An examination of the charter and proceedings of the Hudson's Bay company, with reference to the grant of Vancouver's Island

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HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY

VANCOUVER'S ISLAND.

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0=^'" AN EXAMINATION

CHARTER AND PROCEEDINGS

HUDSON'S BAT COMPAM,

WITH HEFEBENCE TO THE GRANT OF

YANCOUYER'S ISLAND.

BT

JAMES EDWARD FITZGERALD.

' Ubi lolitadmem faciunt, pacem appellant." — Tacit. Agrie.

LONDON:
TRELAWNEY SAUNDERS, 6, Charing Cross.

1849. .

CONTENTS.

Page

Dedicatory Letter to the Right Honorable William

Ewart Gladstone, M.P vii

Chapter I.

A Statement of some recent Occurrences, in rela-
tion to the Hudson's Bay Company and
<5 Vancouver's Island 1

>^ Chapter II.

g Of the Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company, in
Zj respect to the Validity of the Grant of the Soil
^ of Rupert's Land 21

Chapter III.

Of the Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company, in
respect to the Validity of the Grant of the
Right of Exclusive Trade with Rupert's Land 60

Chapter IV.

Of the Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company, in
respect to the Validity of the Grant of the Right
of Exclusive Trade with the Indian Territories 85

27650"

VI CONTENTS.

Chapter V.

Page
Of the Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company, in
respect to the recognition which it has received
from Acts of Parliament, and other public
Documents 92

Chapter VL

Of the Results of the Charter of the Hudson's Bay
Company, as affecting the Interests of the
Mother Country 105

Chapter VII.

Of the Results of the Charter of the Hudson's Bay
Company, as affecting the Int rests of the
Native Indian Population of the Company's
Territories 134

Chapter VIII.

Of the Results of the Charter of the Hudson's Bay
Company, as affecting the Colonists who are
subjected to its influence 199

Chapter IX.

Vancouver's Island : — What it will be — what it

might have been 245

Conclusion 281

DEDICATORY LETTER

TO THE HIOUT HONOURABLE

WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, M.P.,

t[C. tfC.

Sir,

When a work appears from the pen
of an able advocate, containing an elaborate
reply to all the charges which have been
made against his clients, written under the
manifest patronage of the highest authority,
and in the enjoyment of all the information
which such patronage alone can supply,
there is one very satisfactory light in which
to view such a publication, — viz., that we
are at last in possession of the whole defence
which can be made.

For this reason, those who doubted the
expediency of granting Vancouver's Island
to the Hudson's Bay Company, hailed with

VUl DEDICATORY LETTER.

pleasure the appearance of the book which
has lately been published, under the name
of Mr. R. Montgomery Martin, entitled,
" The Hudson's Bay Company's Territories
and Vancouver's Island;" because they could
not regard it as other than a statement, by
authority, of all the grounds upon which
the character of that Company, and the
policy of the Colonial Minister respecting
it, are to be defended.

It seemed right, however, that the state-
ments put forward by Mr. M. Martin should
not be allowed to remain unanswered. I
have therefore thrown together, in the fol-
lowing pages, those facts and arguments
which appear to cast discredit upon such
statements; and I have arranged them in
that order which seemed to me clear and
logical, in several chapters, as follows : —

I. A statement of recent occurrences in con-
nection with the discussion of this question.

DEDICATORY LETTER. IX

II. An investigation into the nature and
validity of the several grants contained in
the Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company,
viz. : —

1. The grant of the soil of Rupert's Land.

2. The grant of the right of exclusive

trade throughout Rupert's Land.

3. The grant of the right of exclusive

trade throughout the Indian Terri-
tories.

4. The mention which has been made of

the Charter in Acts of Parliament,
and in other public documents, as
affecting its validity.

III. The results of the Charter in the
influence which it has exercised severally
upon

1. The Mother Country.

2. The Native Indian population.

3. The Colonists and Settlers in the ter-

ritories over which it extends.

DEDICATORY LETTER.

IV. The future prosperity of Vancouver's
Island.

V. Some concluding observations.

I anticipate that a perusal of the follow-
ing pages will leave upon the mind of the
reader a strong suspicion that the represent-
ations which have been made, are neither
fair nor true ; and the conviction that a
policy which tends to give any validity to
the pretensions of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany, or in any manner to strengthen and
perpetuate its authority, is unwise and rash
in the highest possible degree.

At the same time, I am sure that all who
have assisted in bringing the character and
conduct of the Company under the notice of
the public, will rejoice to see the suspicion
under which they lie cleared away; and
that none would participate in that feel-
ing more entirely than yourself. But in
whatever manner the Company may be

DEDICATORY LETTER. XI

shewn to have exercised their powers and
privileges, the conclusion at which I have
been compelled to arrive, by the investiga-
tions into which I have been led in the
course of this work, will remain unchanged,
viz., that the powers and privileges of the
Hudson's Bay Company, are, for the most
part, in direct opposition to the laws of this
country.

At a time when the attention of all
thinking men is directed to the commercial
and colonial policy of the empire, it is im-
possible that a Corporation can escape notice
whose principles and conduct are diametri-
cally opposed to those doctrines and theories
which it seems to be the great task of our
age to develope and to carry into action.

Were the privileges of the Hudson's Bay
Company unquestionable, it would still be
a matter of doubt, whether the consistent
working out of the principles of the age

Xll DEDICATORY LETTER.

would not necessitate their extermination ;
especially as there are precedents for the
resumption of such powers, from a mul-
titude of companies of precisely a similar
character, when those powers and privi-
leges were found to be incompatible with
the general weal ; but if it can be shewn
that these claims are altogether, and upon
several distinct grounds, fictitious and il-
legal ; and if, in addition, it can be estab-
lished that the result of the exercise of such
illegal power has been of serious detri-
ment, both to this country and to the terri-
tories over which it extends, then I can see no
reason why we should any longer tolerate a
usurped and mischievous authority ; or, why
we should hesitate to put the countries now
under its sway, upon a better social, com-
mercial, and political system. Englishmen
will ever contemplate with reluctance the
overthrow of an ancient Corporation ; but

DEDICATORY LETTER. xiu

that feeling will scarcely quell their indigna-
tion upon learning the fraud which has been
so long practised upon their country.

I think it right to add, that I am not
responsible for the truth of all that is here
stated. The question is, in a great measure,
one of authority, in which testimony must
be taken for what it is worth ; it is one,
moreover, in which it is extremely difficult
to arrive at any independent and unbiassed
information.

But this much is certain, that there is
enough (and this, too, from the evidence of
its own servants and agents), to cast a very
strong suspicion upon the Company of having
grossly abused its powers : there is enough
to justify the demand, for a complete and
impartial investigation into the proceedings
of the Company : there is enough to con-
demn the attempt to invest it with additional
powers.

XIV DEDICATORY LETTER.

I should be guilty of an injustice, if 1 were
to neglect this opportunity of acknowledging
how largely I am indebted to Mr. Isbister,
for his assistance and information in drawing:
up the following statement, and to the inti-
mate acquaintance which he possesses with
the proceedings carried on in the Hudson's
Bay Company's territories, a very large part
of which he has himself traversed. For the
beneficial results which must ensue from the
public interest being attracted to the subject,
the settlers, as well as the native population,
will owe much to the unwearied exertions of
that gentleman.

The interest which you took, during the
last Session of Parliament, in the question
which is the subject of the following pages,
will, I hope, be accepted as a sufficient
apology for having ventured to connect your
name with so humble a performance. If
more were needed, I should seek it in the

DEDICATORY LETTER. XV

sympathy you have ever displayed with any
effort, however humble, to vindicate the
rights of the oppressed, and to extend the
influence of those sacred principles of reli-
gion, of liberty, and of law, by which the
foundations of this empire have been laid,
and by which alone its greatness is pre-
served.

It is, Sir, only in the hope that it may, in
however small a degree, advance the cause
of truth and of civilization, that this book is
presented to you, with the greatest respect,
by

Your most obedient and

most humble Servant,
James Edward Fitzgerald.

London, Feb. 1, 1849.

CHAPTER I.

A STATEMENT OF SOME RECENT OCCURRENCES
IN RELATION TO THE HUDSOn's BAY COM-
PANY AND Vancouver's island.

During the last Session of Parliament, rumours
went about that it was the intention of Her Ma-
jesty's Government to grant Vancouver's Island to
the Hudson's Bay Company, with a view to found-
ing a colony there.

There were several public men who doubted
whether such a Corporation as the Hudson's Bay
Company were likely to colonize effectually ;
whether the very nature of their constitution, and
the character of their operations, would not forbid
their doing so ; and, more than this, whether they
have not a direct interest in preventing Coloniza-
tion, from the fear that the peculiar monopoly of
the fur trade, which they possess, might be practi-
cally endangered by a colony in any part of the
country ; — because the collection of the natives into
villages, which would be the tendency of a colony,
and the communication to them of agricultural

B

Z PRELIMINARY STATEMENT.

tastes and habits, in however small a degree,
would interfere with their occupation as hunters
and trappers ; — in fine, whether it were common
sense to expect that the task of civilizing and
settling a country, should be entrusted to those
whose obvious interest it is to keep it wild and
uncultivated.

But, besides this, it was within the recollection of
those who had taken any interest in the matter, that
the colonists of the Red River settlement, the only
colony within the dominions of the Hudson's Bay
Company, and which is entirely under its govern-
ment, had, not very long before, expressed great
dissatisfaction at the rule to which they were sub-
ject ; and that they had sent over a petition, signed
by almost all the adult male population of the set-
tlement, praying that Her Majesty would be pleased
to inquire into the nature of the government
exercised over them, and stating many grievances
to which they were subject, and from which they
prayed to be relieved.

The charges made by the settlers of the Red
River against the Hudson's Bay Company, were
referred by the Colonial Office to the Governor of
the Company for a report thereon. That Report
was considered by Earl Grey to be so far from

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 3

satisfactory, that the matter was referred to Lord
Elgin, the Governor of Canada.

\Miat Lord Elgin's answer was, is a mystery.
That one sentence in his Lordship's despatch was
favom'able to the Hudson's Bay Company, we know,
because Lord Grey and Mr. Hawes traded upon it
to the utmost in Parliamentary debates respecting
this question ; but what was the whole tenor and
bearing of Lord Elgin's opinion, it is impossible to
say, when the Colonial Minister has declared it to
be a principle of his administration to quote only
such parts of documents in his possession as make
out his own case.

But whatever Lord Elgin's opinion may be, the
Colonial Office do not appear to have been satisfied
with it : for a commission was appointed to inquire,
on the spot, into the charges made against the
government of the Hudson's Bay Company. But,
as if in utter mockery of all common sense and
common decency, tlie person appointed to make the
inquiry was appointed, at the same time, Lieutenant-
Governor of the Colony, and thus became a paid
ofiicer of the Corporation into whose administration
he was to make an inquiry.

These being the facts of the case, the question
was put in the House of Commons, by Lord Lin-

b2

4 PRELIMINARY STATEMENT.

coin, " Are you going to make a grant of additional
territory, and of increased powers, to the Hudson's
Bay Company, at a time when serious charges are
pending against that Company for maladministration
of the countries at present under their sway, and
before you have received a Report from the Commis-
sioner you have appointed to inquire into the truth
of those charges ? "

The Colonial Minister admitted that such charges
were before him ; that a final Report had not yet
been made by the Commissioner whom he had
appointed ; and that he had, nevertheless, deter-
mined to make the grant of Vancouver's Island to
the Company.

In order to shew the grounds on which this extra-
ordinary decision was founded, some papers were
laid before Parliament, containing extracts from the
correspondence which had taken place with the
Hudson's Bay Company, and also a draft of the
Charter which it was proposed to make, granting
Vancouver's Island to them.

Upon this a motion was made for an address to
Her Majesty, praying that the grant might be
postponed, until the question were finally settled,
as to how the Company had wielded the vast
powers already committed to them, and whether

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 0

they were fit to be entrusted with any fresh respon-
sibility.

Close to the end of the Session, when few but the
supporters of Government are in town, in the
absence of some of those chiefly interested in the
question, and in a house of 100 members, the
Government only escaped being beaten by a ma-
jority of 16 : so feeble was the ground upon which
they had to stand.

Upon this occasion Mr. Gladstone made a speech,
in which he went into the history and dealings of
the Hudson's Bay Company, shewing that they
were not qualified to possess the privileges with
which it was proposed to invest them.

That speech has remained unanswered until now.
The Charter to the Hudson's Bay Company was
referred to the Committee of the Privy Council,
and there is no information before the public as to
whether it has been completed or not. There is,
moreover, another motion standing over till this
Session, for an address to the Crown, praying Her
Majesty to refuse the grant proposed.

Now the case stood thus, to wit, that Her Ma-
jesty's Government had made up their minds to a
certain course of conduct, right or wrong ; — that a
powerful and unanswered manifesto was before the

b PRELIMINARY STATEMENT.

public, condemning the policy proposed ; — that all
the leading public journals had taken up the ques-
tion against the Government ; — that the Chamber of
Commerce at Manchester had thought it worth their
while to send up a strong remonstrance against the
course proposed ; — that the Hudson's Bay Company
had not as yet made any reply whatever to the
charges brojjlght against them : the case stood thus,
when a few weeks ago a book appeared, under the
name of Mr, Montgomery Martin, containing an
elaborate defence of the conduct and character of
the Hudson's Bay Company, and of the policy of
the Colonial Minister respecting it.

There is only one light in which Mr. M. Martin's
work upon the Hudson's Bay Company can be
viewed as of sufficient importance to demand any
notice or reply, — and that is its palpably official
character.

The author seems to have been furnished, both
by Her Majesty's Government and by the Hudson's
Bay Company, with every document which could
facilitate his endeavour to make out a case in their
favour. The work must therefore be treated en-
tirely as an official manifesto.

But it is especially worthy of remark, that several
papers are printed in Mr. Martin's book which were

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 7

ordered last Session to be returned to the House of
Commons, but of which no return was made.
There was no reason why these papers should not
have been returned at once, had there been any
real intention on the part of the Colonial Office
to afford the information required. It seems,
however, that it was thought better to withhold
them until they could appear along with the
complete defence upon which the Company and the
Colonial Office intend to rely. This is, to say the
least, an unprecedented proceeding.

One of these papers, a Report from Captain
Gordon, late of H.M.S. Cormorant, respecting tlie
coal in Vancouver's Island, Mr. Martin ushers in with
the observation that Captain Gordon " has expressed
a decided opinion in favom* of the Hudson's Bay
Company, with whose proceedings he was well ac-
quainted." As this question has become, in a great
measure, one of authority, it is necessary to state
that Captain Gordon has never expressed any
opinion of the kind. It would probably be difficult
to find any officer who has been on that coast who
would express such an opinion. The Colonial Minister
is at any rate perfectly aware that some officers
who have been on that coast, have taken, and ex-
pressed in the strongest terms, a contrary view.

8 PRELIMINARY STATEMENT.

The largest portion of the publication referred
to consists of quotations from various authors, with
the object of proving the generosity and benevo-
lence of the Company towards the native Indian
population, and the mildness and justice of its
government towards all who are subjected to its
sway.

A large array of authorities is adduced, to prop
up the character of the Company against the
attacks which it has recently received ; and the
inference intended to be drawn is this, — that the
Company has well and wisely used the powers that
it has possessed, for the benefit, equally of this
country, and of that over which those powers
extend.

The Hudson's Bay Company have made the
question one of authority, and they have based their
case upon the testimony of the following works : —

1. The Report of the Aborigines Parliamentary
Committee in 1837.

2. The Journal of the Bishop of Montreal to
the Red River, in 1844.

3. The Annual Reports of the Church Mission-
ary and Wesleyan Missionary Societies.

4. The official Narrative of Commodore Wilkes,
U.N.S., from 1838 to 1842.

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. V

5. The History of Oregon and California, by
Mr. Robert Greenhow.

6. A Journey beyond the Rocky Mountains, in
1835, 6, 7, by the Rev. S. Parker, A.M.

7. A Statement of the Earl of Selkirk's Settle-
ment in North America.

8. Narrative of the Discoveries on the North
Coast of America, 1836-9, by Messrs. Dease and
T. Simpson.

9. Heame's Journeys to the Northern Ocean,
1769-72.

10. Dr. Rae's Exploration of the Coasts of the
Arctic Regions.

11. Sir George Simpson's Overland Journey
round the World m 1841-2.

Now we may assume that everything which can
be stated in favour of the Hudson's Bay Company,
has been brought together, from every source from
which any such favourable testimony was to be
derived. How much has been suppressed which
afforded testimony of another description, we shall
presently see. Of the above writings, however, we
may remark in the first instance, that Commodore
AVilkes, Mr. Greenhow, and Mr. Parker, were
Americans, and all the rest were servants of the
Hudson's Bay Company, with the exception of the

10 PRELIMINARY STATEMENT.

Bishop of Montreal. From the Bishop's Journal,
as well as from the Aborigines Committee, and
from the Reports of the Chm-ch and Wesleyan
Missionary Societies, we shall have to derive inform-
ation of a very different character from that sug-
gested by the quotations in Mr. Martin's book. It
is imnecessary, of course, to say that in a case
where the character of themselves and of their
masters is concerned, evidence from the servants
of the Hudson's Bay Company cannot be taken
without suspicion, if not of an intention to deceive, at
any rate of so strong bias in their own favour as
entirely to destroy its value. We shall, however,
be able to gather quite enough from the writings of
these gentlemen to alter the view which has been
laid before the public.

It is most important to bear in mind the
relative value which must attach to evidence from
different quarters, on a question of this nature.
The power of the Hudson's Bay Company over
hundreds of thousands of miles of the North Ame-
rican continent is unlimited. Into those remote
regions few ever penetrate but the servants of the
Company. There is hardly a possibility of obtain-
ing any evidence whatsoever, which does not come
in some way through their hands, and which is not

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 11

more or less tainted by the transmission. The iron
rule which the Company holds over its servants and
agents, and the subtle policy which has ever charac-
terised its government, have kept those regions almost
beyond the knowledge of the civilised world, or of
any but the few who guide the afiairs and transact
the business of the Company. While, then, nothing
would be, apparently, more easy than to array a host of
witnesses in favour of the operations of the Company,
it would not be a matter of surprise if little or no
evidence could be obtained to dispute such testi-
mony ; and additional weight must be attached to
those incidental notices which can be gathered
here and there, and which throw a glimmering and
suspicious light on the whole of the Company's
transactions.

Of the American writers to whose testimony so
much weight has been attached, it is as well to know
that they had good reasons for forming a favourable
opinion of the operations of the Company.

Whatever may be the justice of the claim which
the Company assert, to the gratitude of the Indian
races, and of the settlers in their territories, the
United States have, at any rate, a debt, which they
seem inclined to acknowledge, as long as the pay-
ment can be made in nothing more valuable than

12 PRELIMINARY STATEMENT.

words. We shall presently see of how much use
the Company was to this country, in the settlement
of the boundary to the westward of Lake Superior ;
and that, had that Corporation asserted the privi-
leges of their Charter against American claims, as
vigorously as they have ever opposed them to Bri-
tish liberties, the boundary between the United
States and British North America would never
have been settled along the 49th parallel.

It has often been asserted, and is to a great
extent believed, because there is very little general
information on this subject, that the claim which
Great Britain made to the Oregon territory was
dependent upon, or, at any rate, strengthened by,
the settlements of the Hudson's Bay Company on
the Columbia River.

Those who hold such an opinion will be surprised
to learn that there are many — and they well ac-
quainted with the country itself — who assert that
the conduct and policy of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany in the Oregon territory formed the chief
part of the title which the United States had to
the country which was gratuitously given to her by
the settlement of the boundary. What the United
States owe to the Company for its policy on the
west side of the Rocky Mountains, is a question to

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 13

which the English public will some day demand
a satisfactory answer. But it is" right that the
public should know what the Company are charged
with having done in those parts.

Dr. M'Laughlin was formerly an Agent in the
North West Fur Company of Montreal ; he was
one of the most enterprising and active in conduct-
ing the war between that Association and the
Hudson's Bay Company. In the year 1821, when
the rival companies united, Dr. M'Laughlin became
a factor of the Hudson's Bay Company. But his
allegiance does not appear to have been disposed
of along with his interests ; and his sympathy with
anything other than British, seems to have done
justice to his birth and education, wliich were those
of a French Canadian.

This gentleman was appointed Governor of all
the country west of the Rocky Mountains ; and is
accused, by those who have been in that country, of
having uniformly encouraged the emigration of
settlers from the United States, and of having dis-
couraged that of British subjects.

While the Company in this country were assert-
ing that their settlements on the Columbia River
were giving validity to the claim of Great Britain to
the Oregon territory, it appears, that their chief

14 PRELIMINARY STATEMENT.

officer on the spot was doing all in his power to
facilitate the operations of those, whose whole ob-
ject it was to annihilate that claim altogether.

There is one story told, about which it is right
that the truth should be ascertained. It is said
that a number of half-breds from the Red River
settlement were, in the year 1841, induced by the
Company's officers to undertake a journey entirely
across the continent, with the object of becoming
settlers on the Columbia River.

It appears that a number went, but on arriving
in the country, so far from finding any of the pro-
mised encouragement, the treatment they received
from Dr. M'Laughlin was such, that, after having
been nearly starved under the paternal care of that
gentleman, they all went over to the American set-
tlement on the Wallamatte valley.

These emigrants became citizens of the United
States, and, it is further said, were the first to
memorialize Congress to extend the power of the
United States over the Oregon territory.

For the truth of these statements we do not of
course vouch. But we do say they demand inquiry.

Dr. M'Laughlin's policy was so manifestly
American, that it is openly canvassed in a book
written by Mr. Dunn, one of the servants of the

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 15

Company, and written for the purpose of praising

their system and policy.

Sir Edward Belcher also alludes to this policy.

He says, —

" Some few years since, the Company determined on
forming settlements on the rich lands situated on the
Wallamatte and other rivers, and for providing for their
retired servants by allotting them farms, and further
aiding them by supplies of cattle, &c. That on the
Wallamatte was a field too inviting for missionary
enthusiasm to overlook ; but instead of selecting a
British subject to afford them spiritual assistance, re-
course was had to Americans — a course pregnant with
evil consequences, and particularly in the political
squabble pending, as will be seen by the result. No
sooner had the American and his allies fairly squatted,
— (which they deem taking possession of the country,)
than they invited their brethren to join them, and
called on the American Government for laws and pro-
tection."*

A great deal of importance is attached to the
account given by Commodore Wilkes, U.S.N., of
the operations of the Hudson's Bay Company on
the north-west coast ; and it is inferred that testi-
mony, coming from such a quarter, is doubly in
favour of the Company.

Nothing, indeed, can be higher than the terms in

* Narrative of a Voyage round the World, &c., by Captain Sir
Edward Belcher, R.N. London. 1843. Vol. i,, p. 297.

16 PRELIMINARY STATEMENT.

which Captain Wilkes speaks of the Hudson's Bay
Company's chief factor, Dr. M'Laughlin, and of
the welcome he met, and the hospitality he ex-
perienced, dm'ing his stay upon the coast.

Captain Wilkes was far too sensible and discrimi-
nating a man, not to see, plainly enough, whose
game Dr. M'Laughlin was playing. But there is
something strange, if we turn from the perusal of
Captain Wnkes's narrative, and the description of the
facilities which were ever afforded him, to the fol-
lowing passage from Sir Edward Belcher's voyage.

The difference of the reception which a frigate
of the United States Navy met with, from that which
one of Her Majesty's ships experienced, is a most
suspicious fact, as suggesting the animus of the
Company's agents upon the north-west coast. Sir
Edward Belcher says, —

"The attention of the Chief to myself, and those
imnnediately about me, particularly in sending- down
fresh supplies, previous to my arrival, I feel fully
grateful for ; but I cannot conceal my disappointment
at the want of accommodation exhibited towards the
crews of the vessels under my command, in a British
possession.

" We certainly were not distressed, nor was it im-
peratively necessary that fresh beef and vegetables
should be supplied, or I should have made a formal
demand. But as regarded those who might come after,
and not improbably myself among the number, I

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 17

inquired in direct terms what facilities Her Majesty's
ships of war might expect, in the event of touching at
this port for bullocks, flour, vegetables, &c. I certainly
was extremely surprised at the reply, that ' they were not
in a condition to supply.'

" As any observation here would be useless, and I
well knew this point could be readily settled, where
authority could be referred to, I let the matter rest.
But having been invited to inspect the farm and dairy,
and been informed of the quantity of grain, and the
means of furnishing flour, and notwithstanding the pro-
vision of cattle and potatoes, no offer having been made
for our crew, I regretted that I had been led into the
acceptance of private supplies ; although, at that time,
the other officers of the establishment had told my
officers that supplies would, of course, be sent down."*

The American policy of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany would seem from the above facts, to be more
than a matter of suspicion.

It is very easy to say, these are all idle tales :
they are tales — but such tales, that Parliament
ought to make a searching investigation into their
truth. This much at least is certain ; — that Dr.
M'Laughlin provided for himself a very large tract
of land, on what title no one knows ; that he formed
a considerable farm in what was certain to become
American territory, and that he encouraged the
immigration of settlers from the United States, well
knowing that his own property would thus be raised

* Vol. i., p. 296.

18 PRELIMINARY STATEMENT.

in value. It is certain that he has now left the Hud-
son's Bay Company, and has become nominally, what
he seems to have been for years, really — ^an American
citizen, living in the midst of an American popula-
tion, which he collected round him, upon soil, to
which he knew that his own country had, all along,
laid claim.

Nothing but a Parliamentary investigation will
thoroughly test the value of these rumours.

It was necessary to state the above view, which
many who are acquainted with the country take, in
order to explain why American writers should enter-
tain a favourable opinion of the Hudson's Bay
Company ; and what that opinion is worth, as bear-
ing on the question before us.

With respect to the Bishop of Montreal's evi-
dence it will be necessary to speak hereafter ; but
it must not be forgotten that His Lordship was never
further in the Company's territories than the Red
River, that is, on the extreme verge ; and that all his
information as to the rest of the country was derived
from what the servants of the Company told him.

And, indeed, there is scarcely any evidence at all
laid. before the public of what is going on through-
out the whole of the territories under the Company's
government. For nothing can be more false than

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 19

the idea that the condition of the Red River Colony,
or of the settlements on the north-west coast, affords
any information of what is going on throughout the
vast continent which separates those two localities,
and stretches away to the North Pole.

This much has heen said, in order to guard those
who take an interest in this question, against being
imposed upon by the array of authority which has
been set up, in order to blind the public to the real
character of that system of iniquity which pervades
the whole continent of North America, imder the
sway of the Hudson's Bay Company.

The convictions here expressed have forced them-
selves upon my mind, in the course of researches which
circumstances induced me to make, in spite of the
belief which I held in common with all who take
for granted what the Company put forward as fact.
They are convictions which have strengthened and
deepened at every step of the inquiry ; convic-
tions that the system of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany has entailed misery and destruction upon
thousands throughout tlie country, which is wither-
ing imder its curse ; that it has cramped and
crippled the energies and enterprise of England,
which might have found occupation in the direc-
tions from which they are now excluded ; that it

c2

20 PRELIMINARY STATEMENT.

has stopped the extension of civilization, and has
excluded the light of religious truth ; that it has
alienated the hearts of all under its oppression, and
made them hostile to their country : above all, that
the whole and entire fabric is built upon utterly
false and fictitious grounds ; that it has not one
shadow of reality in law or in justice ; that there is
not the smallest legal authority for any one of the
rights which this Corporation claim. It is this con-
viction which has urged me to submit the state-
ments and arguments contained in the following
pages to the consideration of the public, and to
arraign before that tribunal, from which in these
days there is no escape — the judgment of public
opinion — a Corporation, who, under the authority
of a Charter which is invalid in law, hold a mono-
poly in commerce, and exercise a despotism in
government, and have so used that monopoly and
wielded that power, as to shut up the earth from
the knowledge of man, and man from the knowledge
of God.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE CHARTER OP THE HUDSON S BAY COM-
PANY, IN RESPECT TO THE VALIDITY OF THE
GRANT OF THE SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND.

There are three subjects which must be noticed
in order : —

First. The Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company.

Secondly. The evil results of that Charter.

Thirdly. The extension of all those results which
which will follow from the proposed addition of
Vancouver's Island to the territories of the Com-
pany.

The present and three following chapters will be
devoted to the Charter itself. It would be superfluous
to reprint that document at full length : it may be
found in the Parliamentary Paper, 547, ordered to
be printed 8th August, 1842, and has just been re-
printed in the work above referred to, which bears
Mr. M. Martin's name.

It must be admitted that the criticisms to which
it has lately been subjected, have not deprived it of
any of the obscurity which it has ever enjoyed, and

22 OF THE CHARTER.

of which its possessors have taken such wonderful
advantage.

This mysterious deed is now held up to our ad-
miration, and we are expected to fall down and
worship it, as one of the ancient institutions of the
country, which demands all the respect and homage
of loyalty. We are informed that all the rights,
powers, privileges, and possessions, which it pro-
fesses to bestow, are as much the property of the
grantees, as any property which an Englishman
calls his own ; we are further told that this Charter
has received the repeated sanction of successive
Sovereigns, of Parliament, and of Foreign States.

We shall proceed to investigate the justice of
these pretensions, and to inquire the meaning
and object of the Qiarter, in order to discover, if
possible, to what extent it is valid and legal, and
to what extent a presumptuous and mischievous
usurpation.

The preamble of the Charter states that whereas
certain parties had " at their own cost and charges
undertaken an expedition for Hudson's Bay, in the
north-west part of America, for the discovery of a
new passage into the South Sea, and for finding
some trade for furs, minerals, and other consider-
able commodities, &c. : Now know ye, that, we

OF THE CHARTER. 23

being desirous to promote all endeavours tending to the
public good of our people, and to encourage tlie said
design, have * * granted," &c.

The end and object of this Charter being granted
is clearly set forth. It is for the promotion of the
public good, and for the encoiu-agement of the
design of the parties for whose benefit it was
granted, viz., "the discovery of a new passage
into the South Sea" — that is the primary object
which the Crown had in view ; and " for finding of
some trade in furs, minerals, and other considerable
commodities" — which is added as subordinate in
point of public importance.

The Charter in the first instance dictates the con-
stitution of the Company, and creates it into a
regular Corporation ; and as to this part, there
exists no difierence of opinion. The Hudson's Bay
Company is, doubtless, a Chartered Corporation, as
much as any at present existing.

The question is, — What was given and granted
to this Corporation after it had been created ?

Now the privileges granted are of three distinct
hinds.

First. The privilege of exclusive trade, through-
out certain territories, which the Charter professes
to describe, and which it calls " Rupert's Land."

24 OF THE CHARTER.

Secondly. The property and lordship of the soil
of Rupert's Land.

Thirdly. The privilege of exclusive trade with all
countries into which the Company might find access
by land or water out of Rupert's Land.

These three grants are contained in the following
words of the Charter : —

1. "We do give, grant, and confirm, unto the said
Governor and Company, and their successors, the sole
trade and commerce of all those seas, straits, bays,
rivers, lakes, creeks, and sounds, in whatsoever latitude
they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the straits
commonly called Hudson's Straits."

2. " Together with all the lands and territories upon
the countries, coasts, and confines of the seas, bays,
lakes, rivers, creeks, and sounds aforesaid, that are not
already actually possessed by or granted to any of our
subjects, or possessed by the subjects of any other
Christian Prince or State, with the fishing of all sorts
of fish, whales, sturgeons, and all other royal fishes in
the seas, bays, inlets, and rivers within the premises,
and the fish therein taken, together with the royalty of
the sea upon the coasts within the limits aforesaid, and
all mines royal, as well discovered as not discovered, of
gold, silver, gems, and precious stones, to be found or
discovered within the territories, limits, and places
aforesaid ; and that the said land be from henceforth
reckoned and reputed as one of our plantations or colo-
nies in America, called Rupert's Land."

3. " And furthermore, we do grant unto the said
Governor and Company, and their successors, that they
and their successors, and their factors, servants, and
agents, for them and on their behalf, and not otherwise,

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND. 25

shall for ever hereafter have, use, and enjoy, not only
the whole, entire, and only trade and traffic, and the
whole, entire, and only liberty, use, and privilege of
trading and trafficking to and from the territory, limits,
and places aforesaid ; but also the whole and entire trade
and traffic to and from all havens, bays, creeks, rivers,
lakes, and seas, into which they shall find entrance or
passage by water or land out of the territories, limits,
and places aforesaid ; and to and with all the nations
and people inhabiting or which shall inhabit within the
territories, limits, and places aforesaid ; and to and mth
all other nations inhabiting any of the coasts adjacent
to the said territories, limits, and places which are not
already possessed as aforesaid, or whereof the sole liberty
or privil^e of trade or traffic is not yet granted to any
other of our subjects."

The three things granted, then, are, arranging
them, for the sake of convenience, in a different
order, —

1. The territorial lordship of Rupert's Land.

2. The exclusive trade of Rupert's Land.

3. The exclusive trade with all other parts to
which access might be obtained thence by land or
water.

The first question is, Where is Rupert's Land ?
Had those who framed the Company's Charter had
the benefit of the maps now extant, they would, no
doubt, have made use of such language that we
should have been able to form some idea ; but as
the matter stands, that is quite impossible. The

26 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND.

words by which Rupert's Land is described, are —
"All those seas, straits, bays, &c., in whatsoever
latitude they shall be, that lie within the entrance
of the straits commonly called Hudson's Straits,
together with all the lands and territories upon the
countries, coasts, and confines of the seas, &c., afore-
said, that are not already actually possessed, or
granted to any of our subjects, or possessed by the
subjects of any other Christian Prince or State."

Now, it is quite impossible to say what are the
limits of the country which the Crown intended, by
the above language, to include in the colony of
Rupert's Land.

Indeed, it is manifest that the Crown was entirely
ignorant of the geography of the country which it
was thus granting away ; and that, in the want of
any accurate information as to what country did
exist within the Hudson's Straits, it betook itself to
the indefinite language above quoted. It is not
here disputed, that it is within the prerogative of
the Crown to grant away the waste lands of its
colonial possessions, without the intervention of Par-
liament ; the right to do so is exercised up to the
present hour. The doubt as to the validity of the
grant in question does not arise from any dispute
as to the power of the Crown to make such a grant,

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND. 27

but from the language in which the grant is made
being utterly unintelligible. AVho can say what is
meant by the words, " All the lands and territories
upon the courUries, coasts, and confines of the seas, ^c,
that lie within the Hudson's Straits ? "

For a century and half after the grant was made,
the Company never dreamt of asserting its privi-
leges in the sense in which it has been attempted for
the last half century to interpret them. The claim
now made is, that the words of the grant include
all the country the waters of which fall into Hud-
son's Bay ; and an opinion is quoted, which was
given by Romilly, Holroyd, Cruse, Scarlett, and
Bell, to the effect, that " the grant of the soil con-
tained in the Charter is good, and that it will in-
clude all the countries the waters of which flow
into Hudson's Bay."

Th^ value of counsel's opinion in a case like the
present, depends, in a great measure, on the word-
ing of the case drawn. Now, the case drawn is
before us ; and, it may be remarked, that a more
singularly cautious opinion was never given, than
that of the illustrious lawyers above mentioned.
Certain questions were proposed to them, in such
language as to avoid many of the disputed points
between the Company and their opponents, and the

28 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND.

counsel, in giving their opinion, confine themselves
almost entirely to the words of the case drawn for
them. And, indeed, whenever their language
differs from that of the case, it is, singularly enough,
to enforce on their client,s the necessity of extreme
caution in exercising the powers which they claimed.

With respect, however, to the particular part of
the opinion referred to, that the grant to the Hud-
son's Bay Company will include " all the countries
the waters of which flow into Hudson's Bay," we
have given, in the annexed map, an outline, as
near as can be ascertained, of what would be the
extent of Rupert's Land, according to such an inter-
pretation of the Charter.

The waters from the centre of the continent of
North America east of the Rocky Mountains, flow
in four directions — into the Arctic Ocean, into
Hudson's Bay, into the St. Lawrence, and into the
Gulf of Mexico. The strong line in the accompany-
ing map is drawn, as nearly as can be ascertained,
along the high lands from which the waters descend,
in the above several directions ; and if the interpre-
tation of the Charter given above be sound, all the
land within the strong line in the map must belong
to the Hudson's Bay Company, as sole lords and
proprietors.

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND. 29

This is the claim of the Company mider their
Charter.

This is, at least, the ordinary claim ; but there is
an ultramontane doctrine respecting the property
of the Hudson's Bay Company, as well as respecting
the infallibility of the Pope.

And thus, when they are in good spirits, we find
the Company make a much larger claim than
even the above — a claim at which Mr. M. Martin
mysteriously hints, when he says, " This opinion,"
speaking of the opinion of the counsel above referred
to, " does not define liow much more territory may
be included in right of the Charter."

Sir J. Pelly says, before the Committee of the
House of Commons to inquire into the Condition
of the Aborigines, " The power of the Company
extends all the way from the boundaries of Lower
and Upper Canada, away to the North Pole, as
far as the land goes, and from the Labrador coast
all the way to the Pacific Ocean."

Another account of the claim of the Company
under their Charter is given by Mr. Martin, (p. 5,)
where he says, " From the correspondence of the 7th
September and 30th October, 1846, laid before
Parliament 10th August, 1848, it would appear
that the Crown considered the Rocky Mountains as

30 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND.

the eastern boundary of the territory over which the
Hudson's Bay Company have exclusive right of
trading with the natives for twenty-one years from the
13th May, 1838 ;" that is to say, (since the grant of
exclusive trade comprises all " the Indian terri-
tories," i. e., the territories without the British
plantations or colonies, of which Rupert's Land is
one,) the Rocky Mountains are the western boun-
dary of Rupert's Land.

Hence it is manifest, that it is impossible to as-
sign any definite limits to the country granted to
the Hudson's Bay Company under their Charter,
without recoiu-se to a Court of Law, or to an Act of
Parliament.

The opinion given by the eminent lawyers, quoted
above, was not the only one taken at the time when
the question arose, as to the right of the Company
to make over a tract of land of 16,000 square
miles to Lord Selkirk.

The North- West Company at that time brought
the case before Sir Arthur Pigott, Serjeant Spankie,
and Lord Brougham, who gave a most elaborate
opinion on the whole case.

That part of it which relates to the grant of the
soil, is as follows : —

" But we think that the Hudson's Bay Company and

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND. 31

their grantee, Lord Selkirk, have extended their ter-
ritorial claims much further than the Charter, or any
sound construction of it, will warrant. Supposing it
free from all the objections to which we apprehend it
may, in other respects, be liable, the words of grant,
pursuing the recital of the petition of the grantees, with
a very trifling variation, and with none that can affect
the construction of the instrument, are, of ' the sole
trade and commerce of all those seas, straits, bays,
rivers, lakes, creeks, and sounds, in whatever latitude
they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the straits
commonly called Hudson's Straits, together with the
lands and territories upon the countries, coasts, and
confines of the seas, bays, lakes, rivers, creeks, and
sounds aforesaid,' that is, within the Straits ; and these
limits are frequently referred to in the subsequent parts
of the Charter, and always referred to throughout the
Charter as the ' limits aforesaid.'

'' There is, indeed, an extension of the right of trade,
and His Majesty grants that the Company ' shall for
ever hereafter have, use, and enjoy, not only the whole
entire and only liberty of trade and traffic, and the
whole entire and only liberty, use, and privilege of
trading and traffic to and from the territories, limits,
and places aforesaid, but also the whole and entire
trade and traffic to and from all havens, bays, creeks,
rivers, lakes, and seas, into which they may find
entrance or passage by water or land, out of the terri-
tories, limits, and places aforesaid, and to and with all
the natives and people, inhabitants, or which shall in-
habit within the territories, limits, and places aforesaid,
and to and with all other nations inhabiting any of the
coasts adjacent to the said territories, limits, and
places aforesaid, which are not already possessed as
aforesaid.'

