Miscellanea. 34] 
When this arduous scheme was first mentioned to me, I foresaw con- 
siderable difficulty, though not all the obstacles with which it was beset ; 
but as at that time the intrepid young officer had obtained the approval and 
countenance of Her Majesty’s Foreign Secretary, * and was certain to pro- 
ceed to St. Petersburgh, I felt it to he my duty, as your President, ener- 
getically to support the enterprise. I did so, however, on the express 
condition (and my letters to the Imperial authorities were so penned) that 
the expedition must be entirely arranged and executed by the Russian 
Government. I was led to hope that, as thirty years had elapsed since 
their voyagers, Wrangel, Anjou, and Matiushkin, had explored those in- 
hospitable snowy deserts, the Imperial Government might wish to renew 
and extend such inquiries, and thus become better acquainted with the 
outlines of north-eastern Asia. 
This view was warmly supported by the illustrious Humboldt and by 
Adolf Erman; and Colonel Sabine, having instructed Lieut. Pim in the 
method of taking magnetic observations, stated to me that a few of these 
correctly made in the north-east of Siberia would be worth the expedition, 
for their important bearing on terrestrial magnetism. The first Minister of 
the Crown + had granted a sum in aid, and every thing seemed for a while 
propitious; whilst the King of Prussia bestowed marks of kindness on the 
young officer as he passed through Berlin; and Sir G. Hamilton Seymour, 
the British minister at St. Petersburgh, most kindly entertained him. 
The Reports, however, of the Russian authorities to His Imperial 
Majesty, particularly a document prepared by Admiral Matiushkin, were 
averse to the renewal of any such enterprise. They represented that, im 
order to enable travellers, furnished with instruments and interpreters, to 
traverse the ultra-Siberian country of the Tehuktchi, previous arrangements 
of eighteen months would be required to assemble the necessary quantity 
of dogs andsledges; and that, as the former expedition had, by withdrawing 
the use of many of these animals, produced fatal diseases among the 
natives and a great mortality, such an extraordinary effort ought not to be 
renewed without motives of overwhelming necessity. 
In short, being informed that such an expedition could not be put in 
motion before March, 1853, and being aware of the responsibilities which 
they would be led into, whether as respected their relation to the native 
tribes, or to the young British officer whose life they thought would be 
uselessly perilled, the Imperial Government declined to co-operate in the 
project. Atthe same time they gave Mr. Pim permission to travel in any 
direction he pleased through Siberia; but, by my own advice and that of other 
friends, he reluctantly abandoned the scheme. On his return from St. Peters- 
burgh he immediately volunteered to serve again under his old commander 
Captain Kellett, and he has now sailed with the Arctic expedition; not, how- 
ever, before he had, with the sanction of our Premier, handed over the 
balance of the sum advanced to him to help on another expedition to 
Behring Strait. Let me further state, that, whilst he was in Russia, our 
* Viscount Palmerston. + Lord Jobn Russell. 
