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I /rata to pelure, nA n 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 TH tbMW BAYC ITS POSITION AND PROSPEOm THE SUBSTANCE OF AN ADDRESS, DELIVBBED AT '-^ MEETING OF THE JJHAREHOLDERB, IN THE LONDdU^AVijRN, ON TriB 24tH JANUARY, 186^. ,1 BT JAMES DODDS. *v», AB1> ttl{fl| a iBttg* FijiiST TffbirsA?rni m % ' ",4. KDON: . , 0, OSARINO 0BQ8S, S.W. I ." ' ' ^-?!^" .AND ■ ^i"^^ .'■■J'" '^ .c. I lUTORlKS. ^ vHvriUv 5C J t 'V*ti * T.^i-.v ■'■■"'*''' ''lA'a ^ (50^ N* THE HUDSOFS BAY COMPANY. ITS POSITION Am PHOSPECTS. THE SUBSTANCE OK AN A.OHESH, .EUVEKED AT A .lEET.N. O, THE SirAREHOLDEKS, IN THE LONDON TAVERN, •W THE 2J.TH JANUARY, ] 860. nr JAMES DODDS. ^^itl) A iHap. I'/ If ST TIIOiiSA.XJj. LONDON : EDWAKl) 8rANF0Uu, G. OIIAUING C110.SS. S W. A. 11 BAILY .^- CO. 3. ROVAl'eXCHANGE BMILDINGS. K.C. 18GG. A Mai* of TiiK lu: I) SOX'S ILV> ■-^ " •- -• ^ i:i) SOX'S MAY rKiMiiToin i:s. H<> 70 '^;*^'-^'^-^" \ \ ^" ei> .> r (I ,c2i: 55 1 'g '■a!tti-»L-u . A t- <-4 ^ Si-.ilf r.iivSliHh St.iiul.' Mill' 7 7 167630 PEEFACE. A WISH having been expressed for the publication, in a revised and authentic form, of the following Address on the Hudson's Bay Company, I have reproduced, as near as memory served me, the portions that were actually delivered. But, T have also added several points which I intended to bring forward, but forbore, from an anxiety not to trespass upon the time of the audience — the busy men of the busiest city in the world at a still busy period of the day. The principal authorities (independent of some private informants on whose accuracy I could rely), from which I have drawn my facts, are the following: — Pahliamentaey Papers : — Hudson's Bay Company ..... 1850 Eeport from Select Committee on Hudson's Bay Company . 1857 Hudson's Bay Company's Cliarter and Licences . . 185U Conferences between Her Majesty's Government and Deputation from Executive Council of Canada Hind's Canadian Expedition into Kupert's Land, &e Palliser's Exploration of British North America Lidex and Maps to Captain Palliser's Eeports Hind's Narrative of Canadian Exploring Expeditions Hudson's Bay Company's Reports from 28th November Martin's Hudson's Bay Territories Fitzgerald's Examination of Hudson's Bay Company Monro's British North America Diusmore's American Railway Guide Nor' Wester Newspaper of Red River . Russell's Canada .... Rawlings' Route from Atlantic to Pacific Ocean Rowe's American and Australian Colonies Lord Selkirk's British Fur- Trade in North America Berghaus' Chart of the World ... Journal of Society of Arts Statesmen's Year Book .... 1865 1860 1859-60-63.(;5 1805 18G0 1864 1819 1849 1864 November, 1805 1865 1865 1865 1864 1816 1863 March, 1861 1860 IV PREFACE. m I was mucli assisted at the Meeting by being able to refer to the large map of the Territory belonging to the Company, and which was most readily and kindly lent for the occasion by the Directors ; and now the readers of this publication will be equally assisted by the ac- companying map, prepared and executed in Mr. Stanford's establishment. Coming from such a quarter, its fidelity can be absolutely depended upon, and every care has been taken to make it clearly illustrative of the letter-press. Only leading places are shown, so as not to burden attention with what is insignificant or irrelevant ; and by varieties of tinting the great cha- racteristic features of th^. country are brought pro- minently before the mind. The patient and cordial attention of the Meeting at the London Tavern, composed chiefly of city men, whose every minute was valuable, was a suflicient reward for my small labours. I hope, in this published form, the Address may continue to be useful and stimulating to my fellow-shareholders, who have need, at this turning- point in the Company's afl'airs, of knowledge, union, and decision, to see that their interests are not lost by delay, intrigue, or weakness, and that the resources of their splendid property are fully developed. The Gentlemen who convened and coi ducted the Meeting are anxious to give a short account of their stewardship to the body of the shareholders, by whom they were so respectably supported on that occasion. This will be found in a Statement at the end of the pamphlet. J. D. 18, Abingdon Street, Westminster, March, 1866. ca si THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY. i I I HOPE when you have heard me, I shall stand ac- quitted of any charge of presumption in coming forward to open the proceedings of this meeting by an Ad(b-ess upon the position and prospects of the Hudson's 15ay Company. I was led by accidental causes to bestow some atten- tion upon this subject ; and the gentlemen who have convened this meeting thought it might be of use if 1 were to lay before my fellow-shareholders the results of my investigation. It miglit diffuse information amongst those who had not time and opportunity to prosecute the study for themselves ; and might guide the way to furtlier deliberations upon the new interests and new relations of the Company. I beg to state distinctly at the outset, that I am not here to raise up any party in the Company, or to utter any reproaches or recriminations against the Directors. They have chosen to maintain a reserve, a lilence, some call it a mystery, which I believe has been unsatisfactory and displeasing to many of the shareholders. But I have no doubt when the time conies tliat they can make a clean breast, tliey will be able to satisfy us that they have not been actuated by any pedantic stiffness and pride, but liavc been tongue-tied out of regard to ulterior interests wliich miglit be damaged by premature dis- closures and discussions. fn consequence of this inveterate silence however, the shareholdei's arc left to themselves, without chart or B 2 THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. compass, and must do the best they can in watching the course of events, and in urging the adoption of some more defined and decided measures for the common protection and welfare. We have been for years approaching an extraordinary crisis in our affairs ; we are now thoroughly involved in it ; we must adapt our antiquated and semi-barbarous fashions to the requirements of modem civil " ':ation ; and upon )ur prudence or weakness as a Company for the next two years, will depend — whether we shall sink in decrepitude arid contempt, or soar to a higher pinnacle of prosperity than ever, carrying along with us the pro- gress and improvement of humanity. That you may have before you at once the whole topics in connection with the Company on whicli I am to address you, 1 have to premise that I shall — First — Describe their territory. Second — Explain their title. Third — Sketch their history. Fourth — Notice the circumstances at woik wliicli must precipitate a change of policy. Fifth — Consider what ought to be the new policy. I. The Territory. This Territory has no one established name in geo- graphy. Its name will be a creation of the future. In the Charter of tlic Company (to which 1 shall have to refer), it was called Kupcrt's Land ; it has been com- monly styled the Hudson's Bay Territory ; and in old geographies I see that some portion of it at one time * bore the name of New Britain — a name which I hoi)e may yet be revived. I shall generally speak of it under the chartered iianie of Rup?,rt's Land. TirE TERlilTORY. 3 Rupert's Land occupies the central mass of British America, and is bounded by Canada and the Athmtic on the east, by the Arctic Ocean on the north, on the west by the Rocky IVIountains, British Cohmibia, and the large unallotted Indian Territory, and on the south by the Boundary-line of the United States. Although as yet imperfectly surveyed, we may take the area about 2^ millions of square miles — nearly equal to all Europe counting out Russia. The population is miserably dis- proportionate to the size, being only about lob,p()(), incbiding some 11,000 whites and half-breeds, the rest being various tribes of Indians. You will observe that a chain of lakes and lake- rivers runs through this Territory from the south-east, near the water-shed of Lake Superior, in a north-westerly direction towards the Arctic Ocean. This is the Lake Region. To the east, or AtLlntic side, is the Granite ; to the west, or Rocky Mountain side, is the Prairie Region. There are then three geologlccd regions or sub-divi- sions in Rupert's Land — the Granite, tlie l^akc, and the Prairie. The Granite region, (near foiu'-fiftlis of the wliole territory in extent,) seems t(^ be chiefly com])osed, as its name denotes, of tlie granitic and other primitive rocks. It has been sunnnarily depicted, on sliglit observation, as bare, rugged, and desolate. Further aecpiaintanee is modifying that view, for it is more and more found to be variegated with rich valleys and Hue picturesque spots. For the present however W(^ may lay it out of view, as a place for anything like innncdiate a^^rieul- tural settlement. it nnist not however be supposed to be a useless country. Far iVoiii it. It has always lu'eii one of tlie \\ 2 THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. chief haunts of the fur-bearing animals— one of the chief seats of our Fur- trade; and it is expected by all geologists, that it will yet be found stored with the most valuable minerals — iron and copper, and perhaps gold. They have lately discovered gold in the same formation, on the American side, west of Lake Su- perior. The two other regions [Lake and Prairie)^ lying to the west of the Granite, and stretching to the Rocky Mountains by a succession of slopes or terraces rising from 600 to 3000 feet above the sea-level, may be taken together ; for though they have many geological diversities, they are substantially the same in soil and produce, being generally composed of soft materials, overlaid with a rich vegetable mould, from a few inches to several feet in thickness. From geological descrip- tions they seem very much to resemble in structure and quality the South of England, from Devonshire to Sussex and Kent. The Lake and Prairie regions are now commonly known as the Basin of Lake Winnipeg, for all their streams and rivers flow into that Lake — a capacious inland sea of fresh- water, 300 miles long, and 50 broad, 400 miles at the nearest point south-west of Hudson's Bay. The Winnipeg River and its feeders from the Canadian side— the Red River, from near the springs of the Mississippi —the Assiniboine, from the heart of the Prairies — the North and South Saskatchewans, from the innermost defiles of the Rocky Mountains — all pour their volumes into the reservoir of Lake Winnipeg. This