tions. I was myself compelled to leave the bed which had been kindly assigned me, and take my abode in a chair for the night, nor did it fare much better with the rest. It was for time to reconcile us to this sudden and violent change, to break through what had become habit, and to inure us once more to the usages of our former days.'-pp. 720-723.

On the return of the party from this ill-fated expedition, Captain Ross addressed two letters to the Secretary of the Admiralty-the one giving a summary of his proceedings, and the other stating his utter inability to fulfil the engagements he had entered into with his crew, and praying their Lordships to afford him the means of discharging obligations of so sacred a character. That he had no claim whatever on the public for an ill-prepared, ill-concerted, and (we may add) ill-executed undertaking, wholly of a private nature, will not be denied; and the wealthy individual at whose expense the ship was fitted out, and who made or sanctioned the 'sacred' engagements with the men, was the proper quarter to which application should have been made-at least, in the first instance. The Board of Admiralty, however, (Oct. 28, 1833,) directed their secretary to reply that,

'although these men have no claim on his Majesty's Government, inasmuch as the expedition was not sent out by the Board of Admiralty, yet, in consideration of its having been undertaken for the benefit of science, of the sufferings these men have undergone, the perilous situation in which they were placed for so long protracted a period, and their uniform good conduct under circumstances the most trying to which British seamen were perhaps ever exposed-and their Lordships being moreover satisfied of your utter inability to fulfil the engagements entered into by you, and of the destitute state in which these people have providentially arrived in their native country, have been induced under such peculiar circumstances, from a feeling of humanity, immediately to relieve you from your engagement, and them from pressing necessity, rather than wait till Parliament shall be assembled, to which it is intended to submit the case. Their Lordships have, therefore, directed the Accountant-General of the Navy to advance to you the sum of 45801. 12s. 3d., as the amount which, by your statement, you feel yourself under an engagement to pay to the persons therein named.'-p. 739.

The way in which the parties were remunerated appears from the following memorandum :

All the men have received double full pay until they finally abandoned their ship, and full pay after that unti their arrival in England, amounting to the gross sum of 4580l.; they have besides been employed in eligible situations in the dock-yards, or placed in others that will lead to promotion; Mr. Abernethy, the gunner, has been promoted, and appointed to the Seringapatam; Mr. Thom, purser, has been appointed to the lucrative situation of purser of the Canopus;

Mr.

Mr. M'Diarmid, the medical officer, has been appointed assistant-surgeon of the navy, and, when qualified to pass his examination, will be promoted to the rank of surgeon; Commander Ross, to whom it appears that the greater part of the scientific results of the expedition are due, has been placed on full pay, and appointed commander of the Victory for twelve months, that he may by that length of service be enabled to receive the rank of post-captain, which is, by a special minute of the Admiralty, ensured to him at the expiration of that time.'-Report, &c., pp. 6 and 7.

This prompt resolution to afford relief to the officers and men might have been expected from those feelings of humanity for which Sir James Graham is distinguished: he did not wait the lingering process of an application to Parliament, when it might meet: alive to the sufferings and privations those brave fellows had undergone-their escape from dangers long endured, and overcome by native energy, struggling as it were against hope: admiring, as all must do, the boldness, if not the prudence, of the enterprise-the courage, perseverance, and fortitude under distress, so creditable to the parties, and so honourable to the national character of British seamen-he did not hesitate to take upon himself, at once, the responsibility of indemnifying and remunerating this gallant handful of men. With regard to Captain Ross himself, however, no such haste was required, and Sir James properly left it to the Government to deal with him as might be thought fit. As soon, therefore, as Parliament was assembled, the Captain had recourse to a quarter where the public purse is generally opened freely to individuals, especially when warmly supported by a friend-and where is the Scotchman who is at a loss for such a friend on an emergency?-we mean a committee of the House of Commons. The speeches on his petition for a grant of money being presented by Mr. Cutlar Ferguson, may be referred to in the Mirror of Parliament for March 13, 1834; and well would it have been if the criticism which Sir Robert Inglis then applied to the puffing parade of Captain Ross's countryman had been accepted as a sufficient warning-but no-the committee were appointed-and their proceedings, favourably as they were disposed, have unintentionally, no doubt, damaged, to a very material degree, the Captain, and, we regret to add, the Commander also; though the latter, we firmly believe, undeservedly-chiefly by the evidence of Sir Felix Booth, which, as we understand, he corrected once, as he was called upon to do, but not to the extent which he might have done. Had the committee recommended 5000l. to be given to Captain Ross, considering his case solely as one of compassion, to indemnify him for his losses and sufferings, without any oral examination, they would have spared him the utterance of a great deal of nonsense, and themselves the charge of inaccuracy, in reporting that a great public service had been performed;'

