298 Arguments for 



await investigation within the Polar area, it only remains to 

 explain, from the knowledge and experience acquired up to 

 the present time, why such researches can best be success- 

 fully accomplished by a naval expedition despatched under 

 Government auspices, and secured as far as possible from 

 failure or disaster by careful organization and good discipline. 

 It is now exactly a century since — in the year 1 773 — the 

 British Government, moved by the Royal Society, 1 despatched 



1 The Royal Society took an active part in the furtherance of 

 Arctic exploration up to the year 1845, and it is to be hoped that 

 that eminent body will still persevere in a policy which has almost 

 become traditional, and which has invariably been successful ; for it 

 cannot be said that any Arctic expedition despatched under their 

 auspices ever returned empty-handed, or without an extension of our 

 knowledge of the polar seas, except that of 1845, when all the 

 valuable results of three years' labour of Sir John Franklin's asso- 

 ciates perished with that expedition. 



In consequence of the representations contained in papers sub- 

 mitted by the Hon. Daines Barrington in 1773, the Eoyal Society 

 resolved to apply to Lord Sandwich, then First Lord of the Ad- 

 miralty, to obtain his Majesty's sanction for an expedition to be 

 fitted out to explore the North Polar area. In a letter, dated 

 January 19, 1773, the subject was recommended to Lord Sandwich? 

 and it was urged that such discovery would be of service to the 

 promotion of natural knowledge. 



The wishes of the council of the Eoyal Society were immediately 

 complied with, and it was ordered that an expedition should be 

 undertaken, " with every encouragement that could countenance 

 such an enterprise, and every assistance that could contribute to its 

 success." The command was given to Captain Phipps, afterwards 

 Lord Mulgrave. The instructions were drawn up by Mr. N. Mas- 

 kelyne, the Eev. H. Horsley, Mr. Cavendish, and Dr. Maty. 



The comparative failure of Captain Phipps did not damp the 

 ardour of the Eoyal Society. Early in 1774, the council minutes 

 show that another expedition was frequently the subject of debate ; 

 and in February, 1774, a memorial was presented by the Eoyal 

 Society to the Admiralty. This led to Captain Cook's attempt on 

 the Pacific side ; the expedition sailing in June, 1776. 



In 1817 the council of the Eoyal Society resumed the considera- 



