t, like some of the military
governments, where veterans enjoy the dignity of office without its
toils. But he found himself doomed to encounter all the responsibilities
of ordinary legislation and government, with difficulties peculiar to a
penal colony. For this his former pursuits had not prepared him. His
manner was often embarrassed and hesitating, and presented a contrast to
the quiet vigor of his more able but not more amiable predecessor. The
colony had attained that development when the public institutions
require reconstruction, and the popular will must in some measure
regulate their form and spirit. The administration of the governor was
eminently disinterested. He had no private speculations or secret
agents, and his measures were free from both the taint and the reproach
of corruption. Such faults were sometimes imputed, but they were the
staple slanders of writers without credit or name. His expenditure
greatly exceeded his official income; and while the plainness of his
establishment and entertainments was the topic of thoughtless censure,
the charities of his family were scattered with a liberal hand. The
piety of Franklin was ardent, and his conscience scrupulous. His remarks
in council on the sports of some idle boys in the government domain on
the Lord's Day exposed him to the satire of scorners. He thought that
youths who violate the sanctity of the Sabbath take the first ordinary
steps in a dissolute and dishonest life. An anecdote, on the authority
of Captain Back, shows his harmless character in a striking light.[230]
The writer observes--"As an illustration of the excellent individual to
whom it refers, I may be pardoned for introducing it here. It was the
custom of Sir John Franklin never to kill a fly, and though teased with
them beyond expression, especially when taking observations, he would
gently desist from his work, and patiently blow the half gorged
intruders from his hands, saying, 'The world is wide enough for both.'
Manfelly (an Indian chief) could not refrain from expressing his
surprise that I should be so unlike the 'old chief' who would not
destroy a single mosquito."

The name of Franklin is indissolubly connected with the great problem of
modern geography--the connection of the polar seas with the north
pacific ocean. In 1818 he was first employed in this service, but
returned without success. In 1820 he conducted an overland expedition to
the Coppermine River. This party suffe