The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIMES.—The Arctic expeditions have now re-
turned to report their successes in the search after
Sir John Franklin and his companions. Without
attempting any simplification of the discoveries or
conjectures of their several commanders—which in-
deed would be no easy task—we think the time has
arrived for some general review of our proceedings
and some deliberate reflection on the course which it
may befit the Government of this country to adopt.
The exertions made to accomplish the object in view
have been in the highest degree meritorious. We
have had expeditions fitted out by the nation with all
the resources of our arsenals and all the aids of scieisce,
and intrusted to some of the best officers in the service
of the Queen. We have had other expeditions dispatched
through the zeal and liberality of individuals, and large
rewards, independent of honour and distinction,
have been offered to stimulate that private enterprise
which so often outstrips the most strenuous public
efforts. The Hudson's Bay Company have concen-
trated on the same object all the extraordinary means
at their disposal on the spot. They have sent out
exploring companies, effected communications with
natives, maintained signal stations, and distributed
over air and sea notifications of the pending search.
Neither has American hardihood been withheld from
the work. 'We are sometimes surpassed by our kins-
men of the States in acts of venturesome audacity,
but on this occasion they have made common cause
with ourselves and shared the common success of the
experiment. In fact, the one great object of English-
men and Americans, Queen's ships and merchant
ships, whalers, cruisers, and volunteers, in these parts,
has been to discover some trace of our missing navi-
gators. It would be difficult, in short, to suggest ;
any scheme for attaining our ends which has not been
already put in practice. Such being the case, what
up to the present moment has been the result of our
exertions ? We speak without any wish to discourage
when we say that it is almost nothing at all. Even
the latest and best ordered expeditions have hardly in-
creased our knowledge in any material respect. It
was rendered probable some time ago that Sir John
Franklin's fate had not been that which was at first
anticipated, and that he passed at least one winter in
safety upon the ice. But beyond this point our in-
formation has not proceeded. There is not even a
general agreement as to the path which the missing
expedition probably took, the fortune it has probably
experienced, or the direction in which the search
may be best renewed. We are, in fact, no wiser
than we were before, and all our recent exertions have '
gone virtually for nothing. It is with no kind of
satisfaction that we record these conclusions, but we
do not see how it is possible to maintain that any
material point has been gained by our tenacious per-
severance and untiring zeal. Under these circum-
stances the next duties of Government become a se-
rious question for consideration. If it befits a nation
like ours to spare no efforts in such a rescue as this,
it also unquestionably befits us to regulate our efforts
by some definite plan, and to carry them only to such
a point as sound reason may dictate. As regards the
original character and purpose of those " Arctic ex-
peditions" which originated our present perplexities
we conceive there can hardly be two opinions sur-
viving. The very case before us shows what we may
too probably lose, and every year's experience has
taught us the little we could gain. The old idea of
a "North-west passage," and its importance to Euro-
pean navigation, must have been long since exploded.
Nothing could be clearer, even before the departure
of Sir John Franklin, than that no such passage could
possibly exist under any available conditions. Whether
it was or was not practicable for a particular expedie
tion to force a way from Baffin's Bay to Behring's
Straits might, perhaps, be an edifying geographical
enigma, but it was at any rate no practical question.
