The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-27 00:00:00

eamnina glut

LONDON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1852.

A grievous act of injustice may now be rectified by
the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Their
predecessors have, in its perpetration, so far capped
the climax of their culpability as to have outraged
every sentiment of honour, and set at defiance every
dictate of propriety. Seeing that Sir FRANCIS
BARING no longer presides over this important branch
of the public service, we look with confidence to his
noble successor for the performance of a very neces-
sary and graceful act of compensation. The individual
whose case we are anxious to bring under the con-
sideration of the men recently selected by the
Earl of DERBY for the conduct of the mari-
time affairs of England, is no other than
WILLIAM PENNY, late in command of an expe-
dition for the search of Sir Josir FRANKLIN under
the orders of the Admiralty. Already we have com-
mented in terras of strong but fully merited indigna-
tion upon the ill-treatment endured during some time
past by that gentleman, treatment attributable, as we
have before now intimated, to the prejudices engen-
dered by professional exclusiveness. Distressed as
we have hitherto been in observing this course of
proceeding to wards a very deserving man, simply be-
cause be was not luckily enabled to append the ma-
gical initials R.N. to his signature, we look
forward with sanguine reliance to the speedy
alleviation of his anxiety, so fully persuaded are we
that the affairs of the Admiralty will henceforth be
conducted in a more generous and enlightened spirit
under the supervision of its present chief—a sailor as
well as an administrator—his Grace the Duke of
NORTHUMBERLAND.

Within the last few hours there has appeared in
the form of a pamphlet* an explicit and very dignified
statement on the part of CAPTAIN PENNY—[imper-
tinently spoken of throughout the blue book as
Mr. PENNY, as if there was no other title
of Captain in the wide world except that
conferred by promotion in the Royal Navy]—in re-
ference to these paltry and disgraceful transactions.
In the very tone of this document there is something
which appears to us in the highest degree commend-
able, breathing as it does the regrets of a wounded
but manly temper, replying to insults of the most
wanton kind with a respectful courtesy, in which self-re-
spect triumphs over indignation. CAPTAIN PENNY speaks
with sorrow, of course, at the circumstance of their
Lordships having cast him off in a manner so peculiarly
contemptuous. Instead, however, of indulging in idle
lamentations over that fact, or in indignant protests
against the decision in which it originated, the sub-
ject of this scornful usage on the part of the Admiralty
restricts himself entirely to a straightforward expla-
nation of what appears to him to have been subjected
to very lamentable, if not also to very wilful, misre-
presentation. Let it be
i remembered at the com-
mencement of the present inquiry, or rather of this re-
inquiry into an inquiry, that CAPTAIN FENNY returned
to England several weeks before Captain AUSTIN, with
whom he had been associated in the well-known Arctic
expedition in search of Sir JOHN FRANKLIN and
his companions. During that interval, notwithstand-
ing all that had occurred, the former remained silent,
determined not to say one word against the latter
until such time as he should actually make his ap-
pearance. Immediately Captain AUSTIN reached
England, however, instead of acting with similar
magnanimity in the transaction, he published in
the Times the correspondence which was subsequently
taken as the plea and text of the official investigation.
By so doing he altered the relative position of the
two parties engaged in the returned expedition,
CAPTAIN PENNY is consequently correct in stating
in reference to this (p. 5), " it was he who was the ac-
cuser and I became the accused party." Far from
being infuriated by a course so disingenuous, a coarse
adopted by one who had frequently before subjected
him to the most supercilious, if not actually contu-
melious, treatment, CAPTAIN PENNY declared at once,
when brought before the Committee, his desire not to
bring any accusations against Captain AUSTIN,
adding (p. 6), " but only to be cleared of the charge
which I thought the publication of those letters threw
upon me, without any explanation of the circum-
stances." So far from being thus exonerated from
blame in these transactions, as the facts of the case
show him to have been perfectly justified in antici-
pating, CAPTAIN PENNY finds the whole report of the
inquiry one-sided throughout, and himself, as the
result of this, thrown aside in the end. in a manner
the most contemptuous. Naturally distressed at cir-
cumstances so very painful to his own sense of his
freedom from culpability, and looking in vain to the
" Blue Book" for the full and candid explanation of
his case, he adopts the only course left to him under the
circumstance, that of laying his whole) statement in
another and more explicit manner before the Ad-
miralty in the form of a " Letter" addressed to the
Lords Commissioners.

Almost immediately after the exordium of his
pamphlet, CAPTAIN PENNY pithily observes, "I do
nut know bow the Arctic Committee can justify at
the beginning of their report everything which Cap-
tain AUSTIN did, and at the end of it they recommend
that another expedition should be sent out to do the
very thing which he left undone." Their
Lordships will themselves have to re-
concile in some way or other this
apparent contradiction. Now, what it actually was
that was left undone, was the prosecution of a further
search up Wellington Channel, as suggested by CAP-
TAIN PENNY, and as declined by Captain AUSTIN.
Upon that proposal and rejection, the whole of the
recent misunderstanding hinges. CA.n'AIN PENNY
declares that he advised the continuance of the search
in that direction, in the most earnest manner
imaginable. Captain AUSTIN, on the contrary,
asserts that the return of the expedition to
England was attributable to the fact, that
the former acknowledged the inutility of any
further investigation—adducing CAPTAIN PENNY'S
unfortunate little note, now so generally known, a
note written off half in irony and half in irritation.
Upon the contrariety of these assurances the whole
Ic3siffitchueltwyriotg of
finthequestion is dependent ; and, so far
letters under impulses of supreme
annoyance
is concerned, we cannot but regard CAP-
TAIN PENNY as really
culpable.already confessed as much,
iorrthi you, expressing s
o far He
regrettj3oim havethatsel f
v a hne.
quished his judgment.
has
should have allowed his temperßeyond that, however, instead
a
wofe
hloisokfelulopwon.
Captain PENNY as in
CAPTAIN peculiar manner en-
of regarding him as lam
titled to the
other
praise
andb
adeniwatcountrymen. He it was, and not AUSTIN,
officer of the Royal N
or any Navy, who dis-
of the missing
it
expedition. He was who suggested
covered the only traces as yet detected
that Sir j nms
FRANKLIN might be found in the very direction in
which it has now been resolved upon, by the Admi-
ralty, that the next vessel sent in search shall i •
pro-
to us of i
pro-
ceed. It is, consequently, matter
amaze-
ment that Captain AUSTIN—of all men n the world—
should yesterday, at the levee, have been introduced to
her MAJESTY by SirFßAsscls BARING. Why not have
introduced CAPTAIN PENNY instead to the notice of
the SOVEREIGN, CAPTAIN PENNY who has the merit
of having set on foot the only route in quest
of Sir JOHN FRANKLIN ever likely to prove
successful, CAPTAIN PENNY who gallantly
proposed to proceed along that route
with the aid of a single steamer? But
w
might be deemed derogatory to the
dignity hisforget—it
i high office for Sir FRANCIS BARING to
present to the QUEEN Mr- PENNY, the captain of a
whaler in the North Seas ! We cannot SO easily lose
a recollection of the highbred (?) sneer with which Ad-
miral BERKELEY alluded to " CAPTAIN" PENNY in the
course of last Friday evenings discussion. Enough

" Letter to the Lord 3 Commissioners of th© Admi-
ralty." By W. Penny, late in command, &c. With an
Appendix. Bvo. pp. 58. London: Chapman and Tall;
1852.