The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-14 00:00:00

trmina irn

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1852.

Captain PENNY may now enjoy the gratifying sense
that he is appreciated. Unlike the majority of the
world's more distinguished innovators, he has not been
required to wait very long before his predictions have
been fulfilled by his statements being verified—and
this, moreover, in a manner the most complete and
the most triumphant. Cordially do we offer hia-n our
felicitations. He has tarried but a very little while
ind ,ed, and even now his assertions have been " made
good," not through his own instrumentality, but
through the impartial agency of those who have
followed in his trail, and who have already testified in
a remarkable manner to the accuracy of even the
most apparently extravagant among his investigators.
We wonder what the members of the Arctic Commit-
tee think now of all the tedious sittings held by them,
some months ago, in that snug room of theirs at the
Admiralty ! We wonder if they remember with
anything like feelings of compunction the " snub-
binga" attempts(' to be administered to " Mr."
PENNY, as they called him with such studious
and systematic discourtesy through the course
of those protract ad cross-examinations How
is it now with Captain AUSTIN ? Has he entirely
got over that conjectured depreciation of his rank by
one who never had the broad arrow branded on his
kit-box or his jacket during boyhood embroidered with
the technical " curse" of a midshipman ? It will in-
fallibly be. borne in recollection by everyone who has
watched with interest the researches made in the
northern regions for the discovery of the whereabouts
of Sir JOHN FRANKLIN and his gallant associates,
that it was the conviction of Captain PENNY that the
missing navigators had gone in a north-westerly
direction through the straits leading out of Welling-
ton Channel, and that he was thence gone off into
clear water, and was beyond their reach, unless some
more adventura tta effort were made with a view to
that still possible—timely
yield them—sly:'?csing
assista- ce. taterely will this be cherished in
remembrance 07 .L'r; msjority of the intelligent, but
we doubt not it cannot already be forgotten how
that suggestion of the bold and enterprising whaler
was received both prior to his leaving the Arctic
seas and subsequently to his return from that only
partially successful expedition. Captain PENNY, we
repeat, stated the above ideas not simply as his
opinion, but as his implicit belief and " conviction."
So convinced wa he that his suppositions would prove
on inquiry to ba correct, that he offered to proceed
forthwith in the direction intimated, if supplied with
a single steamer, and empowered to rot thereupon
in obedience to the dictates of his own better judg-
ment. Instead of finding his views acceded to, as,
to say the least of them, ingenious, instead of being
placed in command of the necessary steam-vessel, in-
stead of obtaining any sympathy whatsoever from
one who was too professionally haughty to acknow-
ledge himself his colleague is the enterprise—
Captain PENNY received a laconic inquiry
in a note from Captain AUSTIN, asking
him if he did not think that all that
was at all practicable for the nonce had already been
accomplished ? It was simply as if you were to sub-
mit a somewhat elaborate and certainly very startling
prop ss lion to a fellow-labourer in a great undertaks
hag, and thereupon, instead of even paying the y
com-
pliment of " entertaining"our proposal for a brief
interval, he were to turn round end ask—as though
he had bees actually deaf to all you had been carefully
submitting but just then to his consideration—" Don't
you think we have done enough without stopping
here any longer upon what is manifestly nothing
better than a sleeveless errand, if it be not actually a
displaytof Quixotic knight-errantry Captain PENNY
was naturally disgusted at such glaringly cavalier
treatment. He answered in a " pet." He wrote hotly
upon the instant, " Of course—let U 3 return home-
wards—farther, research would be extravagant."