There could never be a passage for vessels of com-
merce, nor could any substantial interests be concerned
in the result. It was utterly impossible that any per-
manent way could be maintained through such regions
as these. Whether the communication between ocean
and ocean was intercepted by solid land or perpetual ice
signified but little, so long as the impediment was
so manifest and insuperable. In the present day the
problem would hardly command even a speculative
interest. 'We have learnt to deal with the globe most
comprehensively. We manipulate the planet which
we inhabit as a child plays with the ball. We not
only put a "girdle round the earth," but we try it
in twenty different forms, taking oceans and conti-
nents for nothing in our computations. Whether we
shall reach the Antipodes by a western or an eastern
passage is at this moment a matter of debate. We
are told that we shall get to Calcutta in twelve days,
and to China in little more than a fortnight, while
steamers are already plying between the great At-
lantic and the great Pacific. Yet amidst all this ex-
perimental voyaging nobody has ever conceived that
the Pclar Sea could become a highway, or that the
best course to California would be by Behring's
Straits. The problem of the north-west passage is
as obsolete as the quadrature of the circle, and we
can only now lament that so much has been staked on
its solution. But though we do not think the geogra-
phical importance of these expeditions commensurable
with the cost or exposure of a single sloop's crew,
we unhesitatingly admit that our obligation to
rescue those who have been dispatched on the enter-
prise is of a very different magnitude. It signifies
supremely little whether Boethia Felix is a penin-
sula, an island, or a gulf—in fact, it seems not im-
probable that it may be all three in turn, according
as the " land" of these parts acquires or loses consis-
tency from the influence of the season. But it does
import most emphatically to our national honour that
we should ascertain the fate of our missing country-
men, and redeem them, if living, from the dangers to
which they have been consigned. As. yet we have
made no substantial progress in the attempt; and it
becomes us, therefore, at this conjuncture, with the
prospect of another expedition in the ensuing spring,
to revise our plans of action, and endeavour to put the
work in a satisfactory shape for completion in some way
or other. In the first place, that no time may be con-
sumed in useless explorations, it is clearly advisable to
decide, according to the best opinions, what are the
particular localities in which there is any probability
of our obtaining the information we desire. Hitherto
we seem to have been merely groping in the ice upon
the speculation of coming somewhere or other upon
some traces to guide us. But our Arctic navigators
are now a numerous body, and their experience should
enable them at least to point out what parts should be
searched and what passed by. When this decision
shall have been arrived at, we conceive it would be
desirable to invest the officers dispatched on the expe-
dition with as large a discretion as possible. Let
them be well furnished, well appointed, and well sup-
ported, and then let them employ the resources at
their disposal in any way suggested by actual cir-
cumstances. We suggest, too, that our efforts might
be maintained with a little more continuous perseve-
rance. As it is certainly not impracticable, and not
absolutely unsafe, to winter on the ice, it seems
unfortunate that any ships should have been
compelled by their instructions to return home
with eighteen months' provisions still remaining, and
with both vessels and crews in good working order. We
shall never attain our end by sailing up to the ice and
then sailing back again. There is a point in these
expeditions which must needs be discernible enough
to an experienced commander beyond which it is un-
advisable to proceed, and that point therefore should
be reached as quickly and as effectually as possible.
The exact limit cannot be defined in the offices of the
Admiralty ; it can only be ascertained on the spot, and
carte blanche should be accordingly given to the
officers employed. The problem is one which de-
pends entirely upon individual resolution and discre •
tion. If good men are selected, ample resources fur-
nished, and full liberty of action allowed, we could
hardly fail of arriving at some conclusive decision, and
this course we consider should be adopted forthwith.
We can only trust that the result might be the resto-
ration of Sir John Franklin to his country ; butin any
case we hope that these efforts may terminate the na-
tional propensity for Arctic expeditions.
ADVERTISER.—The article which we yester-
day copied from a Sunday paper, which has access to
official information, relative to the state of the forth-
coming quarter's revenue, will have been read with
much gratification by all classes, save one. The ex-
ceptional class are the habitual croakers—a set of
men who exist in all countries, but who are just now
particularly numerous in England. These men live
on disasters. National reverses are the aliment of
their souls. Without something calamitous, either
real or imaginary, they could not manage to live at
all. They are, happily for themselves, men of fertile
imaginations-30 that where they have no real evils
on which to feed, they can fancy that they are sur-
rounded by them. There is, fortunately for all but
themselves, abundant room for the exercise, just now,
of the wits of these persons. They never had greater
need to call their imaginative faculties into play ; for
there never was a time when appearances and pro-
spects were so much against them. They must have
felt sadly disappointed and fearfully crest-fallen, when
they read the anticipations of our Sunday contem-
porary,i respecting the revenue returns, which w) I
be laid before the country next Friday—the word
anticipations being, in this instance, synonymous
with :actual facts. The forthcoming returns will be a
sore trial to the croakers. They will prove the heaviest
blow and greatest discourugement they ever re-