" It is plain, therefore, that the territorial grant was

32 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND.

not intended to comprehend all the lands and terri-
tories that might be approached through Hudson's
Straits, by land or water. The territorial grant then
appears to be limited by the relation and proximity of
the territories to Hudson's Straits, The general de-
scription applying to the whole, is the seas, &c. that lie
within Hudson's Straits, and the land, &c., upon the
countries, coasts, and confines of the seas, &c., that is,
reddendo singula singulis, the lands upon the countries,
coasts, and confines of each of the seas, rivers, &c., naturally
including such a portion of territory as might be reasonably
necessary for the objects in view ; but it is not a grant of
all the lands and territories in which the seas, rivers, &c.,
lie or are situated, or which surround them to any indefi-
nite extent or distance from them. Still less is it a grant
of all the lands and territories lying between the seas,
straits, rivers, &c., though many hundred or thousand
mUes or leagues of lands and territories migfht lie be-
tween one sea, strait, river, lake, &c., and another sea,
strait, river, lake, &c., and though the quantity of land
comprised in this interior situation, and far distant from
any coast or confine of the specified waters, might exceed
in dimensions the extent of many existing powerful
kingdoms or states. Within the Straits, must mean such
a proximity to the Straits as would give the lands spoken
of a sort of aftinity or relation to Hudson's Straits, and
not such lands as from their immense distance, (in this
case the nearest point to Hudson's Bay being 700 miles,
and from thence extending to a distance of 1 ,500 miles
from it,) have no such geographical affinity or relation
to the Straits, but which are not even approached by
the Canadians through or by the Straits in question.
The whole grant contemplates the Straits as the access
to the lands and territories therein referred to ; and as
there is no boundary specified, except by the description
of the coasts and confines of the places mentioned, that

[

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND. 33

is, the coasts and confines of the seas, &c. within the
Straits, such a boundary must be implied as is consistent
with that view, and with the professed objects of a
trading Company intending, not to found kingdoms and
establisli states, but to carry on fisheries in those waters,
and to trade and traffic for the acquisition of skins and
peltries, and the other articles mentioned in the Charter ;
and in such a long tract of time as nearly 150 years now
elapsed since the grant of the Charter, it must now be,
and must, indeed, long since have been, fully ascertained
by the actual occupation of the Hudson's Bay Company,
what portion or portions of lands and territories in the
^^cinity, and on the coasts and confines of the waters
mentioned and described as within the Straits, they have
found necessary for their purposes, and for forts, fac-
tories, towns, villages, settlements, or such other esta-
blishments in such vicinity, and on such coasts and con-
fines as pertain and belong to a Company instituted for
the purposes mentioned in their Charter, and necessary,
useful, or convenient to them within the prescribed
limits for the prosecution of those purposes. The enor-
mous extensions of land and territory now claimed,
appears, therefore, to us, not to be warranted by any
sound construction of the Charter ; and if it could be
so, we do not know where the land and territory of the
Hudson's Bay Company, granted by this Charter ter-
minates, nor what are the parts of that vast continent on
which they have taken upon them to g^ant 116,000
miles of territory, exempted from their proprietorship
under their Charter.

" Indeed, there may be sufficient reason to suppose
that the territories in question, or part of them, had
been then visited, traded in, and in a certain degree
occupied by the French settlers or traders in Canada,
and their Beaver Company erected in 1630, whose trade
in peltries was considerably prior to the date of the

34 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND.

Charter. These territories, therefore, would be ex-
pressly excepted out of the grant ; and the right of
British subjects in general to visit and trade in these
regions, would follow the national rights acquired by
the King, by the conquest and cession of Canada, and
as enjoyed by the French Canadians previous to that
conquest and cession.

" No territorial right, therefore, can be claimed in the
districts in question ; and the exclusive trade there cannot
be set on the virtue of the Charter, these districts being
remote from any geographical relation to Hudson's Bay,
and to the Straits ; and not being in any sense tviihin
the Straits, and not being approached by the Canadian
traders, or other alleged interlopers, through the inter-
dicted regions, of course, no violence to, or interruption
of, trade, could be justified there, under these territorial
claims."

Such is the present state of the legal opinions as
to the validity of the claims of the Hudson's Bay
Company. The opinion just quoted is entitled to
respect, not only from the distinguished names at-
tached to it, but because it is given by men who
had evidently carefully considered the whole ques-
tion : their conviction was, that the Red River could
in no sense be included in Rupert's Land ; and that
such an exaggerated interpretation of the language
of the Charter was manifestly not contemplated by
the grant itself.

At any rate, quite sufficient has 'been said to
shew that the question must be referred to a Court

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND. 35

of Law, in order that the property of the Company,
if any exist at all, be clearly defined.

But the obscurity of the wording of this Charter is
not the only objection that may be taken to it. The
history of the times, the nature of the grant, and the
conduct of the Company themselves, all supply many
reasons for believing that the grant of these privileges
and property to the Hudson's Bay Company is invalid
from beginning to end : and that nothing more is
wanting than a trial at law, or an investigation of
Parliament, to blow it entirely away.

In the first place, looking at the history of the
times, tliere is strong reason to doubt whether,
when King Charles II. signed this Charter, the
country which afforded the materials for His
Majesty's generosity to display itself, without injury
to his exhausted Exchequer, belonged to the Crown
of England at all.

The question as to the rights of England and
France respectively to the territory of the Hud-
son's Bay was in dispute for many years before,
and was never decided until many years after 1670,
the date of the Charter : it was never finally settled
until the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713.

The mere laying claim to a country does not
prove a title to it, otherwise the title of the French

d2

36 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND.

would be clear ; for that power asserted her right
to the whole coast of North America as far as the pole.

It is important to recollect, that the fact of
comitries having come into the possession of Eng-
land in specific modes, and at stated periods, such
as by war, treaty, or otherwise, in no way proves the
validity of the claim, before such settlement : what we
assert is, that at the date of the Hudson's Bay
Company's Charter, and for many years afterwards,
the territories of the Hudson's Bay belonged to
France, or at any rate, most unquestionably, quite
as much to France as to England.

Charles II. himself seems to have been in doubt
as to what did or did not belong to him, because he
excludes from the grant made to the Company,
" all the lands, territories, ^c, at that time possessed
hy any other Christian Prince or Stated

There is no doubt that France laid claim to the
Hudson's Bay territories. As early as the year
1598, letters patent were granted by Henry IV. of
France, to Sieur de la Roche, appointing him
Lieutenant-Governor over the coimtries of " Canada,
Hochelaga, Terresneuves, Labrador, [a part of the
territories claimed by the Hudson's Bay Company,]
and the river of the great bay of Norrembegue," &c.*

* Edits, &c,, vol. n., p. 5, see note p. 38.

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND. 37

There are numerous documents of a similar
kind, proving that the French Crown laid claim to
these territories ; but, passing over others, we may
mention that, in the year 1627, a Company was
established, entitled " La Compagnie de la Nouvelle
France," to which a Charter was granted, entitled
" Acte pour I'etablissement de la Compagnie des
cent Associes pour le commerce du Canada, Con-
tenant les articles accordes a la dite Compagnie, par
M. le Cardinal de Richelieu, le 29 Avril, 1627."

The 4th and 7th Articles of this Charter are
in the following terms: —

" IV. Et pour aucunement rt?ecompenser la dite Com-
pagnie des grands frais et avances qu'il lui conviendra
faire pour parvenir k la dite peuplade, entretien et con-
servation d'icelle Sa Majeste donnera k perpetuitt? aux
dits cent associes, leurs hoirs et ayans cause, en toute
propriete, justice et seigneurie, le fort et habitation de
Quebec, avec tout le dit pays de la Nouvelle France,
dite Canada, tant le long des cutes depuis la Floride,
que les predecesseurs Roisde Sa Majeste ont fait habiter,
en rangeant les cutes de la mer jusqu' au cercle Arctique
pour latitude et de longitude depuis I'lsle de 'I erre-
neuve tirant a I'ouest, jusqu' au grand lac, dit la mer
douce, et au dela, que dedans les terres et de long des
rivieres qui y passent, et se dechargent dans le fleuve
appelle Saint Laurent, autrement la grande rivierre de
Canada, et dans tous les autres fleuves qui les portent a
la mer, terres, mines, minieres, pour jouir toutefois
des dites mines conformement k I'ordonnance, ports
et havres, fleuves, rivieres, etangs, isles, islots et

27650?

38 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND.

generalement toute I'etendue du dit pays au long et an
large et par de la, tant et si avant quil pourront etendre
et faire connoitre le nom de Sa Majeste, ne se reservant
Sa dite Majeste, qui le ressort de la foi et hommage qui
lui sera portee, et a ses sucesseurs Rois par lest dits associtis
on I'un d'eux, avec une couronne d'or du poids de huit
marcs a chaque mutation de Eois, et la provision des
officiers de la justice souveraine qui lui seront nommes
et presentes par les dits associes lorsqu'il sera juge a
a propos d'y en etablir : permettant aux dits associes
faire fondre canons, boulets, forger toutes sortes d'armes
offensives et defensives faire poudre a canon, batir et for-
tifier places et faire gt^neralement es dits lieux toutes
choses necessaires, soit pour la surete du dit pays, soit
pour la conservation du commerce.

" VII. Davantage Sa Majeste accordera aux dits
associes, pour toujours, le trafic de tous cuirs, peaux et
pelleterie, de la dite Nouvelle France ; et pour quinze
annees seulement a commencer au premier jour de
Janvier de I'annee 1628, et finissant au dernier Decem-
bre que Ton comptera 1643, tout autre commerce soit
terrestre ou naval, qui se pourra faire, tirer, traiter et
trafiquer, en quelque sorte et maniere que ce soit en
I'titendue du dit pays, et autaut quil se pourra etendre ;
a la reserve de la peche des morues et baleines seulement
que Sa Majeste veut etre libre a tous ses sujets," «&;c.*

Part of the country granted by this Charter of
Louis XIII. is ^Ha Nouvelle France." L'Escarbot
thus describes the boundaries of the country which
was understood by that term: —

*Edits, Ordonnances Royaux, &c. concernant le Canada, publics
par ordie de Son Excellence Sir Robert Shore Milnes, Bart.,
Lieutenant-Governor of Lower Canada, en consequence de deux
Addresses de I'Assemblee, 5 and 7 March, 1801. Vol. i., pp. 3,4.

GRANT OF SOIL OP RUPERT's LAND. 39

" Ainsi notre Nouvelle France a pour limites du cote
d'ouest les terres jusqu' a la mer dite Pacifique, au de9a
du Tropique de Cancer ; au midi les iles de la Mer
Atlantique du c6te de Cube, et I'isle Hespagnole ; au
Levant, la Mer du Nord qui baignc la Nouvelle France ;
et au septentrion cette terre qui est dite in connue vers
la mer glacee jusqu' au Pole Arctique :"*

— almost the same words as those used by Sir J. H.
Felly, quoted before (p. 29).

This was the country which the French under-
stood by the term " la Nouvelle France" at that
time ; and by the Treaty of St. Germains-en Laye,
in March 1632, Charles I. of England resigned to
Louis XIII. of France the sovereignty of Acadia,
New France, and Canada, generally and without
limits, and particularly Port Royal, Quebec, and
Cape Breton.t

Charlevoix says, in his History of New France, t in
arguing the pretensions of the English to Hudson's
Bay—

" II est certain que les Anglois ne possedoient rien
aux environs de cette Baye, lorsqu' en 1656, le Sieur
Bourdon y fut envoie pour en assurer la possession a la
France : ceremonie qui fut plusieurs fois renouvellee
dans la suite.

" II est vraie qu'en 1663, deux transfuges Francois,
nommes Groseilliers et de Radisson, pour se vengerdeje
ne s^ai quel me contentment, qu'on leur avail donne,

* Bouchette, note p. 3. f Id., p. 4.

X Vol. i., pp. 476, 477.

40 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND.

conduisirent des Anglois dans la Eiviere de Nemiscau,
qui se d6charge dans le fond de la Baye, et qui ceux-ci
batirent a I'embouchure de cette rivierre, un fort, qui
fut nomme Rupert : que'dans la suite ils en construisirent
un second chez les Monsonis, et puis un troisieme a
Quitchitchouen ; mais on regarda en France, et en
Canada ces enterprises comme des usurpations."

There is no question then as to the claim of
France to the country in question, and we shall pre-
sently see that their claim was admitted by England
at a subsequent period.

Not only was it claimed, however, but it appears
to have been actually occupied by the French.
The French Fur Company of Quebec, established
forty years before the Hudson's Bay Company,
appear to have traversed the whole of the country
which the Hudson's Bay Company now claim, and
yet from which they are especially excluded under
their own Charter. For many years, when the
English Company never ventured to leave the shores
of the Bay, when the whole of their establishments
consisted of four or five insignificant forts on its
shores, the voyageurs of the French Company were
traversing the whole of the country north-west of the
Canadas, as far, it is said, as the Saskatchewan river.

That the question, as to which Crown had a right
to Hudson's Bay, was not settled at that time, is
clearly proved by the Treaty of Ryswick, by which

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND. 41

it was provided that Commissioners should be ap-
pointed on both sides " to examine and determine
the rights and pretensions, which either of the said
Kings hath to the places situated on Hudson's
Bay." Up to this date, then, it was still uncer-
tain whether the country now called Rupert's Land
belonged to France or England.

It is quite obvious that no grant of territory can
be valid, if the land in question were not the property
of the donor at the time of making the gift. There
are, then, at first, two valid objections to the rights
of the Hudson's Bay Company, on these two grounds :
— First, that the country in question did not belong
to the Crown of England, and, therefore, could not
be legally made the subject of a grant ; — secondly,
that it was, for the most part, prior to the date of
the Charter, possessed by the subjects of another
Christian Prince^ and, therefore, is especially ex-
cluded from the limits of the grant, by the words
of the Charter itself.

But however this may have been the case, the
Treaty of Ryswick, signed in September 1697, made
over to France a very large part, if not the whole,
of the territory now claimed by this obsolete
Charter ; and, therefore, the rights of the Company,
supposing them to have been valid before, were

42 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND.

effectually extinguished, since no reservation in
their favour was made by the treaty.

Charlevoix says, " Pour ce qui est de la Baye d'
Hudson, elle nons resta toute entiere parceque nous
en etions les possesseursactuels.^^* ■ And Mr, Bancroft,
in his History of the United States, tlius records the
result of this treaty : —

" In America, France retained all Hudson's Bay, and
all the places of which she was in possession at the
beginning of the war ; in other words, with the excep-
tion of the eastern moiety of Newfoundland, France
retained the whole coast and adjacent islands from
Maine to beyond Labrador and Hudson's Bay, besides
Canada and the valley of the Mississippi.''^

The clauses of the Treaty of Ryswick which

refer to the disputed territories in Hudson's Bay,

are as follows : —

"VII. The Most Christian King shall restore to the
said King of Great Britain, all countries, islands, forts,
and colonies, wheresoever situated, which the English
did possess before the declaration of this present war ;
and in like manner, the King of Great Britain shall
restore to the Most Christain King all countries, islands,
forts, and colonies, wheresoever situated, which the
French did possess before the said declaration of war ;
and this restitution shall be made on both sides within
the space of six months, or sooner, if it can be done :
and to that end, immediately after the ratification of
this treaty, each of the said Kings shall deliver, or cause
to be delivered to the other, or to Commissioners au-

* Charlevoix, vol. ii., p. 236. t "^'ol- "•> P- 1^2.

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND. 43

thorised in his name for that purpose, all acts of conces-
sion, instruments, and necessary orders, duly made and
in proper form, so that they may have their effect.

" VIII. Commissioners shall be appointed on both
eides to examine and determine the rights and preten-
sions which either of the said Kings hath to the places
situated in Hudson's Bay. But the possession of those
places which were taken by the French during the peace
that preceded this present war, and were retaken by the
English during this war, shall be left to the French by
virtue of the foregoing Article. The capitulation made
by the English on the 5th September, 1696, shall be
observed according to its form and tenor ; merchandises
therein mentioned shall be restored ; the Governor of
the fort there shall be set at liberty, if it be not already
done. The differences arisen concerning the execution
of the said capitulation, and the value of the goods there
lost, shall be adjudged and determined by the said
Commissioners, who immediately after the ratification
of the present treaty, shall be invested with sufficient
authority for settling the limits and confines of the
lands to be restored, on either side, by virtue of the
foregoing Article, and likewise for exchanging of lands
as may conduce to the mutual interest and advantage
of both Kings. And to this end the Commissioners so
appointed shall, within the space of three months from
the time of the ratification of the present treaty, meet
in the City of London ; and ^vithin six months, to be
reckoned from their first meeting, shall determine all
differences and disputes which may arise concerning
this matter : after which, the Articles the said Com-
missioners shall agree to, shall be ratified by both Kings,
and shall have the same force and vigour as if they were
inserted word for word in the present treaty."*

* A General Collection of Treatises, in 4 vols. 8vo. London.
1710. Vol. L, p. 304.

44 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND.

Hence we see, that Commissioners are to be
appointed to examine and determine the rights and
pretensions which either of the said Kings hath to
the places situated on Hudson's Bay, except those
parts which were taken by the French during the
peace which preceded the war; which parts are to
belong to France. It is not possible to conceive a
more distinct acknowledgment than is here made,
of the right which the French had to, at least, half
the coasts of the Bay. In a time of profound peace
between the two countries, an expedition is sent
from Canada, commanded by Chevalier de Troyes.
He takes the forts which were established by the
English, and drives away their possessors ; and he
does so upon the plea that the country occupied by
these forts was part of the dominions of his Sove-
reign. The forts were those built by the Hudson's
Bay Company, and were situated on James' Bay
and Hudson's Bay ; and at the conclusion of the
war, it is declared, by an express article in the
Treaty of Peace between France and England,
that the country so captured, although retaken,
shall be restored to the dominions of the French
King. It is not possible to conceive a more distinct
and national acknowledgment that those countries did
not belong to the Croum of England at the time they

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND. 45

were taken in the peace preceding the war ; nor,
a fortiori, at an earlier period ; and thus it would
seem to be manifest, that at least half the claim
which the Company now make, is for a tract of
country which is especially exempted from their
Charter, as being at that period " possessed by the
subjects of another Christian Prince," But, besides
this, supposing for a moment that the whole of what is
now called Rupert's Land, had been, in 1670, within
the dominions of Great Britain ; that is to say, that
the title of the French thereto, which England ac-
knowledged by the peace of Ryswick, had been
acquired by France subsequently to 1670, and be-
fore 1686, when the country was taken by De Troyes,
all which is historically untrue ; yet, supposing for a
moment such to be the case, and that the country
now claimed as Rupert's Land were, at the time
of the Charter, really within the dominions of the
British Crown, it is perfectly manifest that the claim
of the Hudson's Bay Company was effectually an-
nihilated by the Treaty of Ryswick, because that
country was then]^made over to France, and no kind
of stipulation was added that the rights of that
Company should be respected.

Had the rights of the Company been valid, there
would have been a clear title to compensation, when

46 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND.

all their territories were made over to France.
Certainly no one then heard of any claim, on the
part of the Company, for compensation for the loss
they would have sustained, had the boundaries
between France and England remained according to
the adjustment of that treaty : and yet, had such been
the case, the claims of the Hudson's Bay Company
would not have been heard of from that day to this.
The country granted by Charles II. to the Hudson's
Bay Company was definitely and unreservedly made
over to France. The Commissioners appointed by
this treaty do not appear ever to have met : but, if
they had, there could have been no change in the
argument in favour of the Company, as the Com-
missioners are expressly debarred from assigning to
England the territory which had been taken by the
French during the peace preceding the war, to
which our argument relates ; although it is quite
possible, that, had they met, they might have
strengthened the argument in no small degree, by
having assigned to France a still larger portion of
the territory in question than the treaty itself most
indisputably awarded her.

During the time which elapsed between the Treaty
of Ryswick in 1696, and the Treaty of Utrecht
in 1714, almost the whole of the Hudson's Bay

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND. 47

territories remained in possession of the French.
ITie Hudson's Bay Company do not appear to have
had a single fort in the whole country, except
Albany.

But by the Treaty of Utrecht the whole of
Hudson's Bay was made over to England. England
then possessed it for the first time, and it has con-
tinued in their possession ever since.

The articles in this treaty which refer to Hud-
son's Bay are as follows : —

" The said Most Christian King shall restore to the
Kingdom and Queen of Great Britain, to be possessed
in full right for ever, the Bay and Straits of Hudson,
together with all lands, seas, sea-coasts, rivers and
places situate in the said Bay and Straits, and which
belong thereunto, no tracts of land or of sea being ex-
cepted which are at present possessed hy the subjects of
France. All which, as well as any buildings there
made, in the condition they now are, and likewise all
fortresses there erected, either before or since the
French seized the same, shall within six months from
the ratification of the present treaty, or sooner if pos-
sible, be well and truly delivered to the British
subjects, having commission from the Queen of Great
Britain to demand and receive the same, entire and un-
demolished, together with all the cannon and cannon
ball which are therein, as also with a qusintity of pow-
der if it be there found, in proportion to the cannon
ball, and with the other provision of war usually belong-
ing to cannon. It is, however, provided, that it may be
entirely free for the Company of Quebec^ and all other
the subjects of the Most Christian King whatsoever, to

48 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND.

go by land or by sea, whithersoever they please, out of
the lands of the said Bay, together with all their goods,
merchandizes, arms, and effects, of what nature or con-
dition soever, except such things as are above reserved
in this Article," &c.*

From this Article it plainly appears that what we
have asserted before is true, viz., that a considerable
part of Hudson's Bay was still in possession of the
French — and especially the French Fur Company
of Quebec.

We have shown then that the territories now
claimed by the Hudson's Bay Company were pos-
sessed by the French before the date of the Charter,
were made over to France formally, and with the
strongest acknowledgment of her previous right to
possess them, within thirty years after that date ;
and remained, to a great extent, in the possession
of the French until the Peace of Utrecht, which
finally gave the whole of Hudson's Bay to England.
England then, for the first time, acquired an un-
doubted title to the coimtry by right of treaty.

But the rights of the Hudson's Bay Company
have been brought into collision not with those of
France only, but with those of the United States of
America.

* A General Collection of Treatises, in 4 vols. 8vo. London.
1723. VoLiii,p.431.

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND. 49

It will be seen, by looking at the map, that
the waters of the Red River flow into Lake Winni-
peg, and thence into Hudson's Bay. Upon the
opinion quoted above, that the property of the Com-
pany includes all the countries the waters of which
fall into Hudson's Bay, the whole territory, up to
the source of the Red River, must belong to the
Company. This tract of country, moreover, was of
very great value to the Company : it was the most
valuable bit of land in their whole dominions, be-
cause it was the farthest south, and in a milder
climate than the rest ; and, if the description which
Mr. Martin gives of the general character of the
Company's territories be not grossly exaggerated —
(a good deal of exaggeration is admissible in a
party book,) — if those countries be such that they
" could not be maintained but for the possession
of some more temperate regions from whence food
is procm^able," * then the slip of land about the
sources of the Red River must be the most valuable
part of the Company's property.

But this bit is in the territories of the United States.

How did it get there? When the boundary was

settled in 1818, the Crown deliberately made over

to a foreign power a part of its dominions which it

• P. 11.

£

50 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND.

had granted to its own subjects one hundred and fifty
years before. More than this, this tract of which
we are speaking was included in the grant of land
made by the Company to Lord Selkirk : yet, the
boundary, when it was settled, was driven through
Lord Selkirk's land, slicing off a large part, and
making it over to the United States. The Govern-
ment, moreover, were not in ignorance that this part
of the territory made over to the United States
was within the limits of the country claimed
by the Hudson's Bay Company under their
Charter, and granted to Lord Selkirk ; because Mr.
M'Gillivray, writing to the Colonial Minister in the
year 1815, respecting Lord Selkirk's colony, says, —

" The settlers, by proceeding up beyond the Forks of
the Red River, have got to the southward of the lati-
tude of 49 ° , so that if the line due west from the Lake
of the Woods is to be the boundary with the United
States of America, and if, contrary to my expectation,
Lord Selkirk's colony should continue to flourish, it
will not be a British but an American settlement,
unless specially excepted in the adjustment of the
boundary."

Hence it appears that the British Government
were perfectly aware that the country in question
was claimed by the Hudson's Bay Company under
their Charter, and yet that they did not scruple to
give it up to the United States by the treaty,

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND. 51

without either demanding from the United States,
or offering to the Hudson's Bay Company or to
Lord Selkirk, any compensation whatever ; and that
neither the Hudson's Bay Company, or Lord
Selkirk, ever made any claim for such compen-
sation, although they asserted their property in the
territory. This shews how far the Hudson's
Bay Company thought the grant made in their
Charter would bear the test of critical or legal
scrutiny.

In fine, then, with respect to the grant of the soil
of Rupert's Land, we believe that the time will
shortly arrive when the whole claim of the Hud-
son's Bay Company will be exposed, from beginning
to end, as a monstrous imposition. Let it be admit-
ted that the Crown does possess the right of grant-
ing away the waste lands of its Colonial possessions,
without the intervention of Parhament : we are far
from desiring to interfere Avith an ancient preroga-
tive : but here is a gift made in language which it
is utterly impossible to interpret, of a country which
did not belong to the Monarch who made that
grant, and which was distinctly assigned to another
Power subsequently to the grant. The grant itself
is, moreover, similar to many others which emanated
from the Crown at the same and at an earlier

e2

52 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND.

period, but which were, for the most part, recalled,
when it became manifest that they were no longer
consistent with the public interests ; — a grant which
the possessors have never once dared to defend in a
Court of Law, or upon any occasion when the validity
of their pretensions could be called in question.
Rather than this, they have consented to the loss of
a considerable part of their most valuable property ;
because, had they claimed it, or compensation for it,
the whole question of the validity of their Charter
must have been called in question : rather than
this, when they could no longer drive the North-
West Fur Company of Canada out of their pre-
tended territories, they consented to share with
it their privileges and their spoil, so only that all
others might be excluded.

It has been asserted above, that the Hudson's
Bay Company have never dared to assert the validity
of their Charter in a Court of Law.

It may be answered, that it was only their busi-
ness to defend it when attacked by others.

But they have not even done this, but
have compromised matters, in order to prevent
the question being brought to issue in a Court
of Law-

The story of the feud between the North-West

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND. 53

Company of Montreal and the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany is briefly as follows.

The fact has already come mider our notice, thai
the Hudson's Bay Company did nothing whatsoever
to explore the centre of the continent ; that for
more than half a century after their formation, all
they did was to establish four or five insignificant
forts on the shores of James' and Hudson's Bay, and
to carry on a trade in furs with those Indians who
resorted thither.

From a period commencing many years before
the date of the first existence of the Hudson's Bay
Company, the French Canadians, penetrating into
the countries west of the Canadas, carried on an
extensive traffic with all the Indian tribes of those
districts. How far they ultimately pushed their
way is not certain, but it is said up to the very
sources of the Saskatchwan. The North- West Fur
Company of Montreal followed in the same track.
A glance at the map will shew the reader the
difference between the operations of this and of the
Hudson's Bay Company : and the same glance will
suffice to prove that nothing can be more monstrous
and absurd than to say that King Charles II.
intended that the arduous enterprise of the Cana-
dians, driving their trade up the stream which ran

54 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND. '

into their own river, at a distance of nearly a thou-
sand miles from Hudson's Bay, should be over-
thrown by a grant which contemplates an approach
through the Hudson Straits alone.

The Canadian North- West Company carried
their enterprise to an extent of which their char-
tered rival had never dreamt, and ultimately passed
the Rocky Mountains, and opened up the rich and
valuable district of the Columbia.

By bad management, or want of enterprise, or
other causes, the stock of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany became much depreciated, and the Earl of
Selkirk became one of the Shareholders to a very
large amount, and acquired a predominant interest
in the counsels of the Company. A grant of land,
amounting to 16,000 square miles of country, was
made to this nobleman by the Directors of the
Hudson's Bay Company, nominally for the purpose
of colonization.

Now as a great deal of stress has been laid upon the
Red River settlement as exhibiting the colonizing
spirit of the Company, although it is notorious that
that colony was founded by Lord Selkirk in spite of
the remonstrance of the Shareholders, it is necessary
to inquire whether there be not a far more obvious
reason for the establishment of this colony, than

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND. 55

any desire on the part either of the Company or of
Lord Selkirk himself merely to develope the agri-
cultural resources of the country.

If we look at the map, we may observe the line
of traffic pursued by the North- West Company.
It passed up the St. Lawrence and the Lakes, to
Fort William, on Lake Superior, where the chief
Depot and Factory of tlie Company was established.
Thence the articles of traffic and the furs were
carried up and down the river, through the Lake of
the Woods into Lake AVinnipeg, or fm-ther south
along the plains, crossing the course of the Red River.
This was the direct and the only line by which
their communication was kept up with all the trading
posts in the interior of the country : by it food and
articles of commerce were sent from Fort William,
and furs were brought back in return.

The Red River colony was planted by Lord
Selkirk exactly in the line of this traffic. The
Hudson's Bay Company seem to have been very
jealous of the prosperous trade carried on by their
rivals ; and they now, for the first time, when they
found themselves utterly unable to cope in fair
enterprise with the Canadian Company, began to
assert the monstrous privileges of their Charter.
The very first occasion of a quarrel between the

56 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND.

North- West Company's servants and the new colony,
seems to have been upon the occasion of the governor
of the Red River settlement seizing some of the food
which was on its way to supply the posts of the
North- West Company in the interior of the country.
This is an extremely suspicious fact, and throws a
good deal of light upon the real intention with
which the colony was founded. By planting a set-
tlement in that spot, the whole supply of food and
necessaries, by which the traffic of the North- West
Company was carried on, could be cut off, and the
trade at once annihilated. It was not the design of a
feeble mind, nor was it very unlike the bold and un-
scrupulous policy which has evinced itself in many
passages of the Company's history. And when we
consider that their affairs were then in anything but
a flourishing condition, it is not at all imlikely that
the Company may have been induced by the enter-
prising nobleman who exercised so much influence
over their affairs, to adopt this step in order to
crush a rival, and to sweep the whole of his profits
into their own coffers ; asserting, for the first time,
the extravagant powers vested in them by a Charter
granted one hundred and fifty years before, and
which had never been recalled only because they had
never before been asserted.

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND. 57

It is needless to enter into the details of the
savage and brutal strife which was carried on for
some time between the rival Companies. Suffice it
to say, there were ample grounds to have brought
the question to a final issue in a Court of Law, had
such been the policy of the Company.

Their Charter contains special provisions enabling
them to defend their property. Of these powers
we shall have to speak hereafter : they were
such, however, as the Company never dared to
exercise ; because such exercise would have brought
tlie question at once to a legal decision.

The Company adopted another and wiser policy.
They bribed rivals whom they could not defeat,
and the two Companies united and agreed to carry
on the fur trade together, to the exclusion of all
others.

To those who had read the mutual recriminations
that had been bandied between these two bodies, it
was a strange sight to see the names of Messrs.
M'Gillivray and Edward Ellice associated with
that of the Hudson's Bay Company. To see men
going hand-in-hand who had openly accused one
another of the foulest crimes — of wholesale rob-
bery— of allowing their servants to instigate

58 GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERt's LAND.

the Indian tribes to murder the servants of their
rivals, — this was a strange sight. And to see
gentlemen who had publicly denied the validity of
the Company's Charter ; who had taken the opinion
of the leading counsel of the day against it; who
had tried every means, lawful and unlawful, to over-
throw it ; to see these same men range themselves
imder its protection, and, asserting all that they had
before denied, proclaim its validity as soon as they
were admitted to share its advantages : who, without
its pale, asserted the rights of British subjects
against its monopoly ; and within its pale, asserted
its monopoly against the rights of British subjects —
this too was a strange sight. Yet to all this did the
Hudson's Bay Company submit rather than subject
their Charter and their claims to the investigation
of a Court of Law.

These are the grounds, then, upon which are
founded the claims of a Company who exercise a
vast and uncontrolable power. I think there are
few, who will take the trouble to read this
chapter, who will not arrive at the conclusion,
that the claim of the Hudson's Bay Company to a
territory many times greater than Great Britain,
is altogether fictitious : and yet I am certain,

GRANT OF SOIL OF RUPERT's LAND. 59

a perusal of the other three chapters respecting
the Company's privileges, will leave a conviction on
the mind, that, of all their claims, that to territorial
property is by no means the one most contrary to
law.

CHAPTER III.

of the charter of the hudson 8 bay company,
in respect to the validity of the grant
of the right of exclusive trade with
Rupert's land.

The second privilege granted by their Charter to
the Hudson's Bay Company is that of the exclusive
trade over the territories called Ruperts Land. This
is a grant of an entirely different kind from the
former, and must be discussed on different grounds.
It has been said that the claims of the Company
to territorial property are the least illegal of
all which they assert ; for, however the Crown may
have possessed the right, by the law of England, to
grant away the waste lands of the Colonies, the
Crown never did possess the right to grant privi-
leges of exclusive trade.

The privilege of exclusive trade, in the present
case, is asserted against three parties : first, against
any other merchants in this country, who are thereby
forbidden to trade to the country in question ;
secondly, against the native population, who are

EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERT's LAND. 61

prevented from selling their furs to any but privi-
leged dealers; and, thirdly, against any British
subjects who may settle as colonists in the countries
included within the limits of the Charter, and who
are debarred from trading, either with the native
population, or with the mother coimtry.

Now there is only one case recorded in which it
was ever suggested that the King's licence was
necessary in order to allow a trade with infidels : it
is the case of the " East India Company v. Sandys ;"
and that opinion has since been declared not to be
law : but as to the first and third of the above men-
tioned modes in which the claims of the Hudson's
Bay Company are exercised, they are absolutely
against the most explicit and distinct declarations of
the law.

Let us understand distinctly what it is which the
Hudson's Bay Company claim under their Charter.
They claim that they alone shall import any manu-
factured goods into Rupert's Land. They will not
permit any ships except their own, to sail into
Hudson's Bay : consequently, the whole import of
goods of all kinds, for the use of the settlers at the
Red River, which they assert is within the limits of
Rupert's Land, is a strict and complete monopoly in
the hands of the Company. It is true they allow

62 EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND.

others to import some goods ; but then they insist
on a licence being first obtained from the Company ;
and they only grant that licence to those who do not
interfere with their interest in the fur trade : they
allow such goods to be imported only in their own
ships ; and they never permit more than a limited
quantity to be imported by private individuals.
Besides this, they subject all such imported goods to
duties, the amount of which is regulated by the sole
authority of the Company, and is limited only by
the capacity of the settlers to satisfy its demands.

Now the Company assert that their traffic is not
a monopoly, because they have to compete with the
Russian and the American fur traders in the London
market. Their trade is a monopoly even against the
British merchants, so far as this, — that the merchants
can buy furs from no English fm* trader except
the Company ; but it is a perfect monopoly against
the settlers of the Red River, who are equally
British subjects with any one in England, and are
equally entitled to the privileges of British law.

It is laid down in Stephens's Blackstone, as the
law of England, with respect to Colonies, that " in
conquered or ceded Countries, that have already
laws of their own, these laws remain in force until
changed by competent authority ; while, on the

EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND. 63

other hand, it hath been held, that if an unin-
habited country be discovered and planted by Eng-
lish subjects, all the English laws then in being, which
are the birthright of every subject, are then in force."

Now the Charter declares that the territory in
question, over which it grants the privilege of
exclusive trade, shall be one of His Majesty's
" Plantations or Colonies in America,'^ and shall be
called Ruperfs Land.

If the position which has been put forward above
be a just one, that the country in question was not
the property of the Crown, then the grant of the
soil of Rupert's Land is altogether invalid ; but,
if that part of the grant be good, then the country
in question became a British colony, and all law
then in existence, was in force at once throughout
its limits.

There seems to be no escaping from this dilemma.
Either the grant of the territorial property is invalid,
or the country is a British colony: that which
gives validity to the grant of the one, necessitates
the admission of the other : and no sooner had the
Crown issued the mandate, by which Rupert's Land
became a British colony, than, by the same deed,
British law was communicated to the remotest verge
of its forests.

64 EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND.

The question then is reduced to this, — What has
ever been the British law in respect of monopolies
in trade ? because if there were no right to grant
monopolies in England, there was as little right to
grant them in Rupert's Land : the Crown could no
more bestow privileges of exclusive trade in Hud-
son's Bay than in Holborn.

Lord Coke, in his exposition of the Statute,
Magna Charta, says, —

" Tlie common law hath so admeasured the preroga-
tives of the King, that they should not take, nor pre-
judice, the inheritance of any : and the best inheritance
the subject hath, is the law of the land. Upon this
chapter, as by the said particulars may appear, this con-
clusion is necessarily gathered, that all monopolies
concerning trade and traffic, are against the liberty and
freedom declared and granted by this great Charter,
and against divers other Acts of Parliament, which are
good commentaries upon this chapter."*

The Statute 21 Jas. I., cap. 3, would seem to set
the question at rest for ever, as to what the law of
England had ever been in respect of monopolies.
That Statute declared, that " all monopolies, and all "
" Charters," " granted to any persons" or "bodies
corporate," " for the sole buying, selling, &c." " of
anything within this realm," " are altogether con-

* 2 lust., vol. i., p. 62.

EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERT's LAND. 65

trary to the laws of this realm, and so are and shall
be utterly void and of none effect," &c.

And Lord Coke, in his Chapter against Monopo-
lists, says, —

" It appeareth by the preamble of this Act, as a
judgment in Parliament, that grants of monopolies are
against the ancient and fundamental laws of this
kingdom, and therefore it is necessary to define what a
monopoly is. A monopoly is an institution or allowance
by the King, by his grant, commission, or otherwise, to
any person or persons, bodies politique or corporate, of,
or for the sole buying, selling, making, working, or
using of anything, whereby any person or persons,
bodies politique or corporate, are sought to be restrained
of any freedom or liberty that they had before, or
hindered in their lawful trade."

And again —

" This Act is forcibly and vehemently framed for the
suppression of all monopolies, for monopolies in times
past were ever without law, but never without friends."*

But not only has the law been thus expounded in
the abstract, but numerous cases are on record in
which claims similar to those which the Hudson's
Bay Company make, and under similar Charters to
theirs, have been brought before Courts of Law,
and have been invariably decided against the claim-
ants of exclusive right of trade.

• 3 Iiut., p. 181,

66 EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERT's LAND.

In the case of " Hayes v. Harding," reported in
Hardie's Reports, in the time of Lord Hale, the
following passage occurs in the judgment of that
great Judge.

" I know very well that common and vulgar judg-
ments run high against all such patents, and condemn
them before they understand them, as being contrary to
the liberty of the subject, and the freedom of trade ;
but they that consider them better, are not so hasty and
rash in their censures. For certainly, upon a serious
consideration, all such patents and bye laws as tend
most to the well regulating and ordering of trades, and
the better management of them, so that the benefit of
them may be derived to the greater part of the people,
though with a prejudice to some particular persons, have
always been allowed by the law. £ut patents which
tend to the engrossing of trade, merchandise, and
manufactures, though of never so small value, into one
or a few hands only, have always been held unreason-
able and unwarrantable."

Lord Coke cites the case, Mich. 2 & 3 Eliz.
(Dier manuscripts, not printed) : —

" King Philip and Queen Mary, by their letters patent,
granted to the Mayor, Bailiffs, and Burgesses, of South-
ampton, and their successors, (for that King Philip first
landed there,) that no wines called malmsies, be brought
into this realm, but only at the said town and port of
Southampton, with a prohibition, that no person or per-
sons shall doe otherwise, upon paine to pay treble cus-
tome ; and it was resolved by all the Judges of England,
that this grant made in restraint of the landing of the
same wines was against the laws and statutes of the

EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND. 67

realm ; and also, that the assessment of treble custome
was against law and merely void ; and after, at the
Parliament holden anno 5 Eliz., the patent as to aliens
was by a private Act confirmed by Parliament, and not
for English."

In the case of the " Taylors de Ipswich v. Sher-
ring," 1 Roll. R., p. 4, Lord Coke, Chief Justice,

says, —

" Et semble que nul trade, mechanique, nee merchant,
poet estre hinder par le patent del Koy, ne en aucun
part sous Act de Parliament 9 Hen. III., c. 1, un Charter
a hinder trade at sea is void."

In " Le Roy v. Cusake," 2 Roll. R., p. 113, a
license of sole buying and selling of merchandize
imported into Dublin, granted to the Masters,
Wardens, Brethren, and Sisters of Trinity Isle,
was held illegal and void. ,

In the case of the " Attorney-General v. Alum,"
Hardies R., p. 108, when the Russia Company had
been incorporated imder letters patent confirmed by
statute, the Court said, —

" The act is a mere act of creation, and to regulate
those of the Company who trade separate, to the preju-
dice of the joint stock of the Company, and if it were
an act of confirmation, it would be a void act, because
the letters patent themselves are void, being to appro-
priate a trade, which the King cannot do by law."

The marginal note of the case of the " Company

f2

68 EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND.

of Merchant Adventurers against Rebow," reported,
3 Modern R., p. 126, is as follows : —

" The King cannot, by his Charter, grant to a society
of merchants the exclusive privilege of trading to par-
ticular places, and in particular articles, unless he is
previously authorised by Parliament to do so."

In 6 Coke's R., 85, there is given " The Case of
Monopolies." The case was one in which the sole
right of importing playing cards into England had
been granted to an individual. It was argued for
the defendants, and resolved by Chief-Justice
Popham, " et per totam curiam," —

" That the dispensation or licence to have the sole
importation and merchandizing of cards without any
limitation or strict, notwithstanding the Act 3 Ed. IV.,
c. 4, is utterly against law."

' There is, however, another view of the case. To
grant a right of exclusive trade, and not to provide
some means of enforcing that right, would be mani-
festly of no use whatever. Hence, in the Charters
which emanated from the Crown at this period, a
power was in most cases granted to seize the per-
sons, ships, and goods of "interloping traffickers."
In the case of the Hudson's Bay Company, the
power was given as usual ; and the ships thus seized
were to be brought to England, there to be con-
demned, and the value forfeited, one half to the

EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERT's LAND. 69

Crown, the other half to the Company. There was
also a power given to the Governor and Committee
to call before them such " interlopers," and bind
them in the sum of one thousand pounds, never
again to traffic in the forbidden seas.

