would so far correspond with Mr. Kennedy's observation.

As an open sea appeared to the south, it is not unreasonably conjectured that it may be continued to the Victoria Strait of Rae ; in that case the narrow channel of Brentford Bay would prove that at least one south-west passage existed. Continuing his course nearly west, until he passed 100° west long., he turned to the north, struck the sea at that point reached by Capt. Ommaney in exploring the bay which bears his name, then turned to the east and to the north till he reached Cape Walker, returning to his ship by the north shore of North Somerset, having successfully performed a journey of eleven hundred miles and been absent from the ship for ninety-seven days! During the whole time they knew no other shelter than the snow-houses they threw up at each resting-place.

In his modest narrative Mr. Kennedy describes the general order of his arrangements. His party, including M. Bellot and himself, consisted of six persons. Their luggage and stores were borne on sleighs made after the Indian fashion, five Esquimaux dogs very materially assisting in their draught. Without the aid, indeed, of these much-enduring animals so long a journey could scarcely have been performed; and, as nothing came amiss to them in the way of food, it being found that 'they throve wonderfully on old leather shoes and fag-ends of buffalo-robes,' the sleighs were not much burdened by care for their provision. With a little practice all hands became expert in the erection of snow-houses, which presented

'a dome-shaped structure, out of which you have only to cut a small hole for a door, to find yourself within a very light, comfortablelooking bee-hive on a large scale, in which you can bid defiance to wind and weather. Any chinks between the blocks are filled up with loose snow with the hand from the outside; as these are best detected from within, a man is usually sent in to drive a thin rod through the spot where he discovers a chink, which is immediately plastered over by some one from without, till the whole house is as air-tight as an egg.'-Narrative, 78, 79.

As respects their provision, they were materially indebted to the old treasures of the Fury, which they found not only in the best preservation, but much superior in quality, after thirty years of exposure to the weather, to some of our own stores and those supplied to the other Arctic expeditions.' While travelling they had a cup of hot tea night and morning-‘a luxury they

#

* On a strict and careful survey, made last July, of the preserved meats, 10,570 lbs., in tin canisters, supplied to the Plover, they were found in a pulpy, decayed, and putrid state, totally unfit for men's food.' The whole were thrown into the sea, as a nuisance. It is much to be feared that Franklin's preserved meats may have been of no better quality.

would

would not have exchanged for the mines of Ophir.' A gill and a half of spirits of wine boiled a pint of water. When detained by bad weather they had but one meal daily, and took ice with their biscuit and pemmican to save fuel. On the 15th of May they reached Whaler Point, and here stopped a week to recruit; all suffering much from scurvy. At this early period Regent's Inlet and Barrow's Strait were free from ice as far as the eye could reach. In a notice left at Whaler Point it was said 'Cape Walker was carefully examined, but bore no evidence whatever of its having been visited by Europeans.' Now, as the large cairns, formed by the parties of Ommaney and Osborn the previous spring, could thus be overlooked, might not signals erected by Franklin have been equally undistinguishable amid the deep snow which enveloped this bleak and rugged coast?

By the 30th of May the travellers were back at Batty Bay, where all had gone on well; but it was not until the 6th of August that the ship, by sawing and blasting, could be got clear of the ice. On the 19th of August Kennedy reached Beechey Island, where he had the satisfaction of finding the North Star engaged in sawing into winter quarters.-The expedition of Sir E. Belcherconsisting of the two brigs and their attendant steamers previously commanded by Austin, with the North Star as a depôt-ship -had left the Thames on the 21st of April, and arrived at Beechey Island on the 10th of August. The season was remarkably open; Wellington Channel and Barrow Strait were equally clear of ice: on the 14th of August Sir E. Belcher (with a ship and a steamer) stood up the Channel, and the following day Captain Kellett (with the other brig and steamer) sailed in open water for Melville Island.-From the North Star Mr. Kennedy received despatches for England. He would gladly have remained out another season, but, as his men were bent on returning, he was compelled to relinquish his design, and bring his ship home.

A fortnight after his departure, Captain Inglefield, in the Isabel screw-steamer, communicated with the North Star. The Isabel had been purchased by Lady Franklin, with assistance from the Geographical Society and others. In her Captain Inglefield quitted England on the 6th of July last; coasted the northern shores of Baffin's Bay; advanced much further up Whale Sound than any previous navigator, finding as he proceeded an immense expanse of open water; ran a considerable distance up Smith's Sound and Jones's Sound without discovering any opposing land; and then made for Beechey Island, which he reached on the 7th of September. It is the opinion of this skilful observer that all the three great sounds at the head of Baffin's Bay are channels leading into the Polar Ocean. It is 2 F

VOL. XCII. NO. CLXXXIV.

to

to be regretted that, in so favourable a season, he had not the opportunity of determining this question, with regard to one of them at least. But, on the whole, considering the limited time at his disposal-his whole voyage lasting but four months—he must be allowed to have exerted himself very laudably.

The last parliamentary paper prints the intelligence received from Behring's Strait to the end of August, 1852. Commander Maguire, who was sent out to relieve Captain Moore in the Plover, arrived at Port Clarence on the 30th of June. The crew, with the exception of some frost-bites, were well, and had behaved admirably. Constant intercourse had been kept up with the natives, but no tidings had been heard as to any subject of anxiety. The Plover, under her new commander, put to sea on the 12th of July, and arrived at Icy Cape on the 19th, whence Maguire proceeded in a boat to Point Barrow to take soundings for anchorage. In his last despatch, 20th August, he intimates his expectation that he shall be able to place the Plover in winter quarters there about the beginning of September. He much advises that a steamer should be sent out to open a communication with him; and, considering how strongly a vessel of this kind has been recommended for the service by Admiral Beaufort and other high authorities, we are quite at a loss to understand why one was not sent out in place of the Rattlesnake recently despatched.

