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:.s^^. 
 
 FINANCIAL REFORM TRACTS. 
 
 New Kkbiks, No. X.XI.J 
 
 [To UK CONIINUKD PKIUODICAI.LY. 
 
 THE 
 
 HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 
 
 Versm 
 
 MAGNA CHARTA, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 BRITISH PEOPLE. 
 
 BY TUB 
 
 llotrjinnl /imiiithil %thm %mm\m 
 
 "All Monopfdics conccniiiifir Trado aiii Traffic arc n/^aiust tbo liberty and freedom 
 declared and granted by the great Charter, and against divers other Acts of Parliament." 
 — Cork's iNbiiruTES, vol. i, p.C2. 
 
 " Grants of Mouorolics are against the ancient and fuudameutal laws of tho Kingdom.' 
 —Ibid, p. 181. 
 
 LIVERPOOL: 
 
 Tublished by the Association, and issued, free of charRe and postage, to Subsciibeis oflOs. 
 annually. Sold to Non-subscribers, at Ibe t»llice, 0, York Buildinas, Dale Street, and by 
 Messks. WiLLMEii & Smitu, tbmob Stieet. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 p. S. KING, 12, BKIDGE STUEET, WESTMINSTER. 
 rXlZCB 8XXPSNCB. 
 
 PWNTKD BY J. R. WILLIAMS AND CO., 2, OUUBca LAKE, CHURCH ST., LIVEEPOOIi. 
 
THE LIVERPOOL FINANCIAL REFOEM ASSOCIATION 
 
 INSTITUTED IN LIVERPOOL ON THE 20rH OF APRIL, 1818, 
 
 FOR TUB FOLLOWINO 
 
 OBJECTS : 
 
 1. To use all lawful and constitutional means of inducing; the most rip(id 
 economy in the expenditure of the (rovernmnnt, cunsisteut with due cHicienuy 
 in the several departments of the puhlic service. 
 
 2. To ddvoc.'ile the adoption of u simple and equitahle system of direct taxa- 
 tion, fairly levitnl upon property and income, in lieu of the present unequal, 
 complicated, and expensively collected duties upon r )mmoditie8. 
 
 Political nartisanship is distinctly disowned, the Association being composed 
 of men of all political parties. 
 
 ROBERTSON GliADSTONE, President. 
 
 TERMS OF MEMBERSHIP. 
 
 Every person contributing Five Shillings per annum, or upwards, shall be a 
 Member; Subscribers of Ten Shillings, or upwards, per annum, are entitled 
 to all the Publications of the Association, including the back luimbers, of which 
 a list is subjoined, postage free. 
 
 The following is a list of the subjects discussed in these publications :— 
 
 THACTS. 
 
 The Civil List and the Pension List 1,2. 
 
 Amount and Sources of Taxation .. 3. 
 
 Army, Ordnance, Commissariat, Navy, & Colonies. 4, 5, 7| 0. 
 
 Cobden's National Budget (>. 
 
 Woods, Forests, and Estates of the Crown 8. 
 
 Ship building and Engine making 10,13. 
 
 Colonial Expenditure and Government 11,12. 
 
 Miscellaneous Abuses 14. 
 
 Direct Taxation 15, 27. 
 
 National Expenditure 16. 
 
 Evils of Indirect Taxation 17, 19, 20, 21,23, 24, 26. . 
 
 Civil Service 18. 
 
 Patent Laws 22. 
 
 Stamp Laws 25. 
 
 Historical Review of the Fiscal System 28,29,30,31, 32,33,34,36 
 
 NEW SERIES. 
 
 The Aristocracy and the Public Service 1, 2. 
 
 Income and Property Tax 3,4. 
 
 Cost of Customs and Excise Duties — — 
 
 Turkey, Russia, and English Interference 5. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Courts of Record 6. 
 
 The Way the Public Money Goes 7. 
 
 Black Mail to Russia 8. 
 
 The War, the Budget, the Ministry, and the Times 9. 
 
 Administrative Reform 10,11. 
 
 Decimal System of Currency and Accounts 12. 
 
 Governmental Improvidence 13. 
 
 The Royal Household 14. 
 
 The Army and the Income Tax 15. 
 
 Fiscal Doings of the Session, 1856 IG, 17. 
 
 Cooking of the National Accounts 18. 
 
 Addresses en Direct Taxation 19. 
 
 Governmental Gun Making 20. 
 
 The Hi' dson's Bay Company 21. 
 
 Post-office orders to be made payable to John Smith, Esq., 33, Dale*street, 
 Treasurer of the Association. 
 
 0, TOBK BVILDINOS, DALE StBBBT, 
 
 LlYBBPOOL, JONK, IW7, • 
 
16 
 
 set, 
 
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 Jiii/M Of den/ Ikrrilo)^' fiiatnitd by C/i«rl(r 
 
 
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 hiruty OvJIf, Thtulm /en* /l^9 
 
 f>LANATfOH 
 
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 Yellfffr /leM dy £ic 
 
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THE HUDSON'S HAY COML»ANY. 
 
 The constitution of this Comi^rtny, nnJ tho question wlRthcr 
 its niouopoly is to be nbolisbed oi" coiitiniictl, which is shortly to 
 bo decided by tho Lcf^iHlaturo, involve conscfiucnccs so moinentous, 
 nationally, coinmerciully, and linuncially, that the Council of tho 
 FiNANCT\L Rkiorm ASSOCIATION uio of opjnion that they cannot 
 better discharge their duty to their constituents and tho country 
 than by assisting tho efforts which have been made by various 
 newspapers and periodicals to drag tho company from tho ob- 
 scurity which, in common with all things evil, it has loved, and 
 to expose its doings to tho light of day. So monstrous are its 
 privileges, so pernicious have been their results, that, in a country 
 which professes to make justice its rule of action, and freedom of 
 trade its policy, little more than such exposure is requisite to 
 insure the extinction of those privileges, tho redress of past griev- 
 ances, so far as these are capable of being remedied, and the adop- 
 tion of such measures as will prevent their recurrence for tho 
 future. To promote a '' consummation" so " devoutly to bo 
 wished" is the object of the following pages. 
 
 The subject has never, until very recently, attracted a titlio 
 of the attention which it deserves, either from parliament or the 
 public. Not long ago the House of Commons was counted out 
 when it was set down for discussion : and the public generally 
 have known little of the Company beyond its name. Last session, 
 however, the House of Commons did appoint a committee of 
 inquiry, by which some valuable evidence was taken ; but its 
 further progress was interrupted by the dissolution. On Friday, 
 tho 8th of May last, the committee, comprising seventeen of tho 
 former members, was re-appointed, on the motion of Mr. Labou- 
 chere, the Colonial Secretary, *' to consider the state of those 
 
 IMP 
 
< 
 
 Britisli Possessions in North Ainericii, which are under the ad- 
 ministration of tlio Hudson's lliiy Company, or over which tlicy 
 possess a hccnso to trade." 
 
 This resumption of the incjuii-y, at Iho earliest possible 
 period, in the new parliament is a bigu good or bad according to 
 the animus with which it is undertaken by the frovornmeut. Tho 
 object may bo to arrive promptly at a solution satisfactory to the 
 nation ; or it may bo to hurry over tlio inquiry, and renew the 
 privileges of the Company before it is generally suspected that such 
 a proceeding is contemphited. Either way, it is essentially re- 
 quisite that the public mind should bo enlightened as to the im- 
 mensity of the stake at issue, and the public demand for justice 
 unequivocally expressed, in order that both (iovcrniuent and 
 ParUament may bo kept to their duty. The parties to the great 
 suit now pending arc the People of Great Britain, Ireland, and tho 
 Colonies on the one-hand, and a small body of " mercliant adven- 
 turers," as they call themselves, on tho other : the interests 
 involved are those of the mother country and her North American 
 colonies, of law and justice — of civilization, Christianity and 
 humanity, one and all of which have been ignored, during a period 
 of nearly two hundred years, for an end utterly contemptible in 
 itself, viz. the private gain of the '• merchant adventurers" afore- 
 said, that is to say, of holders of Hudson's Bay Stock. 
 
 In order to show the necessity for watchfulness and popular 
 action now, it may be well to describe what took place some ten 
 years ago, when an attempt was made to obtain a similar inquiry, 
 and made in vain. A memorial from nearly a thousand British 
 subjects inhabiting the Red River Settlement, a portion of tho 
 Companj's dominions, was then presented to the British Govern- 
 ment, or rather to the Colonial Department, at the head of which 
 was Earl Grey. The correspondence of the Colonial Oflfice with 
 the delegates from the Red Riv?r Settlement, the Governor of 
 the Hudson's Bay Company, and other persons, extending from 
 the beginning of 1847 to the middle of 1850, is detailed in the 
 Parliamentary Papers No. 237 of Sess'on 1849, and No. 542 of 
 Session 1850. The Memorialists preferred the gravest charges 
 against the Company; they utterly denied the legality of the rights 
 
 
' 
 
 &x\(\ powers Qssumod under its Clmrter ; niid tlioy imputed to it 
 one continued policy of the grossest injustice imd oppression, botli 
 towards British subjects generally, and the native Indian tribes. 
 Thnir representations were sustained, nnd their cause most ubly 
 advocated by Mr. A. K Isbister, one of the delegates. On tho 
 other side tho chief champion of the Company was Sir J. II. Polly, 
 its Governor, who maintained tho perfect legality of tho powers 
 claimed and exorcised by it ; met tho accusations against it either 
 with flat denial or justification; and contended that it had used 
 its privileges most beneficially, >vith regard both to tho people 
 under its sway, British Half-breed and Indian, and to the nation 
 generally. 
 
