The opinion appears to be quite incorrect, that if a passage were discovered, it would, probably, be open above half the year. I imagine it would be only at intervals of years that it would be open at all, and then, perhaps, for no longer time than eight or ten weeks in a season. Hence, as affording a navigation to the Pacific Ocean, the discovery of a north-west passage would be of no service. For many reasons, however, the examination of these interesting countries is an object worthy of the attention of a great nation. The advantages that have already arisen to Britain from the voyages undertaken in search of a north-west passage are, the establishment of the Davis’s Strait’s whale-fishery, and of the trade of the Hudson’s Bay company, so that the expenditure has not altogether been lost. The adventurous spirit manifested by our early navigators, in performing such hazardous voyages in small barks, in which we should be scrupulous of trusting ourselves across the German Ocean, is calculated to strike us with surprise and admiration, while the correctness of their investigations gives us a high opinion of their perseverance and talent. The famous voyage of Baffin, in which the bay bearing his name was discovered, was performed in a vessel of only fifty-five tons’ burden; that of Hudson, in which also the bay called by his name was first navigated, in the very same vessel; and the voyages of Davis chiefly in vessels of fifty, thirty-five, and ten tons’ burden. In perusing the voyages of our old navigators, it is particularly gratifying to those who consider religion as the chief business of this life, to observe the strain of piety and dependence upon Divine Providence which runs through almost every narrative. Their honest and laudable acknowledgments of a particular interference of the Almighty, working out deliverance for them in times of difficulty and danger, and their frequent declarations expressive of their reliance upon Providence, for assistance and protection in their adventurous undertakings, are worthy of our imitation. Thus, while our modern voyagers are much in the habit of attributing their most remarkable deliverances to “luck,” “chance,” and “fortune,” those of old evidenced certainly a more Christian-like feeling, under such circumstances, by referring their deliverances to that great Being, from whom alone every good thing must be derived. They only who have a similar dependence on Providence, and who have been occasionally in trying situations, can duly appreciate the confidence and comfort which this belief is calculated to afford under the most appalling circumstances.