238 
CAPT. COLLINSON— ROYAL AWARDS. 
[May 24, 1858. 
“For all tliese reasons, and also because, though not chosen to 
perform any part of the noble mission on which your mind was 
bent, you have earnestly laboured in carrying out the last Franklin 
Fund Subscription in aid of the survey undertaken by your younger 
brother officer M‘Clintock, I have the sincerest pleasure in putting 
this Medal into your hand.” 
Captain Collinson then replied : — 
“ Mr. President, — I must ever retain a lively recollection of the 
kind and impressive manner with which you have conveyed this 
honour — an honour which is greatly enhanced in my estimation by 
its having come through the hands of one who not only holds so 
eminent a position in the scientific world, but who has taken so 
deep and unswerving an interest in that great cause which has led 
to its bestowal. I receive it, Sir, as the tribute which Knowledge 
pays to Enterprise. Hand in hand the two sisters have worked 
together, the one, by laborious study and close reasoning, pointing 
out the path which the other, firmly relying on the matured judg- 
ment of her elder sister, has unhesitatingly followed, until, in this 
our day, we have seen the Himalayas mapped, a great portion of 
the interior of Australia explored, an Antarctic continent discovered, 
the water boundary to America established, and last, but not least, 
Africa permeated. 
“ These results have to a great extent exhausted the field of 
exploration, but a higher and a nobler task awaits their efforts ; 
we have to turn them to good account ; and whether we go forth as 
settlers to occupy, or as merchants to exchange our manufactures 
for the natural productions of these distant regions, we have to 
diffuse among their inhabitants the comforts of civilization, the ad- 
vantages of free institutions, with the blessing of that true and holy 
religion under the special providence of which we have spread from 
an insular kingdom to a mighty empire. 
“ Though these things are rapidly coming to pass, we cannot 
expect to see them fully realised; after ages will, however, ac- 
knowledge with gratitude the furtherance which they have received 
from the influence of this Society — a Society through whose annals 
the public is made acquainted with the progress of discovery, where 
the field of ambition is opened to the young geographer, who is 
shown the best means of accomplishing his object, and where (but 
with diffidence I now say it) a generous stimulus is given to scien- 
tific research and to perseverance under difficulty, by the distribu- 
tion of honourable distinctions, such as it is my good fortune to have 
been deemed worthy of deserving. 
“ I have to thank you, Gentlemen, for the kind reception you 
have given to the award of the President and Council. Your cor- 
diality has afforded me a life-long gratification ; it sends me to my 
seat with the assurance that on this occasion I may assume the motto 
of that illustrious seaman who made the signal ‘ England expects 
every man to do his duty ’ — ‘ Palmarn qui meruit ferat.’ ” 
