disposed towards a proposal, that in the
event of there being no government
expedition, Lady Franklin should be assisted in
the fitting out of her own private venture.

A third letter from Lady Franklin was
addressed to Lord Palmerston himself as
Premier, on the second of December last. We
direct the attention of our countrymen to a
few passages contained in it. And first to
this:

"My Lord, as nothing has occurred within
the last few months to weaken the reasons
which induced the Admiralty, early in July
last, to contemplate another final effort, and
as they put it aside at that time on the sole
ground that it was too late to equip a vessel
for that season, I trust it will be felt that I
am not endeavouring to re-open a closed
question, but merely to obtain the settlement
of one which has not ceased to be, and is even
now under favourable consideration. The
time has arrived, however, when I trust I
may be pardoned for pressing your Lordship,
with whom I believe the question rests, for a
decision, SINCE BY FURTHER DELAY EVEN MY
OWN EFFORTS MAY BE PARALYSED.

"I have cherished the hope, in common
with others, that we are not waiting in vain.
Should, however, that decision unfortunately
throw upon me the responsibility and the
cost of sending out a vessel myself, I beg to
assure your Lordship that I shall not shrink,
either from that weighty responsibility, or
FROM THE SACRIFICE OF MY ENTIRE AVAILABLE
FORTUNE FOR THE PURPOSE, supported
as I am in my convictions by such high
authorities as those whose opinions are on
record in your Lordship's hands, and by the
hearty sympathy of many more."

The next is our last citation of words that
should be read and felt by every household
in the kingdom:

"Surely, then, I may plead for such men,
that a careful search be made for any possible
survivor, that the bones of the dead be
sought for and gathered together; that their
buried records be unearthed, or recovered
from the hands of the Esquimaux; and above
all, that their last written words, so precious
to their bereaved families and friends, be
saved from destruction. A mission so sacred
is worthy of a government which has grudged
and spared nothing for its heroic soldiers
and sailors in other fields of warfare, and
will surely be approved by our gracious
Queen, who overlooks none of her loyal
subjects suffering and dying for their country's
honour.

"This final and exhausting  search is all I
seek in behalf of the first and only martyrs
to Arctic discovery in modern times, and it
is all I ever intend to ask.

"But if, notwithstanding all I have
presumed to urge, her Majesty's government
decline to complete the work they have
carried on up to this critical moment, but
leave it to private hands to finish, I must
then respectfully request that measure of
assistance in behalf of my own expedition
which I have been led to expect on the
authority of Lord Stanley, as communicated
to me by Lord Wrottesley, and on that of
the First Lord of the Admiralty, as
communicated to Colonel Phipps in a letter in my
possession.

"It is with no desire to avert from myself
the sacrifice of my own funds, which I devote
without reserve to the object in view, that I
plead for a liberal interpretation of those
communications; but I owe it to the
conscientious and high-minded Arctic officers
who have generously offered me their
services, that my expedition should be made as
efficient as possible, however restricted it
may be in extent. The Admiralty, I feel
sure, will not deny me what may be necessary
for this purpose; since if I do all I can
with my own means, any deficiencies and
shortcomings of a private expedition cannot,
I think, be justly laid to my charge."

The Arctic story cannot close with the
rejection of a plea like this from such a
pleader. Certainly it cannot be closed with
such an answer to the claims of humanity
and justice in this case, as was given by the
First Lord of the Admiralty in the House of
Commons, on the twenty-fourth of February
last. With that answer our tale ends for the
present. Sir Charles Wood said, that there
was no hope that any one of the companions
of Sir John Franklin survived; but there is
hope, as we have shown, and strongest in
those who are most competent to form a
trustworthy opinion. Sir Charles Wood
asked the House to consider what had been
done. Twelve expeditions had been sent out
at a cost of six hundred thousand pounds;
but it was not the money he considered, "he
did not feel justified in exposing to the
risks inseparable from such explorations, the
lives of further officers and men." Yet of the
twelve expeditions not a single one had been
fatal to life, though they all went out on
vague errands, far more perilous than a direct
journey to a given spot and back again, the
enterprise from which a patriotic government
professes now that Britain turns away
affrighted. The lost men "left the country
twelve years ago; and taking the account
which Dr. Rae gave, that in eighteen
hundred and fifty, a party of thirty or forty were
seen passing over King William's Island,
and they must have perished in that year.
He was afraid that the last survivor of the
expedition perished in eighteen hundred and
fifty." That does not in the least follow from
the fact that, in that year, thirty or forty of
the one hundred and thirty-five were seen
alive. Sir Charles Wood further urged that
a Scotch Court of Session had decided, that
"every person in that expedition must have
perished in eighteen hundred and fifty-three."
Does the country sit down satisfied with such
an argument as that? Sir Charles Wood further