The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

TIMES.—In this age of wealth rapidly acquired
and, luxury immoderately indulged in, it is satisfac-
tory to find that science has not lost its enthusiasm.
If, as some persons tell us, the higher nature of
man flags in its powers amid the turmoil of modern
progress, at any rate the intellect still keeps its
attribute of insatiable curiosity. The desire to
know, to collect facts however insignificant, t 6 re-
solve questions however unimportant, to add some-
thing to the piles of acquired information, from
which genius or practical ability from time to time
draws an idea for the service of mankind, is the
dominant impulse with those who give their lives to
learning or science. The antiquarian will ransack
a library to make certain of a baptismal name or a
coat of arms, and the entomologist will be absorbed
in a discussion on the marks which tend to show
that his beetle is a new variety. This spirit is the
life of science,—and may it never fail ! Whether a
subject be small or great, let its votaries firmly
believe in its importance, and fancy that their ex-
pected discovery will be the most wonderful, beau-
tiful, and interesting of the age. But it is the duty
of the public to judge each pursuit more calmly
than its own followers can do, and to restrain,
while they admire, the enthusiasm of the learned.
It is with a conviction that the curiosity of the
scientific world and the spirit of adventure which
animates some distinguished seamen are about to
urge the Government to an impolitic enterprise,
that we call attention to the address of Captain
Sherard Osborn at the Geographical Society the
other night. We have a high opinion of the
speaker's merits, and are quite ready to pay due
respect to the chiefs of learned societies and other
scientific men who .echoed him ; but against this
scheme of a Government expedition to visit the
North Pole we must protest in the name of com-
mon sense and humanity. It is well that the pre-
cise proposal of Captain Osborn should be under-
stood. 4 is now more than 100 years since the
British,Government offered a reward for the dis-
covery of the North-West Passage, and from that
time till within the last few years there have been
expeditions at short intervals to the Polar Seas.
The names of Ross, and Parry, and Franklin,
M'Clure, and M'Clintock have been made famous,
the configuration of a barren and ice-bound coast
has been partially determined, some scientific obser-
vations have been made, the records of the Admi-
ralty have been filled with instances of courage and
hardship, and the conclusion of every thinking
man must be, that, considering the expense incurred
and the sufferings endured, Arctic discovery has
been the most barren field into which scientific re-
search ever ventured. Since the dreadful fate of
the Erebus and Terror, which sailed from England
twenty years ago, this bootless curiosity has slept,
but it is now awake again. It appears that no one
has been nearer to the Pole than 435 geographical
miles. Captain Parry on the night of July 22,
1827, stood upon floating ice at this distance from
the mysterious spot. To actually reach it and stand,
as it were, on the point of the earth's axis is the am-
bition of Captain Osborn and the new explorers.
It is not pretended that any practical benefit can
arise from traversing these four or five hundred
miles on the ice. That Europeans may penetrate
into such terrible regions is possible, but they
could find nothing but rocks and frozen seas. Some
more minute determination of the earth's figure
seems the only scientific result to be obtained from
the expedition. Beyond this all is simple curiosity.
There is a space of 1,131,000 square miles, it is
argued, around the Pole which is now a blank in
our maps, and it will be interesting to discover
whether it is land or water. It will be interest-
ing to ascertain whether it is a silent frozen
solitude or an area of land and water teeming
with life—that is, whether whales exist in latitude
90 deg. It is possible that man may be found, and
it is also possible that his mode of existence
may resemble that of our remote forefathers.
