He has neglected no means of giving to it the last
degree of perfection. He has himself made the drawings of the charts and
plans, and then he has reproduced them upon the copper-plates, and has
engraved the scales of latitude and longitude by a new method perfected
by himself, and which assures the exactitude of his work. The beauty of
the engravings, and the execution of the work in general, leave nothing
to be desired, and testify to the care that he has devoted to make the
collection of charts one of the most useful of works in promoting the
progress of hydrography."
The praise thus officially bestowed upon Freycinet's work will be felt to
be deserved by any one who studies the atlas of 1812; but admiration of
the workmanship will not commit the careful student to an equally cordial
opinion concerning the completeness and accuracy of the charts as
representations of the coasts traversed by the expedition. The south
coast - the most important part, since here the field was entirely
fresh - was very faulty in outline, and in other parts where Baudin's
vessels had opportunities for doing complete work, important features
were missed. And at the back of it all there looms the shadow of Matthew
Flinders, the merit of whose own work shines out all the brighter for the
contrast.* (* A remarkable example of the way to avoid difficult
questions by ignoring them is afforded by Girard's book on Peron, which,
throughout its 278 pages, contains no reference whatever to Flinders. It
devotes forty pages to the voyage, but absolutely suppresses all
reference to the Encounter Bay incident, the imprisonment of Flinders,
and other questions concerning him. Yet Girard's book was "couronne par
la Societe d'emulation de d'Allier." There should have been some
"rosemary, that's for remembrance," in the crown.)
CHAPTER 12. CONCLUSIONS AND CONSEQUENCES.
Further consideration of Napoleon's purposes.
What Australia owes to British sea power.
Influence of the Napoleonic wars.
Fresh points relative to Napoleon's designs.
Absence of evidence.
Consequences of suspicions of French intentions.
Promotion of settlement in Tasmania.
Tardy occupation of Port Phillip.
The Swan River Settlement.
The Westernport scheme.
Lord John Russell's claim of "the Whole" of Australia for the British.
The designs of Napoleon III.
Australia the nursling of sea power.
The question of paramount interest connected with the events considered
in the foregoing pages is whether or not the expedition of 1800 to 1804
had a political purpose. It is hoped that the examination to which the
facts have been subjected has been sufficient to show that it had not. It
was promoted by an academic organisation of learned men for scientific
objects; it was not an isolated effort, but one of a series made by the
French, which had their counterpart in several expeditions despatched by
the British, for the collection of data and the solution of problems of
importance to science; its equipment and personnel showed it to be what
it professed to be; and the work it did, open to serious criticism as it
is in several aspects, indicated that purposes within the scope of the
Institute of France, and not those with which diplomacy and politics were
concerned, were kept in view throughout.
