The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-10-22 00:00:00

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NORTSWEST EXPEDITION.
We regret to learn that that active and enterprising
Oakes. Cape'. Parry, has reached his native country in a
514 W of serluss iodisposition. According to one account
rye folifisre which be has undergone have been .so severe
as to effect his health; according to another, some unpin-
mat intelligence of a private nature, is said to have pre-
date-1 this effect. At present, it appears, he is too unwell
to enter upon say discussion of the great objects of the
hies on which be has been engaged ; we can therefore
,tile to what has already been published respecting the
is just .eneluded; at the same time it may not be
alamertable to oar readers to cast a retrospective view on
the .ensues which preceded it, and the objects which it
was Wended to putsue.
The discovery of a North-West passage into the South
Sea was awe( the earliest attempts of oar navigators in
the beginning of the 16th Century. The Dutch attempted
it in the year 1594 ; and there is a very Interesting awl
easiest account of " Captain Thomas James's strange
and dangerous voyage in his intended Discovery of the
North West Passage into the South Sea, is the Year
1631 cad 1632." This Officer (an Englishman) d des sot
ewer to have gone further to the North than 63. 30.
though be was absent between 16 and 17 months. He
indeed. "by the only industry of oar own nation
those northern parts of America have been discovered to
the latitude 4)180 degrees.and upwards." Hr however only
entered Hudson's Straits : and be delivers a most decided
Noinion that there is no North West passage into the
Pacific Ocean. The most accurate and persevering of
these old navigators„ Wee Herm, who discovered that vast
'islet to the North West which is called Baffi t's Bay. la
subsequent times .various navigators have explored these
seas, particularly the late L tril ;Outgrew, who in 1773
got as far to the North as 80. 50. The Greenland Whale
Fishers hate often gone much further; and in 1751 a
Captain Stephens advanced to 84.50.
For several years the prosecution of nautical discoveries
In this part of the world had ceased to be an object of am-
bition; but in the year 1817, it having been repres-n•ed
that the Arctic Seas were remarkably free from ice, the
British Admiralty thought it their duty to direct thither
an expedition. The objects in view we -e first to ascertain
the practicability or impracticabil ty of a psssage North-
ward Into the Pacific Ocean, and, secon thy. to advance
science in general. It was argued, that if the region of
the Pole were occupied by an open sea, it might be possible
to sail least circuitously over the Pole itself; that if that
were impracticable. it might be possible to proceed along
the North Western Coast of America into the Pacific
Ocean; amid lastly, if neither passage should be open, still
the observations which might be made in geography. oron
the effect of tides an I currents of the sea, or on changes of
the atmosphere, variations of the magnetic needle ate. Ise.,
might be of inestimable valne to scd-nce. The Legislature
else (wonted this aniertaking by decreeing a graduated
scale of bounties for discoveries in the Arctic Sea, accord-
ing to the distance to which the adventurous navigators
might advance.
Accordingly, in April 1818, two vessels, the Isabella and
Alexander, proceeded, under the command of Captain
Ross, astir as Lancaster Sound, bet.veen 74 and 76 North
latitude ; bat, conceiving that he had fully ascertained
that no passage was to be found there, Captain Ross
returned the same year, and published an account of his
voyage, with some valuable scientific observations which
had bees made on it. -
Captain Parry who had been the junior Commander os
this first expedition, was now selected to command a
second, and he sailed with the Hecla and °riper under is
command in May IBi9. He proceeded according to his
instructinus first to Lancaster Sound, and was more foetus
nate than Captain Ross, in discovering ghat the Inlet so
called was not properly a sound, but formed a connection
with the Polar Sea. He therefore continued to advance to
' the Westward until be reached lat. 74. 26. N., leng. 113,
46. W.. which entitled himself and his crew to a bounty of
50001 on the new graduated scale of reward.. In Septa..
ber 1819 the two ship. were laid up-fur the winter in a place
called Winter Sound, perhaps the coldest spot on the face
of the globe ; for in January 1820 they found the Thermo-
meter 49 below Zero. They did not get out of this bar' our
till the Ist of August 1820, said returned to the River
'Thames in November folloeing.
This expedition, although it bad not discovered a com-
munication with the Pacific, yet had given fresh reason to
to think that discovery possible. Upon a full consideration.
however, of all the circumstances it was thought that snits
passage was more likely to be foetid in the less Northerly I
Whittle; and that some of the inlet which Baffin had
named Sounds might afford navigable passages into the
Polar Sea, and so to the Pacific along the Northern coast
lof America.
Such was the object of that great undertaking in
which Captain Parry has been last engaged, and which he
and his brave crews have prosecuted with the ardour that
characterises British Wham. They have now passed two
winters in the Northern regions. though probably nut
such severe seasons as on their former tome ; because
in 1821 they wintered iu 1at.66. 11. N.. long. 63. W. ; and
in 1822 in 1at.69.20. N., long. SI 50. W. They have as-
certained the Northern limit of the American Continent;'
but they
.have also ascertained (it is said) that the ire
forms an immoveable and insuperable barrier against any
passage into the Pacific Ocean.
The Edinburgh Observer says, " After they bad got
clear of the ice, it was Captain Parry's intention to have
taken the greater part of the remaining provisions out of
his consort, send her home. and persevere himself, but
strong symptoms of scurvy jest then made their appear-
ance, which determined him to give it up. We understand
the highest latitude they reached was 69 deg., and that, of
the two years and a half they were absent, they were 21
months frozen in." •

Between one and two (Mock this morning, the peo, le
near the north end of the Broomirlaw bridge, were alarm•
ed, and roused from their beds, by $ crash and noise n 111.6
shook the houses to the foundation. The alarm was ores
sionrd by an explosion of gss in the cellar of Mrs. Uoldie.
I The cellar door was driven off, the hatch forced up, as d
coming up stairs, the gas drove the lobby door from its
hinges, and at the same time bunted open • doer in the
top flat. The floor of a hack room in Mr. William Wilson's
house was forced up to the ceiling, the fa rnitore was broken
and destroyed, the doors were forced off their hinges, and
the window shutters were driven off into a back court. A
strong iron stanncheon on a stair head was broken by the
shock. Two windo s have been broken to fragments. aid
fourteen others, in different Bets, hen been more or less in-
jured. Fortunately them wes no person hurt by the acci-
dent.--(Glaegow Chroho.t.lB.)