 The question as to the legality of tho Company's Charter was 
 referred by Earl Grey to tho law olBcors of the Crown, Sir John 
 Jervis and Sir John Ilomilly. These gentlemen, on an ex itarte 
 case, drawn up on behalf of the Company, reported in favour of its 
 claims under the Charter ; but the statement submitted to them 
 involved very little of the real question between tho Company and 
 tho Red River Settlers, and they were so little satisfied as to the 
 legality of the powers known to be exercised by tho Company, that 
 Ihcy recommended that the questions submitted to them should 
 be referred to a " competent tribunal for consideration and dot i- 
 sion," suggesting either tho Judicial Committee of the Privy 
 Council, or the Committee of Trade. Well might they entertain 
 the doubt implied in this recommendation, for quite as eminent 
 legal authorities as they, viz : Sir Arthur Pigott, Sergeant Spankie, 
 and Lord Brougham, had given a most elaborate opinion, declaring 
 the Charter to have been illegal in its origin, and even if legal, sub- 
 sequently voided by the violation of all its conditions. 
 
 As to the charges against tho Company, Earl Grey seems to 
 have been in u state of considerable bewilderment. Ho wrote two 
 dispatches to Lord Elgin, Governor General of Canada, directing 
 an investigation into them. In his reply, dated June 6th, 1848, 
 (Parliamentary Paper Ji'^7, sess. 1849, p.p., 8 — 9.) Lord Elgin 
 describes the difficulties he experienced " in obtaining materials 
 for a full and satisfactory report ;" — states that the result of the 
 inquiries lio had mado was " highly favourable to the Company ;'* 
 
^' 
 
 — speaks, however, of " the evil nrisiiig" from the existing state of 
 things, and refers to Colonel Crofton, who resided for a considerable 
 pci iod at Red River, in command of a detachment of troops at 
 Fort Garry, as a person from whom he had " derived much 
 valuable information." On the 8th of February, 1848, Mr. 
 Hawes, the Under Secretary, forwarded to this gentleman, th(m 
 resident in Ireland, copies of the memorial, &c., antl addressed to 
 him a letter, in which occurs the following passage:- -'Great ditH- 
 culty is experienced in arriving at a just conclusion upon them in 
 consequence of the charges against the Company, and their 
 defence, both resting, to a great extent, on mere assertion ;" (lb. p. 
 08.) A similar letter was addressed by Mr. Hawcs to Major 
 Griffith, Colonel Crofton s successor in command of the troops. 
 
 From neither of these gentlemen did the Colonial Office 
 obtain much more than " nieye assertion." Their opportunities of 
 observation were of the slightest kind, and limited to a very small 
 portion of the Company's territories ; nearly all their information 
 Avas derived from the dependents of the Company ; as to some of 
 the charges they avowed their entire ignorance, and yet they did not 
 hesitate to denounce even these, along with the rest, as false and 
 calumnious, (Ih. p p. 101, 109.) In short, the bias of the referees 
 in favour of the Company, which would, of course, take care to bo 
 on good terras with military officers, was too manifest: they 
 proved far too much, that is, if " mere assertion" can be said to 
 prove anything. Yet, on no better testimony than this, Piarl 
 Grey decided that there were no grounds for a parliamentary 
 investigation. Being urged by Mr. Isbister to institute an enquiry, 
 either by a commission on the spot, or before a committee of the 
 House of Commons, His Lordship declined to take either course, 
 but proposed, in conformity with the advice of the Attorney 
 General and the Solicitor General, that the whole case should be 
 submitted to the Judicial Committee, or to the Committee of Trade, 
 Mr. Isbister, or his colleague, Mr. J. M'Loughlin, undertaking all 
 the responsibility, and bearing the expense of the proceeding. 
 Both gentlemen having, very naturally, refused to abide by so 
 unreasonable a proposition, on a question affecting great national 
 interests, which it was obviously the duty of aovernment to probe 
 
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 to the bottom at the public expense, Earl Groy declined taking 
 any further steps in the matter. lie v^-as guilty, moreover, of a 
 still greater dereliction of the duty which he owed to his Sovereign, 
 and to the country which paid him for the (mis)managemcnt of 
 the Colonics ; for whilst these heavy and uninvestigated charges 
 were still hanging over it, he made a gift of Vancouver's Island, 
 at a nominal rent oijive shillings per annum, to the very Company 
 which had been so gravely impeached, and whose defence, 
 according to the admission of his deputy, Mr. Hawes, rested " to 
 a great extent on mere assertion." 
 
 The leaning of the Colonial Office, throughout this cor- 
 respondence, towards the Hudson's Bay Company, is as palpable 
 as is the neglect of public interests demonstrated in the result. 
 Whether the fact that the Right Hon. Edward Ellice, one of the 
 principal 'shareholders in the Hudson's Bay Company, happens to 
 be brother-in-law to Earl Grey affords any sort of clew to the 
 mystery is uncertain ; but perhaps this little sketch of what has 
 been done may be useful now that the pnrliamentary inquiry re- 
 fused by Earl Grey has been obtained, seeing that Mr. Labouchere, 
 the present Colonial Secretary, has, on different occasions, shown a 
 strong bias tovrards the Company, and that Mr. Edward Ellice, Jun., 
 son of the Right Hon. Edward, who is a member of the committee, 
 is also a considerable shareholder in the Company, and one of its 
 directors. 
 
 In order that public justice may not again be defeated by 
 private influences, it is requisite that the public should be made 
 thoroughly familiar with three main points, viz. what the Hudson's 
 Bay Company is — What it has done— and, lastly — What should bo 
 done with it. On each of these heads a few particulars are now 
 submitted. 
 
 What the Cojipany is. 
 
 In virtue of a charter granted by King Charles II. the Com- 
 pany claims to be absolute lordof tho soil, in perpetuity, over between 
 two and three millions of square miles of land, (marked Rupert's 
 Land, or Hudson's Bay Territories upon the map,) with powers of 
 GoTcmment and taxation, and of making war or peace, far tran- 
 
8 
 
 sccncling thoso of Queen Victoria and her Ministers, since they are 
 subject to parliamentary control, whilst the Company is now as abso- 
 lute in its own dominions as Charles II. wished to be, and as his 
 father tried to be, in theirs, with what result is known, In addition to 
 these dominions the Company has obtained, by Royal License, 
 granted under an act of parliament, which was passed within the 
 last forty years, pretty nearly the same jurisdiction over what are 
 called " the Indian Territories", which aro still more extensive 
 than Rupert's Land, the main difference in the tenure being that 
 the license is terminable, whereas the chartered property of the 
 Company, according to its own reading of its rights, is held in 
 j)erpetuity. Furthermore, about seven years ago, Vancouver's Island, 
 a country about the size of Scotland, — containing line habours, 
 most admirably situated as regards the navigation of the Pacific, 
 — possessing a fine climate and fertile soil, — abounding in mines 
 of coal, iron, and the precious metals, — and in every respect 
 adapted to purposes of colonization and trade, — was made over to 
 this same Company. Now, the chartered estate, and the property 
 held on lease, comprise nearly the whole continent of British North 
 America, the principal exception being Canada, which they exceed 
 more than twelve times in extent. Its territory is one third larger 
 than all Europe, covering a space sufficient for the establishment 
 of kingdoms and empires, the whole or nearly the whole of which 
 it has treated as if intended by God and nature for no better 
 purpose than the breeding of wild beasts and vermin, in order 
 that a set of private adventurers might make the greatest 
 possible profit out of the traffic in their skins ! More, and worse 
 still, it has kept the native races of man in a state of savage 
 heathenism and ignorance, in order that they might be the 
 better hunters, and the more helpless victims to their exactions. 
 To a monopoly so stupendous, so anomalous, and so pernicious, 
 there is scarcely a parallel to be found in the history of any age 
 or nation, if, indeed, it be not wholly unexampled. That of the 
 China trade by the East India Company, and that of the supply 
 of bread to the British people by British growers only, were 
 striking instances of the way in which the public good may be 
 sacrificed to private interests; but both were morally inaoceut 
 
 
compared with the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company, now 
 about to be, like them, abolished, if there be honesty in parlia- 
 ment, or common sense in the British people. 
 
 Professed objects and obligations of the Company. 
 
 The Company's Charter of incorporation is dated May 2nd, 
 1070, in the 'Hiind year of King Charles the Second. It is given 
 at length in the parliamentary paper No. 547, sess. 1842. The 
 preamble states that certain persons, seventeen in number, to wit, 
 Prince Piupert, Christopher Duke of Albemarle, William Earl of 
 Craven, Henry Lord Arlington, Antony Lord Ashley, Sir John 
 Robinson, Sir Uobert Vyner, Sir Peter Calleton, Sir Edward Hunger- 
 ford, Sir Paul Kneele, Sir John Griffith, Sir Philip Carteret, James 
 Hayes, John Kirke, Francis Millington, William Prettyman, and 
 John Fenn, Esquires, and John Portman, citizen and goldsmith, 
 " have, at their own great cost and charges, undertaken an expedition 
 to Hudson's Bay, in the North West part of America, for tJie discovery 
 of a new passage into the South Sea, and for the finding of somo 
 trade, for furs, minerals and other considerable co',nniodities ; and by 
 such their undertaking have already made such discoveries, as to 
 encourage them to proceed further in pursuance of their said design, 
 by means whereof there may probably arise very great advantage 
 to us and our kingdom" ; and had therefore petitioned for a char- 
 ter of incorporation. On these considerations, his Majesty 
 •' being desirous" to promote all endeavours tending to " the 
 punrjc GOOD," proceeds to incorporate the persons aforesaid, 
 under the title of ** the Governor and Company of adventurers 
 of England trading into Hudson's Bay," with " perpetual succes- 
 sion" and all customary corporate privileges, — appointing Prince 
 Rupert the first Governor thereof, and seven of the other 
 petitioners the first Committee. 
 
 What was granted to the Company. 
 