Now it is quite obvious, that if there be no power
by which an exclusive trade can be maintained, the
exclusive trade itself falls to the ground. And it
would seem to follow, that if, when the Crown has
granted a privilege, an infringement of such privi-
lege cannot be punished in an ordinary Court of
Law, and if the Crown have no power to create an
extraneous authority for the punishment of such
infringements, then the right of granting the privilege
in question must be, practically, invalid altogether.

Now, that the Crown cannot grant the right to
enforce tlie privileges of exclusive trade, otherwise
than by the ordinary processes of law, has been
decided over and over again.

In the case " Nightingale v. Bridges," it was ad-
mitted, without argument, that the King could not
grant a power to seize ships engaged in a trade pro-
hibited by Charter from the Crown.

In Viner's Abridg., (vol. 17, p. 213,) there is a case
reported exactly in point. It appears that the Afri-
can Company seized a ship which was trading within

70 EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND.

certain limits, the trade of which had heen granted
to that Company by Royal Charter. The Company
had the vessel condemned in the Admiralty Court ;
and the owner brought an action at common law
against the Company, who pleaded the privileges of
their Charter. The result of this trial completely
upholds the views we are endeavouring to enforce.
It is thus reported : —

" In trover of a ship, the jury found that Charles II.
granted to the African Company, all the regions,
countries, &c., from Sally inclusive, to Cape of Good
Hope inclusive, with all islands near adjoining to those
coasts, &c., and all ports, &c., to hold to them and to
their successors for 1,000 years, with licence to them,
and to no others, to send ships, &c., and to have all
mines of gold and silver there, &c., and the entire and
only liberty to trade there ; any law or statute to the
contrary notwithstanding, and prohibiting any to trade
there, unless by licence first had, under pain of im-
prisonment during pleasure, and the forfeiture of ships
and goods, &c., with power to search and seize, &c., one
moiety to the King, and the other to the Company ;
and erected a Court of Judicature, for hearing and de-
termining all cases of seizure for trading thither. The
Company, by virtue of this grant, authorised certain
persons to seize the ships, &c. of such as should trade
with an infidel country, within the limits of that Com-
pany. Accordingly, the defendants seized the plaintifTs
ship and goods, and, at the defendant's instance, there
was a process in the Admiralty against the said ship ;
and none appearing for her there, she was condenmed ;
but whether the defendent be guilty, the jury say they

EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND. 71

know not, et si, &c., pro quer, damages to £4,300. 6s.,
and costs to £2. 3*. 4c?., et si pro defend, &c.

" This special verdict was obtained at the importunity
of their Majesties' counsel for the defendant. It was
adjudged for the plaintiff" bt/ the whole Court."

A similar case is reported in the same volmne,
17 Vin.Abr., 213:—

" The trespass for seizing a ship, &c., whereby the
plaintiff lost his voyage, the defendant justified under
the Canary patent, granted by the King to such per-
sons to have the sole trade, &c., but the plaintiff had
judgment ; for the King cannot grant that the subjects'
goods shall be forfeited for doing a thing prohibited by
patent."

Nor are we compelled to draw our own conclu-
sions, obvious as those conclusions must be, from
the mass of legal authority above quoted.

They have already been applied to the case of
the Hudson's Bay Company, by some of the most
eminent of the English Bar.

The opinion given by Sir Arthur Pigott, Ser-
jeant Spankie, and Lord Brougham, has been
already quoted, so far as it regards the question of
the validity and interpretation of the grant of the
soil of Rupert's Land. That part of the same
opinion which treats of the grant of privileges of
exclusive trade is as follows : —

72 EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERT's LANI>.

Questions and Opinions of Sir Arthur Pigott,
Mr. Spankie, and Mr. Brougham, January 1816.

" 1st. "Whether the exclusive trade, territories, powers,
and privileges, granted by the Charter of Charles II.,
confirmed by the expired Act of King William, is a
legal grant, and such as the Crown was warranted in
making ; and if it was, whether it entitles the Company
to exclude the Canadian traders from entering their
territory to trade with the Indians, and authorises the
Governors, and other officers appointed by the Com-
pany, to seize and confiscate the goods of the persons so
trading, without the licence of the Company.

" The prerogative of the Crown to grant an exclusive
trade was formerly very much agitated in the great
case of 'The East India Company v. Sandys.' The
Court of King's Bench, in which Lord Jeffries then
presided, held and decided, that such a grant was legal.
We are not aware that there has since been any decision
expressly on this question in the Courts of Law, and
most of the Charters for exclusive trade, and exclusive
privileges to Companies or Associations, have, since the
Revolution, received such a degree of legislative sanction
and recognition, as perhaps to preclude the necessity of
any judicial decision on it. Much more moderate
opinions were, however, entertained concerning the
extent of the prerogative, after the Revolution, than
prevailed in the latter part of the reign of Charles II.,
aijd in the reign of James II. ; and to those is to be
attributed the frequent recourse which, after the Revo-
lution, was had to legislative authority in such cases,
and particularly in the very case of this Company,
evidenced by the temporary Act of the 2nd William and
Mary, ' for confirming to the Governor and Company
trading to Hudson's Bay, their privileges and trade ;' a
confirmation, the duration of which, the Legislature ex-

EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND. 73

pressly limited to seven years, and the end of the then
next Session of Parliament, and no longer ; and part of
the preamble of that Act is, in effect, a legislative
declaration of the insufficiency and inadequacy of the
Charter for the purposes professed in it, without the aid
and authority of the Legislature ; which legislative aid
and authority entirely ceased soon after the expiration
of seven years after that Act passed.

"In 1745, indeed, the 18th Geo. IL, cap. 17, for
granting a reward for the discovery of a north-west
passage through Hudson's Straits, enacts, ' that nothing
therein contained shall any ways extend, or be con-
strued to take away or prejudice' any of the estate,
rights, or privileges of or belonging to the Governor and
Company of Adventurers of England, trading into
Hudson's Bay ;' — but this provision gives no validity
whatever to the Charter, and only leaves its effect and
authority as they stood before that Act, and entirely
unaffected by it.

" These Parliamentary proceedings may at least justify
the inference, that the extent of the prerogative in this
matter was considered a subject which admitted of
great doubt, in times when the independence of the
Judges insured a more temperate and impartial con-
sideration of it. They may, however, be perhaps,
considered as too equivocal to afford any certain and
conclusive authority on the strict question of law.
Such rights, therefore, as the Hudson's Bay Company
can derive from the Crown alone, under this extra-
ordinary Charter, such as it is, may not be effected by
these proceedings or declarations, and they may now
rest entirely upon, and stand or fall by, the common
law prerogative of the Crown to make such a grant.

" Upon the general question of the right of the Crown
to make such a grant, perhaps it may not be necessary
for the present purpose that we should give any opinion.

74 EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND.

The right of the Crown merely to erect a Company
trading by Charter, and make a grant of territory in
King Charles II.'s reign, may not be disputable :
and, on the other hand, besides that this Charter seems
to create, or attempts to create, a Joint Stock Company,
and to grant an exclusive right of trade, there are
various clauses in the Charter, particularly those em-
powering the Company to impose fines and penalties, to
seize or confiscate goods and ships, and seize or arrest
the persons of interlopers, and compel them to give
security in £1,000, &c. &c., which are altogether
illegal, and were always so admitted to be, and among
other times, even at the time, when the extent of the
prerogative in this matter was maintained at its height,
to grant an exclusive right to trade abroad ; and even if
by virtue of their Charter they could maintain an
exclusive right to trade, we are clearly of opinion, that
they and their officers, agents, or servants, could not
justify any seizure of goods, imposition of fine or
penalty, or arrest or imprisonment, of the persons of
any of His Majesty's subjects. Probably the Company
would have some diflRculty in finding a legal mode of
proceeding against any of those who infringe their
alledged exclusive rights of trading, or violate their
claimed territory ; for we hold it to be clear, that the
methods pointed out by the Charter would be illegal,
and could not be supported."

There have been two other opinions taken upon
this subject, both of them by men who are entitled
to the greatest respect, — Mr. Bearcroft and Sir
Vickery Gibbs. They are as follows : —

EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERT's LAND. 75

Mr. Bearcroff s Opinion.

" Question 1. Whether the KJng, without the co-
operation of the other legislative powers, can grant to any
Company an exclusive trade for ever, together with a
right of seizing the person and goods of a fellow-subject,
without legal process ; and, if not, whether his having
illegally granted such advantages and power, does not
annul the Charter?

" Anstcer. I am of opinion that the King, without the
assent of Parliament, cannot legally grant to any Com-
pany, or to any individual, an exclusive trade for ever,
together with a right to seize the person and goods of
subjects, without process of law ; and that such a grant,
if made, is illegal, void, and without effect.

" Q. 2. If this Charter is not valid upon the principle
above stated, whether it is not voidable by the Company's
neglecting to fulfil the views the King had when he
granted it ?

" A. If such a Charter could be considered legal and
valid in its commencement, yet it will be voidable by Sci,
Fa., if the grantees neglect to endeavour, by reasonable
and adequate means, to carry the purpose of it into effect.

" Q. 3. Whether the grant to them, of the right of
fishipg, is exclusive ; or whether the Greenland fisher-
men, who have a right to fish at Greenland and the seas
adjacent, have not a right to fish at Hudson's Bay ?

" A. The Charter in question, as to so much of it as
affects to grant an exclusive trade, and inflict penalties
and forfeitures, being, as I conceive, illegal and void,
I am of opinion, that the Greenland fishermen, who
have a right to fish there, have also a right to fish in
Hudson's Bay.

" Q. 4. If an individual invades the Charter, by fishing
or trading in any of the places granted to the Company,
and they seize his people, ship, or goods, whether they
have any, and what remedy ?

76 EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERT's LAND.

" A. If the Hudson's Bay Company, or those acting
under their authority, shall venture to seize the person,
ship, or goods of a British subject fishing there, the
action is by action of trespass against the Company, or
against the persons who do the act complained of, which
action may be brought in any of the Courts of West-
minster Hall.

" Q. 5. If you should be of opinion that the Charter
is in its present form illegal, which is the best way of
attacking it ; by invading the patent, and permitting
them to seize and bring an action, and complaining
or defending, according to circumstances, or by applying
to Parliament?

"A. It is obvious, that the safest way of attacking
the Charter is by applying to Parliament, or by Sci.
Fa.^ though in case of seizure, I cannot help thinking,
an action of trespass by the party injured, would be
successful.

" Q. 6. And generally to advise the parties proposing
the present case, who wish to fish and trade in and near
Hudson's Bay (and have sent out a ship which means to
winter there, unless cut off by the Company's engines,
and only wait for your opinion whether to send several
more) for the best ?

" ^. Upon the whole of this case, I am strongly in-
clined to think that the parties interested, if it is an
object of importance to them, may venture to carry on
the proposed trade immediately. The case of the East
India Company and Sandys, determined at such a time,
and by such Judges as it was, I cannot take to be law ;
and as to the length the said Charter has been granted
and enjoyed, it is a clear and well-known maxim of
law, that which is not valid in the beginning, cannot
become so by lapse of time.

(Signed) " Edward Beakcroft."

EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND. 77

Mr, Gibhs* Opinion.

" 1st. Such a Charter may certainly be good in some
cases ; but I am of opinion, that the Charter in ques-
tion was originally void, because it purports to confer
on the Company exclusive privileges of trading, which
I think the Crown would not grant without the au-
thority of Parliament. In ' Sandys against the East India
Company,* Skinn, 132, 165, 199, 223, the arguments
used against their Charter, which was not then con-
firmed by Acts of Parliament, appear to me decisive
upon the subject ; and although both Judge Jefferies,
and the other Judges of the King's Bench, decided in
favour of the Cliarter, I have understood that their
judgment was afterwards reversed in Parliament.

" Adam Smith, in his ' Wealth of Nations,' treats it as
an admitted point, that the Charter granted to the
Hudson's Bay Company, and others of the like sort,
not being confirmed by Parliament, are void, which I
mention not as a legal authority, but only to shew how
the question has been generally understood.

" 2nd. A Charter may be forfeited on this ground.

" 3rd. I should doubt whether they had by this acqui-
escence forfeited their exclusive privilege, if it ever
existed ; but this question is immaterial after my answer
to the first.

" 4th. If the former were legal, this would be so like-
wise ; I think both legal, on the grounds of my answer
to the first query.

" 5th. Probably they might prosecute the Captain ; but
if this question were material, it would be necessary
that I should see a copy or abstract of the Charter,
before I could answer it.

" 6th. He might, if there were any legal cause of pro-
secution.

" 7th. I hardly think that they would be held to fall
within this Act, nor does it signify whether they do or
not. If my opinion is well founded, the North- West

78 EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND.

Company may navigate Hudson's Bay, and carry on
their trade as they please, without any fear of legal
molestation, in consequence of the monopoly claimed
by the Hudson's Bay Company under their Charter,
and I think they may act as if no such Charter existed.

(Signed) " V. Gibbs."
^^ Lincoln's Inn, January 7th, 1804."

It does seem then that this Company, notwith-
standing the time which has elapsed dm-ing which
it has exercised its powers, has really no more right,
in law, to the monstrous privileges to which it lays
claim, than any one of those other Companies which
once possessed similar powers, all of which were
cancelled or destroyed.

The only grounds upon which there seems to be a
shadow of sanction given to the Charter, are those
upon which the case of " Sandys and the East India
Company " seems to have been decided ; viz., that
the Crown had the right to grant a right of exclu-
sive trade with infidels, because no one had a right
to such trade at all without the Royal licence. I
doubt much if a Judge could be found in the pre-
sent day to decide that such was English law ; nor
did the East India Company depend on the decision
in their favour, for they procured an Act of Parlia-
ment to confirm their claims. The question raised,
however, in the case of the East India Company, is
totally distinct from that which we are now ar-

EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND. 79

guing. The present question is, AVhether a right of
exclusive trade can be given with British subjects
and Christians in a British colony; and that is
clearly against the law : it is a monopoly.

The only argument advanced to shew that the
Company's trade is not a monopoly, is that the
Russian and American fur traders compete with the
Hudson's Bay Company in the London market.

This argument may be satisfactory to those who
think that there is no place in all the British empire
but London, and that as long as the interests of a few
London merchants are consulted, it is of little con-
sequence what becomes of all the world besides.
But the person, of all others, to whom such an
argument should be most unpalateable, is Her
Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies.

That a nobleman, whose peculiar office it is to
watch over the interests of the inhabitants of the
British colonies, should lend the weight of his influ-
ence and authority to prop up the despotism of a
Company of Merchants, is a strange thing; but it
is still more strange to see a close and perpetual
monopoly defended by the disciples and advocates of
the principles of free trade.

If, indeed, attachment to those principles be
regulated by the amount of Parliamentary interest
they can purchase, it will, of course, be a matter of

80 EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND.

indifference, if the only sufferers under a monopoly
are the inhabitants of a remote colony, or the wan-
dering savage of the woods.

If the free trade creed were signed, that Parlia-
mentary influence might be maintained, it is not to
be wondered at should a monopoly be protected, if
the same end can be gained : and the scores of votes
which a prince merchant carries in one pocket, are,
unquestionably, a powerful protection to the shares
of the Company which are deposited in the other.

It is throwing dust, to say the Hudson's Bay
Company do not possess a monopoly of the fur
trade, because furs from foreign markets are not
excluded.

Their traffic is, practically, a monopoly against
the British traders in furs ; but against the inhabit-
ants of the Red River settlement it is a monopoly,
not in one article or another, but in every necessary
and luxury of life, which his own country will not
produce : and above all, against the native Indian
it has more devastating effects than the anathema
of an interdict.

One would have supposed that North America,
above all places on the face of the globe, would
suggest, in the scenes which its history recalls, some
ominous warnings to those who treat with levity and
indifference the complaints of colonists.

EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND. 81

The eight or ten thousand souls at the Red
River are not so important a body, no doubt, as the
three millions who won their independence, and
elevated their country — of a province creating an
empire ; but yet we are told that these colonists at
the Red River are the outposts of Great Britain in
that part of the world, and that they are to be looked
to as the bulwark against American aggression.

If it be so, to keep them under their present
government is insanity. They are living not fifty
miles from a territory where no monopoly could
wrong them, and they do not cease to draw com-
parisons which are disadvantageous to their own
country. If the Red River settlement is not to be
given up, or to fall into the hands of the United
States, then this monopoly must be annihilated, and
that without delay. If those colonists are to feel
themselves an integral part of this great empire,
and to take that pride in so feeling which is the
surest guarantee for loyalty, they must be one with
England in her laws and her liberties.

Were we to search the records of English history
for a precedent, to teach us what policy should be
pursued in such a matter, there is one never to be
forgotten when the right of monopolies is called in
question. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, this

a

82 EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERt's LAND.

country was on the verge of rebellion, in conse-
quence of the number of monopolies granted by the
Crown. "There seemed," says Mr. Macaulay, "for a
moment, to be some danger that the long and glorious
reign of Elizabeth would have a shameful and dis-
astrous end : she, however, with admirable judg-
ment and temper, declined the contest — ^put herself
at the head of the reforming party — ^redressed the
grievance — thanked the Commons, in touching and
dignified language, for their tender care of the
general weal — ^brought back to herself the hearts of
the people — and left to her successors a memorable
example of the way in which it behoves a ruler to
deal with public movements which he has not the
means of resisting." The touching and dignified
language of Queen Elizabeth is too remarkable,
and too significant of what monopolies were
esteemed even in those days, when the Royal
power was at an unusual height, not to be quoted
here. " Gentlemen," said the Queen to the
Commons, "I owe you hearty thanks and com-
mendations for your singular good will towards
me, not only in your hearts and thoughts, but
which you have openly expressed and declared,
whereby .you have recalled me from an error pro-
ceeding from my ignorance, not my will. These

EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERT's LAND. 83

things had, undoubtedly, turned to my disgrace, (to
whom nothing is more dear than the safety and love
of my people,) had not such harpies and horse-
leeches as these been made known and discovered to
me by you. I had rather my heart and hand should
perish, than that either my heart or hand should
allow such privileges to monopolists as may be pre-
judicial to my people."

So odious had monopolies come to be esteemed,
that in the following reign, the fact of having ac-
cepted a patent granting a monopoly, was pimished
as a heinous crime. We read that, in 1621, a
patent was granted to Sir Giles Montfesson and Sir
Francis Michel, for making and selling gold and
silver lace. Montfesson made his escape ; but
Michel was degraded from his knighthood, fined
£l,000j carried on horseback, with his face to the
tail, through the streets of London, and then im-
prisoned for life.

Far be it from any one to desire a revival of this
summary mode of punishing monopolists. It would
be a painful and humiliating spectacle to see the
aged and venerable Governor of a great Company
degraded from his knighthood, fined a thousand
pounds, and carried on a horse, with his face to the
tail, throughout the scenes of his former magnifi-

o2

84 EXCLUSIVE TRADE WITH RUPERT's LAND.

cence. Were, however, such a misfortune possible,
it would be a consolation to the afflicted monopolist
to know, that if driven from the Bank, the Trinity
House, or even from Fenchurch Street, there was
still a refuge for the destitute open, in a retired
establishment in Downing Street.

This may seem an absurd hypothesis. Is it,
however, more absurd, than that it should be criminal
and disgraceful to be the proprietor of a monopoly
of one article in England, and that it should be
right and honourable to possess a monopoly of every
article in an English colony ?

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE CHARTER OF THE HUDSON 8 BAY COM-
PANY, IN RESPECT TO THE VALIDITY OF THE
GRANT OF THE RIGHT OF EXCLUSIVE TRADE
WITH THE INDIAN TERRITORIES.

The next point to be noticed in the Charter of the
Hudson's Bay Company is, the grant which was
made to them, of the right of exclusive trade with
the Indians, over all those coimtries into which they
might Jind access by land or loater from Rupert's
Land, and with all adjoining countries.

This is the country which is called, at the present
day, "The Indian Territories," and the right of
exclusive trade over this country is not disputed.
This right the Company hold imder the Royal
Licence of Trade, granted in accordance with the
Act of Parliament, 1 & 2 Geo. IV., cap. 66.

The very fact, however, of an Act of Parliament
having been thought necessary, in order to empower
the Crown to grant a licence of exclusive trade over
the Indian territories, seems to be a very strong
argument that the same right of trade granted

86 EXCLUSIVE TRADE INDIAN TERRITORIES.

over Rupert's Land, without Act of Parliament, is
invalid.

Of the right of exclusive trade generally, enough
has already been said ; but there is an important
remark to be made as to that provision of the
Charter which extends the right to the whole of
British North America, except the Canadas ; —
(for this is the smallest limit that can be assigned
to the language of the Charter; how much more
that language might be construed to mean,
whether the whole world or not, we cannot tell ;
but, supposing it to mean the countries now de-
nominated " The Indian Territories," that is to
say, all British North America, exclusive of the
Canadas and of Rupert's Land, the remark to be
made is this) — that the trade of the same country,
the exclusive trade of which was granted to the
Company by their Charter in perpetuo, is now
held by them under Act of Parliament for only a
limited period. The way this came about was as
follows.

We have already mentioned, that at the time of
the struggle between the Hudson's Bay Company
and the North- West Company, when the former
found that it was impossible to beat their rivals,
either by fair trade or by actual violence, and that

EXCLUSIVE TBADE INDIAN TERRITORIES. 87

any trial at law would involve an inquiry into the
validity of their Charter, they determined to com-
promise the matter, which was done in the follow-
ing manner.

An Act of Parliament was first procured for the
purpose of empowering His Majesty to grant to
*'any body corporate or company, or person, or
persons," the exclusive privilege of trading with the
Indians in all such parts of North America, not
being part of the lands and territories theretofore
granted to the Hudson's Bay Company, and not
being part of any of the provinces in North America,
or belonging to the United States of America.

It was previously agreed, that as soon as the Act
of Parliament should be passed, a grant of the ex-
clusive privilege of trading with the Indians shoiJd
be made under it to the Hudson's Bay Company,
and to the leaders of the North- West Company,
viz., Messrs, William and Simon, M'Gillivray, and
Edward EUice, conjointly. This was accordingly
done ; and the grant was made for twenty-one years.
The new partners, late of the North- West Company,
were to share all the profits arising from the fiirs
obtained, not only from " The Indian Territories,"
but also from the Hudson's Bay Company's proper
territories of Rupert's Land.

bb EXCLUSIVE TRADE INDIAN TERRITORIES.

Especial attention ought to be paid to the result
of passing this Act.

It empowers the Crown to grant the privilege of
exclusive trade throughout the Indian territories, to
any company, corporation, person, or persons. But,
by the Charter, the exclusive trade of this self-
same territory had been granted to the Hudson's
Bay Company one hundred and fifty years before.
The Charter gives them the exclusive trade over all
the lands into which they should find access hy land
or water, out of Rupert's Land. The Act of Par-
liament, therefore, empowers the Crown to grant,
not to the Hudson^ s Bay Company, but to any com-
pany or person, identically the same right of exclu-
sive trade which the Crown had previously granted
to the Hudson's Bay Company. The Crown might
have granted this right of exclusive trade, under
the new Act, to any other corporation ; and, in
fact, it did not make the grant, at first, to the
Hudson's Bay Company only, but to that Company
and the leaders of the North- West Company, con-
jointly.

So far then from this Act of Parliament con-
firming or recognizing the Charter, it directly sets
aside one of its most important provisions, and treats
it as if it had had no existence ; because it em-

EXCLUSIVE TRADE — INDIAN TERRITORIES. 89

powers the Crown to grant to one person what the
Crown had by its own authority granted to another
person.

Now, for this reason, it is asserted that it is illegal
for the Company at this moment to exercise the
privilege of exclusive trade in Rupert's Land, sup-
posing such a place to exist. Supposing, for a
moment, that the original grant of the country be
not altogether invalid in law ; still the grant of a
monopoly of the trade without the sanction of Par-
liament, being illegal, and Rupert's Land being
excluded from the operation of the Act of Parlia-
ment which empowers the Crown to grant the right
of exclusive trade over " the Indian Territories,"
there remains no right on earth to prevent any of
the inhabitants of any place within what may be
decided to be the legal limits of Rupert's Land,
from trafficking in furs and peltries as much as they
please. Nor could the settlers at the Red River do
better than to organise themselves into a Company for
the traffic of furs, sending their produce down, as the
North-West Company did of old, by the Lake of
the Woods, and Lake Superior, into Canada. The
Hudson's Bay Company would not now dare to
resort to violence to put an end to this general

90 EXCLUSIVE TRADE — INDIAN TERRITORIES.

movement on the part of the colonists ; and the
least attempt to suppress the trade by force would
result in a trial at law.

Sufficient has now been said as to the sanction
upon which the Hudson's Bay Company still con-
tinues to exercise its despotic power. Some of its
claims, it has been shewn, are altogether invalid ;
some have been utterly set aside by Parliament ;
and there are others so grossly illegal, that the
Company have not, in late years at any rate, ven-
tured to enforce them openly ; such as the right to
seize, imprison, and fine those who infiinge the
privileges of their Charter.

Whatever may be the result of the present
scrutiny which the grasping conduct of the Com-
pany has provoked, there seems to be no proba-
bility of " the Indian Territories" being emanci-
pated from their sway until the expiration of their
Licence of Trade in 1859.

The Company are fully aware that their pro-
spect of obtaining a renewal of that licence is very
small ; but the possession of a property on the coast
of the Pacific will be the best argiunent in their
favour. Hence their anxiety to obtain a territorial
footing in Vancouver's Island : hence the deter-

EXCLUSIVE TRADE — INDIAN TERRITORIES. 91

mination of all who are not blind to the interests
of this country, and to the extension of the British
power and race, to oppose to the last so fatal and
mischievous a proposition.

CHAPTER V.

OP THE CHARTER OF THE HUDSON S BAY COM-
PANY, IN RESPECT OF THE RECOGNITION WHICH
IT HAS RECEIVED FROM ACTS OF PARLIA-
MENT AND FROM OTHER PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.

Before leaving the question of the Charter of the
Hudson's Bay Company, it is necessary to examine
some assertions which have been made, to the effect
that its validity has been recognised by successive
Sovereigns, by Acts of Parliament, and by Treaties
with Foreign Powers. These assertions have been
made by Mr. M. Martin, in page 45 of his book.
That gentleman says, in the loose style of assertion
for which his work is remarkable, — " The lawfulness
of the Charter, or of the Company founded on the
Charter, have never been questioned by the Crown
or by Parliament ; on the contrary, there has been
a full recognition in various public documents."

No one ever doubted " the lawfulness of the Com-
pany founded on the Charter y Unless indeed it
should be held in law, that a Charter granting what
the CrowQ had not the power to grant, is null and

RECOGNITION OF THE CHARTER. 93

void altogether: to use this language, therefore,
is to conceal the real question. The question at
issue is, Are the powers granted hy the Charter legal
or illegal ? And have those powers ever been re-
cognised in any way, or |their legality ever been
asserted, by any Act of Parliament?

It is necessary to refer to the various occasions on
which the Hudson's Bay Company's Charter has
been noticed by the Parliament and by the Crown.

The first time Parliament interfered was in 1690,
when an Act was passed confirming the Charter,
Mr. M. Martin says, "/or eoer.^' He puts these
words in italics, and would leave readers who do not
refer to notes at the foot of a page, in small type,
with the belief that the Charter of the Hudson's
Bay Company was confirmed by Parliament for
ever. There cannot be anything more grossly un-
true. And Mr. Martin, in order to save his con-
science, puts the remainder, or rather a part of the
remainder, of the story into a note.

The real story, however, is this. The Company
found their Charter ineffectual to keep out inter-
lopers from sharing the profits of the rising fur trade,
80 they themselves petitioned Parliament for an Act.
Now, if they thought their Charter valid, what was
the use of an Act of Parliament? They did so,

94 RECOGNITION OF THE CHARTER.

because they knew right-well that their Charter was
not valid ; that the Crown did not, and never did,
possess the power to enable any one to seize its
subjects, fine, and imprison them, without trial.
They knew that had they acted on their Charter
in these and other matters, the Court of Law would
have instantly interfered ; so they petitioned Par-
liament for a " confirmation of their Charter." A
Bill appears to have been smuggled through the
House as far as the third reading, when the Com-
mons determined that the confirmation should
last only for ten years, '■^ and no longer f^ so, instead
of changing the words of the Act, which would at
that stage have necessitated a new Bill altogether,
a rider was attached, limiting the duration of the
Act to " ten years, and no longer." But when this
Bill went up to the Lords, the ten was changed into
seven^ and, thus amended, the Bill became law. So
far then from the Charter being confirmed for ever,
as Mr. Martin would have his readers believe, it
it was confirmed but ybr seven years, by a Bill whose
preamble states that it is '■'■ necessary that such a
Company should have sufficient and undoubted powers
and authorities,^^ 8fc., ^'^ which cannot he so effectually
done as by the authority of Parliament ;" thereby
implying, as far as words can, that the powers of

RECOGNITION OF THE CHARTER. 95

the Company were by no means undoubted or suffi-
cient, without the authority of Parliament.

The whole story of the passing of this Act shews
most clearly that the Parliament did conceive that
its sanction was necessary to the validity of this
Charter.

But Mr. Martin's note adds, " This Act enabled
the Company to restrain interlopers, and its renewal
on expiring at the end of seven years was unneces-
sary." Then why did the Company introduce a
new Bill into Parliament at the end of seven years ?
which they did. The Company then thought, and
Parliament thought, that an Act of Parliament was
necessary, in order to make the powers vested in the
Company valid and legal. The Company, however,
did not risk the chance of the Bill being actually
rejected by the House of Commons, which would
have settled the question of the Charter at once,
but they withdrew it, and have ever since acted on
the policy of asserting the rights of their Charter
on all occasions, except where there was a prospect
of its validity being submitted to a legal test, in
which case they have always given way. So much
for the first instance cited as favourable to the
Charter. To all the others, one remark applies,
viz., that when an Act of Parliament excepts from its

96 RECOGNITION OF THE CHARTER.

action the estates, rights, or privileges of a Company,
it does not thereby offer any opinion whatsoever as to
the validity of those rights and privileges : it is
not the function of a legislative body to do so : that
is a matter for a judicial tribunal. The Charter
exists, no doubt ; but whether it be legal or illegal,
valid or invalid, is a question which is purely one of
law. There can be nothing more absurd than to
say the kind of allusion which is made in the Acts
of Parliament quoted, viz., 6 Anne, cap. 37 ; 14 Geo.
III., cap. 83 ; 1 & 2 Geo. IV., cap. 66 ; give any
opinion on the question, one way or the other.

In the 6 Anne, cap. 37, the only allusion to the
Company is a proviso in the 23rd section, "that
nothing in the Act shall extend or be construed to
take away or prejudice any of the estates, rights, or
privileges of or belonging to the Governor and Com-
pany of Adventurers trading into Hudson's Bay."
The provision that this Act shall not invalidate such
supposititious rights, does not preclude their being in-
validated on any other legal gromids, nor does the
mere mention of rights belonging to a Company,
assert the legality of the claim to such property. The
Act 14 Geo. III., cap. 83, merely mentions the terri-
tories of the Company incidentally, declaring the
boundary of Canada to lie in such and such directions.

RECOGNITION OF THE CHARTER. 97

and " northward to the southern boundary of the ter-
ritories granted to the Company of Adventurers
trading into Hudson's Bay." Treaties have often
assumed things to exist which did not. The treaty
which settled the boundaries between the United
States and the British territories, determined that it
should proceed due west from the north-west comer
of the Lake of the Woods, until it intersected the
Mississippi ; but it was found afterwards that these
two lines never did intersect, and a new arrange-
ment had to be made. Similarly, if no Hudson's
Bay Company exist in law, a new Act must amend
the old one. But it would be as sensible to assert
that the line drawn due west from the north-west
comer of the Lake of the Woods did intersect the
waters of the Mississippi, because it is so asserted in
a treaty, as to say that the grant to the Hudson's
Bay Company of a tract of country is valid in law,
because an Act of Parliament makes use of it to
define a geographical outline.

We have already seen that the Act 1 and 2 Geo.
IV., cap. 66, so far from recognising the validity of
the Crown grant of exclusive trade over the Lidian
terrritories, positively sets it aside, and treats it as
if it had never been competent to the Crown to
make such a grant. But this is not the only way in

H

98 RECOGNITION OF THE CHARTER.

which this Act interferes with the Charter. It is
true that there is a proviso in the last clause, that
the Act is not to be interpreted to prejudice any of
the rights and privileges of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany ; but it uses the remarkable words respecting
those rights — ^which the Company " are by law
entitled to claim i^ as though the Legislature especi-
ally declined giving any opinion as to whether such
claims were or were not valid in law.

This Act extends the operation of the Act
42 Geo. III., cap. 138, to the ten*itories of the Hud-
son's Bay Company. The last-mentioned Act pro-
vides that crimes committed in the Indian territories,
which it declares, in the preamble, were not at present
" cognizable by any jurisdiction whatever," should
be considered as if committed within the jurisdiction
of the Canadian Courts, and should be tried in
those Courts accordingly.

The Act 1 & 2 Geo. IV., cap. 66, states, in the
preamble, that there is a doubt whether the pre-
vious Act refers to the territories granted to the
Hudson's Bay Company, and proceeds to enact
that it shall so extend over them. Here again it
completely sets aside the Charter : it creates a
machinery for the administration of justice, inde-
pendent of the Company, although the requisite

RECOGNITION OF THE CHARTER. 99

authority for such administration had been granted
to the Company by their Charter.

Besides which, in declaring that the Act 42
Geo. III., cap. 138, shall refer to, and extend
over, the territories of the Company, it would seem
at the same time to extend to them the declaration
in the preamble of that Act, viz., that crimes com-
mitted in such territories were " cognizable by no
lawful jurisdiction whatsoever."

It is beyond question, then, that the Act of
George IV. completely sets aside the Charter in
every point in which they come in collision.

Thus much for the assertion that the Charter of
the Company has been recognized by Acts of Par-
liament.

It has been shewn, not only that the Charter, was
not sanctioned, but that Parliamentary sanction
was refused, subsequently to the passing of a
temporary Act for its confirmation, by which it
was expressly intimated that the Charter was not
sufficient without the ratification of Parliament.

It has been shewn that in all the other Acts in
which it has been mentioned, a reference is made
to it merely as a fact, which it was; and that no
inference of any kind can be drawn as to its validity,
or the contrary, from any such mention.

H 2

100 RECOGNITION OF THE CHARTER.

And lastly, it has been shewn that whenever it
was necessary that Parliament should legislate upon
subjects which involved a question as to the extent
or validity, of the grants made by the Charter, the
rights of the Company have been treated as if they
had no existence whatsoever.

Nor is there one shadow of truth in the assertion
that the rights of the Company have received any
recognition in treaties with Foreign Powers. We
have shewn fully that the Treaty of Ryswick did
not recognize them ; but that, on the contrary, had
they existed, it would have utterly extinguished
them.

Equally false it is to say that the Treaty of
Utrecht guaranteed the Company's privileges. The
only mention made of the Company in that treaty,
is in a clause which provides that they shall be
remunerated for their losses "according to the
rule of justice and equity." There is not one
syllable about the rights or privileges, nor any
allusion to other than the fact of their having
suffered loss from the French, for which they were
to be remunerated according to an estimate made
by Commissioners to be appointed.

Nor is there any better groimds for saying that
the Treaty of Oregon recognizes these claims. Inr

RECOGNITION OF THE CHARTER. 101

deed, it could not do so, because the operations of
the Company on the Pacific are under Act of Par-
liament, and therefore must be recognized by all,
until the year 1859, when their Licence of Trade will
expire.

The Treaty of Oregon does no more than recog-
nize the existence of a great trading company,
having the exclusive trade and power in the British
territory. In treating of the possessory rights of
tlie Company, it places all British subjects on the
same footing.

We have thus endeavoured, at some length, to
investigate the truth of the statements which have
been put forward by the Hudson's Bay Company,
(and with the sanction, it would seem, of Her Ma-
jesty's Government,) as to the validity of the powers
and privileges of that Corporation. At the risk of
being somewhat tedious to the general reader, we
have discussed the right which the Hudson's Bay
Company claim, to lock up for ever an entire con-
tinent, to keep it as a hunting ground for their own
profit, and to exclude the progress of population*
civilization, and Christianity.

The Hudson's Bay Company's Charter was like
many others which at one time emanated from the
Crown — but it has outlived them all. It is the most

jl()2 RECOGNITION OF THE CHARTER.

monstrous of all monstrosities of that age. Many
circumstances have tended to prolong its existence,
but none more than the subtle and selfish wisdom of
its Governors, the inscrutable secrecy of its trans-
actions, the distance of the country, and the facili-
ties which the Company possess for keeping in-
truders and interlopers from interfering with their
policy, or witnessing their operations ; and now,
when a general inquiry into the whole commercial
system and policy of this empire is agitating the
minds of statesmen, this strange and obsolete
Charter comes to light, like a toad which is hewn out
of a rock, where it has lain hid for ages, and is yet
alive and ugly as of yore. But its days are num-
bered, and it will probably soon find a quiet resting
place amongst some of its fellows and peers, on the
shelves of the British Museum.

The Hudson's Bay Company are not very anxious
to prolong their existence, if it is made worth their
while to die : and Sir J. H. Pelly has indicated the
nature of the rights which will ensure their peace-
able departure from this life. He says, in a letter
to Lord Grey, of the 4th March, 1848 :— " As far
as I am concerned, (and I think the Company would
concur, if any great national benefit would he ex-
pected from it,) I would be willing to relinquish the

RECOGNITION OF THE CHARTER. 103

whole of the territory held under the Charter, on
similar terms to those which it is proposed the East
India Company shall receive on the expiration of
their Charter — namely, securing to the Proprietors
an interest on their capital of ten per cent."

A Company which will only resign a precarious
and tottering traffic, for a Government security of
ten per cent, on their capital, and even then only on
the expectation of a great national benefit, must,
one would fancy, be in the enjoyment of extrava-
gant profits or unlimited patriotism.

" When I was a young man," said the late Rev.
Sydney Smith, in a speech at Taunton, " the place in
England I remember as most notorious for highway-
men and their exploits, was Finchley Common, near
the metropolis ; but Finchley Common, Gentlemen, in
the progress of improvement came to be enclosed, and
the highwaymen lost by these means the opportunity
of exercising their gallant vocation. I remember a
friend of mine proposed to draw up for them a
petition to the House of Commons for compensation,
which ran in this manner : — ' We, your loyal high-
waymen of Finchley Common and its neighbour-
hood, having at a great expense laid in a stock of
blunderbusses, pistols, and other instruments for
plundering the public, and finding ourselves impeded

104 RECOGNITION OF THE CHARTER.

in the exercise of our calling by the said enclosure
of the said Common of Finchley, humbly petition
your Honourable House will be pleased to assign
to us such compensation as your Honourable House
in its wisdom and justice may think fit.' Gentle-
men, I must leave the application to you."*

* Works of the Rev. Sydney Smith. 3 Vols. 8vo. London.
1840. Second Edition. Vol. iii., p. 116.

CHAPTER VI.

of the results of the charter of the
Hudson's bay company, as affecting the
interests of the mother country.

The rights, or rather the claims, of the Company
have hitherto occupied our attention ; but let us
now turn to the results which have ensued.

K the reader will take the trouble to trace those
results through the following three chapters, in their
relation, severally, to this country, — to the Indian
population, — and to the colonists who have settled in
the Company's territory, he will probably agree in
the conclusions at which we have arrived respecting
the misfortune and mischief which may be antici-
pated, from the proposed extension of the power
and influence of the Hudson's Bay Company.

In this chapter we have to trace the effects of the
Company's Charter upon our own country. We
have to investigate the value of the assertions
which have been so pompously made, that England
has derived great benefit from the existence of the
Company ; and, in doing this, we have especially

106 EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

to bear in mind that, by the Royal Charter itself,
the public good was specified as the object with which
its privileges were granted to the Company.

We have already seen that the first condition
imposed upon the Company, as a duty which they
were given to perform, and in return for the ex-
pected performance of which their privileges and
rights were granted, was, the attempt to discover
a North- West passage into the Pacific Ocean.

The Company undertook to attempt this discovery,
upon certain advantages being secured to them as
an equivalent for their trouble and expense.

This country having suffered them to remain in
the enjoyment of their exclusive privileges, now for
more than a century and a half, have a fair right
to inquire whether they have performed the duties
entrusted to them ; especially the first duty imposed,
viz., that of discovery. And the right to make this
inquiry is strengthened by the fact that it is the
constant boast of the Company that they have a
claim upon our gratitude for the exertions they
have made.

Now the facts respecting the discoveries which
the Company have made, or attempted, are as
follows : —

In 1719 they fitted out two vessels, the Albany

EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN. 107

frigate, and the Discovery sloop, for the purpose,

as we are told, of discovery. This was nearly fifty

years after the date of their Charter. It was the

first expedition undertaken ; and there seems now

to be much doubt whether it was, properly speaking,

one of discovery at all. Mr. Robson, who writes

within thirty years afterwards, says, that the object

of the voyage was the discovery of gold or copper

mines, of the existence of which Captain Knight,

then Governor of the Factory on Churchill River,

had heard reports from the Indians who frequented

that place : —

" Full of these expectations, he came to England to
solicit the Company to fit out two vessels, under his
command, for the discovery of these rich mines ; but
the Company, for private reasons, refused to comply.
Knight, made more sanguine by an opposition which
he could not expect, told them that they were obliged
by their Charter to make discoveries, and extend their
trade, and particularly to search for a North-West
passage by the Straits of Annian, to the South Sea ;
but that if they would not fit out ships under him and
Barlow, for the discovery he came about, he would
apply to the Crown, and get others to undertake it ;
and, accordingly, waited upon one of the Secretaries of
State. When the Company perceived him so resolute,
and that his troublesome zeal, if left to itself, might
actually bring on an inquiry into the legality of their
Charter, they thought it necessary to comply, and fitted
out the sloop and ship before-mentioned."*

* Robson. App. No. i., p. 36.

