The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TRIES.--Sir Walter Scott tells a story of a Scotch
minister who, on an icy winter Sabbath, threatened
his congregation with everlasting torments in thick-
ribbed ice. Being taxed with the heretical tenden-
cies of such a version, the crafty Scot replied, " I'd
no try to scare sinners this cauld weather by making
'em think about a het fire." Sir Roderick- Murchi-
son and his attendant congregation of geographers
have not the worldly wisdom of the Highland
preacher, or they never would have chosen this pierc-
ing wintry weather to invite the British public to
entertain the question how they may best reach the
North Pole. About the end of next July, when the
cabhorses opposite Burlington-house are fainting
with heat, and the splash of the waterman's bucket
is a refreshing sound ; when there is a fierce sun
raging very potently in Piccadilly, then will be the
time to talk to us of driving on in a steamer through
fields of pack-ice five miles in diameter and 40 feet
in thickness, and of the pleasant and-healthful pas-
time of journeying night and day over frozen soli-
tudes, drawn by dogs -harnessed to little boats—a
pleasure which, as we are assured by Sir Roderick
Murchison, is altogether unaccompanied by risk,
and which, as we know from long experience, is eia-
tirely devoid of profit. But now, in this truculent
month of March, while hail and rain and snow and
sleet each takes its turn in the course of the morn-
ing and the east wind knots up the muscles with
rheumatic twinges and freezes the marrow in an old
gentleman's bones, how can these naval and scientific
personages have the cruelty to drag us, even in ima-
gination, among the Arctic icebergs? However,
these wilful men.will have it so. Burlington-house
is filled once every fortnight with enthusiastic
geographers, all eager for fresh tidings from the
North Pole, and we must listen and report and com-
ment. That the geographers are quite determined
in their desire to go to the North Pole at the ex-
pense of the British public is now a settled matter.
What they expect to find when they get there is by
no means so certain. One of the secretaries, spe-
culative as to Arctic migrations, seems to imagine
that we may perhaps discover an Asiatic people
there, dwelling in a state of isolation, and in a sort
of Happy Valley. Professor Owen, less romantic
and more possible, limits his hopes to the re-
discovery of a favourite sea-pig, which he has
missed from the shores of Greenland, and which he
thinks he may find grazing upon seaweed on the
bottom of those open seas which are now supposed
to flow unchained by frost round this mysterious
point. Several Admirals, in a pardonable profes-
sional spirit, think the only advantage of future
expeditions lies in the possible discovery of a new
sea, which may hereafter form a naval station ; but,
having discovered it in his imagination, Sir Edward
Belcher asks, in dismay, "But what can we do
when we meet with this open water ?" It will not
do for the sledging parties to launch their little
dog-carts and push off into this new chartless ocean,
leaving the dogs, who are their only means of re-
turn, upon the icy cliffs of the coast, in the dangerous
companionship of the walruses, the white bears, and
perhaps Professor Owen's sea-pigs. In the back
seats of the large meeting room at Burlington-house
there may possibly lurk an innocent curiosity here
and there to know what, after all, that North Pole
is, and whether there is really a magnetic rock
which is the axle on which the world spins, or a
whirlpool at the point where it revolves so rapidly.
But even this simple faith was destroyed by Admi-
ral Seymour, who informed the junior geographers
that two Dutch ships had already got to within two
degrees of the Pole, and that one ship of an un-
mentioned nationality had actually sailed two
degrees past it, and, as we presume from the
Admiral's silence on this point, the sailors had seen
nothing specially worthy of attention as they passed
by. So far as we can gather, these are principally,
if not entirely, the hopes and desires which animate
the geographers to talk to us so pertinaciously of
floes and icebergs and the interesting and alluring
North Pole. There are two plans at present in
fashion for performing this promising journey.
Captain Sherard Osborn, who is now gone to India,
left behind him a project for proceeding in ships lo
Smith's Sound at the head of Baffin's Bay, and leav-
ing the ships there in safety to explore northwards
along the west coast of Greenland in sledges and
boats. The other is the plan of a German professor,
who, out of the depths of his inner consciousness, has
formed to himself a complete system of Arctic navi-
gation and a vision of the North Pole. This Prussian
sage, who has a high notion of the mission of this
country to settle all questions of precedence among
the icebergs, and who enjoys also the pre-eminent

advantage of an utter ignorance of public feeling in
England as to the reality of that mission, insists that
England ought to go direct to the North Pole in a
steam-vessel, via Spitzbergen, forcing her way
through the pack-ice to the north of that island.