 Never was such a gift as that made by King Charles to Prince 
 Rupert and Co., and to their successors to the end of time. The 
 Charter confers upon them *' the sole trade and commerce of all thoso 
 
It 
 
 r» 
 
 
 seas, straits, bays, rivers, lakes, creeks, niul sounds, in whatsoever 
 latitude they shall bo, that lie within ihc entrance of the Straits 
 commonly called Hudson s Straits, together with all the lands and 
 territories, coasts, and confincsof the seas, bays, lakes, rivers, creeks, 
 and sounds aforesaid, that arc not already actually possessed by 
 or granted to any of our subjects, or possessed hy the subjects of any 
 other Christian Prince or Stale." This d jsciiption seems vague 
 and comprehensive enough, especially as its interpretation appears 
 to have been left to the grantees, though there is one important 
 exception, of which more anon. It did not however sufficiently 
 correspond with his JMajestys' magnificent spirit of generosity to- 
 wards those highly favoured men, for in a subsequent part of the 
 Charter, the grant is extended to " all havens, bays, creeks, rivers, 
 lakes, and seas, into which they (the Company) shall Jind entrance 
 or passaye, hy water or land, out of the territories, limits, or places 
 aforesaid," which, taken literally, may mean not only the whole 
 continent of America, but the whole world, or at least, such por- 
 tions of both as were not " possessed by the subjects of any other 
 Christian Prince or State." All the earth was clearly accessible by 
 land or water, from Hudson's Bay. Coupled with the grant, there 
 was the reservation, that the territories thus handed over to private 
 individuals, should " be from henceforth reckoned and reputed 
 as one of our plantations or colonies in America, called Rupert's 
 Land ; " but the Governor and Company for the time being, and 
 and in all time, were declared to be " true said absolute Lords and 
 Proprietors of the same territory," holding it as of the " manor of 
 East Greenwich," and paying for it yearly " two elks and two black 
 heavers, whensoever and as often as we, our heirs and successors, 
 shall happen to enter" into the said countries, territories, and 
 regions hereby granted. 
 
 The dimensions of the snug little farm of Rupert's Land, 
 and of the additional outlying territories handed over to the same 
 proprietors, by the British Government, in 1821, maybe ascer- 
 tained by an inspection of the map, the use of which has been 
 most handsomely granted for the illustration of this tract, by Mr. 
 Isbister the holder of the copyright. 
 
 II; 
 
!ver 
 
 by 
 
 any 
 
 I 
 
 ■ 
 
 I 
 
 What con-sid-er-a-tion was given to the King by the real 
 *' merchant adventurers," for this exton-*ive transfer, beyond the 
 promise of the *' two elks and " the •' two black beavers," or how 
 Prince Rupert and the otlier Lords, who certainly never made any 
 discoveries, or dreamt of degrading themselves by entering into 
 trading transactions, were compensated for the loan of their names 
 and interest, does not appear. In all probability his Majesty's 
 coffers, always craving and generally emptied almost as soon as lilk-d, 
 were replenished with a handsome bonus down, in addition to a 
 liberal allotment of free shares ; and it is not unlikely that the 
 samo favours were extended to the princely and noble sleeping 
 partners in the concern. But these are matters of very secondary 
 importance ; — for, whatever he got for it, these three facts are demon- 
 strable, 1st, that King Charles gave away what he had no right to 
 give; 2nd, that from this grant he expressly excluded much 
 which the Company now claims under it ; and 3fd, that he invested 
 the Company with powers which he did not himself possess. 
 
 As to the first fact, conceding the point that the Crown 
 can make grants of waste lands in the colonies, there never 
 was any pretence that it can give away a whole colony, or, as in 
 this case, territory sufficient for the establishment of many co- 
 lonies, to any private individuals. But, supposing that the Crown 
 had such power. King Charles did not give to the Company a 
 tithe of what it now claims under his gift. It has been seen that 
 he expressly excepted all territories possessed by the subjects of any 
 other Christian Prince or State. Now, at the date of the charter, 
 and long before, far the greater part of the existing " Ptupert's 
 Land" was precisely in this condition. In the year 1598, seventy- 
 two years before the date of the English charter, Henry IV. of 
 France appointed the Sieurde la Ptoche his Lieut. Governor over the 
 countries of " Canada, Hochelaga, Tcrresneuves, Labrador, and 
 the river of the great bay of Norrembegue." In 1627, forty-three 
 years before the date of the Hudson's Bay Charter, the French 
 King granted to " The Company of New France," otherwise the 
 Fur Company of Quebec, — the rights of property, justice and 
 lordship in Canada, and along the coasts to Florida and the Arctic 
 Circle; describing the boundaries as being, on the West, the Pacific 
 
12 
 
 Ocean to the tropic of Cancer; on the South, the isles of the 
 Atlantic ; on tho East, the North Sea ; and on the North, un- 
 known lands towards the Frozen Sea and the North Pole. This 
 Company seems to have traversed the whole country now claimed 
 by the Hudson's Bay Company under a grant whicji expressly 
 excludes them from it. By the treaty of St. Germains-en-Laye, 
 in 1039, thirty-eight years before the Charter, King Charles I. of 
 England resigned to Louis XIII. of France the sovereignty of 
 Acadia, New Franco, and Canada ; and it was not until the treaty 
 of Utrecht, in 1714, forty-four years after the date of the Charter, 
 that nearly the whole of what are now called the Hudson's Bay 
 Territories, were made over by France to England. Thus, sup- 
 posing that King Charles II. had a right to give to Prince Rupert 
 and his companions all of America that belonged to England, he 
 could not give them what belonged to France ; and, indeed, as 
 has been seen, he did not pretend to do so, having carefully re- 
 served the interests of foreign states, whilst recklessly sacrificing 
 those of Britain. 
 
 Here are two fatal flaws in the Charter, as the Company 
 now interprets it : the third is still more decisive. It has been 
 decided by the highest constitutional authorities, that the 
 Sovereign has no power to grant to any of his subjects rights of 
 exclusive trade and commerce in any part of the British dominions, 
 without an Act of Parliament : — it is obvious that the King cannot 
 give to any chartered company, powers which he does not himself 
 possess, viz., those of imposing taxes, making laws, and imprison- 
 ing British subjects, as well as seizing their property, for the 
 infringement of such laws, — without the sanction of Parliament. 
 But all this and more, including the power of making peace and 
 war, did King Charles grant to Prince Rupert and his trading 
 partners. He who could make no laws himself, made ihem 
 sovereign legislators — with this proviso however, that " the said 
 laws, constitutions, orders and ordinances, fines and amerciaments, 
 be reasonable, and not contrary or repugnant, but as near as may 
 be, agreeable to the laws, statues, or customs of this our realm." 
 Rupert's Land being a British colony, tho inhabitants thereof were 
 and are entitled to the full protection of British laws without this 
 
It 
 
 them 
 said 
 ents, 
 may 
 lira." 
 were 
 this 
 
 1 
 
 proviso ; but of what vahie was it in a deed deliborntdy ignoring 
 the rights of personal liberty, frceJon. of trade, and security for 
 property ? This is what the Chaitor did, for it gavt; " full power 
 and lawful (?) authority to seize upon the persons of all such English, 
 or any other our subjects wliich shall sail into Hudson's Bay, or 
 inhabit in any of the countries, islands, or territories, hereby 
 granted to the said rrovernor and Company, without their leave 
 and license in that behalf, first had and obtained, or that shall 
 contemn or disobey their orders, and send them to England ;" and 
 it directed that all persons in the cnjploy of the Company should 
 " be liable unto and suffer such punishment for any olfences by 
 them committed, in the parts aforesaid, as the I'resident and 
 Council for the said Governor and Company shall think fit." 
 This was despotic power — not English law. The King himself 
 possessed it not ; therefore he could not enable one portion of 
 his subjects to exercise it over the rest, though he professed to do 
 so of his own "especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere 
 motion." 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that, until the cession of Canada to 
 Great Britain, the Company never dreamt of putting forward the 
 monstrous claims which it has since preferred ; and further, that 
 it has never, in any one instance, ventured to test the validity of its 
 Charter in an English court of law. It has had opportunities 
 enough ; but, whenever there has been any serious infringement 
 of its pretended rights, it has citb.er put it down by force, bought 
 off the opposition, or combined with the opponents. Where the 
 strong hand availed against individual interlopers, it was resorted 
 to without scruple ; but the Company has never dared to seek a 
 civil remedy in an English court of justice. How could it do so, 
 when it must have been conscious that its Charter was a violation 
 of all law, and would not bear the slightest legal sifting ? The 
 statute 21, James I. c. 3, declared that " all monopolies," and *' all 
 charters granted to any personc" or " bodies corporate," " for the 
 sole buying, selling," &c. *• of any commodities within this realm," 
 were " altogether contrary to the laws of this realm, and so are 
 and shall be utterly void, and of none effect." 
 
 lu Mr. Fitzgerftld's admirable work on the Hudson's Bay 
 
r 
 
 I 
 
 u- 
 
 U 
 
 Company, from which this passngo, ns well as many fuels opito- 
 mizotl in these piigos, imtl th(! map profixeJ to them, have been taken, 
 several parallel cases arc cited, in whicli English judges invariably 
 decided against the claim to an exclusive right of trade by charter. 
 In one of them, Lord Hale said emphatically, " Patents which tend 
 to the engrossing of trade, merchaudi«c, and manufactures, though 
 of never so small a value, into one or a few hands only, have always 
 been held unreasonable and unwarrantable." In another case, — 
 the Attorney General v. Allum, in which the Paissiaa Company 
 claimed exclusive rights of trading, under letters patent, this wiis 
 the decision of the Court : — '* The act i? a mere act of creation, 
 and to regulate those of the Company who trade separately, to tho 
 prejudice 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 appropriate a trade, which 
 the King cannot do by law." (Hardies' Reports, p. 108.) In tho 
 case oi Nightintjale v. Bnjdyes, it was admitted, without argument, 
 that the King could not grant power to seize ships engaged in a 
 trade prohibited by charter, — which was one of the powers granted 
 by Charles II. to the Hudson's Bay Company. Another case 
 quoted by Fitzgerald is that of tho African Company, to which tho 
 same very liberal and very unscrupulous monarch, had granted 
 precisely similar privileges, over all the regions, countries, &c., 
 from Sollee inclusive to the Cape of Good Hope inclusive, for 
 1000 years, is exactly in point. The Company had seized a ship 
 and cargo, for trading against its charter : both were coDdemned 
 in the Court of Admiralty, there being no appearance ; but the 
 owner having brought an action at common law for recovery of his 
 property, the Court decided unanimously in favour of the plain- 
 tiff, and, of course, against the charter. ( Vyner's Abridgement, 
 vol. 17, p. 213.; 
 
