PARRY, SIR WILLIAM EDWARD. 



PASCAL, BLAISE. 





west interrupting their passage to it Through these masses however, 

 with excessive labour and frequently exposed to great danger of being 

 crushed, the ships forced their way ; and on the 29th of July reached 

 open water on the western side of the ice, having passed through 

 eighty miles of it They entered Lancaster Sound, and sailing west- 

 ward through the imaginary Croker Mountains, on tho 4th of Sep- 

 tember crossed the meridian of 110 W. long, in 74 44' 20" N. lat, 

 by which they became entitled to a reward of 0002., offered by an 

 order in council to such of his majesty's subjects as might succeed in 

 penetrating thus far to the westward, within the Arctic Circle. Parry 

 pave the name of Barrow's Strait to the continuation of Lancaster 

 Sound ; discovered Melville Island, on its northern side, and from its 

 vicinity descried the high coast on the southern side, which he named 

 Banks' Land, but which Sir Robert HacClure has since ascertained to 

 be the northern side of Baring Island. Parry also discovered Prince 

 Regent's Inlet and the Wellington Channel, and penetrated as far as j 

 118* 54' 43* W. long. On tho 26th of September, after three days of | 

 arduous labour in cutting a channel, with tho thermometer nearly at 

 rero, both ships were got safely into their station at Winter Harbour, 

 on the south shore of Melville Island. There the ships remained 

 frozen up, with the sun entirely below the horizon from the llth 

 of November to the 7th of February, and were not released from the 

 ice till the beginning of August 1820. After making several attempts 

 to advance farther westward, they were compelled to return to England, 

 and entered the Thames in November 1820. On the 4th of the same 

 month Lieutenant Parry was promoted to the rank of commander ; 

 ami s-vei.il otln r rewards and honours, F.R.S., Ac., WTO bestowed 

 upon him. His 'Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North- 

 i'a<ge,' 4to, 1821, with maps and engravings, was published 

 by authority of the Lords ComminMouers of the Admiralty. 



Arrangements WCTB foon afterwards made for another expedition. 

 Captain Parry received a commission, dated December 80, 1820, for the 

 Fury, with Captain O.F. Lyon under bis orders in command of the Hecla. 

 This expedition \vos much less fortunate than the former. It sailed 

 from the Nore on the 8th of May 1821, aud having entered Hudson's 

 Strait, on the 8th of October the ships were frozen in at Winter Island,* 

 where they remained till the 2nd of July 1822. They were then 

 released, and sailed northward up Fox Channel. Having discovered 

 the Fury and Hecla Strait, the ships were again frozen in on the 31st 

 of October at the island of Igloolik, at tho eastern end of Fury and 

 Hecla Strait There they remained till the middle of August 1823, 

 when they commenced their voyage homewards, and entered the 

 Thames in Octotxr. During bis absence Captain Parry had been pro- 

 moted to the rank of poet-captain, November 8, 1821. His 'Journal 

 of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North- West Passage from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific, performed in the years 1821-22-23,' 4to, 

 1824, was published by authority of the Lords of the Admiralty. On 

 the 1st of December 1828, Captain Parry was appointed Acting 

 Hydrographer to the Admiralty. 



The Hecla and Fury were soon afterwards refitted for another Arctic 

 voyage, the Hecla commanded by Captain Parry and the Fury by 

 Captain 11. P. Hoppner. They sailed from the Thames on the 8th of 

 May 1 824 , passed the following winter at Port Bowen in Prince Regent's 

 Inlet, and remained there frozen up from the 28th of September till 

 the 20th of July 1825. The Fury was shortly afterwards wrecked, and 

 the Hecla reached England, with a double ship's company, in the follow- 

 ing October. Parry's 'Journal of a Third Voyage for the Discovery 

 of a North- West Pastage' was similarly published, in 4to, in 1826. 



AfUr his return Captain Parry was appointed Hydrographer to the 

 Admiralty, and continued to perform the duties of the office till the 

 10th of November 1826. Having then proposed a plan for reaching 

 the North Pole, and obtained sanction for it, he was again appointed 

 to the command of the Hecla for that purpose, and sailed from the 

 Thames on the 3rd of April 1827. The Hecla was secured in Treuren- 

 berg Bay, on the north coast of Spitsbergen, an the 21st of June; 

 and on the 22nd two fiat-bottomed boat*, which bad been prepared for 

 the enterprise, left the ship, and proceeded northward. One boat, 

 with twelve men, was commanded by Captain Parry ; the other, with 

 the name number of men, by Lieutenant James C. Ross. The remainder 

 of the crew, under Lieutenant Foster, remained in charge of the Hecla. 

 With excessive labour the boats were paddled through the water and 

 dragged over the ice till they attained the latitude of 82 45', which 

 is the nearest point to the North Pole ever yet reached. Finding 

 then that a current was taking them southward as fast or faster than 

 they could advance northward, they commenced their return, and 

 reached the Hecla on the 21st of August, after an absence of sixty-one 

 days. The Hecla began her return voyage on the 28th of August, 

 and Captain Parry reached London at the end of September. This 

 expedition terminated Parry's arduous labours in the Arctic regions. 

 His ' Narrative of an Attempt to reach the North Pole in Boats fitted 

 for the Purpose, and attached to His Majesty's Ship Hecla, in the Year 

 1827,' 4 to, was published by authority of the Duke of Clarence, then 

 Lord High Admiral 



Captain Parry resumed his situation as hydrographer, but, as hit 

 health suflered consider*),!)- from close attention to the duties of his 

 sedentary occupation, he accepted the office of Commissioner of the 

 Australian Agricultural Company in New South Wales. Previously 

 however to bis departure from England, he received the honour of 



knighthood from George IV., together with Sir John Franklin, 

 April 29, 1829; and be aud Franklin had, also together, the degree of 

 D.C.L. conferred on them by the University of Oxford. Sir Edward 

 Parry sailed from the Thames for Australia on the 20th of July, and 

 reached Sydney on the 13th of December. His residence as com- 

 missioner was at Port Stephens, about 90 miles north from Sydney. 