108 EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIJJ.

It would appear from the above narrative, that
the expedition was undertaken not for discovery, but
to search for copper ; and, moreover, that it was
only undertaken at all in self-defence, for fear others
should intrude on their privileges.

There seems to have been no further attempt
made on the part of the Company to prosecute
Arctic discovery, until the year 1769, that is to say,
fifty years after their first attempt, and just a cen-
tury after they undertook the task.

In that year Hearne commenced his expedition
for the discovery, not, as it would appear, of the
country, or of the long-wished-for passage into the
Pacific Ocean, but, again, of the copper mines which
were said to exist to the north of Fort Churchill ;
and, it is so stated by Hearne himself, in the Intro-
duction to the Narrative. That the discovery of
the Arctic Ocean by this meritorious traveller was
rather an accident than a settled purpose of his
expedition, must be evident to every one who has
read his work. What value the Hudson's Bay
Company set upon this discovery is best seen by
the fact that " Hearne's Narrative " was not published
till the year 1795, twenty-six years after the expe-
dition was undertaken, and even then, if we are to
credit LaPerouse, only in consequence of a promise

EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN. 109

made to him, on the capture of the Factories in
Hudson's Bay by the French, in 1782.

" An account of this [Hearne's] journey was found
in manuscript among the papers of the Governor, who
was very pressing that it should be returned to him as
his private property. As the journey was undertaken,
however, by order of the Hudson's Bay Company, with
a view of obtaining knowledge of the northern part of
America, the journal of it might have been considered
with propriety as belonging to the Company, and now
of right devolved to the conqueror ; yet the goodness of
La Perouse's heart induced him to yield to the urgent
solicitation of Govenor Hearne, and he returned the
manuscript to him, on the express condition, however,
that he should print and publish it immediately on his
arrival in England. This agreement does not appear
to have been fulfilled to the present day. Let us hope
that the remark here made, when it becomes public,
will effect the purpose."*

Notwithstanding this declaration, which was
printed in England in the year 1791, Heanie's
travels did not appear until a few years afterwards,
in 1795, that is twenty-three years after his jour-
neys were preformed. This does not look as if
the Hudson's Bay Company had been extremely
anxious to promote the cause of Arctic discovery.

The next attempt made by the Company was in

* A Voyage roiintl the World, &c., under fhe command of
J. F. G. de La Perouse. Translated from the French. London.
1807. Vol. i. Introduction, p. xxx. See also Note to same page.

110 EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

1836, more than sixty-four years after Hearne's
journey. In that year the enterprising traveller
Thomas Simpson, commenced his discoveries, of
which others reaped the honours. The year 1836-7
is remarkable in the history of the Hudson's Bay
Company. In that year the supply of spirits to the
Indians is reduced ; — in that year missionaries are
called for ; — ^in that year discovery is undertaken ; —
and in that year the Company begin to negociate
for the renewal of their licence of exclusive trade!
This is significant. Thus in one hundred and fifty
years we find that the Company made but three
attempts to promote the task which they undertook
when they obtained their Charter ; and two out of
the three were made over land, in a manner which,
however creditable to the enterprising gentlemen
who led the expeditions, were made with no trouble,
and very little expense, to the Company, who reaped
the credit.

There is another significant fact to be noticed
respecting the expedition by Dease and Simpson,
viz., that in the same year (1837) the Government
were sending out an expedition under Captain Back :
and the Company appears to have acted on the
same principle on which they had acted in 1719,
viz., to delay performing their duty until it was

EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN. Ill

manifest that it would be performed by others, and
that their privileges might thereby incur risk.

But when the same coincidence occurs again in
1846, it is impossible to consider it the result of
accident. In that year Captain Franklin was
dispatched by the British Government to carry on
discovery on the north coast of America : and in
the same year Dr. Rae was sent by the Company.
The Company have, then, sent out but four expe-
ditions from the year 1670 till the present time, of
which only one was in ships — that is to say of such
a nature as to involve the Company in any great
expense. And of these four expeditions, the two
first were not to obtain geographical information,
but to discover copper. They were, in fine, it would
seem, not expeditions of discovery, but, in a great
measure, trading speculations ; and the other two
were both undertaken when the British Govern-
ment had sent out similar expeditions ; and one was
made in order to enable the Company to put for-
ward their claims as Arctic discoverers, when they
applied for the renewal of their licence of exclusive
trade with the Indians.

But, in the mean time, what has been done by this
country to promote geographical science in the north
of America?

112 EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

This is a question of the greatest importance ;
because, when it is asked why did England deprive
her merchants of the right of sharing in a lucrative
traffic, and commit the whole of it to a small Cor-
poration, consisting of a very few individuals ? the
answer should be, at least, that some advantage has
been gained by the country in general, to compensate
for the loss which was inflicted on individuals. But we
are now told that since the year 1815 alone, " more
than half a million of money has been expended"
on the task which it was committed to the Company
to perform.

Now it is impossible for any one to look at the
simple fact of what the Company have done, com-
pared with what England has herself eficcted, or to
compare the expenditure of the Government with
that of the Company, and to say that this country
has not lost immensely by the bargain which it
made, when it gave the Hudson's Bay Company
the great privilege of a monopoly of the fur trade,
on the condition that that Company should under-
take the task of Arctic discovery.

But the Company have been charged, not only
with neglecting to perform the task allotted to them,
but even with endeavouring to deter others from
making the attempt. In " Middleton's Geography,"

EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN. 113

published in 1771, there is a chapter which professes
to give " an account of the attempts made to find
out a North- West passage to America." The author
there says: —

" It has been generally supposed, and with reason,
that the Hudson's Bay Company, though bound by their
Charter to promote the discovery of a North- West pas-
sage, hath taken every method to prevent the accom-
plishment of it. And it is notoriously known that
Captain Middleton, who, in 1740, was sent by Govern-
ment upon that service, was publicly charged with
having received £5,000 as a bribe, from the Members
of that Company, to defeat the undertaking, or at least
to conceal the success of it."

At the end of the chapter, the writer returns to
the same subject.

" The next attempt was made by Captain Middleton,
as already mentioned ; and many imagine that he really
found the paasage so long sought for, but by sinister
means was prevented from revealing the discoveries he
had made, and even, by the influence of bribery, was
induced to publish a false journal of his voyage. So
much does private avarice prevent the success of public
discoveries.

** The Legislature being made sensible of these pro-
ceedings, passed an Act for the encouragement of
adventurers to attempt the discovery of the North-
West passage, ofFerintj, at the same time, so liberal a
reward as would probably preclude the effects of bribery
in preventing the success of any future expedition."*

* Middleton's Geography. Folio. London. 1778. Vol. ii.,
pp. 18, 19.

114 EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

The evidence here afforded is not the less important,
that the charge is only alleged as a supposition. It
proves, at any rate, what the character of the Hudson's
Bay Company was at that time, and how far it was
considered to have fulfilled the duties entrusted to it.

This charge may seem at the present day to be
very absurd and scarcely creditable, yet a similar
accusation may be urged with justice against the Com-
pany even now — viz., that of endeavouring to lower
the value of their territories in the eyes of the public.

The Company know very well that as long as
there is a general belief that the interior of the
continent of America is of no value, so long they
may feel secure in the possession of their privileges ;
and therefore the idea is circulated, that the whole
country north of the 49th parallel of latitude, is a
frozen wilderness, where human life can with diffi-
culty be supported, and where the earth will not
yield its accustomed fruits : and the same facts are
assigned as the necessary and imavoidable cause of
those awful and devastating famines, with all their
fearful accompaniments of starvation and cannibalism,
to which the miserable natives are periodically
exposed.

The Company have a direct interest at this
moment in keeping up this erroneous idea.

EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN. 115

There is a good example of how the facts of the
case may be distorted, for interested motives, in the
representations made at first about the country in
which the Red River settlement is situated. The
North- West Company saw at once that the settle-
ment was directed against, and would be fatal to,
their trade ; and so we have, in their efforts to cry
it down, frequent assertions of the impossibility of
founding a settlement in so remote and desolate a
country. Yet experience has shewn that there
is not a more favourable situation on the face of
the earth for the employment of agricultural
industry, than the locality of the Red River, As
far as the produce of the soil is concerned, the
settlers revel in abundance.

In the work by Mr. M. Martin, to which we
have, imfortunately, frequent occasion to allude,
because it bears all the appearance of authority, it
is confidently stated, that although "there are,
doubtless, several spots, such as the Red River,
adapted in some respects for European settlements,
they are like oases in the desert, few and far
between, and totally inapplicable for extended
colonization" (p. 6) ; and again, that "the tract
now left in the possession of the Hudson's Bay
Company will require great care and industry to

i2

116 EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

render even the most promising spots productive "
(P-6).

In order to shew how little truth there is in this
statement, it will not be without utility or interest
if we give a brief account of the physical features
of this country.

The territories of the Hudson's Bay Company
may be considered as containing three great dis-
tricts, totally differing in their general aspect :
these may be called, the Woody country, the Prairie
country, and the Barren country.

If the reader will look at the accompanying map,
he will be able readily to trace the divisions of
these three districts. The woody country extends
round the south of James' Bay, and the west of
Hudson's Bay, from East Main, as far as North
Lined Lake. The belt of wood is said to finish
abruptly at this lake, — one side being a forest, and
the other entirely open country. The breadth of the
belt of wood may be considered to be pretty nearly the
same throughout ; being bounded, as has been said,
towards the north-east by James' and Hudson's Bay,
and, towards the south and west, by a line stretching
along the north of Lake Superior, from the frontiers
of Canada, through the Lake of the Woods, Lake
Winnipeg, Deer Lake, and Wollaston Lake.

EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN. 117

It is not asserted that all the country within the
boundaries here described is a forest, or that all the
land in the other districts is barren, or open. The
general features of each district are, however, such
as those names indicate. Thus the general feature
of the country in the broad horse-shoe belt here
described is forest. A line from the shores of
Hudson's Bay, through the north of North Lined
Lake, Lake Athepescow, to Great Slave Lake, and
down Mackenzie's River, will cut off all the coimtry
towards the north, which may be called the Barren
district. And the country west and south of Lakes
Winnipeg, Deer, WoUaston, and Athepescow, as
far as the Rocky Mountains, may be denominated
the plain, or Prairie district

Now it may be quite true that only a small por-
tion of the Hudson's Bay Company's territories is
fit for colonization, and indeed for anything except
the chase ; but it may be, and is true, that that
small portion is a country sufficiently large and
fertile to support all the population of Great Britain
and all her dependencies.

In the first place, there is the neighbourhood of
the Red River, which experience has shewn to be
fertile in the extreme. Then there is the whole
country, several hundred miles in extent, between

118 EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

the Red River and the frontiers of Canada, along
the line of rivers and lakes which connect Lake
Winnipeg with Lake Superior, It is needless to
make any long references to authors to support this
assertion — that this is a magnificent country for
colonization. Sir George Simpson speaks in the
strongest language of the beauty of the country,
and the fertility of the soil, and of the rich and
varied produce of the earth in its wild and unculti-
vated luxuriance. Mr. Ballantyne dwells in his
lively and spirited manner on the same theme, and
many who have passed along that route are ready
to give similar evidence. Had not the North- West
Company of Montreal been destroyed, it is probable
that many settlements would, by this time, have
sprung up in the channel down which their vast fur
traffic was poured into Canada. But the waters
and woods are now silent and deserted, and the
whole of the trade is diverted to the desolate
shores of Hudson's Bay, to be stowed into the
" annual ships," for the London market.

If the Hudson's Straits were the only entrance
to the country, as the Company have endeavoured
to make them, for the purpose of giving themselves
a claim, under the language of their Charter, to
half the continent, there woidd be some ground for

EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN. 119

supposing that colonization would be impossible : for
except at the south, those shores are desolate in the
extreme. But Mr. Ballantyne tells us that when he
left York Factory, on the shores of the Bay, where
winter still reigned in all its severity, only a few miles
inland he found spring far advanced : at the same
period, in the country between Lake Superior and the
Red River, it would, no doubt, have been summer.

Much has been said of the extreme cold of the
country as indicated by the thermometer. It is well
known, however, that it is not the degree but the
character of the cold which renders it obnoxious to
men; and the climate of this country is quite as
agreeable, if not more so, than the best part of
Canada.

The height of the latitude gives no clue whatso-
ever to the degree of cold or to the nature of the
climate. Men who are competent, from personal
observation, to give an opinion, assert that the cold
is more apparently intense, at any rate far more
disagreeable, at Fort Churchill in latitude 59°, than
at Peel's River upon the Arctic Circle ; and that
vegetable life is more easily nourished at the latter in
the Rocky Mountains, than it is ten degrees farther
south, upon the shores of Hudson Bay. Upon the
River Liard, or, " The River of the Mountains,'

120 EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

in latitude 60% all garden produce has been
grown, and many kinds of grain, even, I believe,
wheat : at any rate, the country about this river
is said to be quite as productive and habitable as
that many degrees further south on the eastern
shores of the continent.

The part of the possessions of the Hudson's Bay
Company which is habitable and applicable for
settlement, is the Prairie district — a broad belt
stretching from Lake Superior, in a north-westerly
direction, to the Rocky Mountains. It is a country
of varied features : immense plains, hills, lakes, and
woods, are chequered over its surface, abounding
with every animal and fish which contribute to the
support of man in his savage state, and which,
therefore, render the advancement of civilized man
into the wilderness a matter comparatively neither
of difficulty nor of expense.

Of the country between Lake Winnipeg and
Lake Superior, Sir Alexander Mackenzie says : —

" There is not perhaps a finer country in the world for
the residence of uncivilized man, than that which occu-
pies the space between Red River and Lake Superior :
fish, venison, fowl, and wild rice are in great plenty :
the fruits are strawberries, plums, cherries, hazlenuts,
gooseberries, currants, raspberries, pears," «&:c.*

* Quoted by Mr. M. Martin. British Colonies. Vol. vi., p. 341.

EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN. 121

Throughout the whole of the open country there

are large tracts of land equally favourable for the

support of human life. Some spots, according to

those who have seen them, must be surpassingly

beautiful and luxuriant.

" Near the portage La Loche is a precipice upwards
of one hundred feet above the plain, and commanding a
most extensive, romantic, and, according to Mackenzie,
' a ravishing prospect ; ' the eye looks down on the
Swan (Pelican, or clear Water) meandering for thirty
miles through a valley above three miles in breadth,
and confined by two lofty ridges of equal heights, dis-
playing a most delightful intermixtuie of wood and
lawn, which stretch out until the blue mist obscures
the prospect. Some part of the inclining heights are
covered with stately forests, relieved by promontories of
the finest verdure, where the elk and buffalo enjoy a
delicious pasturage. The Swan runs eighty miles
through such scenery, when it discharges into the Elk,
or Athabasca River, in latitude 56° 42' North."*

This was the language of Mr. M. Martin, when
he wrote for truth, not for party.

There are none of the stations and forts of the
Company in this district where food cannot be readily
raised, although the servants of the Company fre-
quently pay little attention to the subject of farming.

The following, for example, is what Dr. King
says of Cumberland House, one of the principal
stations on the Saskatchewan River.
• Id., p. 339.

122 EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

" The ground about Cumberland House is not only
excellent, but fit for immediate culture. The house, a
few years ago, was in most excellent repair, and exhibited
a very productive farm, the effect of the continued care
and attention of Governor Williams, (the predecessor of
Sir George Simpson,) who had a great partiality for
agricultural pursuits. A vast change, however, had
taken place at the time of our arrival ; — the house was
all but falling to pieces ; the implements of tillage, and
the capacious barns, were silent monuments of waste ;
the horses were becoming wild, and the oxen occasional
truants ; the cows, although they went to the milkpail
twice a day, gave by no means a Virgilian quantity of
that sober and nutritious beverage ; and a solitary hog
stood every chance of dying without issue."*

Here then is a country above 500,000 square
miles in extent, a great part of which is favourable
for settlement and agriculture, and nearly the whole
of which is so well supplied with game, as to enable
the first advancement of colonies to be readily
effected.

And not only is this vast country capable of
being settled, but there is a great national object
to be gained in doing so, and that with as little
delay as possible.

The Saskatchewan River, is navigable for boats
and canoes, almost from its source in the Rocky
Mountains, throughout a course of 1,400 miles,

* King's Narrative. Vol. i., p. 54.

EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN. 123

to the mouth, where it discharges itself into Lake
Winnipeg. There is, it appears, but one rapid
throughout the whole course, and this could readily
be overcome.

Along this magnificent river, then, is manifestly
the highway to our possessions on the shores of the
Pacific ; and thus we have a communication opened
which no other part of the continent possesses.*

With the exception of a few obstructions, which
labour and ingenuity would soon overcome, there is
water carriage the whole way from London to the
Rocky Moimtains ; and the sources of the Sas-
katchewan on the one side, and of the Columbia on
the other, are so close together, that Sir G. Simpson
could fill his kettle for breakfast out of both at the
same time. He says, they are not above fourteen
feet apart.

It cannot but be obvious to all, that there is a
vast object to be gained, by opening up the interior
of the American continent, and securing, as soon
as possible, an overland communication with the
Pacific Ocean.

It is worth while to look at the map of America

• S«e a pamphlet by Lieutenant Millington Henry Synge, Royal
Engineers, entitled "Canada in 1848. London: Effingham
Wilson, Royal Exchange."

124 EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

with this view. You will then see that the 49 th
parallel of latitude, running straight across the
continent, from the Lake of the Woods to Van-
couver's Island, severs the British dominions in
North America from those of the United States.

Upon the shores of the Pacific Ocean, along the
Columbia River, in the Wallamatte Valley, and,
latterly, further south, in the golden district of
California, an American population is springing up
with a rapidity of which there is no example in
history.

The attention of England has also been turned to
the importance of founding a Colony upon her own
part of the coast of the Pacific ; and there can be
no doubt that, however for a few years the prospects
of the settlement may be oppressed by the super-
incumbent weight of the Hudson's Bay Company,
and by the perverseness of the Colonial Govern-
ment, it must and will, ere long, cast off these
shackles, and enjoy a prosperity derived from sources
which companies and Governments cannot control.
Om* new colonies on the Pacific, will be separated
from the mother country by a voyage of nearly six
months' duration ; a voyage in which it will be
necessary to pass along the seaboard of a rival, it
may be, a hostile, power, for many hundred miles.

EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN. 125

It is quite obvious, that a colony in Vancouver's
Island is completely cut off from the mother country,
and is, comparatively, entirely at the mercy of the
United States.

If our dominion over that part of the North
American continent, which we now call the Indian
Territories, is to be maintained, it is quite evident
that an inland communication must be established,
connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean.

The complete ignorance in which, until lately, we
have been kept as to the nature of the interior of
the continent, has favoured the idea that it is utterly
chimaerical to indulge the hope of establishing such
a communication. But look at Russia — the inland
route is maintained across the enormous continent,
from the Sea of Ochotsk to the Baltic, without any-
thing approaching to the facility which is offered in
America by the waters of the Saskatchewan River,
and its connection through Lake Winnipeg and the
Lake of the Woods, with Lake Superior and the
St. Lawrence.

It is not possible for private and individual enter-
prise to direct the course of colonization into those
channels which will prove most beneficial to the
whole empire. That is peculiarly the task of the
Government, and it ought to be the most important

126 EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

of all the duties allotted to the Minister for the
Colonies. But, in fact, this is a task about which
no one in the present day seems to care, or to
trouble themselves at all.

None seem to regret the enormous wealth which
we are squandering year by year — a nation's best
wealth — strong hands and stout hearts — upon a
rival, and some day, perhaps, an hostile power,
whilst tens of thousands of miles of coimtry, in the
heart of our empire, are lying waste and desolate,
which it is of unspeakable importance to occupy and
to cultivate.

If England will ever see this great truth, and will
enforce upon the Government ihe task of directing
the stream of colonization which must go on, directed
or not, as long as the population continues to in-
crease faster than its means of subsistence ; — and if
the Government does ever undertake to guide the
energies of those who leave our shores into such
channels as shall produce the most beneficial reaction
upon the mother country, and the most salutary
influence upon the stability of the whole empire ; it
is impossible but that this task, of opening up the
overland communication between the Canadas and
the Pacific Ocean, should be one of the first to
demand attention.

EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN, 127

To establish first, posts, and then villages, along the
course of the Saskatchewan River ; — to overcome the
only difficulty which exists in the navigation from Lake
Winnipeg, viz., the falls near Cumberland House ; —
to create steam communication along its waters ; —
to open the coal mines on its banks, which would at
once render the steam navigation a matter of ready
attainment — these are tasks which, were there any
real belief in the vast importance of the object to be
gained, and any real will on the part of the nation
and the Government to accomplish it, would neither
occupy a long time, nor demand any national outlay
which would not be amply repaid.

And what are the objects to be gained by this
great national undertaking ?

First. We should provide a new outlet for a
population sinking in misery, discontent, and famine,
in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Next, labom*,
which at home is lying idle and unproductive, would
be employed in calling into existence that wealth,
mineral, or agricultiu*al, which the earth ever gene-
rously yields to those who ask it at her hands.
Again, we should be establishing a chain of defen-
sible posts along a frontier line of a thousand miles ;
and, above all, we should be extending over half a
continent, that religion, that civilization, those laws,
and those liberties, which we love and reverence.

128 EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

and in which we firmly and faithftJly believe.
Nor is it to be forgotten that we should be fulfilling
one great task which we have been given to do, in
calling back from their barbarism and paganism,
the wandering children of the soil. And, in effect-
ing all this, we should, at the same time, be esta-
blishing a line of communication, a highway for
letters, for traffic, and for travellers, straight across,
from ocean to ocean. This is the only way in which
our power in the American continent can be con-
solidated : this is the only consideration which
renders it worth the while of Great Britain's under-
taking the foundation of a colony on the remote
shores of Vancouver's Island ; for the only light
in which a colony on the Pacific is desirable for this
country, is when viewed as the terminus of the great
overland route from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Ocean.

Now if this be the policy which ought to guide
our proceedings in North America, what have we to
thank the Hudson's Bay Company for ? or in what
manner have they advanced, or is it likely that they
will advance, the interests of the British empire ?

The results of their influence in the definition of
the boundary line, has already been noticed. Shall
we now trust them to guard it ?

The whole character and conduct of the Hudson's

EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN. 129

Bay Company has always been, and always must be,
hostile to this which we here lay down as the in-
terests of Great Britain in North America. Their
profits, their very existence as a Company, depend
on keeping the whole of the territory under their
rule, a vast himting-ground — an enormous preserve
— upon keeping whole nations of Indians as hunters
and trappers, and discouraging anything like
agricultiu"al settlement; above all, upon keeping
the territory shut up, preventing its ever becoming
a highway, sticking up a great " no- thoroughfare
board" at every entrance, and thus avoiding the
risk of any competition in the fur traffic. But the
time is fast approaching when this country will have
to decide, whether the profits of 239 merchants shall
be deemed of more importance than the law which
they violate, than the progress of civilization which
they impede. Than the emancipation of the native
tribes whom they enslave, than the interests of the
British Empire which they betray.

In reference to the benefits which England gains
from the existence of the Company, it is necessary
to add a very few words as to the extent of the
traific in which it is engaged. We shall then see
what the Charter has done in the way of extending
the trade of this country.

K

130 EFFECTS UPON- GREAT BRITAIN.

It appears that the original capital subscribed was
£10,500 ; and that, in consequence of the enormous
profits realized, the Company trebled their stock in
1690 ; that is, they passed a vote by which the stock
of the Company was declared to be £31,500 ; and
the object seems to have been, that the dividends
might appear to be smaller upon a larger nominal
capital, than upon the original subscribed capital of
£10,500.

Continued prosperity enabled the Company to
perform a similar trick in 1720. In this year the
capital was declared to be again trebled, and to
amount to £94,500. It was then proposed to add
three times as much to it by subscription, but in this
way, that each proprietor subscribing £100 should
receive £300 of stock ; so that the nominal stock
should amount to £378,000, the real additional
sum subscribed being £94,500.

This plan was frustrated by the difficulty, at the
time, of procuring money, and only £3,150 was
subscribed. Nevertheless, the whole capital of the
Company was ordered to reckoned at £103,500,
whilst the only subscribed capital was £13,650.

AVhen the rival companies, the North- West
Company of Montreal and the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany, imited in the year 1821, the latter made a

EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN. 131

call of £100 per share on their Proprietors, which
raised their capital to £200,000, and a similar sum
being added by the North- West Company, the
whole stock of trade of the present Company amounts,
or is said to amount, to £400,000.

This is the measure of the whole traffic carried
on with half the continent of North America by this
country.

It is not, of course, possible to say what amount
of capital might be profitably employed ; but when
we are told of great national mercantile benefit
being derived by this country, it is necessary that the
public should know that the entire capital engaged
is £400,000, and no more ; and even of this, a
considerable portion is nominal, that is, was never
paid up at all.

We may form some opinion of the effect of the
monopoly of the trade, compared with what might
be the case were there a competition, by the fact
that the number of white servants in the pay of the
Company is about a thousand. 'Whereas the North-
West Company of Montreal alone, with only half
the capital, and in competition with the Chartered
Company, employed two thousand.

Again, the number of ships sent to the Hudson
Bay is two annually. All the exports and imports

K 2

132 EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

from the whole country east of the Rocky Moun-
tains are contained in about two ships of about
three hundred tons each : and two ships more are
employed on the north-west coast. AVhereas the
North-West Company, as long ago as 1816, char-
tered three ships for carrying on a trade on the
north-west coast, and for trading in furs to China :
and the same Company, at that time, employed
upwards of tlu-ee hundred Canadians between the
Rocky Mountains and the sea.

To say, then, that the trade of this coimtry has
been fostered or extended by the monopoly enjoyed
by the Company, is exactly contrary to the truth.

The settlements of the Moravians on the coast of
Labrador alone, employ one ship annually ; that is to
say, create about half as much trade with England
as is derived from the whole of the Company's
dominions east of the Rocky Mountains.

Again, if we look at the extent of the country in
which the Russian Fur Company carries on its
operations, and compare it with the territories of
the Hudson's Bay Company, and then learn that the
former employ twelve armed vessels, whilst' the
whole traffic of the English from all parts of the
continent occupies hvXfour, we shall be astonished,
if not at the fact, at any rate at the assertion in spite

EFFECTS UPON GREAT BRITAIN. 133

of it, that the English have placed the Fur Trade
of their enormoiis territories under a system which is
favourable to the development of the commercial
resources of the coimtry.

In fine, then, in whatever light the character of
the Company be regarded, whether as having per-
formed the duties of the station assigned to it, to lead
the enterprise of the nation in geographical discovery
and science ; or, as extending the influence of British
laws, liberties, and civilization, and preparing the
way for the advancement of the race, and increasing
the stability of the empire ; or, finally, even in its
own narrow and peculiar sphere, as enlarging the
fields for commercial enterprise ; — ^in whatever light
this Company be regarded, it is impossible not to
arrive at the conclusion, that it has ever been hostile
to the best uiterests, and has shackled the energies,
of Great Britain. It is impossible not to view it as
an obstructive impediment, which the advancing
requirements of the age must, sooner or later, sweep
from its path.

CHAPTER VII.

THE RESULTS OF THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY S
CHARTER IN ITS EFFECTS ON THE NATIVE
INDIAN POPULATION OF THE COMPANY'S
TERRITORIES.

The evil influence of the Hudson's Bay Company
upon the mother country, has resulted more from
crimes of omission, than from those of commission ;
and amidst the vast and various sources of our
national wealth, and the manifold directions in
which it is employed, it is scarcely to he wondered
at that the comparatively insignificant commercial
operations of the Company should have escaped much
public notice ; nor is it more surprising that, invested
with such powers, and in the possession of such
admirable machinery for veiling their transactions,
as well as the country in which they are carried on,
in impenetrable secrecy, the interests of merchants
and adventurers should have been but little attracted
to those fields for enterprise, from which the Hud-
son's Bay Company exclude all others, and which,
nevertheless, they only very partially occupy them-
selves.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 135

But it is far otherwise with the subject to which
we have now to turn — the influence of the Com-
pany's power and privileges upon the Indian
population.

To the native Indian, the Company is all in all.
It is his master — his lord — his " great medicine."

The results of the Charter which we have now to
contemplate, are fatal and universal ; extending over
a country upwards of four millions of square miles
in extent, inhabited by fifty nations of human
beings.

If that these human beings are imcivilised and
poor — in fine, only savages — be a reason why their
sufferings should be unheeded, and their interests
despised by the Company ; there are those, at any
rate, by whom this will be deemed only a more
irresistible claim for sympathy and protection.

Far from the least important result, therefore, of
the dominion of the Company, to which we shall
call attention, is the effect which it has upon the
native population of North America ; on behalf of
whom, we protest against the frightful despotism to
which England has unintentionally consigned them.

It is but a small part of the truth to say that the
Hudson's Bay Company enjoy a right of exclusive
trade with the Indian population. This right of

136 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

exclusive trade is, practically and positively, a right
of exclusive property in the labour, life, and des-
tinies of the Indian race. It is an absolute and
unqualified dominion over their bodies and their
souls — a dominion irresponsible to any legal autho-
rity— a despotism, whose severity no legislative
control can mitigate, and no public opinion restrain.
It knows but one limit, and obeys but one law, —
" Put money in thy purse." " God knows," said
the Rev. Mr. Beaver, the Company's own Chaplain
at the Columbia River, " God knows that I speak
the conviction of my mind ; and may he forgive me
if I speak imadvisedly, when I state my belief, that
the life of an Indian was never yet by a trapper put
in competition with a beaver skin."

A trading port is established in the heart of a
tribe of Indians, who enjoy a savage independence,
and draw from the woods and waters, by such rude
implements as their untaught ingenuity can supply,
a subsistence suited to their primitive condition and
simple wants. The skins of the beaver and silver
fox are not much in request, except as a chance
article of clothing. But beaver skins, though un-
appreciated in the Indian camp, are valuable in
the London market ; and the Indians are not long
in perceiving that hunting the buffalo, spearing fish.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 137

and planting patches of maize, are pursuits less
honourable in the eyes of the new comers, and less
adapted to obtain the kind of wealth which the
strangers import, than ti*apping otters, martins, and
musquash ; which, if \hey do not supply food to the
trapper, supply something more valuable to the
trader. Time passes on, and the primitive bow
and arrow, the bone-pointed spear, and snares of
the sinews of the deer, are laid aside for more
effective instruments of destruction — guns, steel
traps, and scalping knives. And the ancient wea-
pons of the chase, in the skilful use of which
the' Indians of old lived and midtiplied upon the
earth, are entirely forgotten, and exchanged for
others, supplied by the strangers who have ap-
peared amongst them, and who thus hold in their
hands the thread of life of the whole Indian race.

The stroke of a pen, ordering the supply of am-
munition to be stopped, can sweep a score of
families from the face of the earth.

The original tribe, formidable in their collective
nimibers and strength, and therefore less manageable
and subservient, is broken up, and dispersed in single
families over hundreds of miles of waste forests,
where each has the exclusive property of all the
beavers, wild cats, wolves, and grizzly bears, &c.,

138 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

that may infest its particular hunting-ground, or
" preserve."

The hunter, no longer attired in his comfortable
primitive dress of leather or furs, shivers and starves
under a civilised slop coat or shirt, decked out,
with a profusion of lace, glass beads, gewgaws, and
trinkets, all of which are purchased at the moderate
rate of two thousand per cent, on their cost in
London.

To complete the absolute and entire dependence of
the Indian on the Company, he is invariably kept
in debt; of the obligation of which, it is said, no
human being is more sensible.

In the course of time, imder a systematic and
constant persecution, the larger animals which
supply the food of the natives, and even those which
yield the valuable furs for the London market,
decrease in numbers, and become nearly or wholly
exterminated.

The district, no longer valuable to the Company,
must be abandoned ; their trading fort is removed
to a distant part of the country ; the supply of
powder, by which alone the natives can now ensure
a subsistence, is stopped ; and famine and cannibalism
sweep off the wretched remnant of the native tribe.

The fate which sometimes engulfs an entire sec-

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 139

tion of the human family, is, however, daily operating
upon individuals.

This is a doom which negro slavery has not re-
corded amongst its horrors. For the superannuated
negro, when his period of toil is over, some oc-
cupation could be found, suited to his age and
infirmities, which entitled him to the supply of the
necessaries of his waning life ; but the aged and
disabled Indian, too haughty to beg, were it not
indeed hopeless to obtain, the annual pittance of
ammimition which might save his life, but which
his failing energies can no longer earn, is driven to
the woods, to seek a lingering death by famine,
with all the honour and dignity of British liberty.

An apparently formidable array of evidence has
been laid before the public, to demonstrate that the
native Indians are improving under the manage-
ment of the Company ; and, in particular, much
stress has been laid upon the evidence of the Bishop
of Montreal, a prelate whose testimony must ever
be entitled to profound respect. But it has already
been said that the Bishop of Montreal was never
further in the Hudson's Bay Company's territories
than the Red River settlement ; that is to say, only
on their outskirts. Of what was the condition of
the Indian tribes throughout the enormous extent of

140 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

the Indian territories, the Bishop did know, and
professed to know, literally nothing, except what
he heard from the officers of the Hudson's Bay
Company.

* Of the delightful scenes which his Lordship
witnessed and described at the Red River, the
Hudson's Bay Company are in no sense the authors.
Those results are to be attributed to the labour and
zeal of the clergy, who are supported for the most
part by the Church Missionary Society, and to
whom the Company, considering how much they
obtain from the country and the natives, have af-
forded disgracefully little assistance and support.

That the inhabitants of the Red River settlement
are little indebted to the Hudson's Bay Company
for the benefit of education, is proved by one
sentence in Sir George Simpson's Voyage round the
World ; in which he says, " As to the charges of
education, four-fifths of them fall on the pious and
charitable association just mentioned, (the Church
Missionary Society,) while the remaining fifth is
borne by such individual parents as are able and
willing to spare fifteen shillings a year for the moral
and intellectual culture of a child." *

* Sir G. Simpson's Overland Journey round the World.
Vol. i., p. 54.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 141

The impression left on the mind by the perusal of
the Bishop of Montreal's accoimt of the Red River
settlement, so far from being one of pleasure and
surprise that so much has been done for the educa-
tion and civilization of the Indian population, is
one of shame and sorrow ; for it is impossible not to
ask, what, with such facilities for humanising and
instructing the savage, as are evidently afforded by
his own abilities and disposition — what might not
his race now be, had the Company acted in other
parts of their territories as they have been compelled
to act in the Red River ?

The only Indians which the Bishop of Montreal
saw were in the best part of the Company's terri-
tories ; in a part where it is natural to suppose that
they would be in a better condition than anywhere
else, — on the route between the Red River settle-
ment and Canada. And what does the good Bishop
say of these Indians ?

" Nothing can be more pitiable, in my estimation,
than the condition of these poor heathens : nothing more
calculated to excite an interest in favour of all rightly-
conducted efforts for their conversion. They are some-
times regarded with a sort of admiration, as the unso-
phisticated children of nature; and, still more, as
exhibiting the very impersonation of a high-toned in-
dependence, and an unshackled manliness of spirit.

142 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

Children of nature they are : and what kind of moral
nurse is mother nature, a Christian has no need to ask.
They are, physically, a fine race of men ; and they are
perfectly susceptible of moral, and intellectual, and
spiritual culture ; but their actual condition presents a
most degrading picture of humanity. Some of them
came up to us in dirty blankets, or dirtier dresses of
worn and tattered hare-skins : others were totally naked,
except the waist-cloth ; their heads, with scarcely an
exception, protected only by an enormous mass of long
black hair. Others, in the encampments, who appeared
to be persons of some distinction, and whose attire was
in better order, were tricked out more like Bedlamites
than rational beings ; a silly and undiscriminating passion
for ornament prompting them to turn to this account
whatever frippery they can become possessed of; so that
the thimbles, for example, which they procure from the
Company, are seen dangling at the end of long thin
braids of hair which hung from the men's foreheads :
some have feathers stuck into their hair, and these,
perhaps, bent into an imitation of horns ; with others
appended to resemble the ears of an animal. Many
have their faces painted, all the lower part of the visage
being made perfectly black, and the eyes encircled with
bright vermilion ; but it would be impossible to describe
the varieties of their costume, or their fantastic decora-
tions : and there they sit, or rather squat, smoking and
basking in the sun the live-long day, sunk in an indo-
lence from which nothing seems to rouse them, but the
excitement of war or of the chase."*

Another authority, upon which great reliance has
been placed, — an authority, certainly, of importance,

* The Bishop of Montrears Journal of a Visit to the Red River
Settlement, pp. 34-6. Hatchard. London. 1845.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 143

because of the difBculty of obtaining any evidence
independent of the Company, is the Report of the
Aborigines Committee in 1837. The public may
judge for themselves how far it is true, as has been
asserted, that this Report is favourable to the cha-
racter of the Company. The only part of the Re-
port which treats of the natives in " The Indian
Territories," is as follows : —

" Of the ulterior tribes, [those of the Hudson's Bay
Company's territories,] the account given by Mr. King,
who accompanied Captain Back in his late Arctic ex-
pedition, is deplorable : he gives it as his opinion, that
the northern Indians have decreased greatly, and ' de-
cidedly from contact with the Europeans.'

" Thus the Cree Indians, once a powerful tribe, ' have
now degenerated into a few families, congregated about
the European establishments ; while some few still retain
their ancient rights, and have become partly allies of a
tribe of Indians that were once their slaves.' He sup-
poses their numbers to have been reduced, within thirty
or forty years, from eight thousand or ten thousand to
two hundred, or, at most, three hundred ; and has no
doubt of the remnant being extirpated in a short time,
if no measures are taken to improve their morals and to
cultivate habits of civilization. It should be observed
that this tribe had access to posts not comprehended
within the Hudson's Bay Company's prohibition, as to
the introduction of spirituous liquors, and that they miser-
ably show the effects of the privilege.

" The Copper Indians also, through ill-management,
intemperance, and vice, are said to have decreased,
within the last five years, to one-half the number of
what they were.

144 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

" The early quarrels between the Hudson's Bay and
the North- West Companies, in which the Indians were
induced to take a bloody part, furnished them with a
ruinous example of the savageness of Christians. Mr.
Pelly, the chairman of the Hudson's Bay Company, has,
however, assured your Committee, that many of the
evils caused by the rivalry of the two Companies, have
been removed by their junction, and that the present
Directors are well disposed to promote the welfare of
the Indians : yet we observe, that the witness above
quoted, Mr. King, who has travelled in the country, is
of opinion, that even our system of peaceable trade has
a tendency to become injurious to these people, by en-
couraging them in improvident habits, which frequently
bring large parties of them to utter destitution, and to
death by starvation."

How far the information supplied to the Com-
mittee was correct, as to the supply of spirits to the
Cree Indians from other than the Hudson's Bay
Company, is a matter of great doubt.

But that there was little need for such an expla-
nation, is evident from the following sentence, in
which intemperance is recorded as a cause of the
destruction of the Copper Indians, who are far beyond
the reach of any traders, except those of the Company.

In the course of this chapter, it will be sufficiently
evident that the condition of the Indians is not that
which has been represented by the Company. It
will appear that they are in a condition of the
extremest misery ; and that instead of increasing in

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 145

numbers, as has been asserted, they are rapidly
decreasing over the entire continent of British North
America. But it is not enough merely to shew
that these things are so : it is necessary that we
should trace tliese effects to their causes, and demon-
strate that the system adopted by the Company is
the main cause of all the evils inflicted on the
wretched inhabitants. And it is the more necessary
to do this, because a sympathy for the Indian races
has been obtruded on the public by the Company as
one of the chief characteristics of their proceedings.

The first matter that will engage our attention is,
the system of traflic carried on with the natives ; and
it will be proved that the remuneration given to the
Indian for hunting and trapping the fur-bearing
animals, bears no proportion to the value of the fm*,
i. e.j to the profits of the Company, and that it is only
a very small part of what the Indian would receive were
the country open to the competition of rival traders.

The Hudson's Bay Company pay the Indian the
least possible amount which will enable them fo
obtain the skins.

It has been asserted, with a view to throwing dis-
credit on the above assertion, that the Company are
by no means in the enjoyment of extravagant profits.

It is possible that the profits of the present Share-

146 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

holders may not be enormous : it is possible that
they may have bought stock at such an increased
value, that it is necessary, in order that they may
be paid a reasonable dividend, to procure a certain
supply of skins from the country at less than a
certain cost ; but that cost may be, at the same
time, far less than the value which the furs would
bear in their own country, supposing a monopoly
of the trade did not exist.

