The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-09-27 00:00:00

FATE OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN'S
EXPEDITION.

ARRIVAL of the FOX SCREW DISCOVERY
VESSEL from the ARTIC REGIONS.

Captain M'Clintock landed on Wednesday at Portal- ;
mouth front the Alarm pilot•lmat, which vessel had I
brought I " ashore from the Fox screw discovery Yes- I
eel, arrived off the Isle of Wight from the Arctic
Regions.
On landing Captain M'Clintock at once proceeded by
train for London, taking with him two cases containing
relies of the lung-missing expedition of Sir John Frank-
Captain ll'Clintock stated that he was in possession of
paper' that would fully elucidate the mystery which
has so long hung over the fate of these brave men.
The Fox proceeded up Channel.
The Tilers of Friday lies the following touching ar-
ticle upon this ill-fated expedition, and it. utter imprac-
ticability now only too fatally proved
The last ray of light that could have illuminated the
maims of those sorrowful regions, which modern in-
vestigation have discovered to be darker and loom hope-
less than the Ultima Thule of ignorant antiquity, has
Bickered awl died out. The ashes are borne boom to us,
—at last the mystery of Fanklin's fate is solved. Wu
know where he died, we know the very day of his
death. More than twelve years ago the ardent spirit
of John Franklin passed away amid a world of ice and
snow. And, indeed, it would stem that the trial, of
his previous explorations, and the anxieties attendant
Upoll the beginning of hia last search for the Nor li4'4
Passage, had proved too much for Lin iron frame before
the calamities and disasters for which Captain Mt lin-
tuck has prepared 11. Came upon the rest of the expedi-
tion. The great navigator died in no sudden shock or
great disaster ; he wan erualied by no kilter.', he did
not starve miserably on some wandering ice floe, nor
did Ito drift away in storm and ice haze, which east •
veil so thick around I that the survivors eau only sey
After that we never saw Ii i ttt more.' Nu! lie died
. nurrounded by comrade.' and friend:, mid in the dis-
charge of his duty. NC soldier et: s:elor can desire or.
hupe a nobler fate. The condolences raid smapatltien of
a nation accompany the sorrows of bin widow mid the
! griefs of his friends, but it is nut altogether out of place
for the country to express its satisfattion that the liven
of brave sailors were not uselessly sacrificed in a s:ries
of expeditions which should have borne for their motto
' !loping against hope.' So far it is satisfactory to
know the ' Fiaal Starch ' has proved that Sir .101.11
Franklin is dead. Alas ! there can be no longer those
'ad wedingn from an imaginary 'Vintage' to persuade the
' credulous that an Arthur still lives.
I "At Point Victory, on the nortit-west coast of King
I William's Island, a record of the vote-tiling% of the
I Franklin Eqicdition was found, dated April 25. 181 g,
and signed by Captain Crozier and Captnin Fitsjaines.
The story it told appenrs to have been simple and sad
enough—Sir John Franklin had died nearly ten months
before—on the 11th of .lune, 1817. The expedition
seems then to have worked on as well as it could, and,
as soon as the ice pemiitted, to have proceeded with itn
mission, but month after month of battle with frost and
ice, and snow peened away—difficulties no doubt were
encountered which none of us who it at home can re-
alise, and 011 one fatal day the "and of April, 1804, the
Erebtoe and the Terror were abandoned by their crews.
15 miles N.N.W. of Point Victory. The 'survivors,'
which is a term that indicates other losses than that of
the great seamen who led them, to the number of 105,
two days after the abandonment of the vessels, reached
the island, erected a cairn, concealed the record. and
were then about to proceed for the Great Fish River,
under the command of Captain Crozier. Inuiklin died
more than 12 years ago. Since that day they have all
steered the fate of their chief, dropping down WIC after
another till the last man perished. Is there any lialle
man who will now propose that we should beck to
charge the sphere of our knowledge, or that we
should iit amigo expeditions to find out the fate in detail
of the 105 devoted intu who, more than 11 years ago,
set out, as we have reason to believe, from Point
Victory for the Great Fish River? The lives of our
gallant officers and men are &sr to us e% but surely it
is wicked to expose that which we love to risk and lon
to gratify A CllfiChity which deserves almost to be called
morbid, in order to (undid* us with the exact particulars
of the circumstances under which no many strung
hearts and devoted souls were taken from us for ever.
No ! England has surely CUM performed her mission.
She has not. indeed, ' war for an idea,' but she
has offered up the noblest sacrifice even she could fillll
CII the altar of science. It was not enough for her to
know that the north-west Passage wan closed by icy har-
riers against trade and commerce—it was not sufficient
for her to leave the bleached bones of her children inmer
solitary cairns in COl,l crumdes against nature itself.
She would hazant still more to identify every spot where
her crusadern fell. We would fain follow, if it were . f
any use, the tramp of that noble band through the 11, d-
ing snows and over the wante of icy berg mid froun sea,
MCI pierce the gloom which must now for ever be t',e
shroud in which they are enwrapped. We could i ud to-
morrow sailors who would start off as cheerily oil the
search as ever Viking sailed from Northem fiord to waste
a Southern male, but the duty i.f Government is often
graceless ; it inust i.ften be in antagonism to the lupin-
tions and desires of the governed, and here it is its duty,
as it appears to us, to say, 'Let the dead bury their
dead:.

"The report of Captain Irtlintock will dose this and
eventful history. We must learn that there are yet
power in nature too strong for man to overcome. The
dauntless soul lies out amid frost and snow ; the spirit
in never quenched thong:i the laxly may perish. Lint
what avails it all, if thc physical obstacles remain the
same for ever, and leave to us only the barren glory of
always lighting the fire which was extinguished! We
retire now from the contest with honour, if with grief,
and we leave the name of Franklin engraved on the fur-
thest pillars which the eneigy of mankind !laddered to
erect as the landmark of its research in the dull and life-
less region that guards the axis of the world."