 He entered the Thames on his return, with his wife and family, in 

 November 1884. 



In March 1S35 Sir Edward Parry was appointed an Assistant Poor- 

 Law Commissioner in the county of Norfolk ; but his health giving 

 way under tho pressure of work, he resigned the office within a year. 

 In 1837 he was appointed to organise the packet-service batween 

 Liverpool and Ireland. From the 19th of April 1337 to the 2nd of 

 December 1846 he was Comptroller of Steam Machinery for the Royal 

 Navy. He then retired from active service, receiving the appointment 

 of Captain-Superintendent of the Royal Clarence Yard and of the 

 Naval Hospital at Haslor, near Portsmouth. On the 4th of June 

 1852 he attained the rank of Hear-Admiral of the White. At the end 

 of 1853 he received the appointment of Lieutenant-Governor of Green- 

 wich Hospital, a situation which he retained till hU death, which took 

 place on the 7th of July 1855, at Ems in Germany, where he had 

 been residing for the benefit of his health. His body was brought to 

 England, and interred in the cemetery at Greenwich. 



Sir Edward Parry married, October 23, 1826, Isabella Louisa, fourth 

 daughter of the first Lord Stanley of Alderley. She died May 13, 

 1839. On tho 29th of June 1841 he married the daughter of the 

 Rev. Robert Hankinson, of Walpole in Norfolk, and widow of Samuel 

 Hoare, jun., Esq. By his first wife he had two sons and two daughters, 

 and by his second wife, who survives him, two daughters. 



A life of Sir Edward Parry has been published recently, ' Memoirs 

 of Rear-Admiral Sir W. Edward Parry, Kut., F.R.S., ia, lato 

 Lieutenant-Qovernor of Greenwich Hospital, by his Son, the Uv. 

 Edward Parry, M.A., of Bolliol College, Oxford, and late Tutor in the 

 University of Durham,' cr. Svo, London, 1857. 



PARU'TA, PA'OLO, was born at Veuice, in 1540, of a patrician 

 family ; studied in the university of Padua, and afterwards enti- 

 the career of diplomacy. In 1562 ho accompanied th, 

 ambassador, who waa sent to Vienna to congratulate Maximilian II. 

 on his accession to the throne. On his return ho stopped at T 

 where the council was then assembled, and where he conceived tlm 

 plan of his dialogues on political life, ' Delia Perfeziono della Vita 

 Politica Libri III.,' in which he introduces two prelates of the council 

 as the interlocutors. On his return to Venice ho filled several official 

 stations in the service of his country, and in the year 1592 was sent 

 ambassador to Pope Clement VIII. at Rome. He was there instru- 

 mental in persuading the pontiff to grant absolution to Henry IV. of 

 France, and thus reconciling the latter with the church of Roma. 

 (Andrea Morosini, 'Storia Veneto,' b. xv.) While at Home, ho says, a 

 change took place in bis ideas, which had till then been turned towards 

 ambition and worldly pursuit*. He asked himself, ' What am I duing 

 in this world? what am I thinking of) and what do I expect in tin- 

 end ! " The process and result of bis self-examination, in which lie 

 recapitulated the whole of his past conduct, he has given us in his 'Soli- 

 loquy,' published at the end of his ' Discorsi Politic!,' which forms a 

 useful moral treatise. 



Before he went to Rome ho was appointed historiographer to the 

 republic, in which capacity he continued the history of his country 

 from 1513, where his predecessor Luigi Coutarini had left it. Tho 

 ' Istoria Vencziana dal 1513 al 1531,' of Paruta is divided into twelve 

 books. A diHtinguished Italian critic, Apostolo /.eno, says of this 

 work, that " the author has fulfilled the duties of a grave and ablo 

 historian, both in respect to the veracity of his narrative and the 

 dignity of his style." Paruta also wrote a separate history of tbo 

 eventful war of the Venetians against the Turks in the Island of 

 Cyprus in 1570-72, in throe books. The histories of Paruta are not 

 mere dry narratives of political or military events ; they art 

 mixed with information and reflections concerning the civil history of 

 the people, and tho customs, manner*, and opinions of the age. Tint 

 branch of political knowledge now known by the name of. statistics, 

 was attended to at Venice much sooner than iu any other modern 

 state, and Paruta had early applied himself to it. Partita's ' Political 

 Discourtes,' in two books, are a series of disquisitions upon the history 

 of Greece and Rome, as well as upon various passages of modern 

 history, and deserve, for their impartiality and statesmanlike penetra- 

 tion, to be put by tho side of Machiavelli's 'Discourses on Livy.' 

 Montesquieu is said to have availed himself of Paruta's ' Discourses ' 

 in the composition of his works. (Corniani, ' Secoli della Letteraturo. 

 Italians,' art ' Paruta.') 



Paruta, after returning from his embaVy at Rome, was made a 

 knight and procuratore of St. Mark, and shortly after died at Venice, 



in ISM. 



PASCAL, BLAISE, a distinguished French philosopher, justly 

 characterised by Bayle as "one of the eublimest spirits in the world, 

 was born at Clermont in Auvergne, June 9,1623. He was the only 

 son of Etienne Pascal, president of the Court of Aids in that province, 

 himself a learned and respectable man and able mathematician, who, 

 when his boy had reached his eighth year, resigned bis office and 

 removed to Paris, for the purpose of watching over his education. 