Such are the arguments by which the fitting out
at the national expense and on the national re-
sponsibility of an expedition for reaching the Pole
is urged on the public and the Government. Two
screw steamers and 120 men would be required for
the service. The men would attempt the difficult
part of their enterprise by means of boats and
sledges. The expedition would start from England
in the spring of 1866. "In the two following years,
1867-8, sledge and boat operations should be
directed towards the Pole and over the unknown
Polar area, and in 1869 the expedition would retire,
thus spending only two winters
,and three summers
in the Arctic Zone." Such distances have been ac-
complished before at lower latitudes, and there is
consequently no reason, says Captain Osborn, for
thinking that the experiment would fail. We have
said enough to show the adventurous spirit of this
scheme, and to convince impartial persons that the
scientific results anticipated do not warrant the Go-
vernment in adopting it. If even accurate obser-
vations were to be made by the body of wanderers
in such a frozen wilderness, and they were to retnrn
safe to give them to the world, the results would
hardly compensate for the anxiety felt by the nation
which had sent them forth, and was responsible for
their preservation. Who can forget the long years
of suspense which followed the departure of the
Franklin expedition ? Was it possible to leave the
unhappy band to perish without succour ? Year
after year, more and more lives were ventured for
the purpose of saving those who, according to the
evidence we now possess, perished within a compa-
ratively short period after arriving in the Arctic re-
gions. Were another expedition to be sent out by the
Admiralty for the more difficult task of reaching the
Pole, and were the crews unfortunately to perish,
the nation must in justice to those whom it had em-
ployed keep sending ships and sledges to the North
Pole for ten years to come. Captain Osborn tells
us that the navy exists for nobler purposes than
fighting. We might dispute that proposition gene-
rally, but, at any rate, the gratification of a rest-
less curiosity and a spirit of adventure is
not a noble purpose. It is impossible not
to see that the love of penetrating north-
wards is to an Arctic traveller what the
desire of ascending an ice-clad peak is to a member
of the Alpine Club. The scientific element is im-
ported into the discussion only for the purpose of
giving it an air of greater seriousness. There is a
secret desire among all who have been concerned in
Arctic discovery to achieve something more wonder-
ful than has ever been yet accomplished. The sailors
want to get to the Pole in person, the philosophers
in imagination. To do something that has never
been done, to see and know what has never before
been revealed, is the impulse to which they yield,
but the gratification of such desires is no part of the
duty of the Government. We do not send a national
expedition to ascend the Matterhorn, and we trust
that not a single life may be adventured in another
attempt to reach the North Pole.
HERALD.—Any interest which the speeches of
Mr. Milner Gibson may excite' arises entirely from
his position as the delegate and agent of Messrs.
Cobden and Bright in the Cabinet. Nobody can
care to know what the opinions of the right honour-
able gentleman are for the sake of the opinions
themselves, for everybody is aware that he takes
them all second-hand, and marvellous as are the
eccentricities of our day it would be impossible to
fincfa, man who would read one of his speeches in
the hope of finding in it wit, elegance, or eloquence.
But Mr. Milner Gibson's speeches are a good measure
of the Radicalism of the Cabinet. We may be quite
certain that he will go to the full length of his tether
on behalf of the " glorious principles " which the
Liberals'proclaiin in order to get place, and in place
find so many pretexts for forgetting. If the Ministry
meant to try to galvanise Mr. Bright's dead horse
into a few spasmodic struggles Mr. Milner Gibson
would have enlarged to his constituents the other
day upon the necessity of reform for a good half-
hour at the least. For the bargain is that he is to
be as truculent a Radical as is consistent with his
retention of a post in the Cabinet. If to hold
that post he must only roar after a very sucking dove
fashion, and comfort deluded Reformers with
promises of a good time coming a dozen years
hence, well and good—his masters will be content.
His. voice in the council chamber is useful for so
many other purposes. In a divided Cabinet one vote
may be very important, and Mr. Gibson, during his
five years' tenure of office, has done his friends very
good service. They are, however, glad to have him
avowing Radical views, as the avowal, producing
an impression that the Cabinet is inclined to the
same opinion, assists them in their agitation. When,
therefore, he can talk Radicalism he does, and we
may take his speech at Ashton as a sign that neither
Lord Palmerston nor Lord Russell are yet converted
to Mr. Bright's views, but are quite content to rest
and be thankful. Of course Mr. Gibson professed
that he would like to see an agitation for the exten-
sion of the suffrage ; but he confessed at the same
time that he could at present only see a gross indif-
ference to the matter. He avowed that the Govern-
ment in presence of that indifference would do
nothing, and insisted that it ought not to be blamed
for doing nothing. Mr. Gibson puts forward, with
a little more fulness and a great deal more audacity,
an excuse often urged by his colleagues for their
scandalous breach of faith. The Government, for-
sooth, of which he was a member, would not have
dared to recede from their position and withdraw
their bill if the great body of the electors had shown
than, that they were determined to keep them to
their promises, Of course not ; but what a pretty
constitutional theory Mr. Gibson has started. What
a candid confession he makes of the utter dishonesty,
the absolute lack of all principle, on the part of him-
self and his colleagues. A Government, according
to the President of the Board of Trade, is not bound
to keep faith and redeem its pledges unless it is put
under duress by those to whom it has pledged itself.