Winnipeg Basin contains about 400,000 square miles, all, with one exception, more or less capable of cultivation, and which no doubt will in the course of ages, become a varied and interesting and fruitful di d{ or B til d( b( i { THE TERRITORY. I country. The one exception consists of a spur of the Great American Desert, which penetrates for about 120 miles into the south-west corner of Rupert's Land. This, which in the United States is a long, wide, arid desert, spreading in melancholy waste the whole length of the continent, and from the valley of the Missis- sippi-Missouri, to the Rocky Mountains, and thence to the Pacific, over no less than 1,000,000 square miles, nearly one-third of the whole United States, can scarcely, when it passes the boundary-line into Rupert's Land, be described as a desert ; it becomes so niitigated in its sterile qualities, and interspersed with so many spots of verdure and abundant vegetation. In Ru- pert's Land it ought rather to be called, in distinction from the real American desert, by the name it used to receive from the old French voyageurs, the Couteau — meaning by that, I suppose, a country marked by sharp ridges. This Coutenu-gvomid is so diversified in quality, and so irregular in its outline, that it is difficult to say what extent is decidedly inferior land ; but we shall put the proportion high — say 50,000 square miles — which would still leave in the Winnipeg Basin 350,000 square miles, or 214,000,000 acres, capable of beneficial cultivation — about as much as France and Spain put together. But these immense quantities must be left for a distant posterity to deal with ; for the purposes of the day we must come down to more measurable amounts. This same Winnipeg Basin comprehends that zone or tract of country now so well known as the Fertile Belt of Rupert's Land — a tract of country, as its very title implies, which travellers and scientific explorers declare to be unsurpassed for fertility, productiveness, beauty, and adaptation for industrial settlement: — *^ In THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. some parts," says Captain Palliser, Commander of the British Government's Expedition of 1857-60, a man who indulges in no rhetorieal flourishes — ^'in some parts rivalling the finest park seenery of our own country." The Fertile Belt, varying in breadth, enters Rupert's Land with the course of the Red River, about the 9 6th meridian, girdles that River on both sides, turns to the north-west between the Assiniboine and Lake Winni- peg, follows the valley of the Saskatchewan to the west, but on approaching the ridges of the Rocky Mountains turns round to the south-west, and falls back again, about the 114th meridian, into the boundary line of the United States. It describes a sort of semicircle, and we may call it the '' Ihmihow of Rupert's Land," — the fore-token of its future splendour and prosperity. The Fertile l)elt contains about 65,000 square miles, or upwards of 40,000,000 acres, considerably more than England and Wales. But even this will require some generations fully to devclope and people. - We must again, for immediate purposes, reduce ourselves to a smaller amount of land. We come at last to a manageable area — to certain portions of the Fertile Belt which have been minutely explored and surveyed by Professor Hind, one of the Canadian Commissioners hi 1858, and described by him as extending to about 22,000,000 acres, — being larger than Ireland — land of the first quality in the world for agricultural and grazing uses, ready waiting for the plough and spade, and for myriads of sheep and cattle. In my subsequent remarks on land, I must always be understood, unless otherwise expressed, as referring not to the all but illhnitable spaces f Rupert's Land, with wliich posterity must be left to deal, but to this restricted area of first-class land, 22,000,000 acres. THE TEliRiTORY. which even the present generation may see, are ahno.st sure to see, converted into the abodes of industry and plenty, waving with grain and white with flocks, covered with large and thriving towns, and filled with tlie stir and sound of (I hope) an active, bold and educated, a free and sound-hearted population. The climate of the Fertile Belt is much finer than the eastern or Atlantic side of the Territory. The Winni- peg Basin in fa^t, taking the whole year together, is more genial than Cana8 which might be deemed applicable to it if it had been granted within the last ten or twenty years. " These observations however must be considered as limited in their application to the territorial rights of the Company, under the Charter, and to the necessary incidents or consequences of the territorial ownership. They do not extend to the monopoly of trade (save as territorial owner- ship justifies the exclusion of intruaers), or to the right of an exclusive administration of justice." ^ * # # * # " In our opinion the Crown could not now toith justice raise the question of the general validity of the Charter ; but . . . on every legal principle the Company's territorial ownership of the lands granted, and the rights necessarily incidental thereto (as, for example, the right of excluding troni their territory persons acting in violation of their regulations), ought to be deemed to be valid. '* But with respect to any rights of government, taxation, exclusive ad- ministration of justice, or exclusive trade, otherwise than as a consequence of the right of ownership of the land, such rights could not he legally insisted on by the Hudson's Bay Company as having been legally granted to them by the Crown." " The Company has, under the Charter, power to make ordinances (which would be in the nature of bye-laws) for the government of the persons em- ployed by them, and also power to exercise jurisdiction in all matters civil and criminal ; but no ordinance would be valid that was contrary to the common law, nor could the Company insist on its right to administer justice as against the Crown's prerogative right to establish Courts of civil and criminal justice within tlie territory. # ' # * w " # # •' The remaining subject of consideration is the question of the geogra- phical extent of tiio territory granted by the Charter, and wlieduM* its THE HISTORY. 31 nd ;lie om ;th. ime this itle fol- Bat/ tt has tide of nd the of our iciples lin tlio * their harter, rship. )wner- usive uestion nciple rights y trom ight to ive ad- jquence nsistcd them (whi(!U )ns em- tnatters [,rary to linister turta of Itfoogra- l\\c\' itH boundaries can in any and what manner be ascertained. In the case of ff rants of considerable arfe, such as this Charter, when the words, as is often the case, are indefinite or ambiguous, the rule is, that they are construed by usage and enjoyment. * ' * # # # # "Under these circumstances we cannot but feel that the important ques- tion of the boundaries of the territory of the Hudson's Bay Company might with great utility, as between the Company and Canada, be made the subject of a quasi-judicial inquiry." And then Counsel suggest, that the inquiry might be conducted of consent before the Privy Council. Opinion can be carried no further. You xnay consult for a hundred years, and throw away ten thousand guineas, but higher or more authoritative than this, there can be none. Short of a final judgment — which no opponent will venture to demand — the Opinion which I have read is the best and most undoubted ex- position of law on the Hudson's Bay title. It amounts to this : ~ a. That our title must be construed by possession and usage, and public acts of recognition. b. That our title is indisputable to the lands or terri- tory, and all rights incident to ownership. c. But does not cover exclusive trade, or exclusive jurisdiction, except so far as these may be incidents of ownership, and of lawful ordinances made by the Com- pany as owners. d. It follows that the Crown has no right, cause or pretext to initiate any proceedings for trying the validity of the Company's Charter, but must hold and treat it as good and valid. e. But there are obscure points of boundary between Canada and Rupert's Land, which might with propriety be tried or submitted before some competent tribunal. On receiving this Opinion, the Government inquired of the Hudson's Bay Company if they would agree to go before the Privy Council, on the question of the fifr*' 32 THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. disputed boundaries. They readily consented. Tlie correspondence with the C-anadian Government is not published, so far as I know, but it is evident from the result that they refused to take an) action — would neither concur in a trial of the boundaries, nor raise proceedings to try the validity of the Charter. And so the Honourable William Henry Draper, C. B., Chief Justice and Commissioner of Canada, disappears from the stage — as lamely and impotently as Messrs. Isbister and M'Loughlin had done before. 1858—59. The Canadians seem for a while to have remained dormant and uncertain how to act; but in August 1858, when the trading licenses were about to expire, Sir Bulwer Lytton being Colonial Minister, the Legislative Council and Assembly, in short the Parliament of Clanada, sent over an address to the Queen, setting forth that there was then '' a favourable opportunity for obtaining a final decision on the validity of the Chai'ter of the Company, and the boundary of Canada on the north and west." They then represent, " That Canada sliould not he called upon to compensate the said Company for any portion of such territory from which they may withdraw, or be compelled to withdraw ; but that the said Company should be allowed to retain and dispose of any portion of the lands thereof on wliich they have built or improved." This last is a very candid, if neither a very honest nor dignified confession. The Canadians don't want to pay. They remind me of the Irish fellow I met in a boat on the Dublin Canal, who said—" I like whiskey, but I don't like to pay for it." The Canadians like Rupert's l^and, but they don't like to pay for it. ■ d THE HISTORY. 