I have dedicated this cause, with all deference, to a most gracious sovereign; I have addressed myself in its behalf to his ministers; and I have appealed to various distinguished individuals, to almost all the great national and benevolent institutions in the kingdom, to the commercial and shipping interests, and to the public at large, for the support of an object well worthy the deep attention of the greatest naval power of the present or of any former age, for the rescue of her numerous seamen and subjects from one of the most frequent and most awful of all the various calamities which desolate the human race.
From the same motives, I have most respectfully submitted this national and international system to the sovereigns and governments of the principal maritime powers of Europe and of America; and I avail myself with pleasure of the present occasion, to express my grateful acknowledgments for the promptitude with which several of their ministers, resident at this court, have transmitted it to their respective governments.
Encouraged to persevere in my endeavours, by the flattering support and approbation of many distinguished and enlightened characters, I am induced to hope that the day is not remote, when this contemplated institution may be established on a permanent basis, by the united energies of a noble and a benevolent nation, to whose support such a cause has never yet been addressed in vain.
The interest which this subject has already excited, has induced me to commit another edition of my pamphlet to the press; whilst the magnitude and vital importance of these objects, to our country and to mankind,—on our own and every foreign shore,—in the present and every future age,—will, I trust, best plead my excuse as a retired individual, and acquit me from the charge of presumption, in having had the temerity to submit my views to the consideration of so many illustrious personages, and for the earnest solicitude with which I have addressed myself to the humanity, the benevolence, and the justice of the British nation.
10th November, 1823.
FOOTNOTE:
[A] The introduction to the second edition and the following pamphlet were published previously to the formation of "the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck," which it originally projected, as will be obvious by reference to dates and to the accompanying Appendix.