THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

361

;

years. On the 19th of May, 1845, they
departed from England, and on the 26th
of July following were heard from at Mel-
ville Bay. Since that period no reliable
intelligence has been obtained in regard
to their fate.

Three expeditions were sent out early
in 1848, to search for these missing navi-
gators. One, under the command of Sir
James ©. Ross, was to proceed on the
track which Sir John Franklin had been
instructed to take; another, commanded
by Sir John Richardson, who is experi-

enced in Arctic journeys, was to take the

overland route, through North America ;

and the third was assigned to Commander

Moore, and directed to proceed to Behr-
ing’s Strait by the way of the Pacific.

The expedition under Sir James C.
Ross, and also Sir John Richardson with
most of his party, returned to England in
November, 1849, without obtaining any
intelligence of the long-lost navigators.
Dr. John Rae, who went out with Sir
John Richardson, remained with a small
party to continue the search during the
summer of 1849. The expedition sent
to Behring’s Strait, passed the summer of
1849 in searching the coast from that
strait nearly to the mouth of Mackenzie
River; but it returned to winter in Kot-
zebue Sound, with no better success than
attended the other two.

The British Admiralty sent out two
More expeditions during the last spring.
The first to consist of two sailing ships,
the Baboo and Ptarmigan ; the second, of
two steamers, the Eider and the Free-
Trader. These were sent to Barrow’s
Strait and adjacent localities. Mr. Henry
Grinnel fitted up two vessels at New York,
called Lady Jane Franklin and the Res-
cue, which proceeded on an expedition in

 

search of Sir John Franklin, some months
since. A secondary object of this expe-
dition was to solve the great problem of
the Northwest Passage.

 

Shall I read it?

outney, the scholar and the poet,
says, “Would you know whether
the tendency of a book is good or
evil, examine in what state of mind
you lay it down. Has it induced you to
suspect that what you have been accus-
tomed to think unlawful, may, after all,
be innocent, and that that may be harm-
less which you have hitherto been taught
to think dangerous? Has it tended to
make you dissatisfied and impatient under
the control of others; and disposed you
to relax in that self-government, without
which both the laws of God and man tell
us there can be no virtue, and consequent-
ly, no happiness? Has it attempted to
abate your admiration and reverence for
what is great and good, and to diminish
in you the love of your country and your
fellow-creatures? Has it addressed itself
to your pride, your vanity, your selfish-
ness, or any other of your evil propen-
sities? Has it defiled the imagination
with what is loathsome, and shocked the
heart with what is monstrous? Has it
disturbed the sense of right and wrong
which the Creator has implanted in the
human soul? If so—if you have felt
that such were the effects that it was in-
tended to produce—throw the book in the
fire, whatever name it may bear on the
title-page. Throw it in the fire, young
man, though it should have been the gift
of the best friend you have on earth !”