 That the Hudson's Bay Company was perfectly conscious, from 
 a very early period, that its charter was not good in law, is evident 
 from the fact that, in 1690 it sought for, and obtained, an Act of 
 Parliament, (2 Will, and Mary,) to confirm it, a course which 
 obviously would not have been taken had it thought the Charter 
 valid. lu the body of this act the confirmation is " for ever ;" 
 
15 
 
 but, whilst the Dill was passing through Puiliumont, Iho Cimimons 
 limited it to "ten years," the Lords to " seven ;" and the Bill 
 ultimately passed with the following rider :--" Provided always 
 that this Act whall continue in force for the term of seven years, 
 and from thence to the era of the next session of Parliament, and no 
 longer." At the our' of the seven years the Company introduced a 
 now bill, but, apprehending defeat, withdrew it ; and, from that 
 day to this, it lias relied solely, for all its assumed territorial and 
 trading rights over what it has been pleased to define as Paipert's 
 Land, on its original charter. 
 
 How THE Company has discharued its obligations. 
 
 Of the conditions and motives already specified as those on 
 which the charter was granted, the Company has observed only 
 one, — " the finding of some trade for furs." As to the discovery 
 of a North- West Passage, the Company did little or nothing 
 until within the last few years when forced to make some show of 
 energy and enterprise, through very shame at seeing the Govern- 
 ment, and private individuals, maldng explorations which were 
 assigned as the first and foremost purpose of its own institution. 
 That its previous torpidity arose from no lack of means is certain ; 
 for, from a letter addressed by Sir J. H. Pelly to the Committee of 
 Privy Council for trade, [Pari. Paper, 547, Sess. 18i^,p. 24,) it 
 appears that between 1670 and 1690 the dividends wore 50 per 
 csnt. ; and, from 1690 to 18u0 bctv.en 60 and 70 per cent. Yet 
 it was not until 1719, fifty years after its incorporation, and then 
 only to prevent inquiry whether the charter was not void by non- 
 fulfilment of its primary condition, that the Company fitted out 
 two vessels for the alleged purpose of discovery. The object in 
 view, however, was not geographical knowledge, but the testing of 
 certain reports as to the existence of certain gold and copper mines, 
 of which Captain Knight, Governor of the fort on Churchill Eiver, 
 had heard ; and the expedition was undertaken in consequence of 
 the urgent representations of Captain Knight, who threatened to 
 apply to the Government if the Company neglected its duty. 
 The Company then took another long sleep of half a century. It 
 
16 
 
 m 
 
 does not appear that any further attempt was made until 1769, 
 when ITearno commenced a second expedition in search of the 
 gold and coppor mines aforesaid, and, accidentally, rather than 
 from any settled purpose, discovered the Arctic Ocean. On this 
 discovery the Company must have sot very little valne, since it did 
 not publish " Hoarne's Narrative" till nearly thirty yours after- 
 wards. In 183G-7, when Government was sending out Cnptuin 
 Back's expedition, the Company, then applying,' for a continuunco 
 of its exclusive privilej^'es, sent one also, under Simpson and 
 Dease ; and again in 1816, when Government was despatching 
 Sir John Franklin on his last fatal voyoge, the Company sent Dr. 
 Itae. Thus, between 1070 and the present day, the Hudson's 
 Bay Company has undertaken four expeditions, of which but two 
 were in aid of geographical science, and only one in ships. 
 Judiciously, therefore, has it avoided, as far as in it lay, all legal 
 inquiry into the conditions on which it held its charter. 
 
 What ravALS the Company had, ano now it dealt with them. 
 
 It is beyond question that when King Charks, amongst his 
 other illegitimate exploits, created the Hudson's Bay Company, 
 Canada, and much of what is now British America, belonged 
 to France ; and the deed of creation itself shows that he did not 
 pretend to give away what did not belong to him. It is equally 
 certain that, long before this great national abortion was called 
 into existence, the French Canadians traversed nearly the whole of 
 the vast region now claimed by the Company as its exclusive pro- 
 perty under that very deed, and carried on an extensive traffic in 
 peltry with all the Indian tribes. On the cession of Canada to 
 Great Britain the leading fur merchants formed an association 
 under the name of the North-West Fur Company of Montreal, 
 extending the operations throughout the interior of North America 
 to the Arctic Circle and the Pacific Ocean, and ultimately to the 
 Hudson's Bay Territories. Jealous of their success, and trembling 
 for its monopoly, the Hudson's Bay Company began to assert 
 privileges under its Charter which it had never before propounded 
 against Canadians A fierce struggle ensued between the two Com- 
 panies, — a savage and brutal strife between their servants, in which 
 
17 
 
 the Indian tribrs took part on opposite sides, nnd were instigated 
 by their Christian patrons to pillago and sliiu}»ht(r. Between tho 
 rivals there was a truculent piipfr warl'un', us well as an actual one, 
 in which am-Xi openly accused tlie other of tin- foulest crimes, rob- 
 bery and murder being included in tliu cutuL-rtu,,. This stutf of 
 things, so thoroughly disgraceful to pt.oj.lu culling theinsclvcs 
 (Jhristians, continnod for numy years. At length tho IFudson's 
 Hay Company, finding it iniposniblo to beat its rivals cither by 
 faiv competition or downright force, und well knowing that any 
 appeal to a court of law against tho alleged interlopers would in- 
 volve an inquiry into the validity of tlie Cliuiter fatal to its pre- 
 tensions, determined on compromise and coiditiun. ])y previous 
 arrangement with its competitors, and with tho aid of strong in- 
 terest at the Colonial Ollice, enjoyed by both parlies, an act of 
 parliament was passed in 18^1, the Ist and >ind CJcorge IV. c 00, 
 by which tho Crown was empowered to grant to *• any body cor- 
 porate or company, person or persons, the exclusive privilege of 
 trading within lauds and territories not previously granted to the 
 Hudson's Bay Company, or part of the United States," for a period 
 of 21 years. 
 
 Under this act the Crown might have granted the privilege in 
 question to any other Company, person, or persons, quite irrespec- 
 tive of the pretended rights of the Hudson's Bay Company ; but it 
 was an understood thing beforehand that it was to be given to the 
 leading members of the North West Company, Messrs W. and S. 
 Mc. Gillivray, and Mr. Edward Ellice, afterwards to be transferred 
 to the Hudson's Bay Company, the two Companies coalescing. 
 All this was done accordingly, and Messrs Mc. Gillivray and Ellice 
 who had most patriotically denounced the claims and proceedings 
 of the Hudson's Bay Company as opposed to all law and justice, — 
 who had so manfully asserted the rights of free-trading and settle- 
 ment on behalf of British subjects generally, and Canadians in par- 
 ticular, — forgot all previous professions, drowned the remembrance 
 of fierce hostility, and stood forth, in their own behalf, and that of 
 the Hudson's Bay Company, against all the rest of the world, as 
 champions of that very monopoly wiiich they had denounced as the 
 very essence of injustice and oppression. 
 B 
 
•J8 
 
 I'lio p;mi|>hl ts j)ul)liHlu(l ilurin;,' tho striigglo avo now c.v 
 trc'indy Hninv. It wan, of couibo, tlio iKilicy t»l' both imrtief* t 
 liiiy up an. I di^stroy nil hucIi inoinctitocs ot' lonncr fouds, now thut 
 tliL-y Imil boi'omo iVioiuls iurI iillios, with one rninmon iiiti-nst. FUit 
 tlio nutnvf! (»r lilt.' coiitc'st is Mullicirntly imlifutficl in tlio following 
 cxtnict IVniii ii Irftcr iKlilivsscd by tho Homo (iovernor of thu Ilnd- 
 son's Hiiy Company to fiord 'iionclj^, on tho lOlh of I-Vhuary 1h:17, 
 when tho imilcd Ccunpfiny was folicitiiig that rcnowal of its liccncu 
 for twontv-on(f yoars which it ohtainod in IHIJS : — 
 
 " It is nnnooosaary to say morn of tho cagor competition into 
 which this Xssooialioii (tho X<»rth West Company of Mnntnul) 
 rntorcd with tho Ifudson's l»ay Company, for tho trado of tho 
 Indian tlisti'icts, or of tho ficcnfis of ileinoralhnlion and Jcstruction 
 of life and propaittj to ^vhicll it led, further than to refer your 
 J.ordship to the ample dcitaihj on this rerultiihf suhjcct in tho 
 (V»louial department; to tho a^'r(!cnionts at last entered into by tho 
 rival companies to put an end to them, by tho union of their 
 interests in IH'Jl ; and to the Act of Parliament passed in tho 
 same year to give elToct to that union, and to prevent the possibility 
 of tho recurrence of competition, by enabling the Crown to grant 
 to the parties interested, a license for the exclusive trado, the only 
 means of restraining violence and crime, and of maintaining 
 order under the peculiar circumstances of the country and tho 
 case." (Purl, rapcr, 617, Sess.lS[-:i, p. 1'2. J 
 
 The reader cannot but admire the cool impudence of the 
 assertion, that "tho osly means of restraining violence arid crime'* 
 was to secure to the criminals tho monopoly of tlie spoil for which 
 they were contending against all tho rest of their fellow-subjects ; 
 but it was quite in keeping with the character of the monopolists, 
 and it seems to have passed muster at the Colonial Office. In 
 this same document tho Governor says, " One of the principal 
 objects of the incorporation of this Company was the fur trade 
 with the Indians inhabiting the territories ceded to them." The 
 Charter itself shows that the principal object was the discovery of 
 a north west passage, — towards which the Company has done 
 comparatively nothing ; that another principal object was trade 
 " in other considerable commodities ;" and that the constraining 
 
 i ' 
 
10 
 
 motive wm alleged to bo a tlosiro to promofo " iho i)ul)1i(! goou." 
 A brief couHiiK'nition of wliut tln! ruiii[»uiiy liiis doiio in fiirtlu'i'* 
 unci) of objects each fur tmnscendiiig in iiujjoiUiiico tlio trude in 
 I'lirs, iiiuy not bo uiiiiiturcatiiig. 
 