It is quite possible, nay extremely probable, that
the price of the Hudson's Bay Company's Stock is
a great deal higher than it would be in case there
were no exclusive trade ; but the injury to the
Indian is not one bit the less on this account. Is it
fair and honourable trade, or is it a shame and
disgrace to British merchants that the Indian be
robbed of the fair value of his labour, (and robbed
he is, if he would get more under a competition in
trade, than under the present system,) in order that
a sufficient dividend may be paid on the present
price of Hudson's Bay Company's Stock ? When
we shew that the Indian is receiving only a fraction
of what he ought to receive for his furs, it is enough
to reply, " We can't afford to pay him more, other-
wise we could not pay our own Shareholders ten
per cent., because they bought Stock at such a high
price ?"

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 147

That the Indian does receive only a small part
of the price which he would, under a system of
open trade, obtain, is manifest from the following
extracts. These extracts will shew, at the same
time, the whole character of the Company's traffic
with the Indians ; and they have been arranged
nearly in the order of date, for the purpose of
proving that the result of this monopoly of the trade
has been the same from the first history of the
Company.

The following is quoted by Lieutenant Chappell,

as shewing the state of the trade in the middle of

the last century : —

" "When the Indians came to the Factory, in June
1742, they could get but a pound of gunpowder for four
beaver skins, a pound of shot for one beaver, an ell of
coarse cloth for fifteen, a blanket for twelve, tivo fish'
hooks or three Jiints for one, a gun for twenty -five skins,
a pistol for ten, a hat with a M'hite lace for seven, an
a\e for four, a checked shirt for seven, a hedging-bill
for One, a gallon of brandy for four ; all which was sold
at the monstrous profit of 2,000 per cent."*

In the appendix to Mr. Robson's work, we read
the following : —

"By the standard of their trade," [in Paper No.^ix.
laid before the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry
into the Conduct and Administration of the Hudson's

* Lieutenant Chappell's Voyage to Hudson's Bay, &c. London.
1817. P. 231.

l2

148 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

Bay Company in the year 1742,] " we may see how vast a
price is charged to the natives upon the goods given
them in exchange for their furs, which are all valued by
the beaver skin as the standard. Thus, for a quart of
English spirits, which the Company export at sixpence,
and before they sell it to the natives mix it with one-
third water, which reduces it to fourpence, they take a
beaver skin, which has been sold at the Company's sale,
at a medium of ten years, for six shillings three far-
things the pound weight, and a beaver skin generally
weighs a pound and a half, so that they get nine shil-
lings and a penny for fourpence, which is £2,700 per
cent, profit. Upon other articles not so material, they
do not gain above £500 or £600 per cent. : but in
exchange for martens, the profit is double of that upon
beavers, for they value three martens only as one
beaver, and those at a medium of ten years have sold
for six shillings a skin. It appears also from the stan-
dard, that one-third more is charged upon many articles
at Nelson and Churchill Factories, than at Moose and
Albany ; and not content even with this extravagant
profit, the factors are allowed to sell their goods con-
siderably above the standard, which is called the profit
upon the overplus trade."*

" In a table given by Umfraville, [in 1790,] we find
the following equivalents for a beaver skin : — half a
pound of glass beads, one pound of powder, one comb,
one small burning-glass, twelve needles, one file, one
ice-chisel, and one quart of brandy. Now, taking the
last as an instance, one quart of brandy of the usual
strength was worth one beaver skin ; but by being half
water, the price is made two. Now for spirits the Com-
pany pay at the rate of twenty shillings a gallon : this pro-
duces eight beaver skins weighing about ten pounds, which

* Robs()n"s Six Years' Residence in Hudson's Bay. London.
1752. App., p. 50.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 149

at the medium of exchange, supposing it to be twelve
shillings per pound, amounts to £6 sterling : if the
brandy were traded for other skins, the return would be
about £8. This calculation is considerably below the
present prices. A fourpenny comb, says that writer,
will barter for a bear's skin worth £2."*

Coming down to a later period, we have the
testimony of Sir John Richardson, as follows ; —

" The standard of exchange in all mercantile trans-
actions with the natives is a beaver skin, the relative
value of which, as originally established by the traders,
differs considerably from the present worth of the article
it represents ; but the Indians are averse to change.
Three martens, eight musk rats, or a single lynx, or
wolverine skin, are equivalent to one beaver ; a silver
fox, white fox, or otter, are reckoned two beavers ; and
a black fox, or large black bear, is equal to four: a
mode of reckoning, which has very little connexion
with the real value of those different furs in the Euro-
pean market. Neither has any attention been paid to the
original cost of European articles in fixing the tariff by
which they are sold to the Indians, A coarse butcher's
knife is one skin ; a woollen blanket, or a fathom of
coarse cloth, eight ; and a fowling-piece, fifteen." |

Dr. King, the same traveller whose evidence is
referred to in the Report of the Aborigines Com-
mittee, above quoted, states his opinion in the follow-
ing words : —

* The Oregon Territory, by the Rev. C. G. Nicholay. London.
1846, P. 162.

\ Franklin's Journeys, &c. 4 Vols., 12nio. London. 1829.
Vol. i.,p. 161.

150 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

"By comparing the value given to the Indians for
their furs, and the price they are sold for by the Hud-
son's Bay Company in London, we may draw our con-
clusions as to the oppression of these people. Three
marten skins are obtained for a coarse knife, the utmost
value of which, including the expenses of conveying it
to those distant regions, cannot be estimated at more
than sixpence : and three of these skins were sold last
January in London for five guineas. With the more
expensive furs, such as the black fox or sea-otter, the
profit is more than trebled ; and but a few years ago, a
single skin of the former species sold for fifty guineas,
while the native obtained in exchange the value of two
shillings. Surely the Honourable Company, which by
Royal Charter is permitted to reap such golden harvests,
might appropriate a small fund to rescue from starva-
tion the decrepit and diseased, who in their youthful
days contributed to its wealth."*

That the remuneration which the natives receive
is very different where the Company are brought
into competition with others, is sufficiently at-
tested by the following statement of Mr. Alexander
Simpson : —

" The prices paid to the Indians for their furs, are
in general exceedingly small. Throughout the whole
of the protected territories, the value of goods bestowed
for furs is certainly under one-twentieth of the value of
their furs in England. While in places not protected,
in order to crush or prevent competition even more
than their full value has occasionally been given ; and
at the establishments on the outskirts of Canada the
prices permanently offered are from two to ten-fold

* King's Narrative. Vol. ii., p. 53.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 151

greater than those given to the natives of the regions
over which an exclusive right of trade exists."*

The same testimony is given by the Rev. Mr.
Beaver, in his letter to the Aborigines Protection
Society : —

" It should never be forgotten that the Hudson's Bay
Company are but as invaders of the soil on which these
excesses are committed by their servants ; and that, a.s
such, the least they can do is to restrain all unnecessary
violence towards the rightful possessors." ♦ * ♦

" With respect to the furs of that country — to rob
their lawful owner of them, by taking possession of
them, either with no payment or a most inadequate one,
is surely not a legitimate method of teaching him their
proper use and value. Of articles bartered by the Com-
pany for peltry and other native produce, one-half may
be classed as useless, one quarter as pernicious, and the
remainder of doubtful utility "f

There is now before me a manuscript Jomnal by,
a Mr. Dmm, who was for several years a servant of
the Hudson's Bay Company, and who wrote a book
in which he endeavoured to prop up the character
of the Company. This Journal is in Mr. Dunn's
handwriting, and contains notes of a trading voyage
which he went in one of the Company's vessels along
the north-west coast. The trade at this time was
open to both Americans and English, and Mr. Dunn

• The Life, &c., of Thomas Simpson, by his Brother. London.
1845. 8vo. P. 427.

f Tracts relative to the Aborigines. London. 1843. Tract viii,,
pp. 19, 20.

152 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

fi'equently, in the course of his story, records the
increase in the price of furs, in consequence of the
competition of the Americans.

One quotation will be enough : a multitude might
be given. He says : —

"Sunday, 15. — A fine breeze during the night : about
twelve o'clock anchored in Kieb Cove Captain Ray-
mond with the barque ' Active,' is lying here : the
Indians have returned, and there seems an immense
quantity here.

" Monday, 16. — Fine weather : traded a very few skins,
nothing to speak of; but, however, we have done the
American brig : he was thinking to have them all to
himself: — he then increased his price, and we increased
ours.

" Tuesday, 1*1. — Fine in the fore-part of the day : light
showers towards the evening : traded several skins, but
rather dear, as we are now opposing the Americans."

Now it must not be forgotten that the evidence
of Captain Wilkes, as well as of others who have
been quoted, as speaking favourably of the system
of the Company, refers only to this part of their
territories, where their transactions are totally dif-
ferent from what they are when not subject to the
competition or observation of others.

WTien we compare the evidence of Captain Wilkes
and others, as to the condition of the Indians on the
west side of the Rocky Mountains, with all the
testimony that can be obtained respecting the con-
dition of those on the east side, or in Rupert's Land,

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 153

there cannot be a moment's doubt that those on
the shores of the Pacific are in much the better con-
dition of the two ; that is to say, that in that part
of the country where the Company have had to
compete, until the last year or two, with the Ameri-
cans, tke native population is in a far less degraded
condition than where the exclusive trade is enforced.
Yet England granted this exclusive trade in mock
humanity to the native Indian !

It has been stated above, that the natives are com-
pletely dependent on the Hudson's Bay Company.

The evidence of Dr. King on this point is con-
clusive. He says : —

" By various means the Hudson's Bay Company has
succeeded in rendering the natives entirely dependent
upon them for existence, and they deeply feel their
degraded situation. The introduction of fire-arms may
be assigned as one cause, for as long as they could obtain
a supply of ammunition, they neglected the use of the
bow and arrow, the spear, and the various modes of
trapping and snaring their game ; which, from constant
disuse, they have now wholly forgotten. That of
granting on credit, both in the spring and autumn, a
larger outfit of clothing and ammunition than the
Indians are able to defray by their winter and summer
excursions, places them so completely in the power of
the trader by the debt thus incurred, that this must be
considered another cause of their decline. When they
become advanced in life, and no longer able to hunt,
they are refused a supply of ammunition which has
become essential to their very existence, and they die

154 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

consequently from absolute starvation. These evils have
been increasing on them of late to so great an extent, that
they have become cannibals by necessity ; and scarcely
a month passes but some horrible tale of cannibalism is
brought to the different establishments."*

The next point to be noticed in the policy of the
Company towards the natives, is the credit 1)hat has
been universally given them for having put an end
to the use of ardent spirits in their traffic.

This credit has been given the Company entirely
upon their own evidence : whether it be due to
them, we have now to inquire.

It is not asserted that spirits are an authorised
article of traffic with the Indians. But it is true
that spirits are habitually used in the country for the
purpose of procuring furs. Whether rum be paid
as the nominal equivalent for the skins, or given
away, to induce the Indian to part with his skins
for a specified value, is one and the same thing.

There cannot be greater nonsense, than to talk
about the exertions of the Hudson's Bay Company
to put a stop to the trade of ardent liquors. There
is not one article, not a glass bead, that finds its
way into the whole country without the Company's
cognizance and permission. There is no con-
ceivable mode by which spirits can get thither, unless

* King's Narrative. Vol. ii., p. 52.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 155

they be transmitted by the Company ; there is abso-
lutely no other means of conveyance. Consequently
one stroke of Sir J. H. Felly's pen would prevent a
single gallon of spirits entering the country again.

But the fact is, that spirits do find their way into the
country, and are administered to the natives, when-
ever furs may be obtained thereby. If Mr. Beaver
could say that the life of an Indian was never put
in competition with a beaver skin, it is equally true
that a beaver skin was never lost to the Company
for want of a pint of rum.

And it is utterly false, to say that the exclusive
trade is necessary, in order to stop the supply of
spirits to the Indians.

Early in this century the subject of preventing
the circulation of ardent liquors amongst the Indians
occupied the attention of Mr. Wilberforce and
many other philanthropists. And the North- West
Company, although competing in the fur trade both
with the Americans and with the Hudson's Bay
Company, entered warmly into the views of those
gentlemen. In two years, the quantity of spirits
used by the North- West Company was lessened
from fifty thousand to ten thousand gallons. ITie
North- West Company at that time employed two
thousand whites in its service. The Hudson's Bay

156 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

Company now employs about one thousand white
servants ; and the quantity of spirits introduced into
the country in the year 1845 was nine thousand and
seventy-five gallons: — that is, the North- West
Company, under a system of free trade, used only
half the quantity of spirits per man, which the
Hudson's Bay Company use under their monopoly.

In the Report of the Aborigines Committee,
quoted above, it may have been remarked that in-
temperance is spoken of as a cause of decrease
amongst the natives of the North — a fact which
implies that they were supplied with the means of
indulging in that vice.

There is evidence on this head which is unfortu-
nately not to be got at by the public. It is, how-
ever, a fact, that there are letters among the papers
of the Church Missionary Society, in which there
is ample evidence of the supply of spirits to the
Indians.

There is similar evidence among the documents
of the Wesleyan Methodists' Missionary Society.
But neither of these bodies think they are called
upon to put these facts before the public. This
evidence would, however, of course, be forthcoming
before a Parliamentary Committee.

We can do no more than assert that it exists.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 157

But the Hudson's Bay Company have the
strongest of all inducements, apart from the
philanthropy for which we have been so ready to
give them credit, to prevent the general use of
intoxicating liquors, which incapacitate the Indian
for the chase, and destroy the regularity of the
supply of furs on which the profits of the Company
depend. And yet they put it within the power of
their traders to distribute this poison throughout
the country, not only with the excuse of an antici-
pated gain, but sometimes it would seem for a
joke.

Mr. Ross Cox says, in his Narrative, —

" All the Indians on the Columbia entertain a strong
aversion to ardent spirits, which they regard as poison.
They allege that slaves only drink, to excess, and that
drunkenness is degrading to free men. On one occasion,
some of tfie gentlemen at Fort George induced a son of
Concomby, the chief, to drink a few glasses of rum :
intoxication quickly followed, accompanied by sickness,
in which condition he returned home to his father's
house, and for a couple of days remained in a state of
stupor. The old chief subsequently reproached the
people at the Fort for having degraded his son by
making him drink, and thereby exposing him to the
laughter of his slaves."*

Mr. King also, in his Narrative already quoted,

• Narrative of Six Years' Residence on the Western Side of tlie
Rocky Mounfciing, by Kom Cox. Bentley, 1831. Vol. i., p. 321.

158 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

states that the Chippewyans beyond Cumberland
House are averse to the use of spirituous liquors,
and to this cause may be imputed not only their
superiority in numbers, but in moral character
also.*

Again, at page 50 of the same work, we read, —

" The agents of the Hudson's Bay Company are not
satisfied with putting so insignificant a value upon the
furs, that the more active hunters only can gain a sup-
port, which necessarily leads to the death of the more
aged and infirm by starvation and cannibalism, but they
encourage the intemperate use of ardent spirits. From
the effect of intoxication upon Europeans, an adequate
notion of the frenzy with which a North American
Indian is inspired when under the influence of liquor,
can scarcely be formed. He will then with equal
indifference shed the blood of a friend or foe ; his
dearest connexions are murdered without compunction ;
and when the unfortunate wretch has recovered his
reason, he laments in vain the misery which his own
fury has entailed upon him. Notwithstanding the
Indians justly ascribe to the fur traders the blame of
having supplied them with that which has caused such
desolation, they will not scruple to seize the first oppor-
tunity of again obtaining the poisonous draught, and
plunging with headlong infatuation into new scenes of
riot and bloodshed."

And again, at page 51, —

" Additionally, the natives clearly perceive that the
use of spirituous liquors is depopulating their country in
a fearful manner, and yet they have not strength of

• King's Narrative. Vol. ii., p. 52.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 159

mind to withstand the temptation which the traders,
from interested motives, are daily holding out to them
by an ample supply, as long as they have any furs to
barter."

But the opinion of Mr. Alexander Simpson, one

of the Company's own chief traders, is to the same

effect. He says, —

That body (the Hudson's Bay Company) has assumed
much credit for its discontinuance of the sale of spi-
rituous liquors at its trading establishments ; but I
apprehend that in this matter it has both claimed and
received more of praise than is its due. The issue of
spirits has not been discontinued by it on principle,
indewi has not been discontinued at all where there is a
possibility of diminution of trade through the Indians
having the power to resent this deprivation of their
accustomed and much-loved annual jollification, by car-
rying their furs to another market."*

Mr. Kennedy, once a servant of the Hudson's
Bay Company, has been publishing some letters to
Lord Elgin on the subject of the policy of that body.
Whether Mr. Kennedy has, as I have heard, it
hinted, any private reasons for thus attacking the
Company, I do not know — nor is it of any im-
portance.

Two boys once on a time robbed their mas-
ter's orchard : one demanding too large a share

* MS. Report on the Condition of the North American Indians,
addressed to the Aborigines' Protection Society, by Alexander
Simpson.

160 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

of the spoil, the other told the master of the rob-
bery. The master called the delinquents before
him. " Please, sir," said the first boy, " he told
you out of spite, because he could not get more of
the apples." " That may be," said tlie master ;
" but did you rob my orchard ?" So let it be with
Mr. Kennedy and the Company. It is a matter of
no importance why Mr. Kennedy tells tales : the
question is. Does he tell truth ? Mr. Kennedy says,
in one of his letters, —

" Your Excellency is said to have reported * that in
your opinion the government of the Hudson's Bay
Company was good ;' and I most readily grant that, in
so far as they have laid down rules and regulations, none
can be better, as any one may judge from the following,
which, as they apply to the cases I intend bringing
before your notice, I transcribe.

" Rules and Regulations. — ' That Indians be treated
with kindness and indulgence, and mild and conciliating
means resorted to, in order to encourage industry,
redress vice, and inculcate morality ; that the tise of
spirituous liquors be gradually discontinued in the few
districts in which it is yet indispensable ; and that the
Indians be liberally supplied with the requisite necessa-
ries, particularly with the article of ammunition,
whether they have the means of paying for it or not.

" ' That, for the moral and religious improvement of
the servants, and more effectual civilization and instruc-
tion of the families attached to the different establish-
ments, and the Indians, on every Sunday Divine Service
be publicly read with becoming solemnity, either
once or twice a day, to be regulated by the number, at

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 161

which every man, woman, and child, resident, will be
required to attend, together with any of the Indians
who may be at hand, and whom it may be proper to
invite. And for which service appropriate religious
books will be furnished by and on account of the
Company.'

" These, my Lord, cannot but command universal
assent ; and it was, until a very late period of my con-
nexion with the Company, ever my pride and boast
to have been brought up for, and in, a service where
such a healthful code of rules existed. But, to my utter
astonishment, I came to see that these rules were often
treated as a dead letter, as you, my Lord, may judge
from the following circumstances."

Mr. Kennedy then relates the case of an atrocious
murder, which was perpetrated through the influence
of " traded rum^^ at the very door of one of the
Company's establishments; and that the Company
refused to take any notice of the offence, because
the murderer was one of the "best fur hunters" at
the post. He continues, —

" This circumstance was among the first instances in
which misrule of so gross a kind had passed before my
own personal observation. It afforded me an excellent op-
portunity of testing the health of some of their standing
rules, and that which I first transcribed is referred to.
The trading post at which this had taken place was en-
trusted, soon after, to my care ; and, on assuming my
duties, it was my first care to do away entirely with the
use of intoxicating liquors, to which the Indians readily
submitted. The attempt was crushed in the birth, as I

M

162 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION,

was forthwith told if I persisted in doing so, I should
abide the consequences : which meant, that if fewer
furs M^ere collected, and less profits made than usual, I
must bear the blame."

In a letter to the Kingston Chronicle newspaper,
27th September, 1848, the same gentleman says, —

" The Hudson's Bay Company have, in some instances,
with their rum, traded the goods given in presents to
the Indians by the Canadian Government, and after-
wards re-traded the same with them at an advance of
little short of a thousand per cent. ! ! Let any magis-
trate be named in Kingston, and I will get the man who
did it by their orders to swear to the fact."

These are facts or falsehoods. At any rate,
coming along with so much other testimony from
independent persons, they do demand inquiry.

The following extracts from the MS. Journal of
Mr. Dunn, before quoted, are well worthy of re-
mark. They are the simple notes of passing events,
put upon paper, with no apparent object, but for the
writer's satisfaction ; and the incidental manner in
which the trading with spirits is mentioned, is strong
evidence that it was an ordinary custom.

"Sunday, March 11, 1832. — It being Sunday, the
Indians remained in their huts, (perhaps) praying, or
most likely singing, over the rum they had traded with
us on Saturday, making a great noise.

"Thursday, April 26. — This has been a very fine
day, a great many Indians on board, and we have

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 163

traded a number of skins. They seem to like rum very-
much here. We have sold an immense quantity of
molasses also.

"Friday, May 4. — A few Indians on board with skins
in the evening ; they were all drunk : went on shore ;
made a fire about 1 1 o'clock ; being then all drunk,
began firing upon one another.

" Saturday, June 30. — The Indians are now bringing
their blankets to trade, as their skins are all gone : they
seem very fond of rum.

" Wednesday, July 11. — This morning the chiefs had
a grand feast among themselves. They traded a
quantity of rum from us, singing during the day."

It is impossible not to conlude from such evidence,
that the statement put forward that the Company
have put a stop to the sale of spirits since they
obtained the Licence of Trade in 1821, is entirely
contrary to the truth.

On this head we shall adduce only one more wit-
ness ; but it is an important one. Not long ago it
was thought advisable that the evidence of some
men who had been in the service of the Company,
and who have since returned to the Orkney Islands,
their native place, should be procured on some points
relative to the proceedings of the Company. The
examination was made, and is attested, by five
thoroughly trustworthy and respectable persons.
The evidence of these men may some day form
part of a Parliamentary paper. It is sufiicient here

M 2

164 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

to quote one question, and the answers given by
them, — men who had been in the service of the
Company in various parts of the territories, and for
a period of many years.

The question put, was as follows : —

" Are intoxicating liquors supplied in any part of the
country — and where ?"

The answers by the five men severally, were —

1. " Intoxicating liquors were supplied to the Indians
at all the places where I was.

2. " All but the Mandan Indians were desirous to
obtain intoxicating liquors, and the Company supply
them with it freely.

3. " At Jack River, I saw spirits given in exchange
for furs.

4. " At York Factory, and at Oxford House,

5. " At Norway House only."

But one of the most suspicious facts which has
come out, is that alluded to in Mr. Gladstone's
speech, on the 10th August last — viz., that in the
year 1837, the year in which the Company were
trying to obtain the renewal of the licence of ex-
clusive trade, the quantity of spirits introduced into
the country was only 3,800 gallons ; whilst in 1845,
the quantity was 9,075 gallons. This statement has
never yet been denied : is it true, or not ?

Now it may be supposed that this policy has not

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 165

heen carried on for so many years, without pro-
ducing its natural results. Recollecting that this
monopoly has been granted and continued on the
very grounds that without it the Indian race would
be greatly injured — recollecting that the public
have been deceived into the belief that their bene-
volent intentions have been realized, it is with
something like indignation we now leam that the
sole benefit gained from the whole transaction has
been by the 232 proprietors of the Hudson's Bay
Company's Stock.

What do witnesses who are not in the pay or
interest of the Company say, with respect to the
condition of the Indian ? And what is the real
truth as to the increase or decrease of the Indian
population ? The Company have put this forward
as a test of the success of their sway: let them
stand or fall by it.

" Tliere are some extensive tracts of country in which
the means of subsistence are scanty in the extreme. In
the region lying between Lake Superior and Winnipeg,
the natives during the winter can with difficulty collect
enough of food to support life. In the country lying
immediately north of the Canadas, though fur-bearing
animab are still comparatively numerous, and the trade
consequently valuable, the poor Indians have at all
times a hard fight against famine. In this tract of
country fish is at all seasons scarce, and in winter the
sole dependence of the natives for subsistence is placed

166 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

upon rabbits, (the most wretched food upon which to
exist for any time that can possibly be conceived,) and
when these fail the most frightful tragedies at times
take place. Parents have been known to lengthen out
a miserable existence, by killing and devouring their
own offspring."*

It is not a charge against the Company that the
country is not fertile by nature ; but it is a charge
that there is not one single vestige of any attempt
on the part of the civilised man to assist or to teach
the savage to overcome its natural sterility, and to
change the precarious livelihood obtained by the
chase, for a certain subsistence derived from the
cultivation of the soil.

Mr. Kennedy, in his letter to Lord Elgin, already
quoted, gives the following extracts from letters
received by him last autumn and this spring, from
correspondents in the Hudson Bay Company's ter-
ritories.

" One says : — 'You will be grieved to learn that the
curse which had effect in the old country, has extended
here, though arising from causes of more frequent occur-
rence than even the failure of the crops. Starvation has,
I learn, committed great havoc among your old friends
the Nascopies, numbers of whom met their death from
"want last winter. Whole camps of them were found dead
without one survivor to tell the tale of their sufferings ;
others sustained life in a way the most revolting, by

* Life of Thomas Simpson, p. 429.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 167

using as food the dead bodies of their companions ;
some even bled their own children to death, and sus-
tained life with their bodies ! ' "

" Another letter says: — ' At Fort Nascopie, the Indians
were dying in dozens by starvation ; and, among others,
your old friend, Paytabais.' "

" A third says : — * A great number of Indians starved

to death last winter, and says it was 's

fault in not giving them enough of ammunition ! ' "

The following is from Dr. King's Narrative : —

" A few days afterwards, an Indian in a diseased state,
with his wife and three children, arrived in so miserable
a condition that they were mere skeletons; and, in the
evening of the same day, another Indian came in with
two boys, of the age of ten and fourteen years The
latter we soon got rid of; and on the 13th, the two
women and foiu* children were sent away : the diseased
Indian was allowed to remain ; in fact, his legs were so
excoriated, from the constant friction of his frozen robe
against them, that he literally could not move. He
soon, however, recovered and followed — but not to join
them ; for out of that party of nine, not a soul escaped.
Poor creatures! they lay stretched on the lake far
happier, let us hope, than the disconsolate being who
was destined to witness so horrid a spectacle. The
temperature, on their departure, was 92° below the
freezing point; and, four days afterwards, the ther-
mometer descended as low as 102°. Such intense cold,
in their emaciated state, very soon put an end to their
sufferings.

" The old woman was found at the same time frozen
in her hut ; a circumstance so little anticipated, that it
was not until the dogs had dragged her out from her
miserable dwelling, that we were aware of it. That
calamity was the more deplorable, as she had recovered

168 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

of late SO rapidly, that in a few days more she would, in
all human probability, have walked again. No time
was lost in burying the body, as the only means of
saving it from the voracious dogs, which had of late
been on very short allowance of pemican — a food that
does not agree with the canine species.

" At that time, between forty and fifty human beings
lay dead around us, and so scattered, that it was im-
possible to walk in any direction within twenty miles,
Avithout stumbling against a frozen body. This was
not, however, a solitary instance of extreme misfortune
to the natives of the north, for the two previous years
had been pregnant with the same appalling visitations
to the inhabitants of the country about Slave Lake and
Mackenzie's River. In the neighbourhood of the
Riviere au Liard, a tributary to the Mackenzie from tlie
M'estward, many of the Chippewyans had been destroyed
by famine : the actual number of deaths could not be
ascertained, with the exception of forty of the choicest
hunters, whose fate was known. Considering, therefore,
that their wives and families were equally unfortunate,
and, generally speaking, they are the first to fall a
sacrifice, there could not have been a less number than
from 100 to 150 of our fellow-creatures deprived of life
at that place alone. It will not require many such
years to exterminate the whole of the noble and intel-
ligent races of the north."*

An extremely agreeable book has lately appeared
by Mr. Ballantyne, containing a description of the
Hudson's Bay territories. This account is mani-
festly favourable to the Company ; but the author
seems to have written with the joyous and happy

• Vol. i., p. 169—171.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 169

impressions of youth, and to have viewed the sunny
side of all that came under his observation. But
even in this work we find evidence of a similar nature
to that given above, in such passages as the fol-
lowing : —

" At these posts, the Indians are frequently reduced
to cannibalism ; and the Company's people have, on
more than one occasion, been obliged to eat their
beaver skins. * * ♦ This was the case one winter
in Peel's River, a post within the Arctic circle in chaise
of Mr, Bell, a chief trader in the service ; and I
remember well reading in one of his letters, that all
the fresh provision they had been able to procure
during the winter M'as, two squirrels and one crow.
During this time they had existed on a quantity of
dried meat, which they fortunately had in store, and
they were obliged to lock the gates of the fort to
preserve the remainder from the wretched Indians,
who were eating each other outside the walls. The
cause of all this misery was the entire failure of the
fisheries, together with great scarcity of wild animals.
Starvation is quite common among the Indians of
those distant regions ; and the scraped rocks, divested
of their covering of tripe de roche, which resembles
dried seaweed, have a sad meaning and melancholy
appearance to the travellers who journey through the
wilds and solitudes of Rupert's Land."*

" If an old man or woman of the tribe becomes infirm,
and unable to proceed with the rest when travelling, he
or she, as the case may be, is left behind in a small tent
made of willows, in which are placed a little firewood,
some provisions, and a vessel of water. Here the un-

• Balkntyne's Hudion Bay. Second Edition. P. 120.

170 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

happy wretch remains in solitude till the fuel and pro-
visions are exhausted, and then dies."*

The fiction as to the increase of the native popu-
lation on the north-west coast is destroyed at once
by the testimony of Captain Wilkes, from whose
work so much has been quoted by the Company's
champion.

" During my stay at Vancouver, I frequently saw
Casenove, the chief of the Klackatack tribe. He lives
in a lodge near the village of Vancouver, and has always
been a warm friend of the whites. He was lord of all
this domain. His village was situated about six miles
below Vancouver, on the north side of the river, and
within the last fifteen years was quite populous. He
then could muster four or five hundred warriors ; but
the ague and fever have, within a short space of time,
swept off the whole tribe, and it is said that they all
died within three weeks. He now stands alone, — his
land, tribe, and property, all departed, and he left a
dependant on the bounty of the Company.

" Casenove's tribe is not the only one that has suffered
in this way ; many others have been swept off entirely
by this fatal disease, without having a single survivor to
tell the melancholy tale."f

Mr. Parker, the American missionary, also says —

" I have found the Indian population in the lower
country, that is below the falls of the Columbia, less

• BallaDtyne',8 Hudson Bay. Second Edition. P. 56.
f Commodore Wilkes' Narrative of the United States Exploring
Expedition. Vol. iv., p. 369.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 171

than I had expected, or than it was when Lewis and
Clarke made their tour. Since the year 1 829, probably
seven-eighths, if not as Dr. M'Laughlin believes, nine-
tenths, of the entire population have been swept away by
disease, principally by fever and ague. Trfie malig-
nancy of these diseases may have been increased by pre-
disposing causes, such as intemperance, and the general
spread of venereal since their intercourse with sailors.
But a more direct cause of the great mortality was their
mode of treatment."*

In a note to this passage, in Chambers' edition
of Parker's Journal, we find the following : —

" In taking leave of the territories on the Columbia,
it may be proper to mention a circumstance very slightly
noticed by Mr. Parker — the dreadful depopulation
which has already taken place amongst the Indian tribes
in this extreme western district, caused by the practice
of incessant and murderous wars, and also the visitation
of diseases, introduced by the white men. The subject is
thus alhided to by Mr. Townsend : — ' The Indians of
the Columbia were once a numerous and powerful people ;
the shores of the river, for scores of miles, was lined
with their villages ; the council fire was frequently
lighted, the pipes passed round, and the destinies of the
nation deliberated upon. War was declared against
neighbouring tribes ; the deadly tomahawk was lifted,
and not buried until it was red with the blood of the
savage ; the bounding deer was hunted and killed, and
his antlers ornamented the wigwam of the red man ;
the scalps of the Indian's enemies hung drying in the
smoke of his lodge, and he was happy. Now, alas!
where is he ? gone — gathered to his fathers, and to his

♦ Journal of a Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, by the Rev.
S.Parker. Ithaca, New York. 1938. P. 178.

172 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

happy grounds ; his place knows him no more. The
depopulation has been truly fearful. A gentleman told
me, that only four years ago, as he wandered near what
had formerly been a thickly-peopled village, he counted
no less than sixteen dead men and women lying unburied,
and festering in the sun, in front of their habitations.
Within the houses all were sick ; not one had escaped
the contagion : upwards of one hxmdred individuals,
men, women, and children, were writhing in agony on
the floors of the houses, with no one to render them any
assistance ; some were in the dying struggle, and
clenching, with the convulsive grasps of death, their
disease-worn companions, shrieked and howled in the
last sharp agony. Probably there does not now exist
one, where five years ago there was a hundred Indians ;
and in sailing up the river from the Cape of the Cas-
cades, the only evidence of the existence of the Indian,
is an occasional miserable wigwam, with a few wretched
half-starved occupants.' "*

It is not possible that men occupying the position
which is held by the Company's agents, at their
remote trading posts, should not reflect, in their own
character and conduct, the scenes by which they
are surrounded.

The consciousness of uncontrolled power is, under
any circumstances, a fearful trial to man : hut here
is power exercised amid the measureless forest, from
which no echo can come to tell the horrors by which
it is surrounded, nor voice can penetrate to call its

* Id. Chambers' Edition. Note, p. 69.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 173

possessor to account. This is a system which plants
the civilised man amongst savages, not to illumine
their darkness, but to be absorbed into their gloom.

Those who have seen what is going on in this
remote coimtry, and who have no longer the gag upon
their mouths, which the strict discipline of the Com-
pany imposes, tell many fearful tales of the scenes
which are sometimes enacted. But enough has
already been published to justify the demand for
inquiry.

The Rev. Mr. Beaver thus writes to the Abori-
gines Protection Society, in 1842 : —

" About the middle of the summer 1836, and shortly
before my arrival at Fort Vancouver, six Indians were
wantonly and gratuitously murdered by a party of trap-
pers and sailors, who landed for the purpose from one of
the Company's vessels, on the coast somewhere between
the mouth of the River Columbia, and the confines of
California. Having on a former occasion read the par-
ticulars of this horrid massacre as I received them from
an eye witness, before a Meeting of the Aborigines
Society, I will not repeat them. To my certain know-
ledge, the circumstance was brought officially before
the authorities of Vancouver, by whom no notice was
taken of it ; and the same party of trappers, with the
same leader, one of the most infamous murderers of a
murderous fraternity, is annually sent to the same vici-
nity, to perform, if they please, other equally tragic
scenes. God alone knows how many red men's lives
have been sacrificed by them since the time of which I
have been speaking. He also knows that I speak the

174 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

conviction of my mind, and may He forgive me if I
speak unadvisedly, when I state my firm belief that

THE LIFE OP AN INDIAN WAS NEVER YET, BY A
TKAPPER, PUT IN COMPETITION WITH A BEAVEr's

SKIN ! The very way in which the aborigines are
spoken of by the trappers, and leaders of trapping
parties, goes far to prove the correctness of my assertion.
' Those d — — d,' ' those rascally,' ' those treacherous
Indians,' are the unmerited appellations, by which the
race is universally designated.

" In the former part of the same year, I was credibly
informed that the same party killed one Indian, wounded
another, (supposed mortally,) and threw a child into the
fire, in consequence of a quarrel respecting a knife,
which was afterwards found upon one of themselves.
And during the year before, they put four Indians to
death for stealing their horses, which might be pleaded
as some excuse for the brutality, but that they after-
wards killed ten or twelve more in cold blood, and set
fire to their village. The Indians lived in such con-
stant dread of this party, that they were unable to
descend into the plains from their fastnesses in the
mountains, to procure their usual modes of subsistence."*

" Since writing the above," he adds at the end of his
communication, " I have learned from good authority,
that in the month of August 1840, an Indian was
hanged near the mouth of the Columbia River, and
several others shot, and their village set on fire, by a
party in the employment of the Hudson's Bay Company,
under the command of Chief Factor M'Laughlin, who
led them from Fort Vancouver ; thus indiscriminately
to revenge the death of a man, who lost his life in an
affray whilst curing salmon."f

* Tracts relative to the Aborigines. London, 1842. 8to,
Tract viii., p. 19.
f Id., p. 22.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 175

Lieutenant Chappell, in his " Voyage to Hudson's
Bay in H.M.S. Rosamond," relates that on one
occasion an English boy having been missed from
one of the establishments in Hudson's Bay, the
Company's servants, in order to recover the absent
youth, made use of the following stratagem : —

" Two Esquimaux Indians were seized and confined
in separate apartments. A musket was discharged in a
remote apartment, and the settlers entering the room in
which one of the Esquimaux was confined, they in-
formed him by signs that his comrade had been put to
death for decoying away the boy ; and they gave him to
understand at the same time, that he must prepare to
undergo the same fate, unless he would faithfully pledge
himself to restore the absentee. The Esquimaux natu-
rally promised everj'thing, and on being set at liberty
made the best of his way into the woods, and of course
was never afterwards heard of. They kept the other
a prisoner for some time : at length he tried to make his
escape, by boldly seizing the sentinel's firelock at
night, but the piece accidentally going off, he was so
terrified at the report, that they easily replaced him in
confinement; yet either the loss of liberty, a supposition
that his countryman had been murdered, or that he was
himself reserved for some cruel death, deprived the poor
wretch of reason. As he became exceedingly trouble-
some, the settlers held a conference as to the most eli-
gible mode of getting rid of him ; and it being deemed
good policy to deter the natives from similar offences by
making an example, they accordingly shot the poor
maniac in cold blood, without having given themselves
the trouble to ascertain whether he was really guilty or
innocent.^'*

• P. 156.

176 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

In a letter to the Kingston Chronicle newspaper,
of September 27th, 1848, Mr. Kennedy writes as
follows : —

" It is not many years since that a trading post of the
Company, situated on the southern shore of James'
Bay, was cut off almost to a man by the Indians : it is
said they were provoked to it. To revenge this, the
Company fitted out an armed expedition, which in time
came upon the party, and though they were perfectly
unresisting, the culprit said to have been the leader in
that affair was bound hand and foot, and without the
least form of trial whatsoever, was shattered to pieces ;
each man of the expedition all but touching the body
with the muzzle of his gun before drawing his trigger.
The Company had not even the humanity in this
butchery to prevent one brother-in-law from shooting
the other."

These are some of the tales which are told by
those teho have lived in the Company's territories.
But they are not all. There are rumours of
tragedies which it becomes no one to detail who
cannot vouch for their truth. There are stories
credited by men who have been formerly servants
of the Company, I believe I might have said
witnessed by them, which nothing but a Parlia-
mentary inquiry could thoroughly elicit.

And why do we enlarge on these melancholy
scenes. It is not from any mock philanthropy, or
because we expect the Hudson's Bay Company to
transform savages at once into Christians. It is

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 177

not that we do not know there must be a diflBculty
in administering the law and maintaining order
over the boimdless domain which has been entrusted
to their Government. But when this Company
have made use of an appeal to our philanthropy
to advance their own interests ; — when they have
advocated their own rights, on the grounds that the
native Indian is benefited by their rule ; — when an
attention to the condition of the Indian is one of the
very duties imposed on them by their Licence of
Trade as a condition of enjoying its privileges —
then it is time that England should inquire whether
these professions are more than mockery, and the
fulfilment of their duties nothing but fiction.

The Company have bound themselves under a
bond of £5,000 to Her Majesty, that they will
convey felons to the Canadian Courts for trial.

This country did not deem it wise or expedient
to invest a Company, whose dealings were shut out
from all the world, with the unlimited power of life
and death over all in their territories ; so a jurisdic-
tion was granted, imder Act of Parliament, to Magis-
trates, to be appointed throughout those countries,
to try cases of minor importance, but a bond was
taken of the Company, that they would transmit
felons to the Canadian Courts for trial.

178 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

Will the Company dare to assert that no
case of felony — that no case of murder even —
has been reported to their officers and agents,
throughout the whole of their territories, during
the nearly thirty years that they have been
under that bond ? And yet have they ever
transmitted one single criminal to Canada for
trial ?

On the contrary. Mr. Alexander Simpson, one
of the Company's best agents, tells us that the Com-
pany have " an invariable rule of avenging the
murder hy Indians of any of its servants — blood
FOR blood, without trial of any kind.'^*

This is, indeed, an awful translation of the sig-
nificant motto of the Company: " Pro pelle cutem."

And Sir G. Simpson, the Governor of the whole
country, admits the same principle, when he says,
" whether, in matters of life and death, or of petty
theft, the rule of retaliation is the only standard of
equity which the tribes on this coast are capable of
appreciating." t

And what reply do the Company make to these
charges ? Nothing more than general statements,
for the most part from men who are themselves part

* Life of Thomas Simpson, p. 427.
t Sir G. Simpson's Voyage round the World. Vol. i., p. 194,

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 179

and parcel of, and whose whole interest it is to
support, the iniquitous system which bestrides half
the continent of North America ; or still vaguer
opinions, from men who repeat what they have
heard from the partners and factors of the Company.

But they do more than this. This evidence is
not considered enough ; therefore wholesale fiction
is resorted to. So it is thought necessary that some
one should assert, " that the Company maintain
several Medical Officers for difierent forts ; and at
every trading establishment there is, in fact, an Indian
Hospital, from which the natives derive the greatest
benefit, as they resort thither in great numbers,
when suffering from age, infirmities, or other
causes." *

When the Hudson's Bay Company are reduced
to the necessity of putting forth such fabrications as
this, they must have a rotten cause indeed to
defend ; but there are not two honest men who have
been in the country who would put their names to
such an assertion as the above.

