would throw fresh light upon Arctic
geography, and furnish physical science with
important observations, made in a locality
which has peculiar interest in connection
with the theory of magnetism.

The one final search that is now necessary
has been pressed upon the government by
every eminent man of science in the country,
and by, with a single exception, every man who
has ever taken a ship to the Arctic seas. It
was pressed upon our government, or rather
assumed to be the desire of our government,
by the people of America when lately they
sent over to us the Resolute, an abandoned
Arctic vessel, which had been found by one
of their whalers on the high seas, travelling
homeward of its own accord by the mere
action of the currents in the water. They
sent the vessel to our Queen, refitted, lavishly
equipped and victualled for another Arctic
voyage. The noble resolution of Congress which
affirmed this act of more than courtesy,
described it as a lively token of the deep
interest and sympathy felt by Americans in
that great cause of humanity, which has been
represented by unwearied search for at least
the last memorials of Franklin and his one
hundred and thirty-five companions. The
American officer who brought the vessel over
(one who was experienced in Arctic
enterprise), expressed to her Majesty his own
belief that of Franklin's companions, survivors
might still exist; and he was himself ready,
as thousands are ready, to volunteer help in
the final search. The equipment of the
Resolute had been intrusted by the American
government to a citizen, Mr. Grinnell, who
had spent a large part of his own private
fortune in the search for the lost ships, when
none knew where to look for them. The
Resolute was thus by America made ready
for service, with a full belief that she would
be sent out by England, and be made the
means of bringing to a worthy close our great
Arctic story. It was only necessary to put
chosen volunteers on board and send her out.
Yet, she was dismantled and laid aside. Her
Arctic stores, and stores that had been brought
back by Arctic ships from other expeditions,
are now lying useless in her Majesty's
dockyard, biding the time when they shall be
sold off for the honour of England.

We shall not lose sight of the main question,
if we proceed now to show how Lady Franklin
has been treated by a patriotic Admiralty
Board.

Early in June last year, a memorial was
presented to the government, signed by the
leading geographers of England, and by all
the Arctic captains then in London, backed
also with the formal approval of the other
Arctic leaders, who, being out of town, could
not put their names at the foot of a
document which was drawn up, signed, and
presented within eight-and-forty hours, so much
was it felt that time pressed on account of
the advanced state of the season. In  this
memorial the geographers and Arctic captains
expressed their inability to believe that the
British government, after so many efforts to
discover even the route pursued by Franklin,
would cease to prosecute research, now that
the spot where the vessels or their remains
must lie, was clearly indicated. They pointed
out that men competent to form an opinion
believe in the existence of survivors of
the Franklin expedition; that land expeditions
down Back River, like that which,
with great difficulty, had reached Montreal
Island, could never find the missing ships, or
those records left by the dead adventurers, so
full of matter interesting to the geographer,
by the discovery of which all doubts would
be dispelled. They pointed out that a screw-
vessel could very closely approach the
confined area to which search was now limited;
that there was a wide difference between
a simple voyage to a stated place, and
those tentative explorations upon which
vessels had formerly been sent to follow
unknown paths in the great Arctic labyrinth.
"The search we ask for," they said, "is to
be directed to a circumscribed area, the
confines of which have already been reached without
difficulty by one of her Majesty's vessels.
Now, inasmuch as France, after repeated
fruitless efforts to ascertain the fate of La
Perouse, no sooner heard of the discovery of
some relics of that eminent navigator, than
she sent out a searching expedition to collect
every fragment pertaining to his vessels, so
we trust that those Arctic researches, which
have reflected much honour upon our country,
may not be abandoned at the very
moment when an explanation of the wanderings
and fate of our lost navigators seems to be
within our grasp." The hope of the
memorialists was, that the government would get a
ship ready for the route by Behring's Straits
in the ensuing autumn, and the importance
of every day lost in the decision of such a
matter was recognised, as we have said, by
the promptness with which the memorial was
signed and presented.

It was given, early in June, by Sir Roderick
Murchison into the hands of Lord Palmerston,
who received it kindly, and appeared to
be quite satisfied as to the essential difference
between former voyages of search by
guess-work, and this positively defined
exploration of a given area. It was pointed out to
the Premier that, if any of the stout young
fellows who went with Franklin, were still
keeping body and soul together as
companions of the Esquimaux, there was an
enormous breadth of sterile tract separating
the Esquimaux settlements from the most
northern limits of the country occupied by
Red Indians; and that they would know
escape by their own efforts to be impossible.
This impulse given, it was hoped that the
government would do its duty.

Two months before this memorial was
presented, a letter had been addressed by Lady