disdains no advance of knowledge as
useless; that, however difficult, or even to our present means
impassable, the route may be, no man can decide on the means of
posterity; that we may yet find facilities as powerful for passing the
ice and the ocean, as the railroad for traversing the land; and that
the evident design of Providence in placing difficulties before man
is, to sharpen his faculties for their mastery. We have already
explored the whole northern coast, to within about two hundred miles
from Behring's Straits, and an expedition is at present on foot which
will probably complete the outline of the American continent towards
the Pole.

Within the last quarter of a century, discovery has turned to the
islands of the Pacific, perhaps the most favoured region of the globe.
Our great continental colony of Australia, its growing population, and
its still more rapidly growing enterprise--its probable influence on
our Indian empire, and its still more probable supremacy over the
islands which cover the central Pacific, from the tenth to the
forty-fifth degrees of south latitude; have for the last thirty years
strongly directed the observation of government to the south. And a
succession of exploring voyages, from the days of Vancouver to the
present time, have been employed in ascertaining the character of
superb shores, and the capabilities of vast countries, which will
perhaps, in another century, exhibit the most vivid prosperity,
cultivation, and activity, of any dominion beyond the borders of
Europe.

Australia has an importance in the eyes of England, superior perhaps
to all her other colonies. The climate is obviously more fitted for
the English frame than that of Canada or the West Indies. The English
settler alone is master of the mighty continent of New Holland; for
the natives are few, savage, and rapidly diminishing. The Englishman
may range over a territory of two thousand miles long, by seventeen
hundred broad, without meeting the subject of any other sovereign, or
hearing any other language than his own. The air is temperate, though
so near the equator, and the soil, though often unfertile, is
admirably adapted to the rearing of sheep and cattle. The adjoining
islands offer the finest opportunities for the commercial enterprise
of the Englishman; and its directness of navigation to India or China,
across an ocean that scarcely knows a storm, give it the promise of
being the great eastern _depot_ of