SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.* As the author of this biography says

in the course of hie preface, there can be no fear that the exploits of Sir John Franklin will ever be forgotten. His name is written too frequently upon the map of the Arctic Ocean, and the memory of his strenuous endeavours, of his unconquerable courage, and of the splendid, though sombre, tragedy of his end has sunk too deeply into the hearts of Englishmen to be ever wholly lost. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that the story of his exploits has been told and retold by other Arctic explorers until it has become an almost familiar tale, there is yet room for another narrative, which should deal more with the personality and character of tLe man himself than with the actual deeds that he accemplishei. To quote from the preface again :—

" It has been felt by his surviving relatives, as it was felt by • The Life of Sir John Franklin. By D. D. Traill. London : John lin• ray. his devoted wife and widow, that to the records, simple and appreciative as many of them have been, of the career of the explorer there needed the addition of some personal memoir of the man. What Franklin did may be sufficiently well known to hie countrymen already. What he was—how kindly and affectionate, how modest and magnanimous, how loyal in his friendships, how faithful in his allegiance to duty, how deeply and unaffectedly religious—has never been and never could be known to any but his intimates. But that knowledge ought not to be confined to them. The character of such men as Franklin is, in truth, as much a national possession as their fame and work."

With these words we entirely agree; and we are glad that the task of making that character better known to hie fellow- countrymen has fallen into the hands of so able a biographer as Mr. Traill, who has performed it not only with the literary skill which might naturally be expected of him, but also with a rare combination of sympathy and judgment, furnishing

a portrait which is as convincing in its manifest truth as it is attractive and heroic.

No small credit is also due to Mr. Trail for the success with which he has compressed the story of his hero's life into the limits of one stout volume,—no easy feat when dealing with a career so full of adventure and interest.

Franklin was barely fifteen years old when he first entered the Navy, and within a few short months of his joining his first ship, H.M.S. Polyphemus,' he was present at the battle of Copenhagen, pronounced by Nelson to be "the most terrible" of all the battles he had fought. From this time. 1801, onwards till he sailed upon his last voyage, a little more than half-a-century ago, his life was one of constant change and continued action. The longest period that he ever passed without active employment was less than three years, a part of which, by the way, was occupied in wooing and marrying his second wife, and even this scanty season of leisure was regarded by himself and Lady Franklin as a lamentable and irreparable loss of time. As a matter of fact Sir John Franklin's name has come to be so entirely associated with Arctic exploration, that the general public

has somewhat forgotten what distinguished services he rendered his country in other branches of his profession. Before he had reached the age of manhood he had played a man's part in two of the most terrible naval engagements of all time, Copenhagen and Trafalgar ; in both battles his

ships, the ' Polyphemus' and the 'Bellerophon,' suffered more heavily than any other, and hie escape unscathed from the awful carnage that took place on their decks seemed to give proof of a charmed life. Between these two events he accom- panied Captain Flinders on his memorable survey of the

Australian coast—a service which confirmed him in his love of adventurous exploration—was shipwrecked under the most trying circumstances, and finally distinguished himself as an officer on the East Indian fleet of merchantmen which so gallantly beat off a French squadron of war by sheer bravadw

It is impossible to give within our limits even a brief outline of the career which followed. Two services, apart from Arctic exploration, however, deserve our notice, and the care with which Mr. Traill has described them. One, his command of the 'Rainbow' in the Mediterranean, and the other, his governorship of Tasmania- In both Sir John Franklin gave evidence of the possession of qualities which would have raised him to the first rank either as a diplomatist or as an administrator. It is true that ho

failed to satisfy the Colonial Office at home, and was recalled from his post in Tasmania ; but the reasons of his recall,

and, indeed, the whole history of the quarrel which led to it, reflect a good deal more credit upon Sir John himself than

upon his opponents. His biographer brings out the character of Sir John, displayed under rather trying circumstances, with no little skill. Where he failed was in consequence of crediting others with the same scrupulous sense of honour that be possessed himself. Against a man like the Greek Governor of Patras he could hold his own fairly enough : he recognised his opponent as an unprincipled plotter, and outwitted his manoeuvres with a patient dexterity which would have dose credit to an Ambassador. But against the secret intrigues of his own subordinate officer he was helpless : he could not meet craft with craft when he contended with his owa colleague. Only in one instance, however, was this struggle

ever forced upon him. The Colonial Secretary in Tasmania was the only one of Sir John Franklin's subordinates who did not yield to the personal charm of his chief and was not inspired with the devotion that Sir John always met with in his officers. The secret of the charm which he uni- versally exercised is not far to seek. He had great tact, and used a never-failing courtesy towards all men ; but both the tact and the courtesy were natural, the outcome of great kindliness of heart, quick sensibility as to others' feelings, and a very true and honest humility.