 What tiik (Jomcany mas uoni; loit ('o>rMr.n(:i;. 
 , The other " considciublc coiniiioditii's" in whidh ii most oxtcn- 
 sivo trado might have been doviiloivd moro tiiim hulJ' ii ccsuliiry 
 i;n, are tallow, hides, liorns, wool, and minoniis ui' viiiious kiudd. 
 The prairies of tho lied Iliver and Saskulehcwun arc covered with 
 iiiinusnso herds of bulluloiis, rcddeer, and wild horses ; und tho 
 country being admirably adapted for ih.! growth of hemp and llax, 
 is capalilu of producing all tho raw |)roduce wc now import from 
 lIuHsia; but as to these, and as to corn and provisions, of which 
 (piantiLics almost unlimited might Lave been [)roduced but for tho 
 deadly IJpusof its monopoly, the Company has played, andslillplays, 
 tho part of the dog in tho manger, neither trading jior producing 
 itself, nor permitting others to do so. Its own trallie outwards is 
 limited to skins, — inwards to articles for its own use, or for barter 
 with the Indians. It possesses tho exclusive privilege of import 
 and c'.Kport in its own vessels ; and will not permit any otlur ships 
 tliun its own, to enter tho bay, either hv trading purposes, or to 
 lish in it8 waters, where whales and smds abound. No ]]ritish 
 subjoot resident in lluporrs Land, the Indian Territories, 
 or Vancouver's Ishnid, can Uuv oi* sell furs fnjm or to anv bodv 
 but the Company. It allows some persona to import goods, but 
 only in its own ships, and only by license, wliich is never granted 
 to persons interfering in any way w ith the fur trade, or not sub- 
 niiuing to such regulations, and paying such duties, as tho 
 Company thinks proper to impose. Tlio charge made by tlio 
 Company for the conveyance of goods from York I'actory to tho 
 lied River settlement is 2(»s per Uolbs, ov X'li ^s J2d per ton, which 
 makes altogether, a freight of upwards of i';5o perton from London, 
 llunee prices aro greatly ordianced, sugar and rice for example, 
 being Is jter lb, and salt Is per quart. One of tin; refills is, that 
 the settlers procure manufactured goods froni the America frontiers, 
 instead of from England, which they can do at about half the jjrice. 
 The case of Mr. James Sinclair, one of tho settlers at Red River, is 
 
 H9 
 
20 
 
 strongly illustrative of the Company's love of commerce, and its 
 desire to develope the resources of the immense territories com- 
 mitted to its charge. In 181Q-3 this gentleman, by way of 
 experiment, sent a small quantity of tallow to London in one of the 
 Company's vessels, this being j-robably the very first consignment 
 of anything but furs, ever made from the Company's territories. 
 The speculation answered beyond his hopes ; and next year, ho 
 sent a much larger quantity to York l''aetory, for shipment to Eng- 
 land. The Company however refused to take it ; it remained at 
 the Factory, under one pretext or other, for two years ; and it was 
 then sold to the Company at prime cost. The fsecn-t of the refusal 
 was, that this too enterprising merrliant had had the audacity to 
 join his brother settlers in a memorial to the liritioh Government, 
 complaining of grievances and praying for re».lrcss. 
 
 The regulations under which some little traffic is permitted 
 are scarcely credible. Here is a sample of them : — by an order of 
 the Governor and Council of Rupert's Land, dated June 10th, 
 1845, it is graciously provided that, once in every year, any 
 
 - • 
 
 British subject, resident, and not being a fur trafficker, may 
 import, free of duty, goods of the value of ^£10, for his own ex- 
 clusive use. ]3ut the liberality of the Company docs not s^jp 
 here, for, once every year, any British subject, qualified as aforesaid, 
 and personally accompanying them, may import, duty free, goods 
 to the value of ;650, under similar restrictions. All other imports 
 re subjected to a duty of {JO per cent, ad valorem; but the 
 Governor may exempt from this duty all such importers as may be 
 •' reasonably believed by him to have neither trafficked in furs 
 themselves since the Sth of December, 1814, nor enabled others 
 to do so by illegally and improperly supplying them with trading 
 articles of any description." Thus, this knot of private individuals 
 claims a power not possessed by the Queen and her Government, 
 — that of levying taxes without consent of parliament, and it exer- 
 cises that power with a special view to the maintenance of its own 
 monopoly. 
 
 What the Company has done for Colonization. 
 
 The territories under the sway of the Company, by charter 
 ^^4 by license, might have affor(^ed l^omes {o hiindreds q^ 
 
21 
 
 thousands of Britis]! subjects wlio lisive Hocketl to the United 
 States, and are now AnuMican citizens. There is " aniple room and 
 verge enough " for many flourishing colonies. What has the 
 Company done in this way? With one exception, and that sorely 
 against its will, absolutely nothing. In 18! I it granted to the 
 Earl of Selkirk, who had purchased a large proportion of its stock 
 with that view, 110,000 square miles of land on tlie Red River, 
 situated midway between the Ameiiean boundary and Lake 
 Winnipeg, and His Lordship located there a colony consisting 
 principally of Scotch Higldanders and their families, whom he 
 conveyed thither from Europe. The purpose was ostensibly that 
 of colonization, for which the country is admirably suited, great 
 portion of the soil consisting of rich alluvion, which, when first 
 tilb^d. yields crops of wheat forty-fold ; and which, after twenty 
 years of successive cultivation, without manure, green crops, or 
 fallow, still yields from fifteen to twenty-five bushels per acre of 
 fine heavy corn. But the main purpose of the settlement was to 
 place a barrier in the way of the operations of the North West 
 Company, not colonization. One of the first proceedings of the 
 colonists was to seize supplies of food intended for the posts of the 
 Canadian Company ; and frequent affrays took place, in one of 
 which the Governor of the new colony and several otluM" persons 
 lost tlieir lives. By the treaty of 1818 it was admitted that a 
 large portion of the settlement was within the territory of the 
 United States ; the rest of it has since reverted to the Company. 
 In making this grant the Company exhibited 'lir, "°ual con- 
 tempt of law, for it had no legal right to create a sub-monopoly, 
 empowering Lord Selkirk to appoint Governors, create courts of 
 justice, and perform other acts of sovereignty, all of which it did. 
 This sole colonizing experiment has proved a comparative fi\ilure, 
 as it well might, for the Company seems to have taken the most 
 likely means to make it one. Land was sold at more than double 
 the price of good land fifty miles to the south on the same river, 
 in the American territory, and on conditions whi^ render the 
 purchaser an absolute slave to the Company's monopoly. Every 
 attempt of the settlers to open a traffic with England has been 
 frustrated by the tyrannical regulations of the Company, and by 
 
hi 
 
 22 
 
 the enormous rates of freight demanded. They arc not allowed to 
 triffic with the Indians in any way. The settlement has been in 
 existence nearly half a century. During this period mere villages, 
 — nay the location of single squatters in the United States, havo 
 sprung up into important cities and districts ; but the Red River 
 Settlement has lingered and pined under an incubus opposed to 
 all progress, numbering, at this day a population of from five 
 to seven thousand souls only. On two occasions large bodies of 
 the settlors passed over into the United States, and became 
 American citizens ; the feeling of those who remain is decidedly 
 in favour of annexation to Canada, for which there are many good 
 reasons, rather than to the United States, but the latter course they 
 would decidedly prefer to continuance under the Company's do- 
 minion. About this there can be no mistake, for, when the Oregon 
 dispute was still pending, the settlers petitioned congress for ad- 
 mission into the Union, in order to escape from their galling and 
 degrading thraldom. This one fact speaks volumes as to the 
 anti-British tendency of the monopoly. 
 
 What the Company has noNE for ttte United Statics and 
 
 Russia. 
 
 But, whilst discouraging and repressing their fellow-subjects 
 in every possible way, the conduct of the Company and itti officers 
 towards Americans has been very different. In the cori'ospon- 
 dence already described, the strongest testimony cited by tlio 
 Company in its own favour was that of Americans, who spoke 
 from a lively sense of personal favours conferred, and advantage 
 to their own country to be expected from a continuance of tlie 
 Company's system. ]3y its connivance, if not by its influence 
 and positive agency, American citizens obtained that footing in 
 Oregon, which constituted the claim of the United States, to a 
 most valuable territory, which unquestionably belonged to England 
 if theie yigf^ one jot of validity in the Company's Charter, and 
 which the States would never have obtained had the Company 
 permitted British subjects to settle there. In connexion with 
 this transaction the Company seems to have been guilty of some 
 thing very like treason, if there be any truth in the following 
 
23 
 
 statement innclo in Fitzgerald's work, pnj,'o ^87 : — '' Tlie country 
 south of the 4nth parallrl, it seems was hunted up — therefore the 
 posts of the Iliul'.on's Bay Company were become of no vahie at 
 all. By annexing all that country to the United States, and 
 inserting in the treaty a clause tlnit tlio United States should pay 
 the Company for all its posts if it turned them out — tho Company 
 were able to obtain from the Americans a large sum of money for 
 what would have been worth nothing had the territory remained 
 British." 
 