33 Sir Bulwer Lytton, who showed himself, if not a par- tisan, at least animated by a kind of sportman's keenness, proposed to the Company to join in setting up their Charter as a target to he fired at. Mr. Berens, then Deputy-Governor, returned this memorable answer: " The Company cannot he an assenting party to any proceeding which is to call in question rights so long established and recognized ; but they will of course be prepared to protect themselves against any attempt that may be made on the part of the Canadian autho- rities to deprive them, without compensation, of any portion of the territory they have so long been in possession of." Sir Bulwer, after rhetorically scolding Mr. Berens for his obduracy, felt that after all a Colonial Minister must restrain his fancy, and be guided by the dry legal opinion of his attorney and solicitor-general, then Sir Fitzroy Kelly and Sir Hugh Cairns. Again a fourth recorded time (besides possibly many unrecorded oc- casions,) was the question of the Hudson's Bay Charter referred to the law officers of the Crown. Their Opinion has not been published ; but obviously it was the same as those of their numerous predecessors; for they advised the Crown not to interfere, and that the only way of trying the question was for the Canadian Government to raise a writ oi scire facias for the repeal of the Charter. Armed with this Opinion, Sir Bulwer turned briskly to the Canadians, hophig that he would find in them more sympathising natures tlian hi obdurate Mr. Berens. '' Procure the writ!" he cries to tlicm cliivalrously, in liis dlspatcli of 22nd l)ecenil)cr, 1 «S58. But when tlie ( >aiin- dians, who like Paddy didn't want to ])ay, lonnd that the tlien law-otUcers ui' the Crown just rcpcjited the 34 THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. same advice as their numerous predecessors, found that the opponents of the Charter m'lst try the Charter out of their own pockets, they began quietly to back out, and requested to have some time for consideration. Bir Bulwer could not conceal his disappointment, as the chance of the shooting match began to vanish. He wrote to the Canadian Government, in February 1859, with something like reproach, that their deputation had assured him that the Canadian Government were imme- diately to institute law proceedings against the Hudson's Bay, and he must at once know their decision. After brooding away for another month, the Canadian Par- liament through Sir Edmund Head, their Governor, an- nounced on the 4th of April, 1859, their final resolution. " I am now for the first time able to inform you, that the Executive Council will not advise steps to he taken for testing the validity of the Charter hy scire facias.' ' This was the unkindest cut of all. The Canadians, after exciting his expectations by a good deal of pre- liminary bluster, to fling'aside their muskets, and not a shot to be fired at the old Charter I Sir Bulwer, so far as appears in the Papers, deigned no reply ; and must have sought relief from the commonplace shabbiness of mankind in the fancies which afterwards fed his " Strange Story." The Canadians had now for the second time a clear stage and fair opportunity, with the Colonial Minister apparently favourable to them, to try the Charter. Yet by an act of their Legislature, communicated through their Governor to the British Crown, they positively and solemnlv refused. After this formal act of their GovernmerJ, it became impossible for them any longer to maintain the attitude of legal objection to the Charter. They could not do this with the smallest self-respect or THE HISTORY. 35 consistency ; all political parties in this countiy would laugh at their folly, if they should continue to maintain objections in law, which they had not the courage or honesty to try, when they were challenged and almost baited into the contest. Since that time therefore the Canadian Government have practically abandoned the question as a legal question, whatever private individuals and pamphleteers may do. They have now publicly proclaimed it to be a diplomatic, or political question, one to be resolved, not on naked principles of law, but on the mixed and equitable rules of policy. This appears fully recorded in Mr. CardwelFs dispatch of 17th June 1865, relating to the proposed North- American Confederation. Referring to conferences he had then recently held with a deputation from the Canadian Government, he says, — " On the .... subject of the Nortli-Western Territory, the Canadian Ministers desired that that Territory should be made over to Canada, and undertook to negotiate with the Hudson's Bay Company for the termination of their rights, on condition that the indemnity, if any, should be paid by a loan, to be raised by Canada under the Imperial guarantee." On this unimpeachable authority then it is demon- strated that the Canadian Government no longer treat the question as one of law^ hut one of political negotiation — that is, of rational and equitable arrangement. No doubt, even when they abandon their legal ob- jections, the old virus betrays itself in the phrase — " the indemnity, if any,'" Tuus insinuating that no indemnity may be due — that the Company have no rights. 'Tis a petty inuendo,— miserably petty for a body of men pretending to be a Government, and to be statesmen, and putting on airs as the founders of a new American Confederation. But if this attempt to leave the wasp's sting behind, even when offering negotiation, be any d2 36 THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. vr. )lief to their irritated pride, baffled so long by the astuteness and vigilance of a private coi'poration, they are welcome to the use of any such bitter expression. Words will do no harm ; we shall be on our guard against acts. With this historical narrative before you it ^ ill be seen, that in 1748 the validity of the Company's Charter was directly attacked and tried in the Privy Council, and after a full investigation was sustained by the Go- vernment; that from 1783 to 1821 the North-west Company of Canada were constantly projecting how to annul the Charter on legal objections, but found it was useless, and never ventured upon the attempt ; that in 1848-9 the representatives of the Eed Eiver malcontents, though pressed by the Government, refused to take any legal proceedings ; that the Canadian Government have twice refused since 1857 to take legal proceedings, and the last time in the most solemn public form in which they can act as a community ; and that recently, in a form scarcely less solemn, they have receded from the legal ground altogether, and have acknowledged that the question is not one of law^ but oi political negotiation. And yet there are shallow pamphleteers and repeaters of parrot-phrases who keep crying, " O your title has never been tried, your title has never been tried !" Has the Duke of Bedford's? Has the Marquis of Westminster's? have any of the most solid titles in England? Do you mean to say that no title is to be respected until it has been tried in a court of law?. Pleasant news for lawyers certainly, whatever it may be for proprietors,— so many estates, so many law-suits! Did you ever hear of any proprietor, except for fricndh or family reasons, mad enough to raise an action against his own title ? If you were landlord of a house, and a 4 THE HISTORY. 37 wag passing were to say, " I don't believe that man has any right to the house, he has never tried his title," should you immediately rush to your lawyer and com- mand him to raise an action against your title, and have its validity tried, all to satisfy a passing fool ? Yet this, which you at once see in your own affairs would be the silliest of jokes to propose, has been gravely pro- pounded as an objection against the Hudson's Bay Com- pany. Pray why are they, of all proprietors since Adam, to be the self-confessed madmen to raise an action against their own title ? But has the title not been tried, to all intents and purposes, as few titles have ever been tried ? and has it not always come out clear and triumphant, at least as respects the ownership of the land ? I appeal to the foregoing narrative, if it has not been tried to the very core. Independent of many trials, doubtless, of which we have no record, have I not shown that for five re- corded times it has passed through the fire, with its substance uninjured, and only annealed by the strength of the flames ? But why say more ? why appeal to reason, when it is gross interested motives that are arrayed against us, deaf to the voice of reason ? The title is so clearly un- exceptionable, that we should never have heard a word against it, but for rancour, and greed, and political ambition as mean and shabby as it is selfish. IV. Necessity of New Policy. Fifty years ago — nay much less — this Rupert's Land was away in the ends of the eartli — unknown and unapproachable. Its only settlement at the Red Eiver — a collection of huts little better than the Indian wigwams — was about 1500 miles distant from any centre of population, cither in Canada or in the p,T- 38 THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. United States. The country, if destitute of cultivation, was also, from its very inaccessibility, safe from aggres- sion. . But within the last 20 years the Far- West of America has been filled up with a rapidity almost unexampled. A small cluster of log-houses multiply in a few years into a city of one or two hundred thousand inhabitants. The states and territories adjoining the boundary-line of Kupert's Land now contain a population of nearly 2,000,000. By the Bed Eiver, constant communication has been established between St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota, and Selkirk ; and the American population are gradually moving on and on to Pembina on the very frontier. It is the same all along the boundary -line. Gold discoveries, the modem loadstone of population, are being made near the Vermilion Lake, Minnesota, about 80 miles west of Lake Superior, and drawing shoals of adventurers. Gold is found in Montana near the JRooky Mountains, not 300 miles from the head waters of the North Saskatchev^an, where gold is also known to exist. Last summer 40,000 American miners were at work in Montana, making sums so incredible that I dare hardly repeat the amount until the circumstances are more fully vouched; next summer double the number are expected. " If the Hudson's Bay Company do not wake up," — says a private letter which I have seen from an official gentleman in Minnesota, dated in December, 1 865 — " I am afraid that there will be danger of their losing some of the finest portions of the Valley of the Saskatchewan and its tributaries." Population is up to our very boundary. Flocks of squatters are passing over. That mere imaginary line, v^hich has not even the one solitary sentinel who is said to embody the whole force of the British empire, will soon be forgotten ; and there will be an " ugly rush" all over the Prairies NECESSITY OF NEW POLICY. 