His success in the little diplomacies of life is often

amusingly illustrated in the course of his official career. "Oh," writes his wife in one of her letters, "what a coaxing, smooth-tongued rogue you are ! Who would think, my dear, that you had lived among the Polar bears?.''.' One wishes, by the way, that Mr. Train had been able to give us more of Lady Franklin's letters, which reveal a mind and a spirit

almost as remarkable in their way as those of her husband.

Both were possessed by the same dauntless courage and the same noble ambition ; both were singularly free from the more selfish motives which generally rule human conduct. The great secret of success with an Arctic explorer is absolute unselfishness ; and there can be no doubt that it was this quality, above all others, that especially endeared Sir John Franklin to his followers, and animated them with the perfect confidence and devotion that they displayed towards their leader. The tale of the first Arctic expedi- tion, upon which Sir John Franklin was engaged, has been told more than once, but never with a mtre simple and graphic force than in these pages. Of all tales of human endurance it is one of the most moving, and Franklin's own journal, in which the long and awful fight with famine is so quietly and dispassionately recorded, cannot be sur- passed for pathetic interest. Just before the relief came to Fort Enterprise there were but four men left,—the inter- preter, Adams, apparently dying ; Franklin and Richardson and Hepburn. The last-mentioned-

" Still remained the strongest of the four men to whom the party was now reduced ; for Franklin, with his customary candour, admits that they had outstayed' him, and that during these last days the task of woodcutting devolved wholly upon them, Franklin himself having only just strength enough to hunt for deerskins under the snow. After another two days, however, the strength even of the indefatigable pair began rapidly to decline. Y.t, their leader adds, 'they were full of hope, and went to their labour of gathering wood cheerfully.' But on Tuesday, November 6, it became evident that they were on the verge of absolute exhaustion. To cut one log of wood is an occupation for half an hour to Hepburn, and to carry it into the house occupied Richardson almost the same time, though the distance does not exceed twenty yards. I endeavoured to render the men some assistance in this employment, but my aid was feeble. It is evident, however, continues Franklin, with a rebound of his marvellously elastic spirits, that if their strength diminishes with the rapidity it has done for the last three days, I shall be the strongest in a day or two.' "

Relief came the next day, unexpectedly. But what a picture the journal affords of the indomitable soul of man ! Though Death stood and waited for them, drawing nearer day by day, they fought against his approach with undiminished cheerfulness ; and day by day their leader kept a methodical record of the struggle, and even enlivened it with a little joke.

One of Franklin's chief characteristics upon which his bio- grapher especially insists was his simple, unaffected piety :—

" His piety was throughout his life of the sober and practical order natural to an Englishman born and brought up in the Church of England during that long period of what excitable persons would call 'stagnation,' which divided the two great ' revivals' of the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth century from each other. It had no affinities with either the ecstatic or the ascetic form of the religious emotion, and it was certainly free from any tendency to give undue prominence to faith over works. It was emphatically the piety of a man of action and endeavour, of him to whom, though the evening never fails to bring the hour of spiritual sell-communing and meditation, the day seems best spent in untiring struggle with the hostile forces of Nature, best dedicated to th it labour which itself is prayer. In a word, it was the piety which supported Havelock in his swift and splendid march over the burning plains of India, and Gordon in his lonely vigil at Khartoum; the piety which, through generations of our history, has carried so many strenuous English workers by land and sea through a life of perils to an heroic death."

Khartoum fell, and Gordon's long agony was in vain. Franklin discovered the North-West Passage, and lo! it was

useless. The greatest achievements of both ended in failure and death. But who can doubt that their country owes more to those glorious defeats than it does to a hundred victories.