 The Company has tahcn great pains to persuade the Govorii- 
 ment and people of tliis country that tho Fisheries which it 
 has neglected are worth nothing. Tlio Americans know bett(!r, 
 and have turned a portion of them to very profitable account. In 
 a recent Report of the Secretary of the United States Navy, to the 
 Senate, it is stated that in consequence of information derived 
 from the British Arctic Expeditions to Behrmg's Straits, a whale 
 fishery had sprung up in the comparatively open sea between these 
 Straits and the mouth of INrackenzie's Rlvei*, which had in two 
 years produced the enormous sum of eight millions of dollars. 
 This trade ought to have been British, and would have been so 
 but for the miserable policy which has excluded British enterprise 
 both from land and sea. 
 
 Russia, also, is under very considerable obligations to the 
 Company for its supine indifference to British interests, if not 
 for its active co-operation and assistance. The reader, on turning 
 to the map, will observe that the Russian boundary, as settled in 
 18Q5, includes a long, narrow patch of land, extending far south 
 of the main part of Russian America. By a Company valuing 
 only its trade in furs, and exclusively bent on preserving the 
 interior as a hunting field, access to tho sea in that direction Avas 
 probably regarded as a matter of very little importance. But 
 Russian diplomacy was rather more astute. By the acquisition 
 of this same odd-looking slip, it obtained for Russia the command 
 of nearly half the Western coast of British America — an advan- 
 tage which will be turned to purposes most prejudicial to British 
 interests, at the first suitable opportunity. During the late war, 
 this absurd blunder might have been rectified, even if it were 
 
24 
 
 h ! 
 
 thought inconsistent with our profossions of perfect disinterested- 
 ness to take possession of the whole of Russian America. An 
 expedition was fitted out for some such purpose, but it led to 
 nothing; very possibly its failure is attributable, as has been 
 alleged, to an indisposition on the part of the Company either to do, 
 or to permit, anything offensive or injurious to its Russian 
 neighbours. 
 
 The same selfish and anti-national policy continues in opera- 
 tion, and it will, if not checked in time, undoubtedly produce similar 
 results. The Hudson's Bay Company still regards millions of 
 square miles of territory, abounding in all the means of wealth, 
 agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial, and possessing 
 the finest system of water communication in the world as nothing 
 better than one vast hunting field, subordinating all other consi- 
 derations to that of '* some trade in furs." With this sole view 
 it has endeavoured, so far as in it lay, to retain nearly half the 
 Continent of America in a state of wild and barren waste, keeping 
 out men in order that beasts might breed and multiply. As 
 regards subjects of the British Crown, this execrable policy has, 
 to a great extent, succeeded : — not so as regards American citizens. 
 Considering their spirit of enterprise and indomitable energy, it 
 was not to be expected that thoy would remain on their own side of 
 the boundary when there were rich waste lands, turned to no 
 useful purpose, and never likely to be, by the proper owners, 
 tempting them beyond it. A squatting population first, — then 
 annexation, were the natural consequences. Thus was Oregon 
 lost, — and thus will other valuable portions of British territory 
 be lost also, within the next ten or dozen years, if the Hudson's 
 Bay monopoly be allowed to exist so long. According to the 
 latest news the inhabitants of the new State of Minnesota are 
 looking with longing eyes into the British desert close at hand. 
 Their newspapers speak of " the rich booty that lies to be seized 
 by the boldest and most enterprising ; " they state that thousands 
 are flocking to the neighbourhood from all parts of the Union ; 
 that invading companies have already been organised ; and that 
 sites for American towns have already been marked out on what 
 is, as yet, British territory. All this is very aggressive, no doubt ; 
 
85 
 
 but who can blamo them for seeking tliiis to turn God's hitherto 
 neglected gifts to some useful purpose ? Their own Government, 
 even if it were disposed to do so, could not prevent this process 
 of absorption. Neither can the Hudson's Bay Company. "What 
 resource then remaims? None, but in the abolition of its 
 monopoly, and the throwing open of the whole of its usurped 
 territories to British and Canadian enterprise, under the protection 
 of British laws. 
 
 How THE COMPAN? HAS SOUGHT TO DETKIl SETTLERS. 
 
 It has ever been, and still is, the cue of the Company to represent 
 its dominions as unfit for the habitation of civilized man, or any 
 other purpose than that to which they have been put. This de- 
 scription applies to some part of the country no doubt, but the 
 rest of it presents a magnificent field for colonization. In his 
 evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons, in 
 February last. Sir George Simpson, the territorial Governor, was 
 pleased to describe the Red River district, and the parts adjacent to 
 the United States territory of Minnesota, as unfit for the dwelling 
 of man, or agricultural occupation. He also spoke of the Com- 
 pany's possessions generally, in terms of great contempt, asserting 
 that nobody would live therein who was not paid for doing so. 
 The Minncsotans entertain a somewhat different opinion ; and so, 
 once upon a time, did Sir George Simpson himself. In his 
 " Overland Journey round the world" vol. I. p. 51, he states that 
 there is not upon the face of the earth, a more favourable situation 
 for the employment of agricultural industry, than the Red River 
 Settlement ; he speaks in the most glowing terms of the beauty of 
 the country, the fertility of the soil, its rich and varied produce, 
 its beds of coal extending hundreds of miles, its other great 
 mineral wealth, the spread and navigability of its rivers and lakes, 
 and its many other natural advantages. Being reminded of the 
 glaring discrepancies between his spoken and his written opinions, 
 Sir George Simpson had the hardihood to say, that the truth was 
 to be found in his testimony, not in his book ! Thus, by his own 
 confession, Sir George must have palmed the grossest falsehoods. 
 
20 
 
 W i 
 
 eithrr upon his readers or npon tho oommittoe. No wonder that 
 ho left the room crest-fullon after so degrading an avowal. 
 
 That must be a bad cause indeed, whicli requires to be bol- 
 stered up by such means. It is evident that Sir (ieorgo told the 
 truth in his book, for his testimony there is corroborated by that 
 of many unimpeachable witnesses, as also by the groat desire of 
 the Americans to get possession of these same sterile rnginns. Plven 
 if such corroboration were wanting, there is, in addition to the 
 genuine testimony of Sir George Simpson, that of his brotlK^r 
 Governor, Sir J. H. Pelly, who in tlie letter to Lord Glenelg already 
 quoted, says of the country on the northern banks of the Coluni'iia 
 river, " In the neighbourhood they have large pasture and grain 
 farms, affording most abundantly every species of agricultural 
 produce, and maintaining large herds of stock of tvery description ; 
 these have been gradually established ; and it is the intention of 
 the Company still further, not only to augment and increase them, 
 to establisli an export trade in wool, tallow, hides and other 
 agricultural produce, but to encourage the settlement of their re- 
 tired servants and other emigrants under their protection. 
 The soil, climate, and other circumstances of the countr}-, are as 
 much if not more adapted to agricultural pursuits than any other 
 spot in America." Perhaps if Sir J. II. Pelly be called before the 
 Committee, and referred to this letter, ho also will eat his words, 
 and declare that all is barren. 
 
 What the Company has dont: For. the Indtans. 
 When the "merchant adventurers" took possession of the Red 
 man's land, there were upwards or fifty powerful races of Indians 
 inhabiting their own vast hunting grounds, many of the tribes 
 numbering ten thousand souls each, even at tho beginning of the 
 present century. They were free, prosperous, and happy, accoi-d- 
 ing to their wants and knowledge; savages and heathens, indeed, and 
 ignorant of all that the white man calls civilization, but also en- 
 dowed with all the virtues of the savage, and untainted with the 
 white man's vices. Heathens and savages, for the most part, they 
 still remain, but they are also vitiated and degraded slaves, and 
 but ii miserable and scattered remnant of what they were. Entire 
 racea of them have been swept away by drunkenness, by diseases 
 
27 
 
 introttuced from Europe, and by sheer slarvation. rurmibulism, 
 which was unknown amongst them imlil thry miule the white 
 man's acquaintance, has been a thin^j of common oceiirnnico. 
 Having lost the use of thtar native weapons, the bow and sjioar, 
 they are entirely dependant on the Company for those by wliich 
 they have been superseded. Guns and ammunition are supplied 
 to them at exorbitant rates of profit ; and when withheld, as tliey 
 are when the hunters become old or otherwise unfit for profi table 
 employment, the Indians are reduced to a state of hc]j)less desti- 
 tution, and often left to perish of want, or to eat each otlier. Tliis 
 state of things, in a country possessed and ruled by people who 
 pretend to be Christians, seems too horrible for belief; but the 
 fact is stated on unquestionable authority. Dr. King says, "when 
 they (the Indians) 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 consequently from 
 absolute starvation. ^ * * ^-^ They have become cannibals by 
 necessity ; end scarcely a month passes but some horrible tale of 
 cannibalism is brought to the different establishments." (King's 
 Narrative, Vol. 11,^^. 5'^.^ 
 
 Towards the conversion and civilization of these poor 
 creatures the Company did nothing until the year 182(), alleging 
 that this was not within the province of a mere trading association. 
 But about that period, when the Company was applying for its 
 exclusive license over the Indian Territories, and it was expedient 
 to make some show of service to the natives in this way, the 
 Company permitted the establishment of a mission at Red River, 
 by the Church Missionary Society, Up to that time not a single 
 minister of religion of any denomination had ever set his foot 
 within the country ; and whatever good has since been effected, 
 has been through the agency of the Church Missionary Society, the 
 Methodist Missions, and the Roman Catholics of Canada, of whose 
 united labours the Company has not been ashamed, nevertheless, 
 in its various applications to the Colonial Office, to claim nearly 
 all the credit. With regard to schools at the Red River Settlement, 
 Governor Simpson says, " As to the charges of education, four-fifths 
 of them fall on the pious and charitable association just mentioned, 
 
28 
 
 (the Church Missionary Society,) while the remaining fifth is homo 
 by such individual parents as are able and willing to spare fifteen 
 shillings a year for the moral and intollectual culture of a child ;" 
 {Overland Journey, Vol. 1, j)- 64.) However, when it wanted an 
 exclusive license, in .1820, the Company made its first pretence to 
 a missionary spirit : wlien applying for the renewal of the license 
 in 7.838, it again admitted a few ministers of religion, to keep up 
 appearances at home ; and now that the Company is making u 
 third application for a license, the same edifying spectacle of religi- 
 ous zeal is again exhibited. Sir George Simpson having astonished 
 the Committee the other day, by his list of missionaries recently 
 sent out, or on their way. It has been stated in evidence before the 
 Committee, that the Church Missionary Society has expended 
 upwards of £50,000 on the civilization of the Indians of Hudson's 
 Bay, to which the Company did not contribute a farthing. This 
 is the sort of assistance which it does give : — it expends nothing in 
 missions or schools, but it subsidizes missionaries with suras of 
 from £50 to £100 a year, in addition to what they receive from the 
 associations to which they belong — the object being to render them 
 more subservient, nnd induce them to close their eyes on much 
 that they see goiug on around them. 
 