39 — a rush which, if we are not prepared beforehand, we shall neither be able to control nor regulate. The world wants the land, and will have it. Hitherto the Americans have acted with great self-restraint, with great equity, with great consideration of our rights ; but if we are to sit for ever motionless and mysterious like the Sphinx, they will soon pass us by with contempt, and utilize for themselves our green valleys and hill- tops, — and our richly stored mines. If once our boundary is over-leaped, and our territories inundated, two consequences are likely to ensue : — 1st. The squatters will take possession right and left, without any regard to our Charter, and will refuse to pay to a weak private Company either tribute or ac- knowledgment. They will submit to nothing, take title from nothing, short of some established government, be it the United States or Great Britain. 2nd. This rush of Americans (for it will be Ame- ricans chiefly) will soon in some way implicate the United States Government, who know better than we do the value of the Fertile Belt, and that this is the best route to the Pacific. Complications may thus arise, are sure to arise, between the United States and our own Government. In the midst of these complications some panic legislation will be pushed through; the weakest will go to the wall; the Hudi?on's Bay — a helpless victim between two Colossi — will be sacrificed ; an arrangement will be patched up in rough haste, to avert the evils of a war; and as in the case of Oregon in 1846, all our rights and claims, too numerous and intricate to be settled off-hand, will be reserved. Re- served! — which means law-suits, or arbitrations, or nego- tiations, of which I pre phesy the youngest shareholder in this room will never see the end. m THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. .i m If you shareholders do not take up the matter seriously, and make up your minds, and decide, and see that your decisions are obeyed, — two years more will not pass till the whole affair is snatched out of your hands. The cuiTcnt of events, too strong for individuals or private companies, will sweep past, and, reckless of you and your rights, will make Rupert's Land the tool of the political necessities of the moment ; and your capital of £2,000,000 may go the bottom of Lake Winnipeg ! Events have no compassion. He who wants justice and safety must command, not wait events. It is not silence, and mystery, and platitude, and red-tapeism that will save your splendid property ; but clear heads, firm steps, and determined wills. What must be done 9 • V. The New Policy. We have only two alternatives from which to choose ; we must either find a purchaser for the Territory, or we must ourselves proceed to settle and colonise it. ■■ Sell or Settle — which ? But I have to make a preliminary remark on our condition as a corporate body, which may come greatly to affect our ultimate resolution on the policy of sale or settlement. I have already explained, that the grant to the Com- pany of ownership of the land is good ; but the grants of exclusive trade and exclusive jurisdiction are bad. At the same time the Company are entitled, as an inci- dent of their ownership, to exclude trespassers from their land, and to this extent they might maintain some amount of exclusive trade ; and they are entitled, as an incident of their ownership, to pass and enforce lawful bye-laws and regulations, that is to exercise a certain I - -■^-*M.WMi|i>««iiigi^?HNwB!.pgM THE NEW POLICY. 41 degree of jurisdiction, amongst their own servants, agents, lessees and grantees, and even over the inha- bitants generally, if the Crown do not of its own preroga- tive interfere or prohibit. The Charter is good only for the ownership of the land, with such rights of trade and jurisdiction only as are the incidents of ownership. The Charter, in short, carries nothing but the land, and the rights inherent in the ownership of the land. The shareholders^ then^ are a corporation only for the pur- poses of the ownership of the land — to hold, to manage, to cultivate, to settle, to lease, to convey, always re- serving the radical ownership. So long as we hold, or settle, or convey, or manage the land, reserving the lordship of the territory, our Charter subsists, we are a corporation. The moment we make an out-and-out sale or transfer, the moment we part out-and-out with the land, we are a corporation no more^ our Charter is put on the back of the fire, and we are simply 1000 or 2000 (whatever our number be) of isolated, unconnected individuals, having no corporate existence. We may enter into new articles of association, we may register ourselves as a limited company, and thus get new com- pany powers for new purposes. But part with Eupert's Land, the Charter is evacuated — the Hudsoris Bay Com- pany instantly dies. I wish to impress this upon you ; because there is a vague notion current that we may sell and transfer the land, yet still retain the incorporating powers, still be the Hudson's Bay Company ; turn our coi"porate powers to some new account — work away at our fur and goods trade, or go into tea, guano, or petroleum, or at least become an investing and money-lending company, all under our old Charter. This is a complete mistake. Our incorporating 42 THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. powers were given, not at random, not to be used any- way, according to our freaks and fancies, but to be applied and restricted to the specific purposes (so far as in themselves legal) defined in the grants of the Charter. The only legal and valid portion of these grants, ac- cording to our best jurists, is the freehold of the land. Part with this freehold, our Charter is void. We may form a new company, but it cannot be under the Charter. The old flag must fly at the old mast-head : it cannot be hung over a Broker's shop. Now then, to return to the discussion of the two alternatives— Sale or Settlement? Sale, The price to be expected and demanded for the Ter- ritory, must be arbitrary ; we have no data for laying down a sum certain. If I have an estate fully occupied and cultivated, it returas a certain annual rental, and that rental multiplied by the usual number of years' purchase, gives nearly about the sum which ought to be paid by a purchaser. Our estate is not fully occupied, scarcely occupied at all, nor is it cultivated except to a small extent ; but it has been used and is necessary as the area and means for carrying on our trade. Ours is a case analogous to the manufacturer or trader who, pos- sessing certain lands, has not used them so much for cultivation, but they have served him and been necessary to him in various ways for the purposes and operations of his manufacture or trade. A Railway Company comes to dispossess him ; and without his property his trade cannot be carried on ; with the loss of his property he loses his trade. Such cases of com- pensation frequently occur in the present times ; and THE NEW POLICY. 43 the rule of compensation is, that a fair price is allowed for the land taken, and the good-will of the trade is valued, and full indemnity allowed for the loss. Our case is the very same in principle. If our land is to be taken, and with it (as we shall immediately see) the good-will of our trade, the compensation must be made up from mixed data; and these data are composed of two elements : — A. The prospective value of the estate to the pur- chaser ; B. The contingent depreciation and loss in our own trade. A. Value of estate to purchaser. Without resorting to general calculations, we have a precedent to guide us here in the neighbouring state of Minnesota, lying close to us, the prototype of what our territory will soon become. Minnesota was formed into a temtory in 1849. It had of cultivated acres in 1850, 5,035, in 1865, 1,000,000, being an increase at the rate of 19,760 per cent, in the course of fifteen years. In 1862 land was selling there at £1. 12^, but lately was rishig to £3 and £4 per acre. We shall take as the average price of land in Rupert's Land for fifteen years, the one half only of Minnesota in 1862, 16.5 per acre. At present the quantity of land under cultivation in Rupert's Land is about 20,000 acres. At the rate of increase in Minne- sota, it would amount in fifteen fears to 4,000,000. At 16s per acre, that would produce £3,200,000. Our Australian experience of annual revenue derived from sales of public land confirms this esthnate, or rather proves it to be too low. Tlie quantity and value of land then which a purchaser of the territory would soil in the first fifteen years, may be safely estimated at £3,2 30,000. , u THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. There being, as we have seen, 22,000,000 acres of immediately available land, there would still remain to the pm'chaser 18,000,000 acres at gradually in- creasing prices, but even at IQs per acre, worth nearly £15,000,000. This, independent of all other sources of wealth ii^ the territory, such as fisheries, oils and salt, minerals, the higher price for town allotments, &c. &c. B. Depreciation or loss of trade. Our trade is almost solely of two kinds — in Furs ex- ported, and Goods imported. Our Accounts nowhere show our exact annual revenue from trade. By the last annual Account made up to the end of May 1865, it appears we have two working portions of capital : — Money in Investments .... £346,601 11 9 in Trade 743,985 7 7 If £1,090,586 19 4 The return upon these two capitals is not distinguished, but the whole return upon Investments and Trade is lumped as £93,580. Is 9c?. What is the average interest upon our Money investments we are not informed, but for- first-class investments, as ours no doubt are, 4J per cent is a fair average interest to assume. Our whole annual profits being £93,580 1 9 Suppose the IMoney investments (£346 601) at 4J per cent, to be 15,597 Lcavhig profits on Trade . . . £77,983 1 9 Say £78,000. llow mucli of this is for Furs, and how much for («oods, we have no means of knowing; but that is of THE NEW POLICY. 