THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE, 



OF 



POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND THE BELLES LETTRES. 



VOL. XV.] MARCH, 1833. [No. 87. 



ABSURDITY OF CAPT. BACK'S ARCTIC ENTERPRIZE, 

 AND OF THE PROPOSED EXPEDITION BY SEA. 



I&dOfcisq byvoiad two I'taw as ,if .yl 



&li*ia-$ 



J.HE various attempts of our scientific navigators, who in recent 

 years have gone forth to break the icy barriers of the north-west 

 passage to the shores of the Americas, have yet produced no result 

 beyond the very amusing volumes which detail the adventures of 

 Parry, Franklin, and the other enterprizing spirits who have pierced 

 the recesses of the Polar Seas and Regions. For very many years 

 the attention of the public has been at intervals engaged with the 

 buzz of preparation for the departure of expedition after expedition ; 

 and, though all hope of substantial commercial advantage to be de- 

 rived from the discovery of a north-west passage, has long since 

 passed away, it is yet creditable to the British, that for purposes 

 purely geographical, large sums have been cheerfully expended: 

 " the nation of shop-keepers" is always in the van to promote the 

 extension of the domains of science. 



Enough has been discovered of the Polar regions, to prove that, in 

 the event of a discovery of a passage, no regular use could be made 

 of that icy track of navigation ; and before many years, the comple- 

 tion of a canal or railway across the Isthmus of Panama, by cutting 

 off a navigation of ten thousand miles round Cape Horn, will form 

 the long-desired communication with the shores of the Pacific, and 

 supersede the necessity of a precarious and dangerous passage by the 

 Polar Sea. Still, to this wealthy and magnanimous nation, it is un- 

 doubtedly an object worthy of very considerable expenditure, to 

 complete the geographical theory of the earth to solve the mysteries 

 of the polarity of the needle to examine the vegetable and mineral 

 productions of the Polar world and to carry the lights of Christi- 

 anity and civilization to the roaming natives of those dismal and 

 solitary regions. 



It has therefore been with no ordinary interest, that we have 

 watched the progress of the late subscriptions for the equipment of 



M. M. No. 87. 2 A 