 How THE Company cheats the Natives. 
 
 The Company's mode of dealing with the native hunters 
 can scarcely be characterised as honest. It always keeps 
 the Indians in debt. All the articles furnished to them are 
 charged at most extortionate rates. Lieut. Chappel estimates the 
 profits of the Company in some instances as high as 2000 per 
 cent, {Voyarje to Hudson's Bay, London, 1817, p. 231.) The Rev. 
 C. G. Nicholay says that a fourpenny comb will barter for a bear's 
 skin worth £2, {the Oregon Territory, London, 1816,^. 102.) Dr. 
 King says that a coarse knife, worth, all expenses included, no 
 more than sixpence, is bartered for three marten skins, worth in 
 London five guineas ; and that for the skin of the black sea otter, 
 worth fifty guineas, the native obtains, in exchange only, goods to 
 the value of two shillings, {King's Narrative, Vol. ii. p. 53.) 
 
20 
 
 Where there is competition with the Americans or Canndians the 
 Indians obtain better vahic for the spoils of the chano, and are in 
 a fur loss degraded coiulition than >vhere the Company bears 
 absolute sway. 
 
 The standard of barter is the skin of a full grown beaver, 
 which is equivalent to four mink skins, three marten skins, two 
 fox skins, and twelve musquaHh skins. According to the tarilf in 
 force in the Licensed 'J'crritory, east of the Rocky Mountains, 
 of which a copy is inserted in Parliamentary Paper, ^77, Session 
 1819, p. 95, — an ordinary gun, of which the prime cost is U'2a. is 
 bartered for iiO bear skins, worth £'3'2 lOs., or 00 marten skins, 
 worth £46 lOs., or five silver fox skins, worth jC50, or yO lynx 
 skins, worth i:,'20, or J20 otter skins, worth £'.i'<) 10s, ! Half a 
 dozen clay tobacco pipes, costing a penny wholesale, are bartered 
 for skins varying in value from i*l 3s. Od. to £-2 10s. ; a pint of 
 watered rum, worth 4d., is disposed of at the same rates; and 
 with regard to all other articles, the same dishonest system is 
 practised on the poor Indian by the Honourable " Company of 
 Merchant Adventurers trading to Hudson's Bay." 
 
 As to the light in which Indians are regarded by the Com- 
 pany's servants, the Rev. Mr. Beaver, once the Company's Chap- 
 lain on the Columbia Iliver, makes this declaration, — " God 
 knows that I speak the conviction of my mind, and may He 
 forgive mo if I speak unadvisedly, when I state my belief that 
 the life of an Indian Wiis never yet by a trajipcrput in competition 
 with a beaver skin." ( I'arl la incnlai-y Paper, 2'-J7, Sess. 1849, ;>. 14.^ 
 The Company itself seems to have held Indian life in pretty 
 much the same estimation, and the trapper may but be putting 
 his own savage interpretation on its motto *' Pro pelle cutem," — 
 skin for skin. It has never, in any one of the many cases of 
 murder which have occurred, adopted means to bring the criminals 
 to justice, or even discharged them from its employment when 
 the murderers happened to be bold and successful hunters. Here 
 is a specimen of atrocity not exceeded in the annals of the most 
 savage of buccaneers — Spanish or English : — 
 
 " In that winter (1836-7) a party of men, led by two clerks, 
 was sent to look for some horses that were grazing at ft considera» 
 
i!i. 
 
 30 
 
 ble distance from tho post. As they u[)proachc'd tlio spot they 
 percoivfd a band of Assinoboiiio Indiuns, eight in number (if I 
 remember rightly) on nu adjacent hill, who iiumcdiiitely joined 
 tlicm, uud, delivering up their arms, enciunped with them fi)r tho 
 night. Next morning u court murtial was held by tho two ulerlis, 
 and some of the men, to determine tho punibhmcnt due to tho 
 Indians for having been found near tho Company's horses, wilh 
 the sitpi>osed intention of carrying them olf. Wiiat was the deci- 
 sion of this mock court martial '.' I shudder to relate that the 
 whole band, after having given up thi.'ir arms, and partaken of 
 their hospitality, were condemned to death, and the sentence 
 carried into execution on the spot : nil were butchered in cold 
 blood." (M'Leans Notts, vol. 11, p.p. 2'2!i— 3. 
 
 It does not appear that these ruffians were ever brought to 
 justice. But with Indians who slay whites, no matter what the 
 provocation, the Company's mode of procecdinj/ is fierce retaliation, 
 which often includes uno(Tending parties. One of its own servants 
 states that the Company had " an invariable rule of avenging tho 
 murder of any of its servants — blood for blood, without trial of 
 any kind." {Life of Thomas Siiiipso)i, p. 4'^ 7.) A still higher autho- 
 rity, Governor Simpson himself, says, " whether in matters of liCo 
 and death, or of petty tlieft, the rule of retaliation is tho only stand- 
 ard of equity which the tribes on this coast are capable of aiiprecia- 
 ing." Conformably with a rule by which nominal Christians reduced 
 themselves to the level of savages, in August ld40, near the mouth 
 of the Columbia river, one Iiidisin was hung, several others were 
 shot, and their village was set on fire by a party in tho employ of 
 the Company, under the command of chief factor Mc. Laughlen, 
 who led them from Fort Vancouver, thus to rovenge the death of 
 a man who had lost his life in an atfray with the Indians. 
 
 To suppress drunkenness, the curse and destroyer of the Hod 
 man, and to promote " the moral and religious improvement" of 
 the Indiana, were the motives alleged for granting the exclusive li- 
 cense of trade in 1821, and, for its renewal in 1838. But to the Com- 
 pany and its agents the Indians' drunken habits and his consequent 
 depravation are attributable, and they have been encouraged in order 
 that his Christian customers may drive the better bargains with him. 
 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
31 
 
 Iniisinucli as nothing is impoitcJ into the country uxcopting in its 
 own viisscls, iuul with ils sanction, it is obvious that the Company 
 might, if sodisposod, have pruvcnlod tlic introduction of spirituous 
 li([uors altogether, and tluis withheld tiif means ol' intoxication ; but 
 it imports them lar,q('ly, and for the ex[)re.s.s purpose of traOicking 
 with tho Indians. This fact ishows the hollownoss of its professions in 
 this respect; and also that it regards as nothing the brutali/ation 
 and d(;struction of tho Indian, in comparison with its •* trado 
 in furs." 
 
 What the Company has invks'jt.d. 
 
 An estimate of tho enormous profits of the Company, up to 
 tho beginning of the present century, has already been given on 
 tho authority of its (Jovornor. The number of stock holders is 
 now supposed to bo under two hundred and fifty. Tho capital 
 originally sunscribed was only £10,500. In order to diminish the 
 apparent dividends, this capital was, by a vote passed in 1090, 
 trebled in amount, but only nominally, no additional capital being 
 subscribed. In 17^0 a similar operation was performed, the 
 capital being declared to be , CO 1,500, but still without any fresh 
 subscription. It was then proposed to treble it again by subscrip- 
 tion, but in this way, that each subscriber of JCIOO should 
 receive JC300 stock, so that tho nominal capital would have been 
 ii3 78,000, though the additional sum subscribed would only have 
 been j£94,500. This project fell through, no moro than jC3,150 
 being subscribed; but the capital was nevertheless ordered to be 
 reckoned at d£ 103,500, of which only £13,050 had been actually 
 subscribed. On the coalition of 1 821, the Hudson's Bay Company 
 made a call of £100 per share, thus raising its capital to £200,000, 
 and a similar sum being added by the North West Company, tho 
 total capital of both now amounts, or is said to amount, to £400,000, 
 a trifle more than was paid the other day, without any parliamen- 
 tary sanction, to get rid of another of the precious bequests of 
 King Charles II., the Duke of Grafton's pension. The gross value 
 of the furs and skins imported, varies from £200,000 to a quarter of 
 a million annually. At the half-yearly sale in April last the proceeds 
 were £230,000. The Company sends out four or five vessels 
 
33 
 
 every yonr, tlio gross valuo of tho cargoes not oxce«*iIing from 70 
 to jCSM),0O() iinnuully. Of this amount, not more tlmn X'15,(M>0 
 goes to th« tnido with tho lii<liiinH, wlioso consiiiiiptioii of DritiNh 
 manut'iK'tiu'cd floods i« jistimatcd at uboiit ys. Od. per hrud per 
 annum. Tho rt!maindi3r is supidicl to tlio Hulllomont ut Ked 
 lliver, Vancoiivor'b Island, imd tliu ostablisljmt'nts of tho Mission- 
 ary Sociotios, while p(;n»onul sujiplios to tho Company's soivunts 
 absorb about L'lO, (•'>(». The entire trade of iho Company, occupy- 
 ing a territory considiu'ably greater than tho enliri' area of Murope, 
 probably does not exceed at this moment, excluding 8up[)lie8 to its 
 own 'servants, €'^0,000 annually. This is all the Company does for the 
 promotion of *' tho public good," in the way of encouraging ((jin- 
 nierce and manufactures. What its profits really are, thero are no 
 means of ascertaining, for, to crown tho mereuntilo character of 
 these •' Merchant Adventurers" the Company never publislu'S any 
 accounts, and it refuses to give the proprietors generally any detailed 
 information as to tho state of their affairs. There nmst, however, 
 bo full explanations, in the event of any proposition for a compro- 
 mise such as seems to have been C(mtcmplated by Sir J. H. Pelly, 
 who in a letter to Earl Grey, dated March 4th, 1818, says, "As 
 far as I am concerned (and I think tho Company will concur, 
 if any great national benefit would be expected from it) I would 
 be willing to rolinijuish the 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, viz. 
 securing the proprietors an interest on their capital of 10 per cent." 
 