45 no consequence in our present computation. A ^e shall put down our Trade profits at £78,000. If the land be once purchased and taken out of our power and control, our Charter, as I have pointed out, will be at an end, and we shall cease to be a corporation. But suppose we enter into a new association to continue the prosecution of our trade, then our trade will become, when separated from the ownership and control of the land, so precarious, so exposed to utter extinction, that we could no longer rely upon it as a source of revenue. (1) All persons who can speak with authority and experience declare, that if the country be thrown open to settlement, and an influx of population take place, with all sorts of characters, desperadoes as well as honest men, the wild and roving as well as the steady and industrious, the fur-bearing animals will be hunted down, driven out of the territory, and speedily extii'- pated. So has it been in the Far- West of the United States, and would equally be so in the North- West of British America. Much evidence to this effect was given before the Select Committee in 1857. Edward Ellice having stated, on the interrogation of Mr. Labouchere, that in his time the supply of }>eltry had " diminished probably one-half, if not two-thirds" — adds, '"''AH the countries easily reached have been entirely destroyed. The valuable trade of the Hudson's Bay Company is in the remote districts, where, nobody having the power to interfere with them, they presers^e the animals just as you do your hares and pheasants in this country." The Committee, with the whole evidence before them, reported that, if tlic territory were thrown completely open, one consequence would be — "the probability of the indiscriminate destruction of the more vahuible fur- bearing animals in the course of a few years," ( )ne of 46 THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. the most recent, candid and emphatic testimonies has been borne by the present resident Governor of Rupert's Land, Mr. Dallas, who, in writing to the Canadian Go- vernment in April, 1862, whilst agreeing as to the general benefit of settling the Fertile Belt, thus ex- presses his conviction that such a settlement would be the doom of the Fur Trade. •* A cHain of settlements through these valleys (the Fertile Belt) would not only deprive the Company of the above vital resource (supplies of food from the buifalo herds), but would indirectly in many other ways so interfere witJi their northern trade as to render it no longer worth prosecuting on an extended scale. It would necessarily bo diverted into various channels, possibly to the public benefit, but the Company could no longer exist on its present footing. " The above reasons against a partial surrender of our territories may not appear sufficiently obvious to parties not conversant with the trade, or the country ; but my knowledge of both, based on personal experience, and from other sources open to me, points to the conclusion, that partial concessions of the districts, which must necessarily be alienated, would inevitably' lead to the extinction of the Compani/." Our success in the Fur-Trade was owing to our having the land entirely to ourselves, with no popula- tion near us, with a universal belief prevailing that we had the legal inonopoly, and our being able to impose our own tariff and our own terms on the Indians and other hunters. But if we part with all rights of owner- ship, in fact cease to be the Hudson's Bay Company, our advantage will be lost. The spell of the monopoly is already broken; the world knows that the best jurists have pronounced it illegal •, and for many years we have been unable to enforce it. American and Eed River dealers compete with us all over the territory ; and the Indians have now hundreds of customers for the skins, instead of having only the Company. The great restless population of the West is dashing ovei our frontiers; and, as wave succeeds wave, our Fur-Trade will be more and more obliterated. As a question of indemnity, we are boimd, by all the THE NEW POLICY. 47 the rules of probability and prudence, to set it down as a total loss. (2.) Our Goods-trade does not seem at first sight so necessarily doomed as our trade in Fur. The very population which tends to extinguish the latter, might be supposed only to stimulate and increase the former. But the Goods-trade hitherto has only been a pendant of the Fur-trade, meant to do little more than supply the outfit ; and its profits again have been kept up and swelled by the actual monopoly, long supposed legal, which we have possessed of importing and selling mer- chandise, and of conducting all trade in the territory, without any rivals. Our Goods-trade was entirely barter — an enormous truck system ; and formerly, from the ignorance of the Indians, we disposed of our goods at twenty times their real value. Now that this charm of our exclusive right has been dispelled, traders come up from the States and traverse the country, and a number of pushing and successful merchants have established themselves on the Red River. By a return which I lately saw of goods imported into Rupert's Land via St. Paul, it appeared that the goods belonging to in- dependent traders and merchants were nearly equal in amount to those sent by the Company. So closely is competition grazing our heels, and stamping out the excessive profits which alone rendered our Goods-trade possible. The trade in such a scattered and thinly peopled country is and must long be rather retail than wholesale — in short pedlars' business ; and in pedlars' business a large public company, with its head-quarters in London, and its proprietors very numerous and con- stantly fluctuating, never can compete with the zeal, promptitude, cheap management, and personal go-a- head of private individuals, or small select partnerships. 48 THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. Il at work upon the spot. Indeed, in no simply small trading business can a public company be the match for individuals or a few working partners. If we part with the land, we have as little hope of maintaining our Goods' as of maintaining our Fur-trade. Here then is the loss of our annual profits of trade, — £78,000. And this loss, capitalized at 5 per cent amounts to a sum representing a loss of £1,570,000. The facts, tcotimonies, and analogies which I have adduced, sufficiently warrant the conclusion that our trade will be totally lost — that our annual revenue from tidde will be spunged out. But even if the grounds for this conclusion were less cogent than they are, it is our part, our interest, our duty as a commercial company, as prudent and sensible men, to calculate upon the risk of a total loss, and in the terms of any purchase to insist for absolute indemnity — absolute indemnity. We are not selling with a halter about our neck, or a pistol at our head ; we are under no dire inevitable necessity. We need not sell unless we like. As vx shall see presently, we can keep our land, we can settle our territory, we can open up and ourselves enjoy its riches. If we have energy and judg- ment, and are up to the time of day, this will be by far the most profitable, as it would be the most dignified and manly course. We beg no one to buy ; we court nobody's offer. If a purchaser comes, he must come in no mean, shabby, higgling spirit; he must meet us fairly and liberally, and one condition must be — absolute indemnity for the loss of our trade. I have now examined the two mixed elements from which we are to deduce the price that we ouglit to demand for parting with our territory and territorial rights. The first was, the prospective value of the THE NEW POLICY. 49 property to a purchaser in fifteen years' time, which I estimate within very low bounds at £3,200,000 The second wsiB the amount of our loss in trade, which I estimate at a total loss capitalized of . . 1,570,000 £4,770,000 Or say in round numbers, £5,000,000. Five Millions -that is about the standard of the price on which we ought to insist. Some of you may be startled for a moment at the sound of such a price ; but 1 beg of ypu to recast and reflect upon the previous calculations, and you will see the price is reached, not by baseless and extrava- gant conjectures, but by sober, real, positive facts. And remember, it is not for small and ordinary profits, for an everlasting 4 or 4^ per cent, that you withdraw your money from the banks, or from consols, or from your own business, and risk it in Joint-stock companies, but for great and extraordinary chances, such as has now turned up to the Hudson's Bay, if we have the sense and vigour to take advantage of it. It is not every day that a continent is on sale; there is no such other estate in the wide world ; and Five Millions are a drop in the bucket, compared with the profits and advantages that would in the long run be realised by any community or company making the purchase. But in fact there would be nothing anomalous or unprecedented in winding up the Hudson's Bay at such a price. These are almost identically the terms on which the Government, in 1833, arranged with the East India Company — our elder brother who has gone before us into the land of shades. That Company was compensated, was bought out in fact, by a 50 THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. rl guaranteed annuity of 10^ per cent on a nominal capital of £0,000,000. The price we demand (£5,000,000) invested at 4J per cent would yield £225,000. That is, deducting cost of management, &c., nearly 10^ per cent on our paid-up capital of £2,000,000 — a capital not merely nominal like the East India Company's, but actually paid up. This I say was the adjustment with the East India Company ; and we, the Hudson's Bay, stand in the same category,— the last of those ancient proprietary corporations who held or conquered kingdoms for the Mother Country. We are entitled to the same euthan- asia. Our position may not have been so dazzling in the past, but neither has it been marked with so many guilty stains ; and I do not hep* ate to affirm that we have been guarding and preparing for Britain a fresher, and fairer, and nobler inheritance of the future. But there is a whisper circulating that One Million has been offered for our territory. By whom and when it was offered, whether it has been seriously discussed by the Government or by our Directors, and whether it is still pendino', no one can tell. All is studied mystery. But as the birds of the air are carrying the matter, we may as well give it a passing notice. I have already shown, that if we part with the land, our Charter is at an end — our incorporation has no further legal existence. But even if we were still to •endeavour as a Corporation to continue in trade, I have likewise shown that our trade cannot subsist on a sufficiently remunerative scale, when divided from the ownership of the land, when the prestige of our mon- opoly is dissipated, and when Yankees and Half-breeds, true sons of the soil, are disputing with us incli by inch. We should thei'efore be left eventually without any h i THE NEW POLICY. 61 annual return from trade. When we sell, we must wind up — our old Charter collapses for ever. Now what sort of winding up will there be upon One Million for the land ? I am no great adept in figures, and our Accounts are blamed by every one as being vague, incomplete, and inexplicit. But for the pi*esent we must take them as they are. So far as I can make out from the An- nual Account up to the end of May, 1865, our assets, or realisable means there collected, are as follows : — Sundries, including cash in hand £9,234 1 3 Loans and Investments . . . 