ENT!: ADD DINARY It A I LWAY ACCIDENT.

MARVELLot7B IEiCAPE OF THE rAssENGEHE

A shocking accident occurred on Wednesday afternoon
on the Newport, Abegavenny, and Hereford Railway.
Happily, as yet, it is unaccompaniol by fatal come-
quences, but the lives of a large number of persmes were
planssl in the at huntinent jesspaniy. The down ex•
prem train, consisting of six carriages and a large pole-
cats! gombs engine, left Hereford at 112.50. All went
well until the train arrived about AM yards past the
station at St. Duvereux, seven miles from Herefont.
At that point the driver became conscious that some-
thing was wrong, the engine jumping about with great
violence, and i ttttt Aslistety leaving the rails. The breaks
were put on, but the whole of the carriages got off the
lihe, and, after ploughing up the earth and rails for 10
yards, the engine drove I lawn an embankment 12 I'eet in
depth, and turned completely over, the upps r works
being smashed to atoms. The striver anti fireman were
thrown with terrific force into the hedge bottom, where
they lay stunned and motionless, by an extraordinary
eircumatanee. just AA the engine made the plunge, the
attachment of the tender broke, and thus prevented the
catastrophe ulnas must have ensued if the chain had
resisted the tremendous strain, and the carriages gone
over the enffianknient. When the engine went over
the train stopped almost ediately. The rails were
ploughed up and twisted for about SO yards. The pas-
sengers were not seriously injured, which is most extra-
ordinary. considering the tremendous oscillatien of the
train. several were much shaken, but directly the
train stopped all were able to get out, and one or twl
proceeded to the assistance of the wounded men. 'I here
being no telegraph station at St. Llevereux, a goons
train which was cusuing up, was stopped and the
engine disconnected. The stoker of the express, who
was the mod injured, was placed on the engine, which
prooeetled at full speed to lien:ford, and gave the alarm.
Mr. Macdonald, the company's enginecr, and a large
staff of assistants, procceded immediately to the stmt.
They found the engine-driver restored to eoiveiousness.
Ile said that the accident took place so instantaneously,
that they had not time to jump off the engine, which
was going at forty miles an hour when it went over.
Mr. Macaws:did ordered the men to get water from the
broken tender, and with this, after souse difficulty,
they succeeded in quenching the fire in the engine.
The cause of the accident wall very soon ascertained.
About eighty yards from the plane where the engine
was overthrown, large pieces of the tire of the loading
wheel of the engine were found. The tire broke there,
and thus threw the engine off the rails.
The scene of the accident presented a most extraor-
dinary appearance. The six carriages were dragged
ILCIVhs the "six-foot," and the enormous engine WM
turned over at the bottom of the embankment, which
was ploughed up in • manner that showed the terrific
force with which the engine descended.

The effects of the panic among the passengers gave ripe
to one or two curious incidents. A young woman, a
rasseuger from Liverpool, was sitting in a third-class
carriages with two Chlldreh, one in arms, and the other
about two-and-a-half years old. Her terror was exces-
sive when the oscillation became violent, and she seized
the eldest child and threw it right out of the window,
and was attempting to open the door to follow, when
she was stopped by a pareenger. When the carriages
stopped the pour woman hastened up the line, expect-
ing to find her child dead or injured, but, although the
train was going at 40 miles an hour when the child was
thrown out, the little fellow was found sitting on the
ground without the slightest trace of injury, except a
small cut on the left temple. The poor mother's joy
was excessive, and the rest of the paiwengers were much
relieved when they saw how fortunately the child had
escaped what appeared to be an inevitable death.

r.
A gentleman passenger, as soon as the train stopped,
plunged out of the carriage and net oil ru g down the
line, apparently Unconscious of what he wan doing.
Another passenger, an officer of the 21st Regiment of
Foot, stationed at Newport, with the greatest 'presence
of mind, assisted the passengers to alight, and upon
seeing the condition of the engine driver and stoker
lie put iluwn a sovereign as time nucleus of a fund for
their assistance, and we believe every lauenger contri-
buted. The stoker wan taken to Hereford Infirmary,
and we learn that, unless the internal injuries are more
severe than was at first supposed, there is • probability
he may reamer.
Tim o line was in working order again on Wednesilsy
night. There will be a strict investigation intu the
cause of the accident.

MAxEng-rolaoNgn enors.—Dr. Edmund Davy, Pro-
fessor of Agriculture and Agricultural Chemistry to the
Royal Dublin :loch ty, has mole some startling state-
ments, conveying the results of certain caperitnents.
Ile states positively that arsenic as it exists in different
artificial manures (such as the superphosphate) will ha
taken up by plants gn,wing where those 1111:11111re4 Mel
been applied. Ile found this to be the case with cab.
bages ; a.id turnips taken from fields in which super.
phosphate had ken used gave the
evidence of having been arseniated. The facts thus col-
lecttslapprar toile% Davy to have sonic important bearings
for thou,:h " the quantity of arsenic which occurs in such
manures is not large when compared with their other
constituents, and the proportion of that substance which
is thus added to the soil must be still swill, still plants
may during their growth, as in the case ,if alkaline and
earthy salts, take up a considerable tomutity of this sub-
stance, though. its proportion iii the soil may he but very
small. Further. as arsenic is well known to he an
acciumilating poison, by the continued use of vegetables
containing even a minute proportion of arsenic, that
substance may collect in the system till its amount may
exercise an injurious effect on the health of man and
animals."