 What ought to be done with the Company. 
 
 There is no just ground for ur y indemnity, such as that 
 modestly proposed by Sir J. H. Pell v , for the loss of so monstrous 
 a monopoly. The charter ought to be abolished as illegal in its 
 origin, and throughout its existence, excepting the short period 
 during which it had the temporary sanction of an Act of Parlia- 
 ment, which gave it, for the time, a sort of galvanized legality ; it 
 ought to be abolished even if it had been legal originally,' as void 
 by the non-fulfilment of any of its conditions, with the exception 
 of that relating to •' some trade in furs," If obtained by bribes 
 
83 
 
 to King Charles atul liis courtiors, cither in tljo shnpe of money 
 down or free shares, there eaa be no chiitn to comin.'nsution for 
 the loss of 80 corrupt n bargain, after nearly 'J(M) years' enjoyment 
 of its O'.lvnntngcs. For resources suflercd to Vio idle so long, — for 
 opportunities neglected, — for injury done to the nation, its com- 
 merce, and its people, — for its crimes of omission and connnission, 
 the Hudson's Jlay Company may consider itself f(»rtunato if it 
 escape retribution, — and still more so if it be repaid the cost of its 
 establishments, and the value of tho land, if there be any, which 
 it has brought into cultivation. So much for what is held under 
 its charter. 
 
 As to tho Indian Territories, its license of exclusive trade 
 expires in 1859. The only consid(>ration given for it was a 
 Yonta] o{ file skill inffs i^er annum (considerately remitted for tho 
 flrst four years of the renewed term), coupled with an undertaking 
 to keep accurate registers of all persons employed by it in North 
 America, — to insure the duo execution of all civil an.l criminal 
 processes, — and to adopt such regulations as might appear to bo 
 " most efifeetual for gradually diminishing, and ultimately 
 preventing the sale and distribution of spirituous liquors to the 
 Indians, and for promoting their moral and religious improve- 
 ment." There is hero no ground for compensation, excepting 
 for the cost of forts and other buildings. Moreover, tho license 
 itself contains a proviso that nothing in it shall be construed as 
 preventing the establishment of any colony or colonies within the 
 territories, or annexing any part of them to any existing colony 
 or colonies, or the constitution of any form of government, which 
 to the Crown might seem fitting ; and there is also retained full 
 power to revoke the license, or any part of it, at any period. 
 
 As to Vancouver's Island, which was made over to the Com- 
 pany on the 1 3th of January, 1849, — power was expresslv reserved 
 Ij recal the grant at the end of five years, as also to buy back 
 the island, when the license of trado over the Indian territories 
 expires, in 1859, at whatever sum the Company may have actually 
 expended upon it. The grant of this fine island, possessing such 
 advantages of position, climate, harbours, soil, and mineral 
 resources, and admirably adapted in every respect to colonizing 
 
34 
 
 r. 
 
 m I; 
 
 II [. 
 
 purposes, to a Company which had ever been, from first to last, 
 the determined opponent of colonization, and that, too, at a time 
 when the p;ravest charges, relative to the management of the 
 territories it already possessed, were pending against it, was a 
 most heinous abuse of pjwer, — a most flagitious neglect of public 
 duty on the part of the government which sanctioned it, — so 
 heinous and so flagitious that the minister who brought it 
 about, supposing him to have oi-ted from private or personal 
 motives, or to oblige importunate friends, not in mere stolid 
 ignorance of where and what Vancouver's Island v^as, and who 
 the parties were that pretended to want it for colonization only, 
 deserved impeachment for his share in the transaction. At all 
 events, the Company has not the shadow of a claim for compensa- 
 tion beyond that specified in the thriftless deed of gift, on the 
 relinquishment of its booty ; and the grant ought to be at once 
 recalled. 
 
 Public justice, — the commercial and manufacturing interests 
 of the country, — the pressing need of suitable locations for emi- 
 grants, — the contentment of our North American colonies, — the 
 well-being of British settlers in the Company's dominions, — the 
 improvement and civilization of the native races, nay their very 
 existence ; — all considerations of policy and humanity combine in 
 demandmg the abolition of this hideous monopoly at ihe earliest 
 possible period. Will it be abolished ? Not if some of the mem- 
 bers of the Government have their way ; — not unless the House of 
 Commons, which is but too much at the beck of the Government, 
 is urged and kept to its duty ; — not if the public generally remain 
 as strangely apathetic as they have hitherto been to questions so 
 vitally affecting the greatness and prosperity of our colonial em- 
 pire, that it is almost impossible to exaggerate their importance. 
 
 It is supposed that the inquiry now proceeding before the 
 House of Commons will be concluded in the present session, and 
 that next year Government will be prepared with a measure founded 
 on the report of the Committon. The nature of that measure will 
 depend much more upon the public out of doors, than upon either 
 the report of the committee, or the House of Commons. Let it be 
 remembered that evidence most condemnatory of the Company and 
 
35 
 
 its system was before the Government in 1847 — 9 ; that the Go- 
 vernment of that day could see nothing in it requiring parliamen- 
 tary investigation, refused to appoint a commission of inquiry, — 
 and would not refer the question to the decision of either of the 
 tribunals recommended by its own law ofticcrs, excepting on con- 
 dition that an individual should take upon himself all the expense 
 and responsibility of an investigation, affecting not private, but na- 
 tional interests. Above all, let it not be forgotten that, on the 
 *' mere assertion" of the Company itself, and on the testimony of two 
 prejudiced and manifestly incompetent witnesses, the Government 
 not only quashed all further inquiry, but made the Company a 
 present of an additional territory belonging to the nation, and of 
 great value for national purposes. Similar influences are still 
 at work, and the result will probably be similar, if the people and 
 their representatives are acquiescent. 
 
 Let it not be said that this is a matter in which the public 
 have little or no coiicern. All classes have an interest, and a deep 
 one, in putting an end to that abominable system by which so fair 
 and extensive a portion of the British dominions has been so long 
 suifered to run to waste, and under which so much of it has 
 already been lost, with the certain prospect of losing more, perhaps 
 all that is worth having, if it be suffered to continue but for a few 
 years longer. The popular voice alone will suffice for its extinction. 
 All classes should therefore join in demanding prompt and effi- 
 cient justice. Petitions ought to be poured in from every county, 
 town, and hamlet in the country, calling upon Parliament to do 
 its duty. The history of the world presents no example of a 
 monopoly so monstrous and so prejudicial as that of the Hudson's 
 Bay Company ; and the history of the world will present no 
 parallel to the fatuity of the British people, the corruption of their 
 Government, and the subserviency of their parliament, if that 
 monopoly be not at once, and for ever, abolished. 
 
 By order of the Council, 
 
 ROBERTSON GLADSTONE* 
 
 PRESIDENT. 
 ?, York Buildinos. Dale Street, 
 Liverpool, Jume, 1857. 
 
•u 
 
 H 
 
 i fi 
 
 W> ' ■< 
 
 In 
 
 rf/ 
 
 86 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 The inquiry before the Committee of the House of Commons 
 was brought to a termination on Tuesday, the 23rd inst. From 
 the manner in which it has been hurried over, from the constitution 
 of the Committee itself, and from the non-examination of ono very 
 important witness, whose name, as the Council have reason to 
 know, was given in to the chairman, there is but too much cause 
 to apprehend that the public interest will again be sacrificed. 
 One of the last witnesses examined was the Right Hon. Edward 
 Ellice, who, as a leading member of the North- West Fur Com- 
 pany of Montreal, so stoutly opposed the Hudson's Bay Company, 
 utterly denying the validity of its charter, and accusing it of all 
 manner of crimes, murder and robbery included. The two Com- 
 panies being now one concern, and Mr. Ellice one of the principal 
 shareholders, he is quite in love with the Company's policy and 
 rule ; and he professes to believe that the chartered rights, which 
 he once utterly repudiated, are quite incontestable ! He concedes, 
 indeed, that the monopoly gives the Company power to fix what 
 prices it pleases with the Indians; but he contends that the 
 results of competition would be to deluge the Indians with 
 spirituous liquors, and cause them to make war upon each other ! 
 Yet even he admits that Vancouver's Island should be recovered 
 as soon as possible, and constituted a British colony. He was 
 followed by Mr. A. K. Isbister, who gave valuable evidence as to 
 the capabilities of the country, and the withering effects of the 
 monopoly, and handed in a memorial from the Bed River settlers, 
 specifying a long array of grievances against the company. The 
 question that remains to be solved is, whether Parliament and the 
 public will consent to hoodwinked by such glaring tergivisation as 
 that of Sir George Simpson and the Right Hon. Edward Ellice. 
 
 In