346,601 11 9 Accounts iue to the Company . 30,746 5 6 Plant valued at 65,164 11 5 Advances in Goods 743,984 7 7 1,195,731 11 6 Deduct debts due by Company . 205,947 9 10 Total assets £989,748 7 8 Add alleged offer for land . 1,000,000 Divisible fund £1,989,748 7 8~ But with expenses of management, winding up, con- tingent depreciations, &c., we take the divisible fund at £1,900,000. This falls far short of our paid-up capital (£2,000,000), and therefore we wind up on a deficit. It would divide some £18 or £19 per share of £20, which, with three years of dividend at 4^ per cent, would be all the harvest gathered by the later Hudson's Bay Shareholders for their paid-up capital of £2,000,000. But test the Million another way. Suppose, instead of our dividing and winding up, the Million were carried and added to assets, for the purpose E 2 m THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. I I) of still keeping up the Company in some shape or other. This would make the whole assets about £1,900,000. It has been sufficiently shewn that the Company could no longer be a trading Company ; that wiih the loss of the land the powers of the Charter w ould be exhausted ; and therefore it could only continue for a time (not under the Charter at all, but probably under some articles of association,) as a money-lending or investing Company. Suppose it could invest its whole assets at an average of 4| per cent, but deducting average losses and declines, and the necessity of keeping back some reserve, the annual d'vidend could never exceed 3 or 3^ per cent. Then the new association (for it would no longer be the Hudson's Bay Company) would have no great future, no boundless resources before it, to incite and tempt speculation in its shares. It would be a worn-out stump. Judging irom similar effete stocks, the shares would hang dull and inanimate about £12, and e"\ en at that price would only be 5 per cent on the capital. In fact they would bp unsaleable, till in disgust and des- peration the still remaining shareholders would wind up at whatever disadvantage. And yet we b'^ar of men wise after this world who go about vaunting, that if we sell our land. Charter and everything, for a million, our shares will fly up to £20. or £25. — our skin and bone, without horns or tallow, will sell above par. Well, one has seen so many ma- nias on the Stock Exchange — there is so little calcula- tion or common sense in these so-called " operations/' so much of monkey imitation — that no one can tell w hat may happen, the mere scream of the Hudson's Bay people getting a million of money might send up the shares by a sudden bound to £20. or £25. But I as certainly believe — and more experienced men as cer- THE SETTLEMENT. 53 tainly believe — that the suddeii-bountling purchasers would find themselves in a short time with only £12. in their pockets for every £20, or £25. that they had foolishly flung away per share. In a word, One Million still leaves a deficit^ and you will never make true par out of that. Settlement. We come to the other alternative which we may adopt — that of the Company imdertaking the colonisa- tion or settlement of their own Territory. I am strongly persuaded, under all the circumstances in which we are placed, this is our wisest and most beneficial course. We cannot force purchasers to come forward, or it may be long before we can realize an adequate price. Are we to stand with our hands in our iDockets and do nothing ? If nothing be done, circumstances may any day break out which will precipitate the intei-fereiice of Government, perhaps both of the British and the United (States Governments, and our proprietary interests may be overriden or postponed. Instead then of waiting idly for a purchaser, or a satisfactory price, or running the risk of hasty and hurtful interference by governments, we ought immediately to make our right of ownership effectual ; we ought to survey and prepare the laud for settlement ; we ought to set on foot the necessary land ii^encies ; we ought to take sufficient precautions, under our proprietary rights, for the order and government of the population ; and there can be no doubt that within a year's time there would be a large immigration into the Territory, and extensive tracts of country would be bought, occupied, and cultivated. Our title would u THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. 'I n I \ every day become more and more a substantial reality, instead of the shadow it now looks. Our capital in the land, now locked up and altogether unproductive, would speedily return the most ample interest, and abundantly make up for any decline in our trade. Our proprietary rights would be so widely diffused and so firmly planted that when Government at length came to deal with the administration and permanent regulation of the Territory, they must first of all recognise and arrange with these rights — in short, fairly buy us up — and could not push them aside, or postpone them for a time indefinite, as could easily be done, and would certainly be done, if we remain totally inactive. Another advantage in our undertaking the settlement of our own lands would be, that without any arbitrary or noxious interference, we might have it greatly in our power so to conduct and regulate the course of settlement, that we could for a while at least protect and preserve our trade both in furs and in goods ^ until the time gradually arrives when these, almost our sole resources at present, may be safely given up, and we can rely for revenue upon the proceeds of our land settlements. Any Government or in- dependent company purchasing and settling the lands, would only study their own views and interests, and would neither be bound nor disposed to give any facility or privilege to our ti'ading operations, if we should attempt to linger upon the scene under some new form; for I must always repeat that, after sale and transfer of the land, we are the Hudson's Bay Company no longer. It is certain, were the land once out of our hands, we should be regarded only as an incubus by the new comers, to be shaken off by them as fast as possible, and with very little ceremony or mercy. We know what be- THE SETTLEMENT. 55 comes of monarchs who lay down their crowns. Present ruling power, alas ! is what the world alone respects. By immediately taking the settlement of the land into our own hands, we are both able in the meantime to guard and preserve our property, to wait without anxiety or alarm until adequate terms of purchase can be ad- justed, to save and carry on our trade for some time longer, to derive a larger profit fiom that portion of our capital which has lain neglected and unproductive — the Land — than we have ever yet realised from trade, and to continue the title of the Hudson's Bay Company till we can pass it with honour into the hands of the British Government, draw our robes around us, and die in a manner worthy of the last of our race — the grand old Governing Companies of Britain. But a plan of colonisation involves two distinct pro- cesses, — not only the allotment, sale and management of the land, — but the proper and efficient government of the Territory. I have more than once pointed out that, in the opinion of our ablest jurists, we have no right of exclusive go- vernment, beyond the powers of regulation inherent in the proprietorship of the soil : that the Crown could not legally by charter, without the sanction of Parliament, delegate and give away the public authority. And even if we had the full power of government under the Charter, it would be anomalous, inconvenient and dan- gerous for a private Corporation long to exercise such power ; it would be impossible to retain it, when the population becomes very numerous and strong ; it would perish in a frightful anarchy, and perhaps give a pre- text for a foreign Government, in short for the neighbour- ing United States, to interpose, and ultimately seize the government for itself. ,? : 1 ■si I 1 THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. We ought therefore to put ourselves' right from the beginning, and, whilst devising and maturing our plans of land-settlement, we ought at once to invite and urge and co-operate with our own Government, with the view of transforming Rupert's Land, in the first instance at least, into a Grown Colony — the beginning of the " New Britain" of the West. If there were time I could easily establish, that Ru- pert's Land — looking at its extent, resources and fine central position— ought first of all to be reared and developed as a separate territory, a separate colony, in direct connection with the Mother Country. The pre- tensions of Canada to make a cabbage-garden of it are preposterous. Canada — which is not the eighth of the size — which is a thousand miles distant — which is its inferior in future capabilities — which has two-thirds of its own cultivable land lying still uncultivated — which is itself a struggling, undeveloped country — not equal in any respect to a fourth-rate kingdom in Europe such as Belgium, or many of the single American States such as Pennsylvania and Ohio — which has burden enough in its own proposed Atlantic Confedera- tion — which Vv'ould dwarf Rupert's Land from a British colony into the mere sub-colony of a colony — which hab no star on its forehead marking it out as the future sovereign of British North America — and which is so full of provincial politics, and feuds with America, that this new Territory, if yoked to Canada, would from the very first be placed in a false position with the United States, which is its natural ally, its nearest market, its best means of communication with Europe. — Rupert's Land ought to be allowed to grow up and develop itself freely as a true independent British Colony. If, on the other hand, our Government for any reason, THE SETTLEMENT. 