In contradiction, I shall merely quote a passage
from the evidence of the five Orkney men, which
was mentioned above, page 164.

* Mr. M. Martin's Hudson's Bay Territories. London. 1848.
P. 58.

N ?

189 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

Q. " Are those Indians who may be afflicted with dis-
ease or sickness, usually received into the forts for the
purpose of being cured ? "

A. \. " Very rarely.

2. "No.

3. "I never knew a case but one, of an Indian
having been taken into the fort for the purpose of
medical assistance. This case was at Fort Simpson.

4. " Not to my knowledge.

5. " Never knew of any."

Q. " Is it customary for those who are too old to hunt,
or who are disabled in any way from supporting them-
selves, to be maintained at the forts ? "

A. 1 . " There may be some cases, but it is not cus-
tomary.

2. "No.

3. " It is not customary.

4. "I have never known anything ofthe kind done.

5. " Never knew anything of the kind done."

There is one more point respecting the relations
between the North American Indian, and the Hud-
son's Bay Company, which it is necessary to notice,
and it is far from being the least important.

When the Hudson's Bay Company received the
renewal of their Licence of exclusive Trade, in the
year 1838, they entered into " a covenant for per-
formance of conditions and reservations contained
in the Crown grant." By this covenant, the Com-
pany bind themselves " to transmit to the considera-
tion and approval of Her Majesty, such rules and

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 181

regulations for the management and carrying on the
said fur trade, and the conduct of the persons em-
ployed by us therein, as have appeared, or may
appear to us, to be most effectual for gradually
diminishing and ultimately preventing the safe or
distribution of spirituous liquors to the Indians, and
for promoting their moral and religious improve-
ment.''^

Turning to the Licence of exclusive Trade, we find
that Her Majesty did thereby require that the
Company " should make such regulations as might
appear to Her Majesty to be effectual for diminish-
ing or preventing the sale or distribution of spirituous
liquors to the Indians, and for promoting their moral
and religious improvement." And referring to a still
earlier period, we find the same language held in
the Royal Licence of 1821, as well as in the Act of
Parliament which empowered the Crown to grant
such Licence.

The moral and religious improvement of the
natives has been, during the whole period of the
Hudson's Bay Company's exclusive power over the
"Indian Territories," a duty imposed upon them,
by Act of Parliament and by the Crown.

The necessity of thus publicly insisting upon the
performance of the first duty of a Christian, was not

182 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

wholly unnecessary, when the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany had been trading for nearly a century and a
half among these savages, had been making enor-
mous profits from their traffic, and yet had never
introduced a single minister of religion into any one
of their establishments, or made one solitary effort
for the improvement of the natives, who were
ministering so largely to their wealth.

The Company not only did not take any step to
enlighten and instruct the natives, but they laid
them under the inevitable doom of Paganism, as far
as it was in their power to do so.

Nothing can be more melancholy or more humi-
liating than the account given of the conduct of the
Hudson's Bay Company, by Mr. Robson, in his
Narrative, in 1752, of a six years' residence in
their territory. One story which he relates, is an
awful record of the principles on which they dealt
in those days with the natives.

" The instances of neglect and abuse of the natives
are so gross, that they would scarcely gain credit, even
among civilised barbarians, who never heard of the mild
precepts of Christianity. Besides the facts already
mentioned, the following one was well attested by the
servants in the Bay, and was also produced in evidence
before the Committee. — An Indian boy at Moose Fac-
tory, being taught to read and write, through the
humanity and indulgence of a Governor there, wrote

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 183

over to the Company for leave to come to England, in
order that he might be baptized ; but upon the receipt
of this request, which any men who had the least sense
of religion, and the least regard for the spiritual happi-
ness of a fellow-creature, would with joy have complied
with, an order was sent to the Governor to take the boy's
books from him, and turn him out of the factory, with an
express prohibition against any Indians being instructed
for the future. This was the source of much affliction
to the poor boy, who died soon after, with a penitence
and devotion that would have done honour to his
masters. But from whence can such preposterous and
unnatural behaviour take its rise, unless from the appre-
hension that, if the natives were properly instructed and
made converts to Christianity, they would all claim
the privileges of British subjects, and apply to Britain
to be supported in them ? The Company, therefore, to
prevent their suffering a remote evil as traders, have
violated their indispensable duty as men and Christians —
have even sacrificed their own servants to their fear, and
lest the natives should be instructed and reformed, have
hitherto neglected the sending over a clergyman to
keep up a sense of religion at any of their factories.
Why are the Exquimaux suffered to be driven from their
native residence, and the shore of the Bay to be left
desolate, but for the sake of discouraging all attempts
to establish a fishery? Or, AVhy are animosities and
divisions cherished among the upland Indians, but to
keep the fur trade within a certain value, that none
may be tempted to engage in it to the Company's
disadvantage ? " *

Mr. Semple, who was Governor of the Red River
settlement, and lost his life in the savage struggle

* Robson, &c., p. 76.

184 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

between the rival Companies about the year 1816,
thus writes : —

" I have trodden the burnt ruins of houses, barns, a
mill, a fort, and sharpened stockades ; but none of a
place of worship, even upon the smallest scale. I blush
to say that over the whole extent of the Hudson's Bay
territories, no such building exists. It is surely high
time that this foul reproach should be done away from
among men belonging to a Christian nation. I must
confess that I am anxious to see the first little Christian
church, and steeple of wood, slowly rising among the
wilds ; and to hear the sound of the first Sabbath bell,
which has tolled here since the creation."*

It was not until the year 1820, just one hundred
and fifty years after the date of the Charter, that
the Company bethought themselves of sending out
missionaries.

I again repeat, derelictions of duty in this re-
spect must be exposed, because they have them-
selves obtruded their performances upon the notice
of the public, and made their missionari/ efforts one
of the grounds upon which they demand public
sympathy and support.

It is necessary, therefore, to repeat that until
compelled by their interests to do so, (for 1820 was
the year when they were trying to obtain the first
Licence of exclusive Trade,) this Company never

* Bishop of Montreal's Journal. London. 1845. P. 191.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 185

for one moment dreamt, either of introducing
Christianity amongst the Indians, or even of providing
for the spiritual instruction of their own servants.

In 1820, however, it was their interest to profess
religious zeal ; and they invited the Church Mis-
sionary Society to send out two missionaries. These
gentlemen were not, however, sent amongst the
Indians, but were settled at the Red River colony :
they received a small allowance from the Company,
and were dignified by the name of the Company's
Chaplains.

This allowance has, I believe, been for many
years discontinued. The Hudson's Bay Company
at this moment do not, as far as I can ascertain,
pay one farthing towards the support of the Church
Missionary establishment in their territories. They
have, however, for the last few years paid a Chaplain
of their own in the Red River colony — the only
one minister of religion whom they maintain through-
out the whole of their wide dominions.

This fact we learn from the Bishop of Montreal's
Journal. His Lordship says : —

" I am as much convinced that it is the duty of the
English Government to plant and perpetuate the Church,
according to her full organization, and to provide
standing institutions for training a local body of clergy,
in the distant dominions of the empire, as that it is the

186 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

duty of a father to see to the religious interests of his
family ; and whatever may be the issue of the Oregon
boundary question, there is a large accountability of this
kind in the region for which I am pleading. There

IS NOT ONE CLERGYMAN OF THE ChuRCH OF EnG-
liAND ON THE FURTHER SIDE OF THE ROCKY MOUN-
TAINS. The Hudson's Bay Company did, at one time,
maintain a Chaplain at Fort Vancouver : they have
ceased to do so. Within their own proper territories
they have one — namely, at the Red River; so that in
Hudson's 13 ay itself there is none."*

The next occasion on which a burst of missionary
zeal seems to have occurred, was, remarkably enough,
when the time was approaching at which the Licence
of exclusive Trade must expire if not renewed.
Again the chance of a public inquiry into what
they had done, or were doing, rendered it advisable
that there should be an appearance of missionary
enterprise.

In 1836, Mr. Beaver was appointed Chaplain to
the Cpmpany, at Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia
River ; but in 1838, after the Licence had been
renewed, Mr. Beaver appears to have left — anything
but pleased with \hQ facilities afforded him : his post
has not since been supplied up to the present time.

The same idea of trading upon a missionary cha-
racter— as if the immortal souls of men were to

* Bishop of Montreal's Journal, p. 163.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 187

be bartered for fur skins — seems to have'induced the
Company, at the time of the renewal of their Licence
of Trade, to apply to the Wesleyan Missionary So-
ciety for assistance : and in 1839, six missionaries
proceeded to the country. We have lately been
told, in the Company's defence, that " five mission-
aries, and one Indian assistant missionary, are now
actually employed in this sacred service."* A very
cursory inspection of the Wesleyan Reports is suflfi-
cient to shew that such a statement is untrue. The
same inspection will also display the policy of the
Company, which seems to be, to get rid of mission-
aries as soon as they are no longer of any use to prop
up the monopoly of the fur trade. We find that in
1843, there were six Wesleyan missionaries in the
whole of the Company's territories ; from 1844 to
1846, there were Jive ; in 1847, there were four ;
in 1848, three ; and, one having since returned,
there are, at this moment, but two, of whom one is
an Indian assistant missionary ; so that there is but
one regular missionary in the whole of the Com-
pany's territory. Of these men, some were, it is
said, hunted out by the agents of the Company, to
whom their presence was not very agreeable.

* Mr. M. Martiii'8 Hudson's Bay Company's Territories, &c.
P. 122, See also, p. 136.

188 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

There are several items in the Returns of the
Wesleyan Missionary affairs, which are not very
intelligible. For example : at Lac la Pluie, it seems,
Mr. Jacobs is stationed ; but he has twelve scholars^
and no congregation. Mr. Randall, at the Rocky
Mountains, appears to have been still less success-
ful ; for the returns are, — no scholars, and no con-
gregation ! whilst at Moose Factory, where there has
been no clergyman for two years, there would
seem to be two chapels, Jive preaching places, eighty-
three regular members of the Wesleyan Connexion,
one school, nineteen scholars, and two thousand
attendants on public worship ! Certainly, if this be
a true statement, and we have no reason to doubt it,
it would appear that the absence of a minister has a
very favourable effect upon the conversion of the
natives : this may, perhaps, be the reason why the
Company have been so anxious to get rid of the
missionaries !

But Thomas Simpson suggests another and more
significant reason. Writing to his brother Alex-
ander, he says : —

" Three Wesleyan missionaries have come in this
year from Lac la Pluie and the Saskatchewan, and furs
have fallen fifteen to twenty per cent, in price. Ominous
signs these ! saying plainly, ' Make hay while the sun
shines !' "*

* Life of T. Simpson, p. 201.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 189

What can be more forcible than this incidental pas-
sage in a letter written ifrom the country, and never
intended for the public eye ? It speaks volumes.

But the Company not only get rid of missionaries
as soon as they can do so without dangerous impopu-
larity, but they obstruct them in the performance of
their duties whilst in the country.

To prove this fully to the English public, as it will
one day be proved, would require an inspection of
the documents in possession of the Missionary
Societies ; but when private letters from missionaries
are quoted as evidence of the benevolent and
Christian policy of the Company, the following may
as well be added to the number. It has been lately
received from the Rev. Mr. Bamley, one of the
five missionaries who went out to the Hudson's
Bay territories immediately after the renewal of
the Licence of Trade, and of whom but one is now
left in the country. Any comment upon it would
be superfluous.

" My residence in the Hudson's Bay territory com-
menced in June 1840, and continued, with the interrup-
tion of about eight months, until September 1847. My
letter of introduction, signed by the Governor of the
territory, and addressed ' To the Gentlemen in charge of
the Honourable Hudson's Bay Company's Districts and
Posts in North America,' in one of its paragraphs, ran
thus — ' The Governor and Committee feel the most

190 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

lively interest in the success of Mr. Barnley's mission,
and I have to request you will show to that gentleman
every personal kindness and attention in your power,
and facilitate by every means the promotion of the very
important and interesting service on which he is about
to enter;' — and, consequently, whatsoever else I might
have to endure, I had no reason to anticipate anything
but cordial co-operation from the officers of the Com-
pany.

" For the first three years I had no cause of com-
plaint. The interpretation was in many cases neces-
sarily inefficient, and would have been sometimes a total
failure, but for the kindness of the wives of gentlemen
in charge, who officiated for me ; but I had the best inter-
preters the various posts afforded : the supply of rum to
Indians was restricted ; and the Company, I believe, ful-
filled both the spirit and the letter of their agreement
with us, as far as that fulfilment was then required of
them, and their circumstances allowed.

" In giving, however, this favourable testimony, so far
as the first three years are concerned, I must say, that
in my opinion, we should have been informed, before
commencing our labours, that the interpreters at some
of the posts would be found so inefficient as to leave us
dependent on the kindness of private individuals, and
reduce us to the very unpleasant necessity of taking
mothers from their family duties, that they might be-
come the only available medium for the communication
of Divine truth.

" But, after the period to which I have referred, a
very perceptible change took place : there was no
longer that hearty concurrence with my views, and co-
operation, which had at first appeared so generally.
'The effect was as if the gentleman in charge of the
Southern Department had discovered that he was ex-
pected to afford rather an external and professed assist-

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 191

ance, than a real and cordial one ; and, under his influence,
others, both of the gentlemen and servants, became cool
and reluctant in those services of which I stood in need,
until, at length, the letter, as well as the spirit, of the
Company's engagement with me, failed.

" I was prohibited from entertaining to tea two
persons, members of my congregation, who were about
to sail for England, because I happened to occupy
apartments in the officer's residence, and told that it
' could not be made a rendezvous for the Company's
servants and their families.' A plan which I had de-
vised for educating and training to some acquaintance
with agriculture, native children, was disallowed, but
permission given me by the Governor in Council, to
collect seven or eight boys from various parts of the
surrounding country, to be clothed, and at the Com-
pany's expense. A proposal made for forming a small
Indian village, near Moose Factory, was not acceded
to ; and, instead, permission only given to attempt the
location of one or two old men who were no longer fit
for engaging in the chase, it being very carefully and
distinctly stated by Sir George Simpson, that the Com-
pany would not give them even a spade towards com-
mencing their new mode of life. When, at length, a
young man was found likely to prove serviceable as an
interpreter, every impediment was interposed to prevent
his engaging in my service, although a distinct under-
standing existed, that neither for food, nor wages, would
he be chargeable to the Company. And the pledge
that I should be at liberty to train up several boys for
future usefulness, though not withdrawn, wa.s treated as
if it had never existed at all ; efforts being made to pro-
duce the impression on the mind of my General Super-
intendent, that I was, most unwarrantably, expecting
the Company to depart from their original compact,
when I attempted to add but two of the stipulated
number to my household. « * * * »

192 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

" At Moose Factory, where the resources were most
ample, and where was the seat of authority in the
Southern Department of Rupert's Land, the hostility of
the Company (and not merely their inability to aid me,
whether with convenience or inconvenience to them-
selves) was most manifest.

" The Indians were compelled, in opposition to their
convictions and desires, to labour on the Lord's day.

" They were not permitted to purchase the food re-
quired on the Sabbath, that they might rest on that day
while voyaging, although there was no necessity for
their proceeding, and their wages would have remained
the same. *******

" At length, disappointed, persecuted, myself and
wife broken in spirit, and almost ruined in constitution,
by months of anxiety and suffering, a return to England
became the only means of escaping a premature grave ;
and we are happy in fleeing from the iron hand of
oppression, and bidding farewell to that which had
proved to us a land of darkness and of sorrow.

" From the above statements, you will perceive that if
true in some cases, it is not in all, that the Company
have furnished ' the means of conveyance from place to
place.' They have not done so, at all events, in the
particular case mentioned. Nor would they let me
have the canoe, lying idle as it was, when they knew
that I was prepared to meet ' the expense.'

*' And equally far from the truth is it, that the mis-
sionaries have been ' boarded, lodged, provided with
interpreters, and servants, free of charge.' We cannot
be provided with that which is not in existence ; and at
many of the posts there are not even nominal inter-
preters. But such as there were, have, as I have shewn,
been refused, at Moose Factory especially. * *

" Such then is a very brief statement, which, having
entered on the subject, I have felt myself called upon
to furnish ; and, lest it might be thought that having

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 193

left the territory under circumstances of so unpleasant
a character, I speak under the influence of prejudice, I
do not think that I shall be betraying confidence, if I
append two or three brief extracts from the letter of a
missionary still in the territory, and who has not, that I
am aware of, had any controversy with the ofticers of
the Company, and who bears up patiently, under a
painful state of things, hoping for their amendment.

" ' When at York Factory last fall, (1848,) a young
gentleman boasted that he had succeeded in starting the
Christian Indians of Ross-ville off with the boats on a
Sunday. Thus every effort we make for their moral
and spiritual improvement, is frustrated, and those who
were, and still are, desirous of becoming Christians, are
kept away.'

" He speaks of the Pagan Indians desiring to become
Christians, but, being made drunk on their arrival at
the Fort, ' their good desires vanished.'

" The Indians professing Christianity, had actually
exchanged one keg of rum for tea and sugar, at one
post, but successive offers of liquor betrayed them into
intoxication at another.

" And his sentiments find expression subsequently thus :
— ' It is very probable that at no distant period God
will graciously bring about a change, for the land
moans because of oppression : for this let our prayers
constantly ascend to heaven, that His way may be known
upon earth. His saving health among all nations !'

" Torquay, January 8, 1849."

Mr. Beaver, the Company's Chaplain for two
years at the Columbia River, gives evidence to the
same effect. In his letter to the Committee of the
Aborigines Protection Society, before quoted, h«
writes thus : —

194 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

" From time to time I reported to the Governor and
Committee of the Company in England, and to the
Governor and Council of the Company abroad, the
result of my observations, with a view to a gradual
amelioration of the wretched degradation with which I
was surrounded, by an immediate attempt at the intro-
duction of civilization and Christianity among one or
more of the aboriginal tribes ; but my earnest represent-
ations were neither attended to nor acted upon : no
means were placed at my disposal for carrying out the
plans which I suggested." *

Mr. Ballantyne acknowledges and laments the
miserable deficiency of the Company in providing
for the spiritual instruction of those under its rule.

" The almost total absence of religion of any kind
among these unhappy natives is truly melancholy. The
very name of our blessed Saviour is almost unknown by
the hundreds of Indians who inhabit the vast forests of
North America. It is strange that whilst so many
missionaries have been sent to the southern parts of
the earth, so few should have been sent to the northward.
There are not, I believe, more than a dozen or so
of Protectant Clergymen over the whole wide northern
continent ; and alas, even many of that small number
are slothful inefficient men, and one or two are abso-
lutely unworthy of their high and responsible situation.

" For at least a century these North American In-
dians have hunted for the white men, and poured annu-
ally into Britain a copious stream of wealth. Surely it
is the duty of Christian Britain in return to send out
faithful servants of God to preach the Gospel of our
Lord throughout their land."f

* Tracts relative to the Aborigines. Tract 8, p. 16.
t Ballantyues Hudson's Bay. Second Edition, P. 318.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 195

Christian Britain did not, in this instance at any
rate, altogether neglect her duty. This country did
impose on the Corporation to which it committed
the government of these regions the duty of spread-
ing the Christian faith ; and they now ask that Cor-
poratioa to render an account of its stewardship.

Let no man say that the ministers of religion are
not wanted in these countries, and that there is no
field for their exertions — ^no possibility of extending
the Church of God.

The Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company
said, in his evidence before the Aborigines Com-
mittee of the House of Commons, in answer to the
question —

" Have you found a disposition on the part of the
natives to receive moral and religious instruction ?

" A. Very great ! We sent the Rev. Mr. Beaver
last year across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia
district. There were a couple of young lads sent from
the Columbia district, to whom the names of Pelly and
Garry* were given ; these lads were revered by the
natives when they returned, for the religious instructions

* Sir J. Felly's information would seem to be as inconect as his
lamentation is ill-timed, if we are to credit Sir G. Sim{)son, wbo
found the boy, Spokan Garry, in tlie year 1841, "with his superior
knowledge,'" " the master spirit, if not the prime mover," of " a hell
in the wilderness,'' where the unfoitunate natives were gambling over
a pack of cards ; and who is described as liaving relapsed into hi^
original barbarism. — Sir G. Simpto «'« Fot/age round the IVorld,
Vol. i., p. 144.

o2

196 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

hey were enabled to give : both of them are, unfor-
unately, since dead."

There is abundance of evidence to the same
eifect : there is no want of capacity on the part of
the Indian — but there is the most awful callousness
on the part of his master and owner, as to what
becomes of him either in this world or the next. It
is in the white man alone that the barrier exists to
his conversion and civilization.

" It is an observation," says Mr. Beaver, in the letter
before quoted, " never more truly exemplified than at
the Company's settlements, that whenever the Gospel
has been carried among heathen nations, there, simul-
taneously, has vice, before unknown, been imported ;
and that the lives of the professors of Christianity are
the most fatal hindrances to its being embraced by
even the most uncultivated savages. The Indians with
whom I conversed were, for the most part, intelligent
and argumentative, and drew conclusions, not from what
they heard, but from what they saw ; and assuredly they
saw no recommendation of religion in the example of
the generality of the Company's servants, with whom its
precepts seemed to be in almost total abeyance.

" One great cause of the immorality at the place where
I was stationed, and a consequent barrier to the im-
provement and conversion of the Indians, was the holding
of some of them in a state of slavery, by persons of all
classes in the Company's service, and by those who have
retired from it, and become settlers on the Wallamatte
■ and Cowlitze Rivers, but over whom the Company retain
authority.

"The women themselves, who were living with the
lower class of the Company's servants, were much in

EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION. 197

the condition of slaves, being purchased of their Indian
proprietors or relations, and not unfrequently re-sold
amongst each other by their purchasers." *

And Sir John Richardson's opinion seems to differ

but little from Mr. Beaver's. He says, —

" It might be thought that the Crees have benefited
by their long intercourse with civilized nations. They
are capable of being, and, I believe, are willing to be,
taught, but no pains have hitherto been taken to inform
their minds, and their white acquaintances seem in
general to find it easier to descend to the -Indian customs
and modes of thinking, particularly with respect to
women, than to attempt to raise the Indians to theirs.
Indeed, such a lamentable want of morality has been
displayed by the white traders, in their contests for the
interests of their respective companies, that it would
require a long series of good conduct to efface from the
minds of the native population the ideas they have
formed of thewhite character."!

" The Metifs, or, as the Canadians terra them, Bois
Brules, are, upon the whole, a good-looking people, and
where the experiment has been made, have shewn much
aptness in learning, and willingness to be taught : they
have, however, been sadly neglected. The example of
their fathers has released them from the restraint imposed
by the Indian opinion of good and bad behaviour, and,
generally speaking, no means have been taken to fill the
void with better principles. * * * It is, however,
but justice to remark, that there is a decided difference
in the conduct of the children of the Orkneymen em-
ployed by the Hudson's Bay Company, and those of
the Canadian voyageurs. Some trouble is occasionally
bestowed in teaching the former, and it is not thrown

* Tracts relative to the Aborigines. Tract 8, p. 18.
f Captain Franklin's Journal. Vol. ' " i •>«.

198 EFFECTS ON THE INDIAN POPULATION.

away, but all the good that can be said of the latter is,
that they are not quite so licentious as their fathers
are." *

" Another practice may also be noticed, as shewing the
state of moral feeling on these subjects amongst white
residents of the fur countries. It was not very uncommon
amongst the Canadian voyageurs, for one woman to be
common to, and maintained at, the joint expense of two
men ; nor for a voyageur to sell his wife, either for a
season, or altogether, for a sum of money proportioned to
her beauty and good qualities, but always inferior to
the price of a team of dogs." I

These are the results of locking up a continent in
the hands of a close and irresponsible Corporation.
'One argument for doing so, was a tender regard
for the native population ; and we awake as from a
dream, and find the object of our sympathy sinking
under a weight of misery to which he was a stranger
until he came in contact with the blessings of civi-
lization ! Let the mind fully realize the depth of
wretchedness to which these wandering tribes are
doomed ; let it connect the aged hunter's lingering
torments of starvation, with a system by which the
luxury of warmth is procured for a wealthy and
powerful nation, — and I know not if it be not rather
with a feeling of pleasure that we hail the prospect
of the utter depopulation of a continent, as the only
limit to our responsibility or our crime.

* Id. Vol.i., p. 167. fid. Vol. i., p. 169»

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE RESULTS OF THE HUDSON S BAY COM-
PANY'S CHARTER IN RESPECT TO ITS EFFECTS
UPON THE COLONISTS WHO ARE SUBJECTED
TO ITS INFLUENCE.

In pursuance of the plan laid down, the next subject
which must occupy our attention, is the mode in
which the powers claimed under the Charter have
worked, as regards the Colonists who are living
under its influence.

No part of the whole subject can be more import-
ant than this, because from it we may gather what
are likely to be the results of a policy which con-
templates making the Hudson's Bay Company the
agent of colonization throughout the greatest part
of our possessions in North America. A short
account has been given before, at page 54, of the
events connected with the foundation of the Red
River settlement.

It is now a matter of public notoriety, that the
inhabitants of that settlement have expressed their
dissatisfaction at the government to which they are

200 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

subject, and have appealed from the power of the
Company to that of the Crown.

It is not within the limits or the intention of this
work, to detail the whole transaction of that appeal ;
but it may be of use to state some few facts, with
the object of shewing, as briefly as possible, how
the government of the Company has worked already,
and therefore how it may be expected to work in
future, should any new colony be subjected to its
rule.

The principal part of the population of the Red
River is composed of half-breeds, the children, or
descendants, of native women, by the servants and
officers of the Company.

It appears, at least this is the statement made on
behalf of these half-breeds, that a few years ago
the Americans began to put a stop to the buffalo
hunting which was carried on, by the settlers at the
Red River, in the plains south of the boundary line ;
and no one was to be permitted to hunt within the
American frontier, except citizens of the United
States. Hence the occupation and means of sub-
sistence of a considerable number of the half-
breeds and Indians of the settlement were much
curtailed;

In consequence of this new state of affairs, new

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 201

modes of industry were contemplated, in order to
obtain subsistence : the first idea was to commence
an export trade in tallow to England. Mr. James
Sinclair, it appears, was the first person who
engaged in this speculation. He sent a small
quantity of tallow to London, in one of the Com-
pany's vessels. The adventure succeeded : in the
following year, therefore, he sent a much larger
quantity to York Factory, for the purpose of export-
ation to England. For some reason or other, the
Company's officers at York Factory refused to take
Mr. Sinclair's tallow on board ; it remained for
nearly two years at the factory, at the end of which
time, Mr. Sinclair was obliged to sell it to the
Company at prime cost.

In consequence of the prospects which were
opened by Mr. Sinclair's first speculation, and
before the subsequent refusal of the Company's
officers to take his tallow, a second time, to Eng-
land, a letter, signed by about twenty of the
principal half-breeds of the settlement, was ad-
dressed to the Governor and Committee in London.

The following is a copy : —

" Red River Settlement,
"Honoured Sirs, '^^ December '60, 1843.

" Presuming on the liberal manner in which
your Honours met Mr. James Sinclair's views of export-

202 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS,

ing tallow on his own account to England, in your
ships, at the moderate freight of 40 francs per ton, We,
the undersigned, have determined to turn our attention to
collecting a quantity of the article sufficient to become
a matter of some consideration in the London market,
as well as a source of profit and employment to a large
portion of the population at the settlement, who arefin-
capable of directing themselves to agricultural occupa-
tions, and whose orderly conduct and attachment to the
Honourable Company so mateiially depends on a market
being aftbrded for the proceeds of the chase.

" After giving the subject a careful consideration, we
are of opinion that, if your Honours would favour us so
far as to lower the very high freight charged at present
on the goods we import from London, we can send a
considerable quantity of tallow to England, with a small
profit to ourselves and considerable benefit to the
general prosperity of the settlement. It would be pre-
sumptuous in us to pretend to a knowledge of the extra-
ordinary expense of fitting out a ship for Hudson's Bay,
but £8 per ton is so much more than the freight ex-
acted on goods sent to far more distant parts of the
world, as to induce us to indulge a hope that your
Honours will take our case into your favourable
consideration.

" To the Governor,

Deputy Governor, and Committee,

of the Honourable Hudson's Hay Company."

To this letter, it appears, no answer was returned.

If the above be facts, there cannot be anything
more contrary to the truth, than the statement made
by Mr. T. Simpson, and quoted at page 19 in

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 203

Mr. M. Martin's book, that, "the Hudson's Bay
Company have long endeavoured, by rewards and
arguments, to excite an exportation of tallow, hides,
wool, &c., to England ; but the long and dangerous
navigation to Hudson Bay, and the habits of the
half-bred race, who form the mass of the people,
and generally prefer chasing the buffalo to agricul-
ture or regular industry, have rendered their efforts
ineffectual."

This opinion of Mr. T. Simpson, indeed, in a
measure, contradicts itself: one does not see how
the love of chasing the baffalo, by which the tallow
was to be obtained, can be given as a reason why
no tallow should be exported.

And that the length or difficulty of the voyage
to Hudson's Bay need form no obstacle to such a
trade, is manifest from Sir J. H. Felly's own letter
to Lord Glenelg, (Parliamentary paper. May 8, 1842,
No. 547,) in which the advantages to be gained
from such an export trade are strongly dwelt upon.

The settlers, on the other hand, complain, that
every endeavour which they have made to better their
condition, by opening a traffic with England, has
been frustrated by the tyrannical regulations of the
Company, — ^by the enormous freights demanded, —
and by the jealousy with which the advancement

204 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

and prosperity of the native population has ever
been regarded.

Another fact must here be noticed, which had
some influence in increasing the discontent of the
settlers.

The Company had begun, before this time, to
employ some of the leading half-breeds as middle-
men in the fur trade ; paying the middleman in
money or commerce, and receiving furs in exchange,
whilst the middleman undertook the trouble of pro-
curing the furs from the natives, of course with some
advantage to himself

The half-breeds, by these means, became practi-
cally acquainted with the enormous profits which
were being realized upon the actual capital em-
ployed ; and thus a strong temptation was afforded
them, to engage in the fur trade on their own
account, and as they could not export furs to
England, to send them into the American territory.

The question was raised at once in the minds of
the half-breeds and natives, how far the privileges of
the Company could restrain the native inhabitants
of the soil, or their descendants, from obtaining the
fiirs, the natural produce of the coimtry of their
forefathers, and disposing of them in any manner
they chose.

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 205

It would appear that the government of the
settlement had been such, up to this time, that there
was no very strong inclination on the part of the
inhabitants to considt the interests, or jield to the
wishes, of the Company : and so, in a short time, a
traflBc, illicit as the Company assert, began between
some few of the half-breeds of the Red River and
the Americans.

But the settlers themselves do not appear to have
considered this traffic illegal. They did not want to
smuggle the furs out of the country ; on the contrary,
they openly asserted their rights. They said that no
Charter could deprive them of that which was their
birthrights — the right to hunt the wild animals
on the lands on which their fathers hunted before
them, or to purchase them when hunted by their
Indian friends or relatives : and, having obtained
the furs, they asserted that nothing but injustice and
violence could compel them to dispose of the labour
of their hands, or of the results of skill and risk in
barter, to one Company alone, and at whatever
price that Company chose to offer.

They do not seem to have urged the fact that
they were British subjects, and, as such, to have
appealed against a gross violation of British law by

206 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

the enforcement of a monopoly ; but they stood
upon their claims as the descendants of the native
Indian, and denied that any right, but that of
might, could deprive them of their hereditary pro-
perty in the wild animals of their ancient forests
and prairies.

They, therefore, addressed the following letter
to the Governor of Assimboin ; and it must be
admitted that the difficulties started by some of
their queries, are such as cannot be disposed of at
once, or pooh-poohed as irrational and absurd.

" Red River Settlement,
"Sir, " August 29, 1845.

" Having at this moment a veiy strong belief
that we, as natives of this country, and as half-breeds,
have the right to hunt furs in the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany's territories, whenever we think proper, and again
sell those furs to the highest bidder ; likewise having a
doubt that natives of this country can be prevented
from trading and trafficking with one another ; we would
wish to have your opinion on the subject, lest we should
commit ourselves by doing anything in opposition
either to the laws of England or the Plonourable Com-
pany's privileges, and therefore lay before you, as
Governor of Red River settlement, a few queries,
which we beg you will answer in course.

" Query 1. Has a half-breed, a settler, the right to
hunt furs in this country ?

" 2. Has a native of this country (not an Indian) a
right to hunt furs ?

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 207

"3. If a half-breed has the right to hunt furs, can
lie hire other half-breeds for the purpose of hunting
furs?

"4. Can a half-breed sell his furs to any 'person he
pleases ?

" 5. Is a half-breed obliged to sell his furs to the
Hudson's Bay C )nipany at whatever price the Company
may think proper to give him ?

" 6. Can a half-breed receive any furs, as a present,
from ai Indian, a relative of his?

"■ 7. Can a half-breed hire any of his Indian relatives
to hunt furs for 1 i n ?

" ». Can a half-breed trade furs from another half-
breed, in, or out of, the settlement ?

" 9. Can a half-breed trade furs from an Indian, in,
or out of, the settlement?

" 10. With regard to trading, or hunting furs, have
the half-breefls, or natives of European origin, any
rights or privileges over Europeans ?

"11. A settler, having purchased lands from Lord
Selkirk, or even from the Hudson's Bay Company,
without any conditions attached to them, or without
having signed any bond, deed, or instrument whatever,
whereby he might have willed away his right to trade
furs, can he be prevented from trading furs in the set-
tlement with settlers, or even out of the settlement ?

" 12. Are tiie limits of the settlement defined by the
Municipal Law, Selkirk Grant, or Indian Sale?

" 13. If a person cannot trade furs, either in, or out
of, the settlement, can he purchase them for his own
and family use, and in what quantity ?

" 14. Having never seen any official statements, nor
known, but by report, that the Hudson's Bay Company
has peculiar privileges over British subjects, natives, and
half-breeds, resident in the settlement, we woidd wisli

208 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

to know what those privileges are, and the penalties
attached to the infringement of the same.

" We remain, your humble Servants,

" James Sinclair. William Bird.

Baptist La Roque. Peter Garioch.

Thomas Logan. Henry Cook.

John Dease. John Spence.

Alexis Gaulat. John Anderson.

Louis Letende de Thomas M'Dermot.

Batoche. Adall Trottier.

William M'Millan. Charles Hole,

Antoine Morran. Joseph Monkman.

Bat. Wilkie. Baptist Farman.
John Vincent.

" Alexander Christie, Esq.,

Governor of Red River Settlement."

To this letter, Mr. Christie returned the following

answer : — •

" Fort Garry,
"Gentlemen, " September 5, 1845.

" I received your letter of the 29th ultimo, on the
evening of the 3rd instant, and I am sure that the solemn
and important proceedings in which I was yesterday en-
gaged, will form a sufficient apology for my having allowed
a day to pass without noticing your communication.

" However unusual it may be for the Rulers of any
country to answer legal inquiries in any other way than
through the judicial tribunals which can alone authori-
tatively decide any point of law, I shall, on this par-
ticular occasion, overlook all those considerations which
might otherwise prompt me to decline, with all due

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 209

courtesy, the discussion of your letter ; and I am the
rather induced to adopt this course by your avowal, for
which I am bound to give you full credit, that you are
actuated by an unwillingness to do anything in opposition
either to the laws of England, or to the Hudson's Bay
Company's privileges.

" Your first nine queries, as well as the body of your
letter, are grounded on the supposition, that the half-
breeds possess certain privileges over their fellow-citi-
zens, who have not been born in the country. Now,
as British subjects, the half-breeds have clearly the same
rights in Scotland or in England as any person born in
Great Britain, and your own sense of justice will at
once see how unreasonable it would be to place Eng-
lishmen and Scotchmen on a less favourable footing in
Rupert's Land than yourselves. Your supposition fur-
ther seems to draw a distinction between half-breeds
and persons born in the country of European parentage,
and to men of your intelligence I need not say that this
distinction is still more unreasonable than the other.

" Your tenth query is fully answered in these obser-
vations on your first nine queries.

" Your eleventh query assumes that any purchaser
of lands would have the right to trade furs if he had not
' willed' it away by assenting to any restiictive condi-
tion. Such an assumption, of course, is admissible of
itself, and inconsistent even with your own general views ;
the conditions of tenure, which, by the bye, have always
been well understood to prohibit any infraction of the
Company's privileges, are intended not to bind the
individual who is already bound by the fundamental
law of the country, but merely to secure his lands as a
special guarantee for the due discharge of such, his
essential obligation.

" After what has just been said, your twelfth query
becomes wholly unimportant.

210 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

" Your fourteenth query, which comprises your thir-
teenth, and, in fact, also all the queries that you either
have, or could have, proposed, requests me to enumerate
the peculiar privileges of the Hudson's Bay Company,
on the alleged ground that you know them only through
report. Considering that you have the means of seeing
the Charter and the Land Deed, and such enactments of
the Council of Rupert's Land as concern yourselves and
your fellow-citizens, — and considering further, that, in
point of fact, some of you have seen them, I cannot
admit that you require information to the extent which
you profess ; and even if you did require it, I do not
think that I could offer you anything more clear than
the documents themselves are, on which my enumera-
tions of the Company's rights must be based. If, how-
ever, any individual among you, or among your fellow-
citizens, should at any time feel himself embarrassed in
any honest pursuit, by legal doubts, I shall have much
pleasure in affording him a personal interview.
" I am. Gentlemen,
" Your most obedient Servant,
(Signed) *' Alexander Christie,

" Governor of Assimboia."
^^ Messrs. James Sinclair, JBt. La Roque,
Thomas Logan, and others."

We may mention here, in passing, that " the
solemn and important proceedings" in which the
Government had been engaged the day before, con-
sisted of " hanging an Indian.'^ Of the legality of
this proceeding, it will be necessary to make some
observations presently.

The Company, however, did not remain satisfied

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 211

with this placid and amiable reply to the questions
of the memorialists ; nor did they argue the matter
theoretically with their subjects. Strong measures
were at once adopted to put an end to the free trade
in furs which was springing up, and the practice of
employing middlemen was discontinued, as having
tended to produce it.

The following are extracted from the Minutes of
the Council of Rupert's Land, passed at their
Annual Meeting, at the Red River, in 1845.

Extract from Minutes of a Meeting of the Governor and
Council of Rupert! s Land, held at the Red River
Settlement, June 10, 1845.

" Resolved — 1st. That, once in every year, any British
subject, if an actual resident and not a fur trafficker,
may import, whether from London or from St Peters,
stores free of any duty now about to be imposed, on
declaring truly, that he has imported them at his own
risk.

" 2ndly.'That, once in every year, any British subject,
if qualified as before, may exempt from duty as before,
imports of the local value of ten pounds, on declaring
truly, that they are intended exclusively to be used by
himself within Red Kiver settlement, and have been
purchased with certain specified productions or manu-
factures 6f the aforesaid settlement, exported in the
same season, or by the latest vessel, at his own risk.

•' 3rdly. That, once in every year, any British subject,
if qualified as before, who may have personally accom-
panied both his exports and imports, as defined in the
preceding Resolution, may exempt from duty as before,

p2

212 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

imports of the local value of £50, on declaring truly, that
they are either to be consumed by himself, or to be sold
by himself to actual consumers within the aforesaid
settlement, and have been purchased with certain speci-
fied productions or manufactures of the settleraent,'carried
away by himself in the same season, or by the latest
vessel, at his own risk.

" 4thly. That all other imports from the United King-
dom for the aforesaid settlement, shall, before delivery,
pay at York Factory a duty of 20 per cent, on their
prime cost : provided, however, that the Governor of
the settlement be hereby authorised to exempt from the
same, all such importers as may from year to year be
reasonably believed by him to have neither trafficked in
furs themselves since the 8th day of December, 1844,
nor enabled others to do so, by illegally or improperly
supplying them with trading articles of any description.

" 5thly. That all other imports from any part of the
United States, shall pay all duties payable under the
provisions of 5 & 6 Vict., cap. 49, the Imperial Statute
for regulating the foreign trade of the British posses-
sions in North America : provided, however, that the
Governor-in-Chief, or, in his absence, the President of
the Council, may so modify the machineiy of the said
Act of Parliament, as to adapt the same to the circum-
stances of the country.

" 7thly. That henceforward, no goods shall be delivered
at York Factory, to any but persons duly licensed to
freight the same ; such licenses being given only in
those cases in which no fur trafficker may have any
interest, direct or indirect.

" 8thly. That any intoxicating drink, if found in a fur
trafficker's possession, beyond the limits of the aforesaid
settlement, may be seized and destroyed by any person
on the spot.

" Whereas the intervention of middlemen is alike in-

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 213

jurious to the Honourable Company and to the people ;
it is resolved —

" 9thly. That, henceforward, furs shall be purchased
from none but the actual hunters of the same."

^^ Fort Garry, July 10, 1845.

Copy of Licence referred to in Resolution 7.

" On behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company, I hereby
license A. B. to trade, and also ratify his having traded,
in English goods, within the limits of Red River settle-
ment. This ratification and this Licence to be null and
void, from the beginning, in the event of his hereafter
trafficking in furs, or generally of his usurping any
whatever of all the privileges of the Hudson's Bay
Company."

