POLICY OF RUSSIA. 1 1 
until frequent failures bad taken place, that the suspicion began to 
be entertained, that tbe destruction of tbe Portuguese commerce, 
if it depended upon tbe discovery of tbe passage from tbe Atlantic 
to the Pacific, was an event not quite so near at hand, as was 
originally surmised. In tbe majority of tbe failures, however? 
the want of success was not attributed to tbe actually existing 
difficulties, but to tbe deficiency of skill and courage, in tbe 
individuals, who were engaged in tbe expedition. Thus every 
nautical man, who bad ventured beyond tbe sight of land, con¬ 
sidered himself more competent than bis predecessor, in whom 
lie pretended to discover a great want of nautical skill, and an 
absence of all the other qualifications, which were necessary to 
fit him for so important an undertaking. It became, however, 
soon his own fate to return with tbe same tale, as bis predecessor 
bad done before him, and in his turn to become tbe subject of 
ridicule and disgrace. 
There is not perhaps any country, that would have derived 
greater advantages from tbe discovery of tbe north west passage, 
than Russia, but her ambition is not to render her name great 
and glorious in the annals of fame, by the promotion of the 
interests of science, or the addition of a single iota to the stock 
of human knowledge. Her ambition has indeed led her to 
establish her settlements, on the north-eastern coast of America, 
but did it ever prompther to co-operate with Britain in the 
solution of the great geographical problem, by fitting out an 
expedition from one of her Kamschatka ports, and by penetrat¬ 
ing up Behrings Straits, attempt to meet the English navigators ? 
and even, if the flag of the two nations did not actually salute 
each other in a part of the globe, where no flag was ever unfurled 
before, still the question might have been set at rest, in what 
particular latitude, the impenetrable barrier, if any such exist, 
is to be found, and the discovery of the north west passage be 
relinquished for ever afterwards, as hopeless and unattainable. 
In the mean time the strong interest, with which the discovery 
of the north west passage was regarded in England, had excited 
the alarm of the Portuguese, who clearly foresaw, that if the 
passage could be discovered, the most lucrative and valuable 