Mr. Kennedy is about to depart in the Isabel for Behring's Sea. Lady Franklin, aided by 10007. subscribed by some generous friends in Van Diemen's Land, who gratefully remember Sir John's rule, will again be at the charge of the expedition. The Isabel will be provisioned for four years. Mr. Kennedy hopes he shall be able to pass the strait this year, and take up a position for the winter somewhere near Point Barrow, whence in the winter and spring he might explore to the north and east, in the direction of Melville Island and Banks' Land. Captain Inglefield, in the Phoenix steam-sloop, will start this spring for Beechey Island, accompanied by a store-ship containing an ample supply of provisions. A new expedition is also, we observe, to be fitted out by the beneficent Mr. Grinnell, of New

York.

The present state of the search then is this:-Sir E. Belcher is engaged in a survey of Wellington, while Captain Kellett is probably safely anchored in Winter Habour, the old quarters of Parry. Each has a well-stored ship, with an attendant steamer; while the North Star, within reach no doubt of parties from either vessel, remains in Franklin's harbourage at Beechey Island. On the Pacific side, the Plover, we may presume,

is advanced to Point Barrow. We have no intelligence of M'Clure since, under a press of canvas, he stood for the packice off Icy Cape, in August, 1850; nor from Collinson since he passed Behring's Strait in July of the following year. Our consul at Panama indeed writes that Collinson had been spoken by some whalers, but, without details, we know not what credit is to be attached to the report. M'Clure supposed he should be able to reach England by way of Barrow's Strait some time in this year, either by navigating his vessel through the unknown sea which stretches north of the American continent, or by quitting his ship and making for Melville Island, or some point nearer home. Stirring tidings of some kind will most likely reach us in the course of a few months. The search, so long and so ardently prosecuted, continues not only to interest the scientific and enterprising, but to carry with it the sympathies of the whole nation. The public mind is made up that the fate of the missing ships shall be determined, if human energy can determine it-and the resolve is as wise as generous. To our Navy, under God, we owe our greatness and safety; and, in sending forth our gallant seamen on hazardous enterprises, we are bound by every possible obligation to inspire them with a full confidence that they are under the eye and guardianship of their country, and that its resources will be exerted to the utmost in their behalf. The pecuniary cost of the search is not to be regarded in comparison with its object; and it is better for a thousand lives to be perilled in the discharge of duty than for one to be sacrificed through neglect.

ART. VI.-Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third, from Original Family Documents. By the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, K.G. 2 vols. 8vo. 1853.

THAT we deny! They are neither Memoirs, nor by the Duke of Buckingham! From the ridicule and, we will even add, blame of the editorial manipulation of these Family Documents, we will venture at once to exonerate the Duke of Buckingham. The evidence, we admit, of the title-page seems conclusive against our opinion; and not less so the following statement—one of those newspaper notices of new books which, though appearing to speak the journalists' own sentiments, are understood to be mere advertisements furnished to them by the publishers :

In this very remarkable and valuable publication the Duke of Buckingham has HIMSELF undertaken the task of forming a history from the papers of his grandfather and great uncle, the Earl Temple (first Marquis of Buckingham), and Lord Grenville, of the days of the second William Pitt, extending over an interval commencing with 1782, and ending with 1800. . . . From such materials it was not possible to form a work that would not possess the very highest interest. The Duke of Buckingham has, however, moulded his materials with no ordinary ability and skill. The connecting narrative is written both with judgment and vigour-not unfrequently in a style that comes up to the highest order of historical composition-especially in some of the sketches of personal character.'-Standard, 19th Feb., 1853. All this seems very strong-but, in spite of the title-page and newspaper puff, it is our own deliberate convictionand we think it will presently be that of our readers-that it is absolutely impossible that the Duke of Buckingham can have had any further concern in the affair than his having unluckily confided to other and most incompetent hands the publication of a few of his family papers. How this could have happened-how the Duke's name could be prefixed to pages which we shall prove he never saw, and how such an editor as they have been intrusted to could be found, we have no means of knowing, or even guessing:—all we can do is to show that the narrative portion of the work thus attributed to the Duke cannot be his; and we are bound to do so not only in justice to his Grace, but for the sake of historical truth, as the narrative affects to decide, in a very dogmatical style, several personal and political points, which are not merely apocryphal, but sometimes in direct contradiction to the documents which the editor professes to copy.

In ordinary cases the ignorance or incompetence of an editorgenerally exhibited in the absence or the errors of marginal notes-though they may obscure, cannot very seriously impair the original writer's meaning; but in the present case the penman is more adventurous, and puts himself forward, not as an editor, but as an author, and even an authority, as if he were really the Duke of Buckingham writing, by the help of his family papers, the Memoirs of the Court and Cabinet of George the Third-a designation not merely pretentious, but absolutely deceptive; for the substance of the work is, we repeat, nothing like Memoirs, but only an irregular and desultory collection of letters, good, bad, and indifferent, addressed to the first Marquis of Buckingham-the greatest portion being from the pen of his brother William (Lord Grenville), and that eminent person's letters, whatever other value they may have, being as unlike to what is called memoirs as an epic to an epigram.