1878. It is the only exclusive- 

 ly governmental establishment of the kind in 

 the world, the life-saving institutions abroad 

 being all voluntary societies, supported by the 

 donations of benevolent persons; and to this 

 country belongs the eminent distinction of hav- 

 ing organized an elaborate system of relief for 

 seafarers wrecked upon its coasts, backed by 

 the means and energies of the Government. 



Although the coast of the United States is 

 more extended than that of any other mari- 

 time country, and is fraught with peculiar 

 difficulties and perils to navigators, as many 

 shipwrecks show, the public movements for 

 protecting the lives imperiled by disaster upon 

 it appear to have long been remarkably feeble 

 and disconnected, considering the active sym- 

 pathy called into play by constantly recurring 

 calamity. The first regular attempt at organ- 

 ized succor was made by the Massachusetts 

 Humane Society, an association of gentlemen 

 originally formed in 1786, incorporated for gen- 

 eral purposes of benevolence in 1791, but di- 

 rected toward the alleviation of the miseries of 

 ship wreck in 1789, when it placed some huts on 

 desolate portions of the coast of Massachusetts 

 for the shelter of mariners who might escape 

 from the sea, the first building for this purpose 

 being erected on Lovell's Island, near Boston. 

 In 1807 this society established the first life- 

 boat station at Coh asset. Subsequen tly it erect- 

 ed a number of others. Its efforts, although 

 necessarily limited by reliance upon volunteer 



LIFE-SAVING CREW "WITH HAND-CART LOADED WITH APPARATUS. 



crews and by the conditions of extemporized 

 service, were of such value as to evoke at vari- 

 ous times some pecuniary aid from both the 

 State and the General Government. An appro- 

 priation of $5,000 made by Congress in 1847, 



"for furnishing the lighthouses on the Atlantic 

 coast with the means of rendering assistance 

 to shipwrecked mariners," which for two years 

 lay unused in the Treasury, was permitted to 

 be expended by this society in 1849. In 1855 



