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    what Chinese official vengeance is . The poor French missionary , tortured for three- days , hung , and disembowelled by the executioners , who ate his heart , rebukes from his grave the sentimentalism of those oracles of humanity who talk of China as a land of helpless innocence and exalted simplicity . Lord Debbt had obviously prepared his long oration after certain models , of which ,

    no doubt , he has many in his library . It was a disappointment to him , however , when he reached his studied peroration—an appeal to the Episcopal Bench—to find that most of the lawn-sleeved peers had drifted away , so that he was compelled to force a parenthesis of regret , and to declare what he would have addressed to them had they been within hearing . They had not waited to watch the dying fires of the Parliamentary Bupert .

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    A DIPLOMATIC DUEL . A xittxe jSTapoieon in the East of Europe , Prince Crime a ., has prohibited the circulation , in the Danubian Principalities , of any journal which advocates the Moldo-Wallachian union . We find ourselves for once , therefore , in . the pleasant compa-ny of the Nord and the Moniteur . But journalists in the "West address themselves to their own governments and their own public ; so that Prince G-hiica , potentate as he is , cannot sprinkle on . us even the ashes of a thunderbolt . ^ Wq regret to state that serious differences have arisen in Eastern Europe between Lord de Hedclii-fb and Sir Henry

    Bulwerdifferences which have excited considerable anxiety among the Liberals of Moldo-Wallachia . Lord de Hedcliffe had assented with surprising facilities . to the original draft of the firman convoking the Assembly of the Provinces . In this original draft the middle and professional classes were altogether ignored , and the Divan was so constituted as to represent only the corrupt imbecility of the Boyar-ds . Lord de Red ci / iite , probably , had not contemplated such a result ; but he

    knows little of the Principalities , and learns nothing of them except through the Consul at Bucharest . Whether inspired by that individual , or governed by motives of mistaken public policy , our Ambassador seems for a year past to have consecrated his energies to one end- —that of aggrandizing the Ghika family . Now , wo have had sufficient experience of Ghika . statesmanship . It means snatching at public money , contempt of popular claims , obsequious servility to the Boyards

    Lord Stratford de Hedclifpb , under the original firman , would have vested this petty prince and petty aristocracy with a monopoly of representation in the Moldo-Wallacliian Assembly . His tactics seem to have opened the way to a diplomatic success , achieved by the French Ambassador , M " . de Tiiouvekel . He saw that the distinction in favour of the

    Boyards was unpopular , and insisted that it should bo set aside , and that the members of the Divan should he elected by all classes of landed proprietors , great and small . The firman was modified to this extent , and we believo we are right in stating that M . de Thouvknjil received the aid and approval of Sir IIjknhy BuLWint , whoso advice to Kedsoiiid Pacha , was also in favour ot" the more

    popular planet election . Lord jdkUedoliffe whs indignant , but ho would have spared himself this mortification had ho consulted the British Commissioner before dictating to the Moldo- Wallachians . On another point , the Ambassador and the Commissioner arc reported to be at variance . Sir 11 ennX" Bux / wer does look upon the union of the Principalities with the aame alarm as

    Lord j ) E KrcncLii'FE , who professes a very wholesome horror of Bonapurtimn , as though it were rational to believe that the Moklo-Wallachiana would accept a Uonnpnrto prince , or that whether the territories wore united or not , . Rus . sia , Austria , ( Jiivat Britain , and Turkey would consent to hucIi a scheme . Once it was Jiussiu that was Hiiid to promote the union , for purposes of her own ; now

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    lie would not hesitate to stand by us ; for the spirit which animated Mr . Grinnell in his munificent contributions towards the search is not extinct . The stores are in . existence , and there are other stores buried in the Arctic shores- A number of officers have competed for employment ; amongst them are CoXiLinson , Richards , M'Cxintock :, Magttibe , and Osbort * . The only things wanted are a modicum of money and the sanction of the Government .

    it is extremely probable that Pbabtklin has left relics where they could be found , Arctic travellers being constantly in the habit of making such deposits . Another instance : Dr . Kane , Sir George Beaufort , and Captain Osborn all believe that some men of the expe « dition may still be alive . The dilatory replies of last year were almost a promise—if , indeed , there was not a , direct promise—of assistance . Cold , heartless counsels have prevailed , and the Government shows itself unworthy of the country which has produced a Franklin .

    Government hesitates to grant the money ; why , we cannot conceive . If the appeal were made direct to the English people , whom , it would cost something less than a farthing a family , the mite would be given to the widow without a moment ' s hesitation . Sir Ghables Wood professes to shrink from " the-iesponaibility" of risking life . Tfow , in point of

    fact , there is no enterpr ise at all testing the hardihood of the British sailor which has been so free from casualty as the Arctic exploration . The loss of Pr-anklin is the exception to the rule . The pleas of Government , therefore , are beggarly in spirit , and disgraceful to the country in whose name they are uttered .