The geographers were all assembled on Monday
night, under the presidency of Sir Roderick Murchi-
son, gravely to debate and infallibly to decide which
of these two plans should be carried out. Sir Rode-
rick was surrounded by hydrographers and Arctic
voyagers and eminent admirals, and he confidently
called upon them to settle—not whether either plan
was feasible, but which plan was the preferable.
The result does not seem to us to have been emi-
nently satisfactory. All we can glean from the dis-
cussion is that the high authorities assembled at
Burlington-house were at odds with each other
which plan was the more'utterly hopeless. Sir E.
Belcher, who knows what sledge-travelling is, de-
clared loudly that he did not believe in the sledge
system at all. He had himself failed to get on with
a sledge more than one mile in two days. Then
there was the digging out and the sinking in, and
that terrible difficulty of having the sledge journey
brought to an end when they came to the expected
open water. Sir E. Belcher thought that if we
started an expedition in ships we might possibly
succeed, because we might send more ships after
them, and so keep up a sort of line of communica-
tion between Woolwich dockyard and the north
pole ' • but as to Capt. Osborn's idea of dog-carts
over the icebergs he would not hear of it. Sir G.
Back, on the contrary, thought there was a remote
possibility of success for Capt. Osborn's scheme,
but none at all for that of the German professor,
whom he laughed at for drawing plans of the frozen
zone in his comfortable library in Berlin. He had
seen the Dorothea crushed among the pack-ice which
Dr. Petermann recommended as such excellent sail-
ing water. On the contrary, if Capt. Osborn's two
ships should find the ice so loose that they could
sail about it, and if in the following winter the
ice should be so closely wedged and immovably
fixed that the sledges could pass over it, and if the
sledging parties could not meet with that open water
which every one expects to find, then Sir George
did not see why Captain Osborn's sledging parties
should not get near, or even up to, the North Pole.
The testimony of the other admirals did not very
much improve this unpromising prospect. Admiral
Collinson thought there was no open sea for ships,
but believed also that there was no continuously
open surface for sledges. Upon the whole Sir
Roderick must have found himself in an unsatisfac-
tory position. He had called his prophets together
to bless at least one of his two projects, and, behold,
they had cursed them both together. Even Admiral
Fitzroy, who did open his mouth to bless, had the
words taken from him, and was campelled to say
that " we shall be wanting in our duty as a nation
if we wilfully waste the energies of those young
men who are anxious and willing to go and explore
these regions." So say we. Since Sherard Osborn
is gone, the geographers have lost the only head that
was likely to create an air of feasibility to this
I fanciful folly. Captain Osborn said openly that
Arctic adventure recommended itself to him because
it gave a sphere of action to unfriended naval officers,
who had no other opportunity of distinguishing
themselves in time of peace. He instanced many
good names all made in Arctic service. We are not
inclined to disregard or to undervalue this recom-
mendation ; but we deny that the fact now exists.
The interest in this wilderness of ice has passed
away. The idea of a North-West passage is gone
away into the limbo of old errors, and rots in com-
pany with the Perpetual Motion and the Philoso-
pher's Stone. We know now that these Arctic
expeditions are mere crawling and digging and dog
driving under great discomfort, but with little
danger ; and we have no hope that any result can
come of them of the slightest practical use to man-
kind. A man will get more credit now for a good
survey of a coral reef in the track of a trader than
for three years passed in eating pemmican and rub-
bing his frost-bitten nose with the snow of the North
Pole. The object, therefore, fails. When Ross
and Franklin and Osborn and M'Clintock made
names in the frozen zone, people believed in results
to come. Their adventures were followed by the
public eye, and their skill, courage, and endurance
made them famous. All this is gone by. The frozen
zone has passed as much out of fashion as the Da-
venport Brothers. Captain Osborn thought that
Arctic service now is what he found it to be. We
are as anxious as he is that opportunities for dis-
tinction should be open for the young and ardent
spirits of our naval profession ; but they must break
new ground. Sir Edward Belcher says that whales
leave the northern seas and tend towards the equator,
because they like warm water. Whales are very
sensible animals. We wish we could say as much
of the geographers.
POST.—The occasion which Mr. Davis has taken
for addressing a special Message to Congress is un-
questionably one which amply justifies him in adopt-
ing so unusual a step. The brief interval which has
elapsed since the opening of the present session of
the Confederate Parliament has been crowded with
events, and the position and prospects of the infant
republic have meantime undergone a serious change.
