Abstract
HER Majesty's advisers can by no means be accused of precipitancy in the decision they have recently come to, to send out a new Arctic Expedition; they have certainly waited for “the fulness of the time,” which, for the lay mind, may be said only to have been accomplished with the return of the Payer-Weyprecht expedition. We believe that the scientific societies of the country had good grounds for urging upon Government the propriety of fitting out an expedition for Arctic discovery years ago; all who understand the Arctic question, we are sure, will coincide with us in the opinion, that had energetic measures been taken when the subject was first urged upon the attention of Government, the earth's surface around the North Pole would by this time have been on our maps. Still, Government cannot be blamed for this tardiness; it cannot be expected that men who have no occasion to make a special study of scientific questions can see them in the same light as those whose great work in life is scientific investigation; and, moreover, in a country governed as ours is, Ministers, before coming to a decision on any important matter, are bound carefully to feel the country's pulse, not to mention their duty in respect of the country's purse. Her Majesty's advisers have, then, no doubt been, from their point of view, wise in deferring till now their decision that England should once more come to the front in the exploration of the unknown “Polynia;” as they also would have shown themselves extremely unwise and unable to read the country's wishes had they postponed the matter any longer.
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THE ENGLISH ARCTIC EXPEDITION . Nature 11, 61–62 (1874). https://doi.org/10.1038/011061a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/011061a0