172 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [part i 
But he never got north of 68° 14', though he fixed several 
positions in Davis Strait. He left the Scilly Islands June 
20th, 1776, with instructions to protect the whalers from 
any attacks from colonial rebels, as well as to meet Captain 
Cook's expedition 1 . In the following year the Lion was 
sent north again, under Lieutenant Young, but did still 
less. 
Our Government then had a far clearer perception 
of their duties as regards discovery than is the case now. 
By Acts George II cap. 17 (1745) and George III cap. 6 
( I 77 6 ) £5000 were offered for reaching 89° N. and £20,000 
for making the North- West Passage. In 1818 a further 
attempt to stimulate discovery was made by offering 
proportionate rewards for reaching high latitudes from 
83 0 to 89 0 . But it was due to the persistent representa- 
tions of a private geographer that the Government itself 
was induced to take action. 
The Hon. Daines Barrington — brother of the excellent 
Dr Shute Barrington, Bishop of Durham, and friend of 
Gilbert White of Selborne— was born in 1727, and after 
leaving Oxford became a barrister, and eventually a 
Bencher of the Inner Temple and Recorder of Bristol. 
He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society 
of Antiquaries, and the author of a translation of King 
Alfred's work on Orosius. He was deeply interested 
in northern voyages, and collected many accounts of 
ships reaching high latitudes from English and Dutch 
whaling captains. He published the information he had 
collected in his Possibility of approaching the North Pole 
asserted 2 , and at the same time made strong representa- 
tions to the Royal Society on the scientific importance of 
a northern voyage. At last he induced that body to make 
an appeal to the Government, and Lord Sandwich, then 
First Lord of the Admiralty, resolved that an expedition 
should be fitted out and despatched. 
Two ship-rigged bomb vessels, the Racehorse and 
Carcass, were selected and specially strengthened. Captain 
1 Philosophical Transactions, lxviii, p. 1057. 
2 Second edition 1818. Daines Barrington was also the author of 
Observations on the Statutes, 1766 ; Naturalist's Calendar, ij6-j ; Mis- 
cellanies, 1781 ; and of contributions to the Archaeologia and Philosophical 
Transactions. He died at the Temple on March nth, 1800, aged 73. 