Indeed, it may be admitted that during the past
three or four months the Federal Government have
achieved more brilliant and, at the same time, sub-
stantial successes over the Confederate arms than
during the entire antecedent period of the war, and
have for the first time afforded what to many may
seem satisfactory evidence of their ability to accom-
plish the task which they have undertaken. The con-
fidence of the Confederates in their ultimate success
may remain unshaken, but in the eyes of the world
the prestige which has for so long a time supported
them has sustained a severe blow. " Events, says
Mr. Davis in his Message, " have so materially
affected the state of the country as to evince the
necessity of further and more energetic legislation
than that of November last." During that time
two, indeed we might say three entire States have
been overrun, their principal towns occupied, and,
though it would be incorrect to say that their
population has been reduced to a state of subjec-
tion, the Confederacy 'has been deprived of the
assistance which the people of those States would
otherwise have been in a position to render, and of
the supplies which out of their resources they would
have been enabled to afford. The seaports through
which, though blockaded, numerous cargoes of con-
traband of war had been received from the opposite
side of the Atlantic have been captured or aban-
doned, and since Congress last received a Message
from the President the Confederacy has lost every
outlet available for trading purposes on that wide
extent of seaboard which stretches from the Gulf of
Mexico to Chesapeake Bay. However firm, there-
fore, may be the resolution of the Confederates,
however sanguine they may be of the future, and
however confident that their subjugation by the po-
pulation of the Northern States will never be effected,
the events which have taken place must exercise so
great an influence on-the future course of the war,
that the special attention of the Legislature is fit-
' tingly directed to the consideration of the best means
by which their effect can be counteracted. In no
spirit of fear or trepidation, but with a perfect con-
sciousness of the gravity of the situation, Mr. Davis
accordingly invites his Congress to adopt such mea-
sures as the altered position of affairs may demand.
However patriotic may be the sentiments of the
Southern President, it is not easy to discover in the
measures which he has submitted for the acceptance
of Congress any scheme which, even if accepted,
would in any important respect alter for the better
the present condition of the Confederates. Money
and supplies for the army are wanting, and both one
and the other are sought by Mr. Davis. " If," says
Mr. Davis in his Message, two millions of dollars in
specie can be raised, then the armies in Virginia
and South Carolina can be supported for the re-
mainder of the year." The sum is certainly not a
large one when considered relatively to the exi-
gencies of a State; and under any other circumstances
than those in which the Confederate Government
are placed it would seem almost puerile to address
the representatives of upwards of 6,000,000 of people,
and tell them that the probable success of their last
struggle for civil and political liberty depended on
their being able to furnish such a sum to the army
which was fighting in their defence. The money
grants made by the Confederate Congress have, as
Mr. Davis admits, been liberal, but they have not
been sufficient to meet the demands which have been
occasioned by the war. But it is not alone by
money grants that Mr. Davis tells his Congress that
the war is to be carried to a successful conclusion.
The Habeas Corpus Act must be suspended. That
is to say, the Government must be entrusted with
almost absolute power, and those bulwarks with
which the liberty of the citizen is environed must
for the time be thrown down. This is an extreme
measure, but Mr. Davis may fairly allege that it is
not lie who has set the example in adopting it.
When two years ago the Confederate army crossed
the Potomac, the Federal Government suspended
the same Act, and placed several States, into which
the tide of war had not even then advanced, under
martial law. It is not in itself any reproach
on the system of government in a State
that those measures which are intended to
be a protection to its citizens in time of peace
should be suspended ; and it will be in the recol-
lection of many that even in this country, and more
especially in Ireland, the Legislature have deemed
it expedient in troublous times to suspend the
operation of a law which, more than any other in
the statute-book, is specially intended to secure
the subject from the abuse of irresponsible power.
That the Confederate army requires money, that
is to say, the means of obtaining supplies, must be
evident to all ; and the Southern President is
justified in pressing upon his Parliament the neces-
sity of affording to them the means of supplying ,

their wants. No alternative, as he justly puts it,
is left to them except to surrender and submit
to be held prisoners by those who were once
their slaves, or to fight for independence with all
the energy of which they are capable. The nego-
tiations for peace failed ; but, as Mr. Davis demon-
strates, the failure was attributable solely to the
Federal Government, and to the utterly unaccept-
able nature of the proposals which they made. Mr.
Lincoln positively refused to negotiate with the
Southern Government as such, and when the latter.
in their desire to obviate that difficulty, suggested
a military convention, it was rejected by the Federal
Commander-in. Chief. The circumstances tinder
which the recent negotiations came to an impotent
conclusion are alluded to in Mr. Davis's message,
and we are certainly not surprised that the Southern
President should conclude that the sole object of
the Federal Government was to reduce them to the
most abject submission. However adverse circum-
stances may have been, the Confederacy has not
yet reached that pass where it has no choice but to
accept the yoke which the North is anxious to im-
pose upon it ; and we can only hope that the
measures to be adopted by the Confederate Congress
may realise the results anticipated by the Chief
Magistrate of the Republic.