performed;'-whereas no public service, that we can discover, has been achieved, unless it be on two points, both of which were accomplished solely by Commander Ross-viz., an approximation to the north magnetic pole-and tracing the coast which in all probability unites with the northern coast of America.

We are much mistaken if the account of the voyage now produced does not disappoint every one that may take the trouble to toil through it. The first reflection to which the perusal gives rise, is the cold and heartless manner in which the bulk of the narrative is drawn up-the unwillingness to give praise or make acknowledgment, even to him on whom the safety of the expedition mainly depended, and by whom all that has been done was done. The commiseration so generally felt for their supposed deplorable situation—the readiness with which the government gave to Captain Ross 5000l., and the same sum nearly to the crew-the public sympathy so powerfully excited as to have caused a subscription to be raised, sufficient to send out an expedition to ascertain their fate-the voluntary sacrifice made by a brave officer experienced in those regions, by undertaking that expedition ;—these were circumstances which might have been expected to call forth some expression of thankfulness and admiration-but no-not a syllable, throughout his 740 pages, escapes our author, to manifest the least feeling of gratitude, or sense of obligation. So reckless does Sir John Ross appear of all that has been done, that the name even of Back, who we fear has suffered far more than himself, is not once mentioned by him—although Commander Ross did not miss an occasion of speaking warmly and properly of his ancient and tried friend having gone to seek them, and to restore them once more to society and home.' If now and then in the captain's own story a touch of the pathetic occurs, the effect is immediately destroyed by some levity of expression, some coarse joke, or some gross vulgar absurdity, as that, for instance, of recommending all Arctic voyagers hereafter to cram their stomachs, as the Esquimaux do, with whale blubber and seal oil, as the best mode of generating animal heat. This, however, and a whole treatise on the same subject, we suspect to be the production of Dr. M'Culloch.

Instead of bestowing the least praise on the exertions of his nephew either in his answers to the Committee or in his book-in the former Sir John speaks slightingly of his losses, considers him not entitled to any portion of the grant, and states that he was fully satisfied with his promotion ;* in the latter he betrays an unworthy

It may be inferred, indeed we are satisfied, from the questions put to Captain Ross, that the committee were desirous of awarding something to the meritorious Commander, for his services and losses-probably a portion, as surely ought to have been the case, of the 5000%-but that the adverse answers given by the uncle prevented it.-See Report and Evidence, pp. 18, 19.

jealousy

jealousy of what the young man had accomplished. A silly chapter which he calls Remarks on the Assignment of the Magnetic Pole,' concludes thus:

If this last journey of thirty miles, as it appears by the narrative, was performed without my presence, which was required in another direction and for other purposes-and this keystone of all our previous labours laid by the party, consisting chiefly of the mates Blanky and Abernethy, under the immediate orders of my successful nephewheaven forbid that I should attempt to rob them of such honours as they are entitled to on this ground, or to claim the credit of having planted the British flag on this long-desired spot with my own hand. Let this last closing act of my labours on this subject, as of theirs, confer such honour on this party as they may claim or deserve: I can say, like others, though in a quotation rather hackneyed, "Palmam qui meruit ferat," and if I myself consent to award that palm to him who commanded this successful party, as is the usage, it must not be forgotten that in this I surrender those personal claims which are never abandoned by the commander of that flag-ship, which so often gains the victory, through the energy, intelligence, and bravery of the men and officers whom he directs and orders, or by the captain-general who carries a town through the courage and activity of the sergeant who leads the "forlorn hope."