    OraCIAL REFUSAL OP A TINAL SEARCH K > 3 t FRANKLIN . The Government has refused to send out an expedition in search of 3 ? ba : n : k :: lin ' s remains , and , in refusing , Government has chosen to take a very low standard of public or personal morality . There was every reason for acceding to the petitions from the widow and scientific men urging the expedition ; the reasons against it were few and feeble . We will not argue , we will do nothing more than state facts . There have been some traces of the lost expedition ; but there are a hundred and thirty-five men who have been lost , and we have no reckonings of them . It is not

    probable , but it is possible , that some of them may be alive ; if even one is so , he , imprisoned within the icy circle of the Arctic region , will never lose the faith that his countrymen will not leave him to perish unsought . The searches that have hitherto been made have traversed a great deal of the ground , and they have settled the question with respect to all but a comparatively small spot ; there is one place that has been left unsearehed , and the tracks of those who have

    been engaged in the quest completely surround this space , The person to whom Government has adjudged « the reward for discovering the traces of the last expedition , Dr . Hab , has never reached that circle . The place is perfectly well known , the route to it is well known . By means of dogs , the whole space could be completely swept , every rood of it could be accounted for . It is tolerably certain that the remains of the expedition lie ¦

    within that area ; it is most likely that some relics of them are there , awaiting recovery , some records , some direction , some bequests . This precise nature of the search renders it certain that the expedition now asked would be final ; it would finish off the field that is to be examined , and it is most likely that it would actually bring to us the crowning information respecting the fate of J ' banicl . in and his followers . So much for the object of the expedition .

    The means . Government is not asked to plan an expedition as an entire novelty ; a large portion of the apparatus exists . For a ship , there is the Resolute , presented to this country by the Americans , and refitted at American expense . It is laid up in ordinary , to rot away in idleness ; but thero could riot possibly bo a more graceful return for the graceful gift than to employ it in a new

    expedition . Most certainly the Americans themselves would highly applaud such a me of their present . Captain Scoukll admitted , in . the debate on Tuesday night , that if an Expedition were sent out , a second vessel ought to accompany the other . Tina is not guite certain , but it may be so , and if the United Empire shrinks from the expense , wo leol some confidence that the United

    ltepub-The appeals to Government have been many , and they are of a kind to deserve attention . In the summer of 1856 was presented a memorial urging an expedition . This memorial was signed by many names the most conspicuous in practical science , and it is well known that those eminent men felt not only a scientific but a personal interest in the final search . To this appeal , the Admiralty gave its ' consideration ; ' but then replied that it was too late that season

    to equip an expedition . At a later date , the subject was again pressed upon Government by Lord Wbotteslet , to whom Lord Stanley of Aldeelky replied in a favourable tone , intimating that if Government sent no expedition , Lady Peanklin should be assisted in fitting out one of her own . Thus the season of 1856 was tided over , and the widow , claiming a debt due from the English to her lost husband , was put off with procrastinating excuses ;

    and thus sue was prevented from turning away and raising that assistance which might then have been collected from her own friends , the friends of Franklin and of science . In the winter she turned from that lost summer to the season of the present year ; early in December , Lady Franklin made a direct appeal to Xord Palmers-ton , in a letter which has sinoe been published by Mr . Hidgway . In this letter , written with all the plainness and force of natural feeling , Lady Fkanklin strung together the practical reasons why the final search should bo made , and the reasons why it

    should not be refused . That letter was written on the 2 nd of December ; three months have passed away , —three months proper to be employed in preparations ; suicl now , in February , Sir Charles Wood gives the answer with new reasons , falsifying the pretexts upon which the assent was put off lust year . The answer amounts to this : " no reasonable person entertains the expectation that any man of Sir John Franklin ' s expedition could bo found alive ; " Dr . "Ham ' s report implied that they perished in . 1850 ; a court of law has decided that their survival is

    improbable ; it is not likely that Frankliin has left any records in a part whore they could be found ; the only rolics would probably bo pieces of ships , wood , oars , and things of that kind . > Sir OiTAitLics regretted the Franklin expedition when it was went out , . and lie " will not incur any fresh responsibility , or give any encouragement to the proposal to send out another expedition . " Now hoi no of these reasons are counter to facts . To take one instance ,

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    [ February 28 , 1857 . ] THE XEADEB . 205

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 28, 1857, page 205, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2182/page/13/