The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1875-10-09

dearest dream for twenty years, and now, when
sixty years of age, he hoped to accomplish it.
He perfected his scheme with all the enthusi-
asm of youth and the prudence Of age and ex
perience, and rejoiced in its acceptance by the
English government.
Two vessels, with the ominous names OF the
Erebus and Terror, were fitted for the service
aud placed under his command. They were
seen by whaling vessel moored under an ice
burg in Bafin's Bay on July Goth, lS45, and
they were never seen again.
Arctic exploration thenceforth in England
and America, for almost thirty years, may be
said to have been but search for the lost voy-
ayers, impelled and sustained by the devotion
and energy of woman, whose tenacity OF pur-
pose and whose desperation OF hope upheld her
against all failure and who, when that hope
was fed, worked on with answering resolution
to seek assurance of the fate of the dead, and
rescue the record of her husbands achieve
ments from oblivion.
The return oftbe Erebus and Terror was await
ed with ever-increasing anxiety during the year
1847. The search was begun in 1913 by the
British government dispatching three expidi-
tions and Lady Franklin also offered large
reward to any persons who should discover or
relieve the missing party.
Lady Franklin during the next year made a
personal application TO President Taylor, ask
ing for the help of the American people. To
this appeal Henry Grinnell made answer no
bly,. His vessel joined the armada of 1850,
and their story is recorded in the matchless
language of DIR. Kane.
Impelled by her intimate knowledge of the
privations peculiar TO the region, Lady Frank
lin also sent a supply OF Goals and provisions
to be landed on the shore OF Lancaster Sound.
No less than ii vessels were engaged in the
search in 1850. Of these, large share of the
expense of the Prince Albert was borne by La
dy Jane, and she fitted out the Lady Franklin
as her own private venture. When the Prince
Albert returned with the news that Sir John
had passed his first winter upon Beechy Island,
Lady Jane Immediately sent the vessel back
to renew the search and in 1852 she dispatch
ed the Isabel to seek confirmation of tia sad
tidings brought by Sir John Ross.
Lady Franklin also visited America in quest
of aid, and again found response in the chiv-
alric devotion of DR.. Kane.
Among the expeditions of the next year was
the second dispatched by Mr.. Grinnell, Lady
Franklin herself sending out the Rattlesnake
and the Isabel.
AS if in direct reward of her faith full service,
the assured proofs of the sad fate Sir John
Franklin and his crew were at length brought
to the mourning widow by Captain McCIintock,
whom she had herself sent out on the quest.
Lady Franklin increasingly continued her
effort for the recovery of the records and relics
that might complete the history of her hus-
bands adventures and discoveries. To learn
with exactness the results of the cruise of the
Polaris, from the lip of Captain Hall, she in her
old age again visited America, and with I'M
conquered resolution returned to England to
prepare a final search for those last words
which she still believed her husband had hid
den in some icy casket of the north as fare
well to his beloved wife.
At three score years and ten, she still contin-
ued her task with answering energy,
and at the spectacle a nation was again arous-
ed to her assistance. The queen from her
throne, the princes of the land, the people,
and the press united to bless and to aid re-
newed quest. As before, the devoted spirit of
Lady franklin expended itself in special
service; she provided vessel bound to the
single duty to which she had pledged her life,
and again did she find faithful hell in Amer-
ca. Despite failing health, she urged on the
Preparations, and her life found its fitting close
with her dying breath she babe Pandora
God speed
Like the heroines of ancient story, Lady
Franklin wandered from nation 10 nation with
her appeal for help, and brave men made an
swer to her call with all the chivalry of the
knight-errantry of old. Her quiet persistence,
unfaltering devotion, and singleness of purpose
elevate her story from our prosac present to
the altitude of heroic achievement, and among
the brightest glories of the Nineteenth Centu-
ry must ever rank-this Womans Work.