But if I have done this, I should not be justified in thus surrendering the rights of the brave, and patient, and enduring crew of the Victory, nor perhaps those of him, the noble-minded and generous, who sent the Victory and her crew to the Polar regions. It must be hereafter remembered in history, and will be so recorded, that it was the ship Victory, under the command of Captain John Ross, which assigned the north-west Magnetic Pole, in the year 1831, and that this vessel was fitted out by him whom I can now call Sir Felix Booth; a name to be honoured, had it even remained without such a distinction, as long as British generosity and spirit shall be recorded as a characteristic of the merchants of Britain.'-pp. 570, 571.

In his examination before the committee, in speaking of the Magnetic Pole, the Captain never once mentions the name of Commander Ross, but says, 'We arrived at the spot;'-'We proceeded round it ;'- We passed round it ;- Which ever way we passed it ;' 'As we passed round it, the compass turned towards it horizontally,' &c. &c. Captain Ross was never within forty miles of the spot, and there is no truth in the statement of passing round it.' Being asked by the committee, 'Within what area do you conceive you have reduced the situation of it?' he answers, One mile.' Captain Beaufort, however, informed them, there can be no specific or precise point, within a degree or half a degree.'

We may here notice a very whimsical part of Captain Ross's examination, respecting the magnetic needle :—

'Did you remark whether light, such as the light of a candle, had

any

any influence upon it ?-The light of a candle has also an effect upon it; those effects have been accurately observed. Then you consider that was a matter of importance to science, inasmuch as it showed the connexion between light and heat and magnetism ?—Yes.-Did you remark that any metallic substance produced an effect on the magnet? -Yes, even brass.-The buttons of your coat?-The buttons of my coat produced an effect on the magnet. That the north pole of the needle would point to them?—Yes.'-Evid. p. 12.

The idea of going into the Arctic regions to examine whether the light of a tallow candle, probably stuck in an iron socket, and his brass buttons with iron necks to them, produced an effect on the needle, which he had just told them had no power of traversing to any particular point,' is undoubtedly very amusing. It reminds us of what happened to a very different man from RossTroughton, the mathematical-instrument maker. On approaching his face towards a delicately suspended needle, he observed it to be affected with a tremulous motion, and it was some time before it occurred to him that there were steel springs in his wig. Whether Ross wore a wig or not we cannot say.

When asked about magnetic electricity, he responds, I know of no magnetic electricity. I know of no such term; but the effect of light and heat upon the magnetic needle is an important discovery, which we have made.' The effect of light and heat on the needle, where for three or four months on end no sun is visible, and the temperature is 40° below zero, is certainly an important discovery'!-but, seriously, can this have been sheer ignorance, or an attempt to practise on the credulity of the committee? We ask this, because experiments have been made in this country, where the magnet is in full activity, to ascertain what effect the strong light and heat of the sun have on a most delicate and sensitive needle. For this purpose, an instrument was fixed in the garden of the Royal Observatory, seventeen years ago, and observations continued by Mr. Pond for three years, the result of which was as follows:- From sun-rise to the hottest part of the day, or about two o'clock, the southern part of the needle moves about 5 or 6 minutes in a direction from W. to E., or contrary to the path of the sun-and returns, in the course of the evening and following night, to its former position.' From this our readers may judge of the effect of a farthing rush-light, or a brass-button, on the magnetic needle in the midst of intense frost and snow. So much for the important discovery which we have made' !

That Captain Ross should take every occasion to sneer at that which he has twice failed to settle, and concerning which in reality he has the least possible information-the question of a North-West Passage-might be expected. Thus, in one place,

he