To comment upon every article in these Minutes
as they deserve, would occupy a longer time than
can be here aflPorded. It is quite impossible for any
one to believe that a colony can flourish under such
a system of interference with trade. Trade is
absolutely forbidden, except once a year, and to
licensed persons ; and all privilege to trade is denied
to persons who interfere with the Company's claim
of exclusive traflBc in furs.

But the Company do not appear to have trusted
to paper deeds to enforce their authority.

They were not even content with inflicting fines,
under the form of a hostile tariff; but as the half-
breeds say, some of the fur traders were imprisoned,
and all the goods and articles of exchange belonging

214 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

to those who were suspected of an intention to traffic
in fors, were seized and confiscated.

But another, and even more serious attack was
made on the privileges of the settlers.

The Company being, under their Charter, nomi-
nal owners of the soil, dispose of it to the colonists
in any manner they think best. A portion of the
land in the colony is held from Lord Selkirk, who
first founded the settlement.

Now, however, the Company drew up a new Land
Deed, which all were compelled to sign who wished
to hold any land in the settlement.

The following is a copy of this document : —

" This Indenture, made the day of , in the

year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and
Forty , between the Governor and Company of
Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson's Bay, of
the one part, and of

of the other part.

" Whereas the said is

desirous of becoming a settler upon the land herein-
after described, or intended so to be, being certain part
of a territory in North America, belonging to the said
Governor and Company, and held under the Crown by
Charter: Now, therefore, this Indenture witnesseth,
that in consideration of ,

and in consideration also of the covenants hereinafter
contained on the part of the said ,

they, the said Governor and Company, do hereby grant,
demise, and lease unto the said ,

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 215

his executors, administrators, and assigns, all that piece
or parcel of land, being of Lot No. ,

as described at large in the Official Survey of Red
River settlement, and containing, more or less,
English acres,

with the necessary appurtenances thereto : to have and
to hold the said piece or parcel of land hereby demised,
or intended so to be, and every part thereof, with the
appurtenances unto the said ,

his executors, administrators, and assigns, from the
day next before the day of the date of these presents,
and for and during and unto the full term of one
thousand years, thence next ensuing ; yielding and
paying therefor, yearly and every year, during the said
term, and upon the Michaelmas Day in each year, the
rent or sum of one peppercorn, the first payment
whereof to be made upon the twenty-ninth day of
September next ensuing the date hereof. And the said
, for himself, his heirs, executors, and
administrators, doth hereby covenant and agree with the
said Governor and Company, in manner following ; that
is to say : that he the said shall or will,

within forty days from the date hereof, settle and esta-
blish himself or themselves, and continue to reside upon
the said hereby demised land, and shall or will, within
five years from the date of these presents, bring, or cause
or procure to be brought into a state of cultivation, one
tenth part of the said hereby demisefl land, and thence-
forth continue the same in such state. And that, during
the said term, he the said , his executors,

administrators, and assigns, shall not, directly or indi-
rectly, mediately or immediately, violate or evade any
of the chartered or licensed privileges of the said Go-
vernor and Company, or any restrictions on trading or
iiealing with Indians or others, which have been or may
be imposed by the said Governor and Company, or by any

216 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

other competent authority, or in any way enable any per-
son or persons to violate or evade, or to persevere in vio-
lating or evading the same, and in short shall obey all such
laws and regulations as within the said settlement now
are, or hereafter may be, in force, for preventing the
distillation of spirits, for preserving internal peace, for
repelling foreign aggression, for making and repairing
roads and bridges, and for encouraging and promoting
general education and religious instniction. And that
he the said , his executors,

administrators, or assigns, shall or will, from time to
time, and at all times during the said term, contribute
in a due proportion to the expenses of all public esta-
blishments, whether of an ecclesiastical, civil, military,
or other nature, including therein the maintenance of the
clergy, the building and endowment of schools, which
are, or shall or may be formed under the authority of
the Charter or Charters hereinbefore referred to. And
also that he or they, at proper seasons in every year, and in
or towards the making and repairing of such roads high-
ways as lie within miles from the said hereby demised
premises, shall and will employ himself or themselves, and
his or their servants, horses, cattle, carts, and carriages,
and other necessary things for that purpose, where and
when required so to do by the surveyor or overseer for the
time being, appointed for the making and amending
public roads, bridges, and highways, within such limits
as aforesaid ; such requisition, nevertheless, in point of
time, not to exceed six days in each year, computed day
by day, and from Michaelmas to Michaelmas.

" And also, that he the said ,

his executors, administrators, and assigns shall not,
nor will, without the licence or consent of the said
Governor and Company for that purpose first ob-
tained, carry on or establish, or attempt to carry on
or establish, in any part of North America, any trade or

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 217

traffic in or relating to any kind of skins, fiirs, peltry, or
dressed leather, nor in any manner, directly or indirectly,
aid or abet any person or persons in carrying on such
trade or traffic ; nor shall nor will, at any time or times
during the said term, distil, or cause or procure to be
distilled, spirituous liquors of any nature or kind soever,
either upon the land hereby demised, or within any other
part of the territories belonging to the said Governor
and Company in North America ; nor during the said
term, knowingly suffer or permit any other person or
persons whomsoever, to distil any such liquors upon the
said demised land or any part thereof.

" And the said , for himself, his

heirs, executors, and administrators, doth hereby fur-
ther covenant with the said Governor and Company,
and their successors, that he the said

his executors, administrators, and assigns,
will use his and their best endeavours to maintain the
defence and internal peace of the territories of the said
Governor and Company in North America, and shall
and will be chargeable therewith according to such
laws and regulations as are now in force in respect of
the same territories, or as shall from time to time be
made by competent authority; and also that he the
said , his executors,

administrators, or assigns, shall not nor will, at any
time or times during the said term, or by any direct or
indirect, mediate or immediate, manner, ways, or means,
infringe or violate, or set about or attempt to infringe or
violate, or aid, assist, or abet, or set about or attempt to
aid, assist, or abet, or supply with spirituous liquors, trad-
ing goods, provisions, or other necessaries, any person or
persons whomsoever, corporate or incorporate, or any
Prince, Power, Potentate, or State whatsoever, who
shall infringe or violate, or who shall set about or
attempt to infringe or violate, the exclusive rights,
powers, privileges, and immunities, of commerce,

218 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

trade, and traffic, or all or any other of the exclusive
rights, powers, privileges, and immunities, of or belong-
ing or in any wise appertaining to, or held, used, or
enjoyed by the said Governor and Company, and their
successors under their Charter or Charters, without the
licence or consent of the said Governor and Company,
and their successors for the time being, first had and
obtained. And lastly, that he the said

, his executors, administrators, or assigns,
shall not, nor will, at any time during the said term,
underlet, or assign, or otherwise alienate, or dispose, or
part with, the actual possession of the said land hereby
demised, or any part thereof, for all or any part of the
said term, or any interest derived under the same,
without the consent in writing of the said Governor and
Company for the time being first had and obtained.
And also, that he the said ,

his executors, administrators, or assigns, shall or will,
within six calendar months from the date hereof, as to
these presents, and within six calendar months, from the
date of each respective assignment or under-lease to be
made under or through these presents ; and with respect
to each such assignment and under-lease respectively,
cause these presents and every such assignment or under-
lease, when made, to be registered in the Register of the
said territories in North America, or of the district in
which the said hereby demised land shall be situate, and
wherever such Register shall be kept at the time : pro-
vided always, nevertheless, and it is hereby declared and
agreed, that if the said ,

his executors, administrators, or assigns, shall not in all
things well and truly observe and perform all and every
the covenants and agreements herein contained, on his
and their behalf to be observed and performed, then,
and in either of such cases, and either upon or after the
first breach, or any subsequent breach or breaches of
covenant, and as to any subsequent breach or breaches,

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 219

notwithstanding there may have been any waiver or
waivers, or supposed waiver or waivers thereof, by the
acceptance of rent or otherwise, it shall or may be law-
ful to and for the said Governor and Company, and
their successors or assigns, to enter into and upon the
said hereby demised premises, or any part thereof, in the
name of the whole thereof, and to have, hold, retain,
and enjoy the same as in their former state ; and also to
put an end to, and determine, the said term of one thou-
sand years, or so much thereof as shall be then unex-
pired ; and all and every person or persons then occupying
the same premises, or claiming title thereto, to put out
and remove, anything hereinbefore contained to the con-
trary notwithstanding. In witness whereof, the said
parties to these presents have hereunto set their hands
and seals, the day and year first above written, at Red
River settlement aforesaid.

" Signed, sealed, and delivered, in the presence
of

The manifest intention which this Deed exhibits,
is, not to facilitate the conveyance of land to settlers
— not to encourage persons to settle, but, in the
event of settlement, to secure the Company's privi-
leges intact. There never was a document more
manifestly framed to secure the interests of the
vendor, and not of the purchasers of the soil. The
settler binds himself to cultivate a certain quantity
within a certain time — a most unnecessary provision,
one would imagine, seeing that he has already paid
12s. Gd. (not Is. M., as Mr. Martin states) for the
land ; as if a man would pay what in that country

220 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

is a very high price for land, two and a half times
as much as he would have to pay for as good land
on the same river, fifty miles farther south in the
American territory, — as if, I say, a man would give
such a price for land, unless to cultivate it in the
manner most conducive to his own interest.

Next, the tenant binds himself, under pain of
forfeiture of his whole estate, that he will not, by
any direct or indirect, mediate or immediate, man-
ner, ways, or means, infringe or violate the ex-
clusive rights, power, privileges, and immunities,
powers of commerce, &c., or all or any of the
exclusive rights, &c., of or belonging, or in any
wise appertaining to, or held, used or enjoyed (that
is to say, whether it belongs to them or not) by the
Hudson's Bay Company ; and even that he will not
aid, assist, or abet, attempt to aid, assist, or abet,
or supply with spirituous liquors, trading goods, pro-
visions, or other necessaries, any one else who shall
attempt to violate the same — and all this amongst a
population who have no possible means of ascertain-
ing what the privileges of the Company really are,
and are obliged to believe all that the Company
choose to say respecting them.

A colony in which such laws are in force, as
are quoted from the Minutes of Council above
cited, and where the only freehold property is

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 221

to be obtained under this Land Deed, is as unlike a
British colony as anything can be conceived.

And so far has this determination to stop the fur
traffic been carried, that a man who would buy land
is compelled to bind himself, under forfeiture of his
property, that he will not carry on or establish a
trade or traffic in or relating to any kind of skins,
fm^, peltry, or dressed leather, in any part of North
America. So that a man could not hold land at
the Red River settlement, and pursue the occupation
of a shoemaker in Canada, or in Mexico : to such
an absurdity has this tyranny been carried.

Now this is the Company — one capable of making
such regulations as these, — ^this is the power to
which is to be now entrusted the responsibility of
founding a British colony on the shores of the
Pacific Ocean. This is the body to whom vast
possessions are to be granted, and vast powers
entrusted, without any kind of security that there
shall not be, in their new territory, a repetition of
all the absurdities which disgrace their present
domains — any kind of security that this Land Deed,
for example, shall not be enforced in Vancouver's
Island.

But not only is it made compulsory upon every
person wishing to acquire land at the Red River,

222 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

to sign this deed, making over for ever some of
the most valuable rights of property and privileges
of Englishmen, but many of the old settlers, who
held land, not from the Company, but from Lord
Selkirk, prior to the territory having been sold
back again to the Company, were persuaded by
the Company's officers to give up their old Deed,
and to sign the new one.

Thus it appears that all the interests of this set-
tlement are made subordinate to the monopoly of
the fur trade. Commerce is under an interdict —
landed property is unknown, except under condi-
tions which make the freeholder a more absolute
slave to the Company, tlian the workman or the
hunter.

The next thing to be noticed, which is matter of
great complaint on the part of the Red River
colonists, is, the enormous freights which they have
to pay for any mercantile communication with
England. The letter of the half-breeds, quoted
above, mentions £8 — the Company now charge
£9* per ton, for all goods shipped to York Factory,
for any of the settlers at the Red River: these
goods have then to be conveyed more than eight

* After the above was in print, I heard that the freight has
recently been reduced to £5.

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 223

hundred miles up the country to the settlement ;
they are carried in boats up the river, and across
Lake Winipeg. The route is interrupted by nume-
rous portages — Mr. Ballantyne says as many as
thirty-six — ^at each of which the boat has to be un-
laden, and all the goods, and sometimes the boats
themselves, have to be carried over land to the fresh
place of embarkation. The length of these portages
varies from one hundred yards to above a mile. The
charge which the Company make the settlers for
the conveyance of goods from York Factory to the
Red River, is 20^. per ninety pounds, or £24. 2^. 2c/.
per ton, — which makes, altogether, a freight of
above £33 per ton, from London to the Red River.

Now the Company does not interfere with the
settlers who may choose to convey their own goods
from the settlement to York Factory, or back again,
in their own boats ; but it is not clear whether they
will allow any other than themselves, or those to
whom they grant a special licence, to convey goods
for hire, or freight, from one point to the other.

But, however this may be, it is certain that no
competition whatever is permitted to interfere with
tlie freight for goods conveyed from England to
Hudson's Bay. None of their illegal rights have
the Company asserted more strenuously than this.
The waters within the Hudson's Straits are debarred

224 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

to all but the Company's navy — ^waters teeming
in all directions with whales, seals, and other fish,
from which wealth might be obtained, and in the
pursuit of which, enterprise and capital might be
profitably expended ; waters washing shores where
copper and lead are said to abound, and part of
which would amply repay the toil of the agricul-
turist ; waters in a climate less severe, and where
navigation is less diifficult than those of other parts of
the globe with whose industrious inhabitants the
English merchant carries on a prosperous and
advantageous traffic ; — these waters are to be for ever
undisturbed, except by the keels of the Hudson's
Bay Company's " annual ships."

Truly, when we read of ^Hhe annual ship," with
its "annual" cargo of skins, we are carried back in
imagination to the days of the Argonautic Expedi-
tion and the Golden Fleece, and can with difficulty
believe that we are speaking of the operations of a
great mercantile corporation of the greatest com-
mercial country in the world, in the middle of the
nineteenth century.

When the question of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany was brought before a Parliamentary Com-
mittee in 1748, two cases "w^ere mentioned, in which
the Company had seized vessels attempting to
penetrate into Hudson's Bay for the purpose of

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 225

trade. The plan adopted by the Company was to
take the ships and run them on shore, where they
were lost.

There was an action respecting one of these ships,
but the question as to the validity of the Charter
was not involved. The Company, it seems, pleaded
that the ships were lost through stress of weather.
This proves, however, the determination of the
Company, from the first, to exclude all vessels but
their own from the waters of Hudson's Bay.

The freight, then, which the Company charge to the
settlers in their territory, is one which no changes in
commerce, no fortunate abundance of shipping, or
deficiency of cargoes, can ever affect : it is perma-
ently removed from all possibility of change : and
the Company have only to say that so much shall
be charged, and it is charged. The measm-e of
freight to Hudson's Bay is not the expense of the
voyage, but the squeezibility of the settlers.

The voyage to York Factory averages about seven
or eight weeks. Tliis is a long voyage. The distance
from York Factory to the Orkney Islands having
been sailed in eighteen days, — a month at York
Factory, and a couple of months to return, will
give an entire voyage of five months for the whole :
the expense of chartering a ship would be about

226 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

16s. per ton per month, i. e., £4 for the voyage out
and home. But the Company are charging £9* for
conveying goods out in a vessel which must go out
in order to bring their furs home.

The result of this policy is, that the settlers at the
Red River are procuring manufactured goods from
the American frontiers, especially from St. Peter's
and St. Louis on the Mississippi, instead of from
England : and we are assured that English manu-
factured goods can be conveyed the whole of the
way to New Orleans, and thence by the entire
length of the Mississippi up to its source, and
thence across the plains in waggons, to the Red
River settlement, for not much more than half the
price at which, under the Company's auspices, they
can be conveyed by York Factory from England.

Now we do request the reader to turn to the
map at the beginning of this volume, and read the
above statement over again ; but we request him, in
addition, to observe the third and Canadian route.

The conveyance of goods by water carriage is prac-
ticable the whole way from London to the headof Lake
Superior ; and from Fort William, on Lake Supe-
rior, there is water carriage by rivers and lakes the
rest of tlie way to the Red River settlement : and it is
* See Note, p. 222.

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 227

asserted by those who have travelled both routes,
that the portages are neither so numerous or difficult
along these rivers as they are along those which
must be passed between York Factory and the
settlement.

The distance between Lake Superior and the
settlement is not more than five hundred miles,
while from Fort York the distance is above eight
hundred. The route from Lake Superior is not
only capable of being made practicable and easy?
but it lies through the richest part of British North
America. The magnificence of the river is dwelt
upon by Sir G. Simpson, as well as by all who have
travelled along its course.

It was along this route that the enterprising
voyagem" of the North- West Company of Montreal
conveyed the provisions which were to support the
trader at the distant and isolated posts, which his
daring energy had pushed far into the interior of
North America, and down which he returned Lidjn
with the spoil of the furthest recesses of the conti-
nent, at a time when the Hudson's Bay Company,
under the narcotic influence of their Charter and
their monopoly, were bargaining with the straggling
tribes who resorted to the neighbourhood of Hud-
son's Bay.

q2

228 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

The settlers of the Red River want to know why
that route is not again opened, — why the Company, if
it has really the interest of the settlement at heart,
has not kept up the communication between their
country and the Canadas ? and they assert, appa-
rently with some cause, that the Hudson's Bay
Company piu^osely oppose every barrier between
their territories and the Canadas, in the dread lest
unrestrained communication might awake again the
rivalry which they formerly experienced, and risk
the validity of their claims ; and so the Red River
settlement, and every other part of the enormous
territories over which their sway extends, are lan-
guishing under the interdict of perpetual obscurity,
which the Hudson's Bay Company are necessitated
to inflict for the protection of their unwarrantable
pretensions.

There will not be space, within the limits of this
book, to specify the various complaints which have
been made against the Company by those under
its government ; and it must be borne in mind
that we do not profess to prove, nor even to be
responsible for, the truth of all that it is necessary to
state in a work like the present. We say, neces-
sary to state, because our task is to shew that there
is a stronger -prima facie case for the most searching

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 229

scrutiny into the government of the Indian terri-
tories, than has ever been shewn in any case what-
soever. In pursuance of this object, we proceed to
state one or two more of the grievances under
which the settlers at the Red River assert that they
are suffering.

The first example I shall take is in reference to
the restrictions in the trade to England. The case
of Mr. Sinclair's tallow speculation being frustrated
by the Company, has been spoken of. Mr. Sinclair
has other complaints to make. This gentleman was
one of the most active in getting up the petition to
the Home Government against the management of
the Company. The method which the Company
took to revenge themselves, is too singular to be
overlooked. Mr. Sinclair is a merchant who pro-
cures goods from England, and disposes of them
in the colony : and as no ships are allowed inside
Hudson's Straits except those belonging to the
Company, Mr. Sinclair had no means of procuring
his annual stock of merchandise from London, with
which to carry on his trade, except by obtaining
freight for it in the Company's vessels. Of course,
then, Mr. Sinclair, like all the rest of the colonists,
was not only compelled to procure a licence from
the Company to allow him to traffic with England

230 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

at all, but was entirely dependent upon their good-
will for obtaining a freight for his goods, even at the
enormous rate which they ordinarily charge.

Well, as soon as it was known that Mr. Sinclair
was one of the " turbulent scoundrels," at the Red
River, who thought that the liberties of Englishmen
were scarcely respected in that colony, and that a
petition to the Home Government might improve
matters, a letter was addressed to him, of which the
following is a copy : —

" Fort Garry, Red River Settlement,
" SiK, " August 25, 1845.

" I beg to state, that in a private letter from
Mr. Secretary Smith, dated the 18th April last, and
received on the 25th instant, I am requested to acquaint
you, that no goods will be shipped in your name on
board the Hudson's Bay Company's ship for York Fac-
tory this season.

" I remain, Sir,
" Your most obedient Servant,

" Alexander Christie."
" Mr. James Sinclair."

So that Mr. Sinclair, for offering an honest poli-
tical opposition to a corrupt and tyrannical govern-
ment, was deprived of the supply of merchandise
which was necessary to enable him to carry on his
lawful vocation. Can there be found, in any of the

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 231

worst pages of English history, a more wanton and
undisguised piece of tyranny than this ? And yet
this is what may happen every day in a country
under such a system as that of the Hudson's Bay
Company, and as that under which, in a great mea-
sure, Her Majesty's Government are desirous of
placing Vancouver's Island.

There is another point which ought to be noticed,
not because it is complained of by the settlers as a
grievance, but because it is an instance of the mi-
scrupulous manner in which the Company set the
laws of this coimtry at defiance.

The fact was alluded to above, that an Indian
was hanged at the Red River settlement. There
have been, it would seem, two, if not three, execu-
tions, since the Recorder commenced his duties at
the settlement.

It would not be a matter of complaint that a
person worthy of death should meet with the punish-
ment he deserved, were it not expressly provided by
Act of Parliament that he should not.

An Act of Parliament was passed, 42 Geo. HI.,
cap. 138, for establishing the jurisdiction of the
Canadian Courts over the Indian Territories ; and,
by that Act, crimes committed beyond the limits
of the Canadas, were to be considered as if com-

232 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

mitted within those limits, and to be tried in the
Canadian Courts of Law.

Another Act, 1 & 2 Geo. IV., cap. 66, was
passed, declaring that the Act of Geo. III., just
quoted, should be considered to apply to " Rupert's
Land^^ as well as to " The Indian Territories."
This Act also especially provided that all felons,
and all civil causes in which the amount of pro-
perty involved exceeded £200, should not be tried
in the Courts of Law in Rupert's Land and the
Indian Territories, but should be tried in the
Canadian Courts alone.

Consequently, the trying and hanging a man for
murder in the Red River settlement, is directly in
violation of Act of Parliament.

But, a grievance more nearly affecting the mass
of the colonists is, that they are taxed by an
arbitrary power in an illegal manner. It will be
seen, by an examination of the Minutes of the
Council at Red River, quoted above, that the
Company institute what tariff they please, and that
they have so arranged their tariff as to make the
payment of duty a punishment for interfering with
their exclusive trade. It appears that the Red
River settlement is under the management of the
Governor of Assimbnia, and a Council, who ad-

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 233

minister all the ordinary affairs of the colony ; but
there is another, and superior, Council, which sits
once a year, and is called together by the Governor
of the whole of the Company's territories, at any
place convenient to himself. This Council consists
of chief factors and chief traders, from various parts
of North America : the Minutes, quoted above,
were passed at a meeting of this Supreme Council.
Now it is impossible to ascertain what are the dis-
tinctive functions of these two Councils; but the
Red River people assert that it is in the highest
degree unjust and injurious that their affairs should
be interfered with by a Court composed of men who
are collected from all parts of North America, for
the purpose of regulating the fur trade, and have
no interest whatsoever in their prosperity, and
possess neither acquaintance with, nor sympathy for,
their necessities as colonists. By one, or both, of
these Councils — ^in fine, by the arbitrary power of
the Company — ^taxes^re imposed, and duties levied ;
and no account whatsoever is rendered to the tax-
payers, of the disbursement of the public money.
Now the whole of this transaction is vtterly illegal^
from one end to the otlier. The Crown having no
power to impose taxes without the consent of Par-
liament, is manifestly incapacitated from conferring

234 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

that power upon any person or company whatsoever.
Nor can we find that any such power is granted
even by the Charter. Nay, more than this, a
careful inspection of the Charter will shew that no
authority whatsoever belongs to the Company, to
make laws, except "for the good government of
the said Company, and of all Governors of colonies,
forts, plantations, factors, masters, mariners, and
other officers employed, or to he employed, in any of
the territories or lands aforesaid, and in any of
their voyages." The Company may impose pains
and penalties, and punishments, upon all offenders
contrary to such laws, &c. ; but there does not
appear to be any authority to make laws, except
for persons in their own employment. It is true
that the Governors, and their Councils, appointed
by the Company, have "power to judge all persons
belonging to the said Governor and Company, or
that shall live under them, in all causes, whether
civil or criminal, according to the laws of this
Kingdom, and to execute justice accordingly.^^ So
that there was a distinction drawn between the
legislative and executive powers entrusted to the
Company : — their legislative authority extending
only to servants in their employ, whilst they were
empowered to administer the law of England to all

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 235

who might live under their sway. The right of the
Company, therefore, to make laws for, and especially
to tax^ the settlers at the Red River, is wholly and
indefensibly illegal.

The government of the Red River settlement
appears to be, as might be expected, a most ex-
traordinary jumble between the necessities of the
fur trade, and the wants of settlers ; at least this
was the view taken by one, of whom Sir John Pelly
asserted to Her Majesty's Government, that " no
man in the Company's service enjoyed such op-
portunities as he did, of becoming acquainted with
their management, and none was better able to
appreciate its effects." Mr. Thomas Simpson says, in
in a letter to his brother, written from the Red
River, —

" Our plans of colonization are so wild and unfortunate,
and the Company's business is tortured by so many and
such strange changes, that, as a man of business, I feel
but little satisfaction in it. We have shepherds, shep-
herdesses, and dogs, numberless, come out, but the wolves
have been ravaging the flocks ; the tallow trade is broken
up, and the experimental farm bedevilled. All that
sort of thing, to be permanent, must be done by the
settlers themselves ; but the business here is tagged
together in the most strange and unsatisfactory manner."

" We have abundant crops and provisions from the
plains this year ; money and meat are abundant, and that
is all that can be said of the place ; discomfort, isolation,

236 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

prodigality, idleness, and immorality, with its concomi-'
tant pleasures, complete the picture."*

" You can have no idea of the curious position the
Company holds here. The land of the colony, and the
right of the government, is Lord Selkirk's, by grant
from the Company; and, until 1826, the executors of
the late Earl had a separate establishment, with a
Governor of their own ; but since then, their affairs have
been managed exclusively by the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany, the Hudson's Bay Factor has been their Governor,
and the Hudson's Bay Fort their place of business ; but
they sell the land at 12*. 6d. per acre, and pocket the
money — a very cheap and convenient method, you will
say. It is true they keep about a score of policemen in
pay ; but this force is a mere nonentity, and the Hudson's
Bay Company have virtually to act as judge, jury, and
jailor, in his Lordship's colony."f

This was the opinion of the best and most intelli-
gent of the Company's servants, respecting the con-
dition of the settlement a few years ago ; and such
an opinion alone, is enough to excite a suspicion in
the minds of fair thinking men, that all in that
colony is not as the Company have persuaded their
champion to describe it.

I know that a great stress has been laid upon the
prosperity of the Red River settlement, and that
there is a disposition on the part of those in power,
to rest contented with the single fact, that such a
settlement exists, and that it has increased to its

* Life and Travels of Thomas Simpson, p. 92. f 'd., p. 94.

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 237

present state of prosperity, as a suflficient evidence
to contradict all that has been urged against the
government of the Company. Those who have
fallen into this opinion, must first have believed all
the fables which have been put forth as to the great
difficulty of settling and civilizing the country.

But there is another light in which to view this
fact of the Red River colony : when we shew that
such absolute misgovemment exists, and know that
in spite of all, the colony has grown to a certain
magnitude, and attained a certain degree of pros-
perity ; it is not without reason, that we doubt
altogether the exaggerated accounts which have
been given of the obstacles in the way of spreading
Christianity aud civilization through those distant
regions ; and that we ask, if such have been the
results, under so narrow and tyrannical a system of
management, what might not have been effected
under a generous and liberal government?

The question is. What has grown up ? and. What
might have grown up ? Have we, at this moment, at
the Red River, " a rising community," which, in
the words of Sir J. II. Pelly to Lord Glenelg, " if
well governed, may be found useful at some future
period, in the event of difficulties occurring between
Great Britain and the United States of America? "

238 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

or have you a community of which Mr. T. Simpson
could speak as follows ?

" Many of the industrious Scotch who first planted
the colony in 1811, under the auspices of the late Earl
of Selkirk, have saved handsome sums of money, besides
rearing large families in rustic plenty. A considerable
portion of th's valuable class, however, dreading the
predominance and violence of the half-breeds, with
whom they have avoided intermarrying, have converted
their property into money, and removed to the United
States."*

Is this a colony of which England can boast ? or
is this to be the barrier upon which England is to
depend, against the encroachments of the United
States ? All the best settlers already gone over to
the enemy, and the rest only awaiting the refusal of
the Colonial Office, and of the Parliament, to listen
to the complaints which they have made, in order to
follow the example.

The English public shall not be left in ignorance
that a considerable portion of the half-breeds of the
Red River will, if changes in the government of that
colony be not speedily introduced, throw themselves
into the arms of the Americans.

The following is an extract from a letter received
from the Red River, from one who is well acquainted

• Life and Travels of Thomas Simpson, p. 88.

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 239

with the opinions and feelings of the half-breeds of
that colony. It is dated September 8, 1848 : —

" lis ont la confiance que si la Compagnie obtient la
confirmation cle sa Charte, cette Charte sera du moins
modifie de maniere a n' exclurre du droit de traite que
les etrangers et nullement les natifs du pays. Que si
les Metifs se voyent interdits la jouissance des produits
de leur pays au protit d'aventuriers etrangers exclusive-
ment et cela par un acte du Parlement ils sont decides
a exposer la rationabilite de leur plaintes et de leur
demandes au Congres des Etats Unis, et le refus qui
leur aura ete fait par le Parlement Britannique ; puis
se decideront k demander au dit Congres de bien vouloir
prendre possession de leur pays et se soumettront aux
loix des Etats Unis, Or je saLs de bonne source que cette
ofi're sera acceptee. Il-y-a Deja un certain nombre des
Metis etablis a J'imbina, et bien surement si la Com-
pagnie obtient un pouvoir aussi despotique qui celui
qu'elle exerce depuis si long tenis, tout finiront par
passer de ce cote-ci de la ligne et se trouvant plus
fort, ils feront voir alors qui en aura eu tort d'avoir
meprise leur plaintes."

It is high time we should begin to rate the
patriotism of this Company, for whose sake we have
made such enormous sacrifices, at its true value.

The Company have now, for a long time, urged
claims on this country, on the score of the national
benefits we have received from it, in the shape of
British influence maintained throughout the continent
of North America.

Is tliis a just or a fraudulent demand ? We have

240 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.'

already, in the first chapter of this book, shewn
very strong reasons for suspecting that the Company
have betrayed the interests of this country on the
west of the Rocky Mountains ; and that it was by
their influence and agency that the colony of
American citizens was established, which gave the
United States a claim, which they otherwise coidd
not have had, to the best part of the Oregon
territory.

We have shewn that when there was a question
about the boundary at the opposite comer of their
dominions, the neighbourhood of the Red River, they
resigned a considerable tract of country, which, if
there were one jot or tittle of validity in their Charter,
belonged, beyond all question, to this country;
and that they did so, because they had rather that
their country should lose its dominions, than that
they should risk their privilege?. And now they
stick up this bugbear, to frighten us into the idea
that British ascendancy in the continent west of the
Canadas depends solely upon what their govern-
ment and their patriotism has effected ; but the fact
at last comes out, that the inhabitants of the only
colony they have formed are waiting the first oppor-
tunity of throwing itself into the arms of the
Americans.

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 241

The Company are responsible for the character and
politics of this their colony : no one has interfered
with them in its erection or its government : it is
their child, not typically, but really. Not only is
the settlement itself, in its collective and corporate
existence, a commimity of their organization and
management, but the very inhabitants themselves —
these half-breeds of the Red River, are their bodily
descendants. Then the Company alone is respon-
sible for the child of its creation and education;
and we have, therefore, a right to demand an
account of its stewardship.

Never has there been a community, in the whole
world and in all time, which has had so few difficulties
to contend against as the settlement of the Red River.
No great influx of settlers, from them other or any
other country, have imported hostile or disloyal
opinions into the colony. No surrounding commu-
nities have been acting upon it with various and
opposing influence : it has been cut off from the
opinions, the politicsf, the agitation of the world —
isolated, far more by the pecuhar policy which has
pervaded its government, than even by the remote
and inaccessible situation in which it is placed. Its
opinions, its feelings, its political tendency, have
been wholly self-developed.

242 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

And yet with all these favourable circumstances,
when the Company might have stood, not only in
the light of parent to the inhabitants, but of bene-
factor to the community, and so have monopolised
the whole and entire affections of the social body,
what is the truth? — that the Company is hated;
and England hated in the Company.

There is indeed something strange and awful in
the manner in which the avenging Deity has found
a weapon for the chastisement of this Corporation
in the discontent of its own offspring. It made the
native man the tool of its pocket, and the native
woman the slave of its passions ; but the very crime
itself has generated the instrument of a retributive
justice. " Viewing the service generally," said
Thomas Simpson, " I must candidly confess, judging
from the actions of others, that its promises of hap-
piness are hollow, whilst an awful fatality seems to
overhang its retiring members — a punishment for the
unprincipled and licentious lives they have led."
And now it would seem that the same language
might be applied to the last days of the Company
itself, which its wisest servant applied to its members.
The Company can govern these half-breeds no
longer. If Parliament does not interfere, the mono-
poly of the fur trade will only be preserved by vio-

EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS. 243

lence — ^for the half-breeds will trade in furs : they
consider that it is their legal right, and they can
only be prevented by actual violence, from enforcing
their claim.

These half-breeds are not to be despised or
neglected : they are a fine race of men, combining
the ready intelligence — that quickness in acquiring
knowledge, and the desire for improvement, which
belong to the civilized man ; with the endurance,
the enterprise, the intolerance of oppression, the
determination to revenge, which are peculiar to the
savage.

Through the half-breed race, the means are open
for civilizing the whole coimtry, by acting on the
Indian families who are related to them. If there
were any real desire on the part of the Company to
do so, the Indians could, by the influence which
might thus be brought to act upon them, be induced
to leave their wandering life, and quit the precarious
subsistence of the chase, for the surer livelihood to
be drawn from the cultivation of the soil.

Without this, there can be no hope of reclaiming
the Indian ; by it, that result might be secured.

Upon every consideration, therefore, — for the inte-
rests of humanity itself, the good government and
conciliation of the half-breeds is a matter of the

r2

244 EFFECTS ON THE COLONISTS.

deepest importance. But this Company have pro-
voked their hostility without possessing the power
to restrain their passions. It has robbed them of
the inheritance of their rights as savages, which
they claim as descendants from the natives of the
soil: it has deprived them of the privileges of
British law, which they claim as British subjects
and colonists.

In respect to every function of government — the
legislative, the executive, the commercial, the finan-
cial, the colonial, in whatever light its administra-
tion can be regarded, — this Corporation exceeded its
powers, neglected its duties, violated the law, and
disobeyed its Charter.

CHAPTER IX.

VANCOUVER S ISLAND: WHAT IT WILL BE

WHAT IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.

This work was on the point of going to the press,
when an advertisement appeared in the Times^ of
the 27th January, by which the public were in-
formed that the Charter granting Vancouver's
Island to the Hudson's Bay Company had been
finally signed on the 13th of that month.

One of the objects contemplated in this publica-
tion was a full statement of the reasons why that
grant ought not to have been made, under any cir-
cumstances, but, especially, not until a complete
and impartial investigation into the charges which
have been made against the Company, and which
are the subject of the foregoing pages, had enabled
the Government and Parliament to decide whether
the Company could be safely trusted with any ad-
ditional power : whether, in short, the object being
to found a colony, it were true or false, that the
Company to whom it was proposed to entrust the
task, were deserving of such a character as would

246 Vancouver's island.

effectually prevent any colonists from putting them-
selves under its sway.

To dwell upon this subject, now that the Charter
has finally issued, would be, perhaps, only waste
of time. The Hudson's Bay Company are in pos-
session of Vancouver's Island, for a few years, at
any rate ; unless, indeed, the Parliament should
deem the subject of sufficient importance to justify
its addressing the Crown with the object of recalling
the grant.

However this may be, a few remarks upon the
future prospects of this most valuable and important
possession, may not be without interest or utility.
Wlien, towards the close of the last session of
Parliament, the Charter which it was proposed to
issue was laid before the Houses of Parliament,
there were two objections taken : — ^first, that the
Company were not, under any circumstances, the
proper recipients of such a grant ; secondly, that,
supposing them to have been so, the grant in
question was a most unwise one.

The first of these objections remains unchanged ;
the second still applies, though in a less degree.
And if there were wanted any justification for the
opposition which was raised against the scheme
proposed by the Colonial Office, it would be afiorded

Vancouver's island. 247

by the fact, that some of the worst features which
the proposed grant exhibited, have been changed in
that which has actually issued. For example : it
was originally proposed to vest in the Hudson's
Bay Company the property of all the fish in the
waters in and about the island. That right the
Company have been compelled to abandon^ in obe-
dience to public opinion ; and the fisheries will now
be open to all who may think it worth their while to
settle in the new colony, under the auspices of the
Company.

Again, it was originally proposed by Earl Grey
to leave the administration of justice to the pro-
visions of the Act 1 & 2 Geo. IV., cap. 66, by which
all cases of felony, and all civil causes in which the
property involved amounts to more than £200, are
compelled to be tried in the Canadian Courts.

Although nothing is added to the Charter
itself respecting this point, yet, in the proposed
scheme of government which appeared in the adver-
tisement mentioned above, a public guarantee is
now given that an application shall be made to
Parliament to remove the restrictions of the Act of
George IV., and to vest the power of administering
English law in the local tribunals of the new
colony.

248 Vancouver's island.

Again, in the original grant, there was no
guarantee of any kind that the profits arising from
the sale of the land, and from the royalty which the
Company are permitted to demand from the settlers,
for the right of working the mines and minerals, should
be expended for the public benefit of the community
of colonists. In the actual Charter, however, it
appears that a clause has been inserted, by which the
Company are bound to expend nine-tenths of such
money in the improvement of the colony, reserving
to themselves as profit, only ten per cent, of the
whole of the revenue derived from these sources.

It is not at all clear, as yet, what the Company
are going to do, which will entitle them to the
enjoyment of one-tenth of the public funds of the
new colony : but, at the same time, a great step
has been gained in procuring a guarantee that nine-
tenths shall not swell the dividends of the Company,
or be diverted from the objects to which they are
justly applicable.

All the three points here noticed are very im-
portant changes in the original design of the
Charter, as afiecting the future prospects of the
colonists : they by no means, however, embrace
all the objections which were urged against the
proposed grant.

Vancouver's island. 249

The objections which have been left unnoticed,
are no less sound than those which have been met by
alterations in the terms of the Charter ; and it will
not be possible to speculate on fche future prospects
of the colony, without shewing how the objection-
able features which remain will probably operate
on its interests.

It would be an error to suppose that those who
have taken an interest in the colonization of the
north-west coast of America, and who have opposed
the extension of the power of the Hudson's Bay
Company, have nothing [more to do, because the
Charter which disposes of Vancouver's Island has
actually issued.

According to this Charter, the Crown reserves to
itself the power of recalling the grant of Van-
couver's Island at the end of five years, should
it appear that a want, either of capacity or of will,
has frustrated its intentions. Again, the Crown
reserves the right of buying back the island, at the
time when the Licence of Trade over the Indian
Territories expires, in 1859, at the price of whatever
sum the Company may, in the mean time, have ex-
pended. Hence, it behoves the public and the Par-
liament to watch with a jealous eye the manner in
which the Company execute the task which they profess

250 Vancouver's island.

to have undertaken ; and to repair, in some measure,
the mischief that has been done, by insisting on the
revocation of the grant, if the Company fail to fulfil
its intentions. «

There is ample evidence in the foregoing pages,
that the Company are not to be trusted. If it be
true that they obtained great privileges, mider the
pretence of making geographical discoveries, without
the least intention of making any discoveries at all,
and that they applied for the renewal of extensive
powers, on the plea that they would be enabled to
civilize and to Christianize the Indian population,
and yet have never taken the least trouble to do
one or the other ; then it is neither sceptical nor un-
charitable, when they solicit a grant of Vancouver's
Island, on the promise that they will colonize it,
to reply, we have not the smallest faith that you
will keep your promise, unless you are compelled
to do so.

Nor is ovT faith in the promises of the Company
at all increased by their publication of a showy
advertisement for colonists ; which will probably have
no other result than that of afibrding an argument
to the Company, at some future time, to prove
that the failure of the colony was not their own
fault.

Vancouver's island. 251

■ There is strong reason to suspect that the Com-
pany never did intend to colonize any part of their
territories. They never proposed to do so until it
was inevitable that it must be done by some one :
and their whole conduct suggests the idea of a desire
to get possession of the country, only for the purpose
of keeping others out. Driten out of this design
by public opinion, they have undertaken to colonize,
or to give back the island to the Crown, to be dis-
posed of to those who will do so. It is our task to
insist upon this condition being fulfilled.

As affecting the future prospects of the colony of
Vancouver's Island, it is extremely difficult to under-
stand what position the Hudson's Bay Company
are to occupy, or what specific duties have been
imposed upon them. It is not easy to perceive what
tasks have been assigned to them, which could not
have been performed as well, or better, by Her
Majesty's Government, and by the local Colonial
Government.

