Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-10-28
THE REMAINS OF SIR JOHN FRANK
Inns EXPEDITION.


Inns EXPEDITION.
We have published the particulars, as far as
they have been received, of the discovery Of
the remains of the adventures who undertook
to discover the Northwest Passage, under the
guidance of Sir John Franklin, of the British
Navy. We trust, most sincerely, that the re-
cent information may put an end to fool-h ardy
adventures for the relief Of misguided ex-
plorers.
1t is fashionable, we know, to make preten,
sions to sensibility Men, whose hearts are as
hard as adamant, will pretend to weep. over
imaginary suferings, whilst they would not
give shilling to naked child shivering from
sheer want at their own door steps. Men will
60 to church regularly on Sunday and cheat
their nearest neighbors regularly on Monday
and then whine hypocritically during the whole
week. On such a basis we believe much Of
the sympathy for Sir John franklin was
founded. People who did not care silver
whether he was dead or alive-who would al
any moment have received, without emotion,
conclusive proof that he was crushed in the
ice and had become food for fishes-have I'M
dertaken to trade on public credulity and make
regulations for themselves by traAicking in
sensibility like that which induces benevolent
societies to send flannel shirts to the Patago
mans.
We entertain great contempt for all such
things, and for all who engage in such mat
tiers. We do not believe that we are wanting
In sensibility. We do not believe that we are
wanting in charity. But we do confess that we
are hard-hearted enough to care but little for
sufferings afar off in comparison to those which
surround US, and meet our eyes every day.
Whilst we have dollar we can call our own,
we will give it to thinly clad child we may
meet on the street, or to female orphan asy-
lum, to protect innocence from a fate worse
than death, before we will subscribe one copper
to furnish flannel shirts to Patagonian child
rem, or salaries to the Abolition officers of Alb
clifton Missionary Societies.
In common with every one, we have felt
great interest in the fate of Sir John Franklin;
but whilst we make this declaration, we must.
in honesty, confess that our interest was aroused
not SO much by the Arctic adventurer as by
the noble nature exhibited by the wife he
left behind him. The unfathomable love,
the indescribable courage, the firm and abid.
ing faith, the high and holy hope manifested
in the devotion of Lady Franklin, exhibits
picture which the world has rarely seen. ii
is that picture which las excited our sympa-
thies for the adventurer. 1t is that picture
which has made us watch with interest every
effort which has been made to rescue the lost
nayigators. As for the navigators themselves,
they were strangers to us. They had periled
their lives, Of their own accord, in an enter.
prise where success was worth nothing to SCI
ence, to art, or to the useful purposes of man.
Had they succeeded their success would not
have profted the world to the value Of fig.
Had they triumphed- triumph would not
have been worth straw to the world. They
sought honor and fame for themselves, not in
the cannon's mouth, but amid the icebergs Of
the pole, and they have persisted.
Had they been ordered to the hard service
they undertook, the case. would have been diff
ferent Had they gone on forlorn hope,
where success would have benefited mankind,
the case would have been different. But they
went voluntarily into useless perils without a
hope of doing more than gratifying an idle
curiosity and making a personal reputation.
These are the chief motives which have stimu.
lated those, excepting always that noble wife,
who. have given their means and ventured
their lives in voyages Of relief We trust that
their inconsiderate enterprises may not be
fatal. We trust that they may return in safety;
and that the certainty that Sir John Franklin
and his followers are no longer on earth may
prevent the recurrence Of foolhardy and useless
expeditions. The same courage and talent
and enterprise which has been wasted and
thrown away by Northern explorers seeking
worthless object might build up and adorn
a State