62 TRANSACTIONS iSgg-'oO 



Robeson Channel, tjie northern continuation of Kennedy, reach- 

 ing 82° 16'. By these, and other Unistoniam explorers, the 

 northern extensions of Bafhn's EHesmere I^and and Smith 

 Channel were explored and named, and thus it is that in the 

 north-east corner of the District of Franklin, we have a curious 

 combination of place names, commemorative of British and 

 American worthies, suggestive of that closer association of recent 

 times which seems to prognosticate the union of the several 

 branches of the English-speaking people, after a few more 

 presidential elections have eliminated the amusing tendency to 

 "tail-twisting" our breezy neighbours periodically display, 

 owing, apparently, to a deep seated provincialism not yet eradi- 

 cated. 



I have mentioned that the District of Franklin has had its 

 free schools, its free theatres and its free newspapers, and also 

 its own currency (gun wads). It has also inspired great 

 painters. "The North West Passage"- exhibited at the 

 Academy in the Spring of 1874, was perhaps, the most popular 

 of all Sir John Millais' paintings at the time, not only for its 

 intrinsic merit, but as an expression, more eloquent than words, 

 of the wide felt desire that to England should fall the honour of 

 laying bare the hidden mystery of Canada's North. "It might 

 be done and England ought to doit." This was the stirring 

 legend which marked the subject of the painting. 



Capt. Trelawney, who in his younger days had been an in- 

 timate friend of B5^ron and Shelley, sat for the "old sea-dog," 

 whose weather-beaten features gave utterance to the sentiment 

 nearest his heart. By his side is outspread a map of the North- 

 ern regions, and with her hand resting on his hand, his daughter 

 rests at his feet, reading to him the records of previous attempts, 

 to reach the North Pole. 



This picture powerfully assisted men like Sherard Osborn 

 and others, who had been connected with circumpolar explor- 

 ation during the "fifties," in their efforts to induce the Govern- 

 ment to try again. After 15 years of inaction, in the autumn of 

 1874, the Prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli — that bright and 

 morning star of the Imperialistic principle, whose steady light 

 has guided the British people to Imperial unity — announced the 