There are certain officers in a colony who ought,
as the general opinion is, to be appointed by the
Crown, for the sake of preserving a connecting link
between the mother country and its dependency:
such are the Governor and the Chief Administrator
of the Law.

252 Vancouver's island.

It is conceivable that the Crown may waive the
right of this appointment in favom* of the settlers,
for the sake of seeming the services of a Governor
well acquainted with the local necessities and in-
terests of a distant colony, and commanding the
respect and esteem of its citizens ; but one is at a
loss to know why that right should be waived in
favour of a commercial Company, which, being
altogether irresponsible for the exercise of its patron-
age, can have less motive than even the Colonial
Office to appoint an efficient officer. There can
be no grounds, then, for allowing the Hudson's
Bay Company to dispose of the Government ap-
pointments, whatever they may be, in Vancouver's
Island.

To survey the land, to apportion it to settlers, to
fix its price, to receive the money paid for it, to
charter ships for emigrants, to see the emigrants
comfortably provided for on board the vessels, and
lodged on their arrival in the colony — all these are
simple operations, which must be performed by paid
agents ; and those agents, or those who employ
them, ought to be responsible for the manner in
which these tasks are performed, to those for whose
benefit they are undertaken — that is, to the settlers
in the new colony. Therefore, there is no reason

i

Vancouver's island. 253

why these duties should have been imposed upon a
trading Company, who are only incidentally and
remotely responsible for their conduct.

Still less is it necessary to employ such a body to
collect and expend public money of any kind,
whether it be collected as taxes, or as the price of
land, (which should be only another name for a tax
for the import of sufficient labour,) or as royalty for
the right of working mines and minerals. All these
are public funds, collected and held in trust for the
community of colonists, and of which an account
ought to be rendered to those whose interest it is to
see that they are managed for the public weal.
Therefore, here again, it does not appear that the
interposition of an irresponsible Company can be
attended with benefit to the colony.

There is only one ground which has been put
forward as a justification of the course pursued.
It has been implied by Her Majesty's Govern-
ment, that the Company are about to advance
the capital necessary for the first settlement of the
colony.

The Minister for the Colonies acquainted the
House of Lords, in the last session of Parliament,
that the reason why the Hudson's Bay Company
had been applied to to undertake the colonization

254 Vancouver's island.

of Vancouver's Island, was, that no other parties
were willing to do so, who were possessed of suffi-
cient means for its accomplishment.

The Government, it seems, declined to negotiate
with any parties who could not in the first instance
shew that they were possessed of capital sufficient
to found a colony. Now it would be worth
knowing whether the negotiation with the Hudson's
Bay Company was conducted in a similar manner.
There is no information before the public whether
the Government demanded from the Company
any account of the capital which they contem-
plated spending in colonization. This is a most
important question ; because, if the Company are
not going to spend any money, or to invest any
capital in the island, then the reasons put forward
by the Colonial Office for not leaving the set-
tlement of the country to private enterprise, fall
at once to the ground. If the Company are
not going to lay out capital in the task of colo-
nization, they will have no pecuniary interest in
the success and prosperity of the settlement. The
capital invested will, in that case, be entirely the
property of individual emigrants ; and one cannot
see why the property of the soil, and the manage-
ment of the public funds derived from the sale of

Vancouver's island. 255

land, and from the royalty on the coal, should be
vested in a Company who have no pecuniary
interest in the enterprise, instead of in a Govern-
ment responsible to the settlers, whose interest it is
to see that the public money is expended for the
benefit of the community.

The Company, moreover, are to have the exclu-
sive privilege of working all the mines in the countrj',
coal, metals, &c. It is not easy to see why this
privilege is to be taken away from the settlers.
There is no such restriction upon the enterprise of
emigrants in other colonies ; why, then, should there
be in Vancouver's Island ? The Company are not
boimd by their Charter to allow the settlers, or to
allow any one, to work the mines at all ; and it will
be a matter of grace if they give such permission,
even upon the payment of a royalty. If the object
in view be the foimdation of a colony, it is difl&cult
to see how that object is promoted, by putting such
restrictions upon the colonists. And even supposing
that it were thought right that a part of the wealth
derived from the mineral resources of the country
should be devoted to the public advancement of the
colony, it is not easy to see any good reason why
the disposal of these public funds should not have
been entrusted to the local Government — ^a Govern-

256 Vancouver's island.

ment responsible to those for whose interest the
money ought to be held in trust, — instead of to a
Company whose Direction is in London, and which
is wholly irresponsible, either to the colonists, or to
the British Parliament.

But we have lately been informed that the Com-
pany do intend to invest capital in the new colony.
Indeed, since the only reason for refusing to permit
the island to be colonized by private enterprise was,
that capital was not forthcoming, we may assume
that Her Majesty's Government have obtained some
guarantee from the Company that they are going to
invest some capital in the enterprise.

There is ample evidence, in the foregoing pages,
that it would be absurd to give this Company credit
for unproductive patriotism.

The case stands thus : — The Company have a
certain amount of capital engaged in carrying on
the fur trade. Are they going to withdraw this
capital from the fur trade, and to expend it in
colonization? If so, to what do they look for a
remuneration ? They cannot withdraw capital from
a trade which pays a good dividend, and invest it
in another speculation, without some expectation
that their profits will be at least as great as
before. Now, whence are they to obtain a return

Vancouver's island. 257

for the money expended in colonization ? Obviously,
it must come, in some shape or another, out of the
pockets of the colonists. Whatever capital the
Company spend on the colony, must be considered
in the light of a public or national debt on the colony.
It is a national debt imposed on the colonists, with-
out their consent, and in tlie expenditure of which
they have not been consulted, and over the interest
payable upon which they are to have no control.
This is a very important point, because it brings the
question to this issue : either, on the one hand, the
Company are not going to invest capital in the
island, in which case there is no conceivable reason
why they should be entrusted with its management ;
or they are going to spend such capital, and they
must obtain a retimi, in some way or other, out of
the pockets of the colonists.

It is a sound maxim, to which there ought to be
no exception, that if it be necessary for the first
establishment of the colony, that capital be advanced
in the form of a public debt on the community about
to be formed, the expenditure of that capital should
be entrusted to parties, responsible to those for
whose benefit the money was borrowed and who are
to be saddled with the payment of the interest.

But this maxim is directly violated by placing

8

258 Vancouver's island.

the disposal of the public money in the hands of a
Corporation who are not obliged to render an ac-
count to any one, of the manner in which they have
fulfilled their trust.

It would appear, then, that upon either of these
two suppositions, that the Company are, or that they
are not, going to invest capital in the colony, the
result may possibly be equally disastrous to the set-
tlers and colonists. For, if they are not about to possess
a pecuniary interest in the settlement, it is impossible
to conceive any one duty which would not be per-
formed far more efficiently by agents of the local
Government than by servants of the Company ; and,
on the other hand, if they are about to lend capital
upon the security of the colony, — if they are to be
the accredited Jews to the new colony, the settlers
ought, at least, to have a voice in the disposal of the
debt, of which they will, in some shape or other,
be made to pay the interest.

There is another and very serious evil which may
result from having entrusted the supreme authority
and influence in the new colony to a Company which
may be considered to be themselves partners in the
concern.

Most of our readers who have taken any interest
in this question are aware of the existence of a

Vancouver's island. 259

Company called " TJie Puget's Sound Agricultural
Association ;" this is a Company which was formed
a few years ago for the pm'pose of carrying on
agricultm-al operations upon the shores of Puget's
Sound, in the Oregon territory. It may be con-
sidered to be almost identical with the Hudson's
Bay Company. Its officers are the same ; and, I
believe, its servants are the same ; and it is under-
stood that the shareholders are for the most part
the same. The interests of the two may be deemed
to be identical.

The farms of the Association are situated on the
south side of the boundary line, in what is now the
American territory; and the Government of the
United States is about to purchase all the lands
which have been brought into cultivation by the
Association, according to an arrangement which
was provided by the treaty which settled the
boimdary.

It is the intention of this Association to remove
its operations to Vancouver's Island. All the
farmers and servants will be at once transported
thither, and the capital paid by the United States
for the improvements about Puget's Soimd will, no
doubt, be available for commencing operations in
Vancouver's Island.

8 2

260 Vancouver's island.

In the Prospectus which the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany have published of the terms upon which
land is to be disposed of to settlers in the island,
it appears that the price is to be £1 per acre ;
and that three families, or six single men, are
to be conveyed to the colony at the expense of
the purchaser, for every hundred acres of land
purchased.

It is a matter of importance to know whether the
Hudson's Bay Company is about to submit itself,
and its other self — the Puget's Sound Association —
to the same regulations which are to be imposed
upon other settlers. Is the Company going to allot
land to itself, or to the Association, without paying
to the public funds of the colony £1 per acre for
all the land so allotted ? Because, if not, a great
injustice will manifestly be done to all the other
colonists. The £1 per acre is to provide a fund
to be held in trust for the benefit of all, to which
fund all who share those benefits should equally
contribute.

But here, at once, the strange and anomalous
position which the Company is to occupy becomes
apparent ; for as they are not made answerable to
the colonists for the money received on account
of the land sold, there does not seem to be any

Vancouver's island. 261

check against their allotting to themselves, or to
their double — the Association, as much land as
they find convenient, free of all charge. The
result will be exactly the same as if they had
granted themselves an immunity from the payment
of the public taxes.

It is of the highest importance tliat public atten-
tion should be drawn to these facts ; that if any
men of independent capital contemplate emigi-ating
under the auspices of the Company, they should
know clearly under what disadvantages they will pro-
bably labour. And, with that view, they ought to
know something of the nature of the operations which
the Puget's Sound Association carry on, and of the
system of colonization which has been hitherto adopted.
It holds the land in its own hand, as landlord : it
employs labourers, under the direction of agents :
these labourers are described as being in an ex-
tremely degraded condition ; they are generally
selected from amongst the poorest class of the popu-
lation of the Orkney Islands, and are said to be kept
completely in the position of serfs. The whole
proceeds of the farms, after paying the expenses of
cultivation, are divided amongst tlie Shareholders
of the Association's Stock in this country.

Now, tlie first manifest objection to this mode of

262 Vancouver's island.

colonizing is, that it is a complete system of absentee-
landlordism. It is obvious that no social system can
be constructed, no civilization can be attained, where
the v,'hole mass of the population are in the condition
of serfs ; and the upper classes of society, who are
enjoying the profits which arise from the labour of the
colonists, are living fourteen or fifteen thousand miles
away from the spot. Is it likely that a colony where
any large part of the land is under such a system,
will become very attractive to men of education,
and of any independent property ?

Again, the Puget's Sound Association have an
export trade in different kinds of agricultural pro-
duce, with which they supply the Russian settle-
ments towards the north, and in wool, which they
send to England.

Now considering the identity existing between
this Association and the Hudson's Bay Company,
in whose hands the whole management of the colo-
nization of Vancouver's Island is placed, there is a
very strong reason to fear that the arrangements
which have been made, will, for some years at
any rate, utterly ruin that country as a field for
colonial enterprise.

There is a strong inducement for the Company to
grant all the best part of the island to themselves.

Vancouver's island. 263

under the name of the Puget's Sound Association ;
and to trust to the settlements which may be formed
by that Association, as being sufficient to satisfy
the obligation to colonize which is imposed by the
Charter. There is a strong inducement to dis-
courage the immigration of independent settlers ; first,
because when all the colonists are in the position of
their own servants, they will be able much more
readily to prevent interference with the fur trade ;
and, secondly, because the presence of private capital
in the island could only tend to diminish their own
gains, derived from the export of agricultural pro-
duce. And, on tlie other hand, there will be every
possible discouragement to emigrants of the better
class to settle in a colony where a large part of the
country will be peopled only by the lowest order of
workmen — where they may have to compete with
the capital of a wealthy Company, and that Company
not only their rival in trade, but at the same time
possessed of the supreme power, and of paramount
political influence in the colony.

Certainly, it does seem very unlikely that, as
long as there are other colonies to go to, any man
with money in his pocket and brains in his head,
will go to Vancouver's Island.

There is yet another part of the grant which has

2G4 Vancouver's island.

been made, which demands especial notice : it is
that clause whereby the Crown reserves the right to
purchase back the island, at the same time when
the Licence of exclusive Trade over the Indian Ter-
ritories shall expire, " in consideration of payment
being made to the said Governor and Company, of
the sum or sums of money theretofore laid out and
expended hy them, in and upon the said island and
premises, and of the value of their establishments,
property, and effects, then being thereon."

Now the only single excuse for granting Van-
couver's Island to the Hudson's Bay Company
was, that the colonization would, by that means, be
effected without expense to this country.

That promise has not been kept : for it now
appears that the payment is only postponed for ten
years.

Suppose for a moment, — and it is not at all unlikely
to happen, — that, in the year 1859, when the
Licence of exclusive Trade shall expire, it may be a
matter of the greatest importance to take the island
from imder the power and influence of the Com-
pany ; — suppose, for example, that their government
is so bad, that if it be not put an end to, the
colonists will revolt, and throw themselves into the
arms of the Americans : according to the above

Vancouver's island. 265

clause, the only way in which it will be possible to
get rid of the government of the Company, will be,
by buying them out at their oiim price. The event,
in that case, would be, that England, instead of
having bought a good colony for ready money, will
have given her acceptance, to an unlimited amount, for
what is likely to prove, after all, a very bad article.

This clause of re-purchase may operate as a
positive incentive or bribe to the Company to govern
badly.

The Company are not only to be the lords
paramount in the colony, but they are likely also, it
would seem, to be colonists, or farmers, in the island.
They are to have " establishments " there. Now,
suppose they lay out their money foolishly ; — suppose
the investments which they make will not pay : of
course, in this case, it will be their object to get
their money back again, and to force the Government
to purchase the island imder the above clause : that
is to say, we have put it in the power of the Hudson's
Bay Company to speculate to any amount they may
please, and, in case the speculation fails, to force
this country to take the bad bargain off their hands
at its prime cost. This is the arrangement which
Earl Grey has made. And the manner in which
the Company will be able to force the re-purchase

266 Vancouver's island.

of the island will be, by bullying the colonists until
their existence become no longer bearable ; until
the only question be, whether the Company shall be
bought out, or the island shall cease to remain a
British colony. These are the prospects of good
government which Earl Grey has provided.

Now is it worth while asking, why has the
Minister done these manifestly absurd and mis-
chievous actions ? A man who had distinct views,
and an honest belief in their soundness, would
have no difficulty or hesitation, when the oppor-
tunity was afforded, in putting them into language
or action. The Minister has taken a very dif-
ferent course. Instead of adopting that mode of
constructing a colony which he believed to be
the right one, he declined the trouble and the
responsibility altogether, and handed the whole
affair over to a third party, to be done in any
manner it might please ; with the simple provision
that, if not done at all, the island should revert to
the Crown ; or, if done badly, that it should be
bought back at any sum which their agents might
take it into their heads to throw away.

The Minister has publicly declared by this con-
duct, that he is possessed of no distinct guiding
principles in respect to colonization. Let the public

Vancouver's island. 267

judge whether such a Minister is fit to preside over
the vast colonial interests of this empire.

But I have not done with this clause as to the
right of re-purchase. There is another very serious
question connected with it. Where is this money
to come from, which is to pay for the re-purchase of
the island ? The words of the Deed are, that the
payment is to be made " by us, our heirs, or suc-
cessors." Lord Grey has imdertaken that the
Crown shall pay this money — ^be it what it may, on
demand. But Lord Grey is perfectly aware that
the Crown is in possession of no funds whatsoever
for meeting such an engagement ; and Lord Grey
could not have contemplated that the payment
should be made out of the property of the Crown.
Then, where can it come from hxxt from Parliament
—from this country/ ? The Minister then has ventured
to pledge this country to the payment of money,
without asking the permission of Parliament to do
90. It is impossible to believe tliat the House of
Commons will tamely submit to this infringement
of their most peculiar and sacred prerogative ; or
that they will hesitate to chastise the Minister who
has abused the confidence of the Crown, by such
unconstitutional counsels.

There is a reason, more important than all, why

268 Vancouver's island.

the Hudson's Bay Company will never be able to
form a colony. An agricultural settlement they
may establish ; a few forts, where Scotchmen will
grumble for a few years before they go over to the
Americans — ^but never a community that will
deserve the name of a British colony. They do not
possess public confidence. It is a false and foolish
notion that nothing but money is wanting to make
a colony. You must have men, as well as money.
No number of dollars will make a man, nor even a
tailor; but you cannot make a colony without
men.

English gentlemen will not quit their own country
for colonies, whence so many in the last few years
have returned, poorer and sadder than they went ;
whence complaints must circumnavigate the globe
to be heard, and redress rarely survives the voyage
back. It is now a matter of public knowledge and
public faith, that the root of all evils in our colonial
system is, that the local government is not respon-
sible to the people over which they preside — that is
to say, is not responsible at all. This opinion was
a matter of belief to many before the publication of
Mr. Gibbon Wakefield's "Art of Colonization." It
is now a matter of demonstration to all.

It is, therefore, a matter of great wonder, that

Vancouver's island. 269

the Minister, who, of all public men, was most
deeply pledged to the principle of responsible
government in the colonies, should have committed
the destinies of the only colony over whose birth it
fell to his lot to preside, to the care of a Cor-
poration more entirely irresponsible in its nature
and constitution, than any public or private body in
the empire — a Corporation enriched by the enjoy-
ment of monopoly, and trained to the exercise of
despotism.

Lord Grey may, indeed, have fancied that he was
following the example of ancient times, in granting
a Charter to a Company, and committing to it
the colonization of the country. It is quite true
that the best colonies were founded by Chartered
Companies ; but, in effect, those companies were the
colonists. The whole virtue of those charters con-
sisted in the delegation of powers of local govern-
ment. But what is the case now ? The worst and
most mischievous feature in the Colonial Office
system is left, viz., its enormous distance from the
country which it governs ; and its entire independ-
ence of the colonists. The only effect of the pre-
sent Charter is, to remove the governing power from
Downing Street to Fenchurch Street. The Hud-
son's Bay House is to be the Colonial Office of

270 Vancouver's island.

Vancouver's Island ; but a more noxious Colonial
Office, for this reason : — the Downing Street Go-
vernment is, at most, simply indifferent to the work
of colonization. It has no natural antipatliy to
emigration, except that it gives more trouble. But
the Hudson's Bay Company — the Colonial Office of
this unfortunate new colony — has positive interests
antagonistic to those of an independent settlement.
It is a body whose history, tendency, tradition, and
prospects, are equally and utterly opposed to the
existence within its hunting grounds, of an active,
healthy, independent, and flourishing colony, with
all the destructive consequences of ruined monopoly
and wide-spreading civilization.

It is a wrong idea, that the recent discoveries of
gold in California will injure the prospects of Van-
couver's Island as a colony : it may do so, just for
the moment. Had those "various parties" to whom
the Colonial Minister alluded last session as having
been desirous of emigrating to Vancouver's Island
more than a year ago, been encouraged to carry
their designs into execution ; had they been put into
communication with one another, instead of having
been all referred to a Company whom they did not,
and could not, and will not, trust, the crops which
they might now have been raising in Vancouver's

Vancouver's island. 271

Island would have been selling for their weight in
gold on the Califomian coast. But, apart from this,
the colony in Vancouver's Island must succeed, if
relieved from the banefrd presence of the Hudson's
Bay Company. The sources of prosperity in Cali-
fornia are probably temporary ; those in Vancouver's
Island, permanent. They depend, for the most
part, on its geographical position, upon its climate,
suited to tlie English constitution and habits, its
harbours, its soil, its mineral resources, upon its
being the nearest point on the coast to the head
waters of the Saskatchewan River, and, therefore,
the terminus of the great route which it would be
the wisdom, and will, ere long, be the task, of Great
Britain to establish across the continent of North
America, connecting the oceans that wash its oppo-
site shores.

Had the Hudson's Bay Company been what they
now pretend to be, and what the Minister would
have us to believe them to be — possessed, as they are,
of unlimited power, and, as they ought to be, of
accurate information, these schemes of imperial
importance would long ago have been attempted, or
at least proposed, if not executed : they are even
now brought before the public, not by the Company,
but in spite of it. But the secrecy which has

272 Vancouver's island.

hitherto shrouded the transactions of that body is no
more : the mysterious obscurity of their dominions
has been invaded. Even should their territorial
property on the eastern shores of the continent
escape, for a time, the storm which a grasping policy
has conjured up upon the coasts of the Pacific, at any
rate their days are numbered. Over the Indian
Territories their existence will terminate with the
Licence of exclusive Trade, in about ten years ; and
it seems not unlikely, that, working under the eye
and under the criticism of a public daily becoming
more intolerant of a faulty, because conscious of its
increasing need of a soimd and healthy, colonial
system, this Company may find the last ten years of
its life much like those which are said to be the lot
of the human race — "" but labour and trouble."
The Company have undertaken to colonize Van-
couver's Island ; and colonize it now, they must, and
shall, or give it up to those who will do so.

But, it will be asked, what should the Minister
have done ? If there really were no funds forthcom-
ing to found the proposed colony ; and if the Company
offered to do so, — did not the Minister take the only
course that was open to him ? That is his defence.
The reply is simple. The Company should be put
out of the question altogether, because it were

Vancouver's island. 273

better that the island should remain simply unin-
habited and uncultivated, with the prospect of some
future opportunity occurring for settling it, than
that it should be placed under an authority which
is necessarily hostile to colonization, and whose
promises are not to be trusted.

The class of persons who would found the best
colony, are young men of birth, intelligence, and
education, and who possess a limited capital, but not
sufficient to enable them to live independently in this
country. There are crowds of this class. The task
of framing a new colony consists chiefly in bringing
a considerable number of such men together. This
can only be done by the proposal of such a scheme
as will command their attention and win their con-
fidence. It must be, in a great measure, a Govern-
ment scheme : that is, the good local government
of the colony must be guaranteed by the Crown.
This is, in fact, what the home Government have to
do. The Colonial Office ought to have nothing to do
with capital. If a man goes to a colony, it is pre-
sumed that he has the means, or that it is worth his
while to go there. It is no business of the Govern-
ment whether he has means or not. All that
Government has to do, and ought to do, is to pro-
vide that the settler shall not be impeded in his

T

274 Vancouver's island.

operations by ruinous restrictions and absurd regula-
tions, that the law shall be administered, and that
life and property shall be respected. If the Govern-
ment will provide for these things, it may leave the
question oi capital, and means, to be decided by the
colonists themselves,

I will suppose that a few young men, of the class
described, contemplate the formation of a new
colony : they select a spot which they foresee will
in a few years become a most important position.
They do not pretend to possess what are called
" means," but what they have they are willing to
risk in the prosecution of their design ; and they
have entire faith in the soundness of their views — in
their own energy, their zeal, their determination to
succeed. They believe, moreover, that they will
be able to call around them a sufficient number of
their own class in life to secure the success of their
undertaking.

I will suppose that they apply to the Colonial
Office, state their views, and request the patronage of
the Government, without which they know it will
be impossible to obtain the confidence of the public,
or to offer a guarantee for the success of their
enterprise.

They do not ask for assistance, pecuniary or other-

Vancouver's island. 275

wise ; all they ask is, to be told what the Govern-
ment will do in the event of their design being
carried into execution.

I will suppose that the Minister for the Colonies
is a man with whom the interests of the empire are
of deeper moment than the stale and trite forms of
official language ; and that, possessing distinct and
straightforward views, he does not perceive why he
should not state them in an honest and intelligible
manner.

I will suppose such a Minister to receive such a
communication, with respect to founding a new
colony — for example, in Vancouver's Island.

What reply ought he to make ? It is possible
some such as the following.

" Your letter has received the best consideration
of Her Majesty's Government,

" Her Majesty's Government are deeply sensible
of the importance of the early formation of a British
settlement upon the coast of the Pacific, and of
the peculiar advantages which Vancouver's Island
aflfords for such a purpose, and therefore learn, with
much pleasure, that the subject is engaging the atten-
tion of gentlemen of intelligence and education.

" Every facility, which it is in tlie power of this
office to afford, will be placed at the disposal of

t2

276 Vancouver's island.

those who are about to unite for the purpose of
forming such a settlement in Vancouver's Island.

" At the same time, Her Majesty's Government
would not think it right to propose that any gi'ant of
public money should be made in aid of the founda-
tion of a new colony.

" Her Majesty's Government, deeming it of the
highest importance that every encouragement should
be afforded to individuals who may desire to emi-
grate without delay to Vancouver's Island, and with
a view to remove all difficulties which might tend to
damp the spirit of ardour and enterprise which are
essential to the successful foundation of a new
colony, take the earliest opportunity of stating, for
the information of all who may be induced to embark
in the proposed expedition, the course which will be
adopted respecting the allotment and conveyance of
land, and the establishment of the requisite govern-
ment in the island.

"The Hudson's Bay Company have formed a set-
tlement upon the south side of Vancouver's Island,
and have brought some land under cultivation ; and
I have signified to the Governor of that Company,
that they will be confirmed in the possession of
all lands which they have actually occupied and
cultivated.

Vancouver's island. 277

" The same course will therefore be pursued with
regard to any other of Her Majesty's subjects who
may think proper to settle in Vancouver's Island,
prior to the establishment of a regular government
in the country. All settlers will be confirmed in
the possession of lands which they shall have actually
occupied, and brought into agricultural use.

" In order to avoid all future disputes respecting
the occupation of lands, the Governor of the island,
who will be appointed as soon as any regular settle-
ments shall have been made, will be invested with
full authority, as Her Majesty's Commissioner, to
decide what lands shall have been actually occupied
and brought into agricultiu'al use, previously to his
arrival in the colony, and to determine and adjust
all claims according to the true spirit and intent of
this letter.

" Any individuals, therefore, who may proceed to
the island at once, will be permitted to possess them-
selves, free of all charge, of whatever land they may
have the means of occupying : and as soon as a
Governor shall arrive in the island, they will re-
ceive a good title to all lands which shall have been
actually brought into agricultural use.

" Until such Governor shall be appointed, it will
be lawful for any settlers to procure and dispose, for

278 Vancouver's island.

their own profit, of any coals, metals, or minerals,
which may exist or be discovered in the island ; but
until a regular government is established in the
island, the property of all such mines will still re-
main in the Crown ; and Her Majesty's Govern-
ment reserve the right of imposing, at any futiu-e
period, such a royalty as may be deemed necessary
for the benefit of the colony.

" The above regulations are framed upon the idea
that a few individuals are anxious to emigrate
at once to Vancouver's Island. Should, however,
any considerable number of settlers embark, at once,
or within a short period, a Governor will be
immediately appointed, and will be invested with
full powers to act as Her Majesty's Commissioner
for the disposal of the waste lands in Vancouver's
Island.

" In this event, it will probably be considered
advisable to exact the payment of a sufficient price
for the land, and of a certain royalty on all metals
and minerals, so as to provide for the conveyance
of the requisite amount of labom* to the island, and
of those other expenses incidental to the formation
of a colony, which will have to be defrayed out of
some general fund ; and instructions will, in that
case, be given to the Colonial Land and Emigration

Vancouver's island. 279

Commissioners, to conduct the emigration of labour
to Vancouver's Island in the same manner as to
the other British colonies to which free emigration
is carried on.

"You will also receive the assurance of Her
Majesty's Government, that, as soon as a sufficient
number of colonists shall have settled in the island,
to afford a reasonable prospect of the success of
the colony, and a satisfactory representation is
made that such a course would meet the wishes of
the colonists themselves. Her Majesty will grant
a Charter of Incorporation to the colony, by which
a free Representative Government will be secured
to it ; and Her Majesty's Government will not
fail to apply to Parliament for all the powers that
may be necessary in order to carry its intentions
into full effect.

"The rights of exclusive trade, which are at
present enjoyed by the Hudson's Bay Company,
will be recalled, as far as they extend to Vancouver's
Island, in pursuance of the clause in the Licence of
exclusive Trade over the Indian Territories, pro-
vided for that purpose.

" In order that the views of Her Majesty's Govern-
ment may be known as extensively as possible, I
shall have much pleasure in putting you in com-

280 Vancouver's island.

munication with all the parties who have applied to
this Office with a similar object to that which was
the subject of your communication.

" In case a small party of emigrants should be
desirous of sailing at once upon the terms specified
in this letter, it will be advisable to invest one or
more of the leaders of the party, with magisterial
authority for the administration of the law until a
regular government is established.

" I have the honour to be,

&c. &c. &c."

I suppose, if a Colonial Minister were to write
such a letter as that, he would be put into a straight
waistcoat ; he would have puzzled nobody — in itself
a great crime— and I verily believe he would have
founded a colony.

CONCLUSION.

Let us, in conclusion, take a brief review of what
it has been the object of this book to bring before
the public.

The question at issue is a serious one — whether a
valuable territory shall be given up to an irrespon-
sible Corporation, to be colonized or not, as it may
suit their convenience ; or whether that colonization
shall be conducted in accordance with any principles
which are recognised as sound and right?

The foregoing exposure of the character and
conduct of the Company has been provoked.
When doubts were expressed whether the Company
were qualified for fulfilling the tasks assigned
to them by the Colonial Minister, and when they
appealed to their character and history, it became
right that their history should be examined, and
their character exposed.

The investigation thus provoked has resulted in
the discovery that their authority is fictitious, and
their claims invalid. As their power is illegal, so
the exercise of it has been mischievous : it has been

282 CONCLUSION.

mischievous to Great Britain, leaving her to accom-
plish, at a vast national expense, discoveries which
the Company midertook, and were paid, to perform ;
and because our trade has been contracted and
crippled, without any advantage, political or other,
having been obtained in return : it has been mis-
chievous to the native Indians, cutting them off
from all communication with the rest of the civilized
world, depriving them of the fair value of their
labour, keeping them in a condition of slavery, and
leaving them in the same state of poverty, misery,
crime, and paganism, in which it originally foimd
them : it has been mischievous to the settlers and
colonists under its influence, depriving them of their
liberties as British subjects, frustrating, by exactions
and arbitrary regulations, their efforts to advance ;
and, above all, imdermining their loyalty and
attachment to the mother country, and fostering, by
bad government, a spirit of discontent with their
own, and sympathy with foreign institutions.

This is the Company whose power is now to be
strengthened and consolidated ; — to whose domi-
nions is to be added the most important post which
Great Britain possesses in the Pacific ; and to whom
the formation of a new colony is to be entrusted.

There has been no intention in the foregoing

CONCLUSION. 283

pages to censure, indiscriminately, all the servants
in the employment of the Hudson's Bay Company.
No doubt, many of that body are generous and
humane, as well as enterprising and intelligent. I
have spoken of a system, and of its natural and
necessary consequences, with no other desire than
that the truth should be ascertained.

The possession of a portion of the earth as large
as Europe, peopled by tribes of human beings,
whom it has been committed to us to regenerate or to
annihilate, must ever be a very solemn consideration.

And when we ask. Are we doing what is right
and honest by these wandering savages, whose
keepers we are ? it is not the sort of answer we
should receive, — " These tribes are predestinated
savages ; they do not improve, because they cannot
improve : it is very well for them that they are
not utterly exterminated; as to their country, it
is not worth your curiosity ; it is uninhabitable ;
it is only fit for us to hunt furs in 1 " There is
sometliing suspicious and painful in this sort of
reply ; something this country will not be satisfied
with.

Of all the savage races with whom we have
come in contact, the North American Indian has,
perhaps, the largest claim upon our sympathy.

284 CONCLUSION.

Invested with qualities of mind and character kin-
dred to those which the purest philosophy and the
highest civilization recognise as noble in man, he
has afforded us a new type in poetical fiction, and
has been portrayed as the hero of romance. And
yet, with these qualities, common to himself and the
loftiest of his species, with this bridge, as it were,
across the gulf which divides the savage from civil-
ized man, the Indian is still roaming about his
forests and his prairies, nakedly shivering that
we may be warmly clad, dying by starvation that
the cup of our luxury may be filled. Civiliza-
tion has been to him, not the sun that warms,
but the lightning that scorches : under its influence,
instead of growing and advancing in the scale
of humanity, the North American Indian seems
to have shrivelled still farther into the very de-
crepitude of barbarism. He is losing the ancient
traditions of his race — a fatal symptom of ex-
piring vitality : he has lost his native spirit of in-
dependence— that great gift by which Providence
would mitigate the extreme penalty of barbarism.
He is melting, tribe by tribe, from the face of
the earth, like the snow of his plains in the
summer time ; or is hanging in hopeless depend-
ence upon the white strangers who have crushed

CONCLUSION. 285

him, — who have taken from him all that was his,
and given him nothuig that was theirs. This
man was placed, in the counsels of Providence, at
our feet. We conquered his land by that conquest
which needs no battle — the civilized man over the
savage : — we hoisted a flag, and called the land our
own. Time has been, we should have enslaved him :
he might have become a civilized slave : he is now
both slave and savage. We have given a letter of
marque to our merchants to pillage the savage of
his only wealth. If the Indian would receive more
for his furs, were there competition in his country,
than he is paid by those who enjoy a monopoly, he
is robbed of his property. I know that we have
done all this by mistake. We were promised the
salvation, if not the regeneration, of the Indian race ;
we were promised that he should no longer be poi-
soned, and maddened, and cheated, by the fire-water ;
we were promised that missionary enterprise should
take the place of commercial competition. But have
these promises been kept ? Not a fraction of one.
Then what excuse shall be made for a longer
sufferance of such a system ?

Is it enough to say, (even supposing there were any
truth in the statement,) that the Company has
" enriched our country to the amount of twenty

286 CONCLUSION.

millions sterling ! " * Tell that to the Indian ! He
will answer, " Have your riches been honestly come
by ? " In fair dealing, both parties are richer ;
both get what they want ; but the Indians are fewer,
poorer, and more wretched, than the first day they
sold a skin to a white man. And all this for what ?
for a traffic which is to us a mere luxury ; and in
point of magnitude, a mere trifle — ^less than will
employ a thousand tons of shipping annually.

If the Company were to be destroyed to-morrow,
would England be poorer ? would there not rather
be demanded from the hands of our own manufac-
turers ten times the quantity of goods which is sent
abroad, under the present system, to purchase the
skins ?

We boast that we make no slaves — we English-
men— none at least that can taint our soil, or fret
our sight ; but we take the child of the forest, whom
God gave us to civilize, and commit him bound hand
and foot to the most iron of all despotisms — because
a despotism without personality or conscience — a
commercial monolopy.

Nor, turning from the results of our policy upon
the native population, to its effect upon settlers and
colonists, is there greater cause for congratulation.

* Mr. M. Martin's Hudson's Bay Company's Territories, &c., p. 137.

CONCLUSION. 287

The system which has made the native a slave, is
making the settler a rebel. Restrictions upon trade,
jealousy of its own privileges, interference with the
rights of property, exactions, and all the other
freaks in which monopoly and despotism delight to •
indulge, have, it appears, dri^^n the best settlers
into the American territory, and left the rest, as it
were, packing up their trunks for the journey.

The Oregon terrritory was peopled under the
influence of the Company, with subjects of ihe
United States :* that lost us the boundary of the
Columbia River. That is one specimen of the colo-
nization of the Hudson's Bay Company. The
boundary westward from the Lake of the Woods,
we have seen, gave to the United States land from
which the Company was engaged, at the very time,
in driving out British subjects, on the plea that

* Since writing the former chapter, I have heard this account given
of the conduct of the Hudson's Bay Company, in respect to the
Oregon boundary, which offers still stronger ground for inquiry.
The country south of the 49th parallel, it seems was hunted up —
therefore the posts of the Hudson's Bay Company were become
of no value at all. By annexing all that country to the United
States, and inserting in the treaty a clause that the United States
should pay the Company for all its posts if it turned tliem out —
the Company were able to obtain from the Americans a large sum of
money for what would have been worth nothing, bad the territory
remained British.

288 CONCLUSION.

it belonged to the Company ; and now that the
boundary has been settled only a few years, we
learn that the settlers on our side are asking the
United States to extend her government over that
country. Make what lines you please in a map and
call them boundariq^, but it is a mockery to do so as
long as the inhabitants are alienated from your rule,
as long as you have a Company in power, whose
policy erases the lines which treaties have drawn.

Forasmuch, then, as these things are so, it
becomes this country to record an emphatic protest
against the recent policy of the Colonial Office, in
abandoning the magnificent country on the shores
of the Pacific Ocean to the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany.

The blindest cannot long avoid seeing the im-
mense importance of Vancouver's Island to Great
Britain. Those who, two years ago, first began to
attract public attention to this question, are not the
less amazed at the unexpected manner and rapidity
with which their anticipations have been realized.
Six months ago, it was a question merely of colo-
nizing Vancouver's Island : now, it is a question in-
volving the interests of the whole of British North
America, and of the empire of Great Britain in the
Pacific Ocean.

CONCLUSION. 289

AVlien the whole world is asking, what is the best
route across the continent, ought this country to
neglect the opportunity of opening the highway
through its own territories? It is said that there
are the means of doing so. There can hardly be
conceived a duty more incumbent upon a govern-
ment, than that of ascertaining whether these
reports are true : whether there is a possibility of
opening a route across the continent from ocean to
ocean. The first thing to be done is, to send out
an expedition of competent persons to survey the
country along the course of the Saskatchewan.
River. Such an expedition would commence with an
examination of the line of rivers and lakes which
unite Lake Superior to the Lake of the Woods — a
magnificent country, which we know affords the
most abundant facilities for settlement, inferior to
none in the best parts of Canada. It could be
readily ascertained by an Engineer, how far these
waters could be made useful for the transit of
merchandise. The expedition would then cross
the Lake of the Woods, and ascend the Saskatche-
wan ; report upon the best mode of surmounting
the falls in the neighbourhood of Cumberland
House ; and proceed to survey the whole course of
the river up to the Rocky Moimtains, taking notice

u

290 CONCLUSION.

of what spots are most favourable for the formation
of villages and settlements along its banks ; ascer-
taining how far its waters could be navigated by
steam-vessels, and whether the coal, said to abound
upon its banks, could be made available for the
supply of steamers. Passing on from the head
waters of the Saskatchewan, the expedition should
ascertain the best route to the shores of the Pacific,
through, and from, the Rocky Mountains. Upon
all these points there is much need of accurate in-
formation. In case, then, it were found practicable
to open this line of communication, the next thing
would be, to direct the stream of colonization partly
in this direction. At present, it would be requisite
to carry food the greatest part of the journey, or to
depend upon the chase. The formation of settlements
and villages would obviate this necessity ; food would
be provided in abundance, along the whole course
of the river. If this were accomplished, Van-
couver's Island, and the country in its immediate
vicinity on the main land, would become what the
terminus of a railway station is in this country.
To form any idea of its importance, and of the
rapidity of its growth as a colony, it is sufficient to
recollect how we have seen towns spring up in this
country, where not a cottage stood a few years ago.

CONCLUSION. 291

For the same reason, Canada will feel the change.
Canada would become the line of transit for emi-
grants, and for all the commerce which colonies in
the interior would necessarily create, instead of
being, as she now is, planted against an impene-
trable wall of desert, two thousand miles thick.

These are the vast speculations into which the, at
first insignificant, question, of the colonization of
Vancouver's Island has expanded. Call them the
dreams of an enthusiast — ^it may be true : it may
be that all efforts to foresee or to direct the desti-
nies of the future are nothing more : certain it is, they
have often borne the name. But I know of no colony
having been formed, nor of any great or lasting
impulse which has been given to the energies of a
people, in the accomplishment of which ardent
enthusiasm has not had the largest share.

Looking at the many hundred miles over which
the mighty wave of population has rolled towards
the west, within the recollection of the present gene-
ration, and at the constantly increasing rapidity with
which it still moves onward, it is scarcely a vain
speculation, to anticipate the time when a connected
line of flourishing settlements shall extend along
the entire line of communication from Canada to
Vancouver's Island. How soon might not this

292 CONCLUSION.

hop<^ be realized, if we could enlist the services
of even a small part of those whom, year after
year, we drive out of this coimtry into the United
States ?

There is no part of our Colonial system more
lamentable than this — the enormous crowd of our
fellow-countrymen who annually desert our banners,
and number themselves amongst the citizens of a rival
power : and this, when not only are there millions
of acres of waste lands in our own dominions ready
to receive and to enrich them, but the extension and
consolidation of our empire demands their presence
on our side of the frontier line.

Children or idiots could, have devised no scheme
of colonial administration with results more disas-
trous to our interests than these. And if it be true
that one great part of the evil may be traced to the
nature of the governments which exist in most of
our colonies, and to the species of influence to
which settlers in colonies are exposed, then it is
true and manifest that there never was a scheme
devised more entirely consistent with the most per-
nicious part of our colonial policy, than that which
proposed to place British colonists and subjects
under the dominion of a Company whose rights
and privileges have been maintained in defiance of

CONCLUSION. 293

British law, and whose authority will be established
at the expense of British liberty.

The Hudson's Bay Company will probably have
good cause to regret the time when they attracted
public attention to the whole of their lawless trans-
actions, by asking for fresh territory : nor will they
feel much gratitude to the Minister whose ill-judged
benevolence granted their request. And should
some active Director, relieved from the cares of
managing a monopoly, which public justice had
destroyed, read in his retirement the legend of the
unfortunate Tarpeia, he may perchance learn, in
the mournful recollection of vanished profits, to
realize the moral of the tale, how avarice may be
crushed by the gifts which it covets.

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