57 do not see that the time has come to make a colony of the tenitory, and if they leave us to ourselves, we have admittedly the right as proprietors to exercise very large governing powers ; and during the transition period we could have little difficulty, with our forts and estab- lishments, and with the hardiest and most skilful and self-reliant staff of factors and agents that the world ever saw, to maintain order, peace and regularity amongst the first hive of population. We must not start at straws, and hum and haw, but act like men who, by God's providence, have a Continent grown up on their hands. Having mooted the general outline of a settlement of the land, I forbear at present entering into details. These as yet could only be crude and premature : they must be elaborated by future thought, wisdom and expe- rience. -After half a century of Emigration and Coloni- sation, there would not be the smallest difficulty either in laying down or carrying out an intelligent, prac tical, and beneficial scheme for the settlement of Eupert's Land. By a simple and just re-distribution of the surplus funds of the Company, which are rotting at present in stagnant loans and stocks, the necessary capital could easily be provided, without going into the money-market, or calling in the services of such an expensive wet-nurse as Mrs. International-Financial is understood to have been. It would be out of place for me to do more than suggest and advocate the project. I leave it in the mean time as good seed to fructify in the minds of the Share- holders, till they proclaim with one united voice, whicli no officialism can resist — " Go to - let the Fertile Belt be peopled I" 58 THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. I have now finished my task. I have described the Territory^ and have shown that, besides all its mineral and industrial resources, it possesses 22,000,000 acres of the most fertile land, immediately available for cultivation, a favourable and salubrious climate, not- withstanding its northern situation, a position midway between Europe and the East, and every facility for water and railway communication. I have explained the Title^ and shown thru it confers a perfect and un- doubted right to the land of the Territory, and all the incidents of ownership. I have sketched so much of the History as illusti'ates, that the Hudson's Bay at one time was inclined to foster colonization, and that the title of the Company has been corroborated both by the defeats of its antagonists, and their repeated refusals to try the validity of the title, and by the formal recognition of successive Ministries. I have noticed the circumstances necessitating a new policy, and pointed out the extreme peril of longer inaction — the peril from lawless squatters — the peril from political complications,— and that if we do not set our house in order, two years cannot pass without its either being torn from us violently, or taken out of our hands with some appearance of law it maybe, but all our rights left floating about in the air, for an indefinite time — it may be for ever. 1 have considered our new policy^ whether it should be sale or settlement ; and calcidated, if it be sale, that the standard of price should be taken about five millions ; but have come to the assured conviction, that our most profitable, easy and dignified course would be, to carry out as a Company (in the very words of the original Prospectus) "a liberal and systenuitic scheme of land settlement." CONCLUSION. 59 In this case, as in so many others — in all others if we could rightly comprehend them — the private interest and the public interest \^ould exactly coincide. For our own private interest— we should be able to preserve for a certain time, and gradually and safely to withdraw from, our trading operations. We should derive from the sale of the land, and perhaps our own cultivation of it to some extent, an amount of profits far exceeding what can ever now be derived from our tottering and decaying Fur-Trade. We should not creep ignominiously out of existence, but hold up our heads to the last as England's oldest governing corporation, and in a ripe old age wind up our aifairs in prosperity and renown. In the public interest — the present unpeopled and uncultured territory would be filled with inhabitants, and covered with plenty, and fitted to be a British colony, by our labours and investments, without any burden to the Imperial Treasury. Our own factors and agents, the sons of the soil, inured to the clime, bred to hardihood, having the key to the habits and feelings of the natives, would be the pioneers of civilization, the breakers-up of the wilderness, the best managers and peace-makers amongst a wild and difficult population. Our forts, factories and missions, diffused through the whole territory, would be everywhere the centres from which the lights of industry, knowledge and order would shine forth into what were formerly the dark places of the earth. To open up and connect the various settlements, we should have to make or improve the means of transit along the rivers and lakes, and across the softly undulating prairies, and thus be marking out the line of the most stupendous railway in the world — fit work for a great empire — which shall erelong i 60 THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. I li 1; [i stretch its iron chain between the waves of the Atlantic and Pacific. At last New Britain would begin to show itself in rising might and majesty over the North- W est of America — not the enemy I hope of the kindred Republic — not to engage in unnatural strife and fra- tricidal wars, but emulous only in the arts of peace, and in the development of humanity. It were well for the balance of America, well for the good of mankind, that British ideas and institutions should flourish in the Fertile Belt. Men live and grow best under a variety of influences. No Continent can be healthy that is pressed dovm by one sole and huge Leviathan. We are standing on the mount of vision, and can only dimly descry the new and higher forms of life, thought and social brotherhood, which may yet arise on the now silent banks of the Saskatchewan, amid the now waste- lying prairies that spread on and on to the sublime peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Hope sheds its blessed rays on the horizon of the Future. Amidst all the dis- appointments, amidst ali the disenchantments to which we are exposed, the human soul clings instinctively to the belief — •* That Earth has something yet to show ! " The world is not exhausted. Civilization is only dawn- ing; it has only gilded the tops and upper cornices of so- ciety ; it has scarcely touched the body of the building; the base is lyiug in utter darkness. This new Conti- nent in the North- West — boundless, fertile, unoccupied, comparatively near, and still within the domain of Bri- tain—holds out new and nobler prospects to our hidus- trious classes, to our landless men who long for some root in the soil, and to struggling talent, merit, and ambition, which can find no sufficient theatre at home. 01 STATEMENT. A number of the Shareholders of the Hudson's Bay Company, knowing* that a g-ood deal of dissatisfaction and anxiety had lon^ prevailed amongst the g-eneral body on the uncertain state of their affairs, resolved that an opportunity should be afforded to the Shareholders to hold a meeting* and conference on the subject. Having* learned that one of their fellow-Shareholders, Mr. Dodds, had been led to pay particular attention to the history and condition of the Company, they arranged that he should open the intended meeting by an Address, after which the Shareholders present should be invited 'to interchang-e their views, and bring- forward and pass {.ny Besolutions which they might think fit. It was also resolved to apply to the Directors for the use of the hall in the Hudson's Bay House, both because that appeared to be the suitable place for a meeting* of the Shareholders, and because there would be the advantage of being able to refer to the larg-e cartoon map of the Territory which is suspended in the hall. A requisition to this effect was prepared, and was readily signed by Shareholders ; and had there been time, many more signatures could easil}' have been obtained. The following is a copy : — London, Sth January, 18(iG. To the Secretary of The Hudson's Bay Company, Fenchurch Street, City. Sir, — We the undersigned Shareholders of your Compnny re- quest you will kindly ask the Governor, Deputy -Governor, and ., ]> I 62 STATEMENT. i ■ I Committee whether they are agreeable to g- ant the use of the Com- pany's Hall to as many of the Shareholders as may choose to attend there on Wednesday the 24th inst., at three o'clock p.m., to hear a lecture on the subject of the Company's Territory, and to confer with each other as to the policy which, in present circumstances, should be adopted. We are, Sir, Tour obedient S*^rvants, (Signed) Lionel N. Bonae. j. r. moeeison. James Dodds. C. J. H. Allen. Henrt Sewell. Alexander M. Sim. Edward W. Watkin. J. Gerstenberg. John Macdouoall. This Requisition was forwarded to the Secretary, in a letter dated 13th January, by Mr. Lionel N. Bonar. The following" answer was returned on the 16th January. JSudsovCs Bay House, London, January IQth, 1866. Sir, — The Governor and Committee have consulted their Broker, Mr. Hagell, as to the possibility of complying with the request con- tiiined in your letter of the 8th instant. Mr. Hagell has reported as follows : — " In reference to the Requisition made by some of the Share- " holders in the Hudson's Bay Company to the Governor and " Committee for the use of a floor in the Company's Warehouse " on the 24-th instanf, I beg to report that the request could " not be complied with without great inconvenience and hin- " drance to the Company's business ; indeed, I might say it " would be impossible to have the room ready on that day, :L " being the day after the Company's sale, when the whole of the " space will be required for the lots of Beaver, so as to be ready " for delivery and packing. " We are already much pressed for space this season to get '* the assortment rendy for the Fur Sale." The Committee therefore are obliged to refuse the application made to them on behalf of yourself and the Shareholders. STATEMENT. G3 Under any circiMti stances tlie Governor and Committee are very doubtful whether they would be justified in allowing any meeting to take place in the Hudson's Bay House, unless called in accordance with the provisions of the Charter. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient Servant, Thomas Fraseb, Secretary. Lionel N. Bonar, Esq., 53, Welbeck Street, W. The Requisitionists did not deem it expedient, under the circumstances mentioned by the Board, to press for the use of the Hall, and arrang-ed to convene a meet ing of Shareholders in the London Tavern on the 24th January. They still however, by letter, dated 17 th January, requested the use of the Map ; and the Board very promptly and kindly, in a letter dated 18th January, acceded to this request. A meeting was then called by advertisement to be held in the London Tavern on the 24th of January, at 3 p.m. The meeting* was numerously and respectably attended. There were about 150 persons present, of whom at least 130 were Shareholders, as was ascertained by a list taken at the door. The proceeding's at the meeting" were more or less fully reported in all the daily newspapers, more particularly in the Mormiig Herald of next day, and also in the Money-Market lieview of the 27th January. Reference is made to those reports, for want of space unfortuuately prevents more being done here, than to give the most meagre outline of the pro- ceedings. The chair was taken by Mr. Lionel N. Bonar. After some explanations as to the correspondence with the Board, and the objects of the meeting, he introduced Mr. Dodds, who delivered an Address, the substance 64 STATEMENT. ^.< I'E '*■ 'f ^Mi; ''I r! of which (with some additional points) is contained in the preceding" pages. At the close of the Address the thanks of the meeting* to Mr. Dodds were moved by Mr. Morrison, seconded by Mr. Hartridge. At this stage Mr. Richard Potter, one of the Directors of the Company (and formerly Chairman of the Great Western Railway Company), made a few observations, which were received with marked interest by the meeting. He spoke favourably of the object of tiie meeting, described the Address as "ab]r^, eloquent, and t rpp p' and added, that *' he believed that the staten^«^!U » i^ey had just heard must exercise an important infiu ^ice ^ ^ the settlement of that question." Mr. Gerstenbcrg then moved the first Resolution, seconded by Mr. Henry Sewell, and unanimously d: This meeting, understanding from various concurrent reports, that negotiations are going on for the sale of the territorial rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, and that the lands immediately avail- able for settlement amount to at least 40,000,000 acres, besides the other enormous tracts of country possessed by the Company, are of opinion that the price or compensation to be accepted should not be less that five millions sterling, being at the rate of 2s 6d per acre for the 40,000,000 acres ; otherwise the Company ought themselves im- mediately to carry out a plan for the systematic colonization and settlement of their territory. Mr. Hartridge moved the second resolution, seconded by Mr. Macdougall, and unanimously passed : A vote of thanks to the Directors of the Hudson's Bay Company for the use of the map, accompanied with a request to them for the use of their room, with a view of holding a meeting to con^'ider the foregoing resolution. IL . STATEMENT. 05 in Mr. L. N. Bonar (Chairman) in a letter of Soth Jan- uary, forwarded the two Kesokitions to the Secretary of the Company to be laid before the Board. The following" war. the answer : — Hudson s Bay House, London^ January 30^A, 1866. Sir, — I am directed by the Governor and Committee to acknow- ledge the receipt of your letter of the 25th instant, together with copy of Eesolutions passed by the Meeting held at the London Tavern on the previous day. In reply to that portion of your letter which has reference to the second Resolution I am directed to refer you to the letter which I had the honour to address to you on the 16th instant, and to add that the question, liaving been again submitted to the consideration of the Board, they have with regret come to the conclusior . u. ^ the request cannot be acceded to. I have the honour to be. Sir, Tour obedient Servant, Thomas Fraser, Secretary. L. N. Bonar T?)sq. Mr. Bonar, after consulting' with several of the gentle- men who had been acting along with him, returned the following reply : — 53, Welhech Street, W. February 3, 1866. . Sir, — I have referred your letter of the 31st ult. to the gentlemen acting in behalf of the Meeting of the Hudson's Bay Shareholders, held at the London Tavern on the 24th January. They desire me to add to my former communication : that the Meeting in question was attended by about 150 persons, of whom at least 130 were shareholders, according to a list taken at the door and now in my possession. I can bear testimony, as Chairman, that the Meeting was most respectable, and that the Eesolutions — which you have already laid before the Board, one of them being a request that the Directors would allow the use of their HaU for a further discussdon of the subject — were unanimously passed, and with the OG STATEMENT. U ii strongest expressionB c. approval. Tliey hoped, tliat such a request from such a considerable body of Shareholders, acting in no party spirit, but solely for the good of the whole body, would have been acceded to. They feel bound to record their dissent from the view, that there is anything in the Charter to prevent compliance with such a request. The Charter is characterised by nothing so much as by the un- limited power which it confers upon the Company (that is upon tho Shareholders) to hold any number of meetings and make any orders and regulations for the common good and government uf the Asso- ciation, r id we humbly think it would only have been in harmony with this wise liberality of the Charter, if the Board had per- mitted tho Shareholders to hold their further meeting in their own house. I remain, Sir, Your obedient servant, LioisrEL N. BoxAE. To the Secretary of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Secretary, wrote this further letter^ in reference to the 2nd Resolution. Hudson's Bay House, London, February Gih, 1866. Sir, — 1 am directed by the Governor and Committee to acknow- ledge your letter of February 3rd. The Governor and Committee think that their reasons for adopt- ing the conclusion already announced to you are perfectly sound, and are most consistent with the interests of the Shareholders. If a set of Shareholders, entertaining one set of opinions on any- given point were desirous of holding a public meeting in the Com- pany's premises, it is possible that another set of Shareholders, dif- fering from the former, might be desirous of doing the same thing, and thus two sets of Eesolutions contradicting each other, might issue from the Hudson's Bay House, with the apparent authority of the Company. . The above case is put only as an illustration of one of the many inconveniences which might arise, and is by no means the only difficulty which the Governor and Committee perceive in complying witb your request. STATEMENT. 67 3quest party 3 been ; there quest, lie un- on tho orders Asso- xmony ,cl per- 1 their TTAB. nee to 1866. icknow- ' adopt- \f sound, ers. on any le Com- ers, dif- le thing, I', might hority of be many the only )mplying They desire me to say that they have refused that request with regret, and with no intention to cast any douljt on the respectability or intelligeuce of the gentlemen composing tho Meeting, I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, Thomas Fbaser. Lionel N. Bonar, Esq. On the 10th February, Mr. Bonar addressed the fol- lowmg" letter to the Board : — 53, Welbeck Street, W. February 10th, 1866. Sir, — I duly received your letter of the 6th inst, but before acknowledging the receipt, I had to consult the gentlemen with whom I have acted in this matter. "We understood in your letter of 31st that tho use of the Hall was refused from a view, that the Charter debarred the use of it for Meetings of Shareholders. We could not help expressing our dis- sent from that view. But the reason, which you now state, is a point, where the Board are entitled to use some discretion, and with that discretion we do not wish unduly to interfere. The answer of the Board has thus been given to the second Reso- lution, which I had the honour to communicate. It only remains, therefore, to know if they are disposed to return any answer to the first Resolution, which has hitherto not been noticed by you, and to which the Meeting attached much more importance than to the second. In fact, the second was only of value as a means to afford a renewed opportunity to discuss the first. The Shareholders present evinced in every way a strong desire that some policy should be adopted by the Company in tlic spirit of that Resolution. I am anxious, therefore, in the discharge of my duty to receive any answer which the Board may be disposed to make to the recommendation contained in that Resolution. I remain. Sir, Tour obedient servant, LioNKL N. Bon AH. To the Secretary of the Hudson's Bay Company. r 2 68 STATEMENT. m i n To the above letter the Board returned the following" answer. Hudson* s Bay House, London, February Wih, 18G6. Sir, — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the lOtli inst. which I have laid before the Governor and Committee. In reply, I am directed to state that it has never been the inten- tion of the Governor and Committee to close finally with any offer made for the purchase of the Hudson's Bay Territory, or any portion thereof, without submitting its terms to a General Meeting of the Shareholders, lawfully called ; and it is in their opinion inexpedient that any definite maximum or minimum should be adopted by the Committee beforehand as the value of their territory. When the Governor and Committee are satisfied that a scheme of Colonization can be pursued with advantage, they will be quite ready to act upon such scheme. I am. Sir, Tour obedient servant, (Signed) Thomas Fraser. Lionel N. Bonar, Esq. This last communication from the Board, completing- their answer to the two Resolutions passed at the Meet- ing" of the 24th January, naturally closes the correspond- ence for the prerent, and concludes the first scene of the movement which has commenced on the part of the Share- holders. "When a Company which once paid so high as 50 per cent., and even so late as 1847-56 used to rang'e from 10 to 20 per cent., falls miserably off, and yields only 4^, with no prospect of increase, rather a fear of further de- cline, if the old policy be maintained, and where there is no indication of any chang"e of policy. Shareholders must at last bestir themselves, and show that they feel themselves entitled to some information, some g-uidance, from those whom they have deputed to g"overn Ihem, and who have superior means of knowledg'e, not for ai C{ it STATEMENT. 69 wing" S66. e lOth inten- y offer 3ortion of the pedient by the leme of e ready )letiiig' Meet- spond- of the Share- 50 per rom 10 iiy H, her de- here is holders ley feel ddance, 1 them, [lot for their own g-ratification, not to keep secretly amongst themselves, but to impart in a discreet and judicious manner to the body of the Shareholders. To modify the old and introduce a new system will require time and perseverance, a spirit of activity and a just sense of their own rig^hts amongst the Shareholders, and a more frank and confiding- disposition among'st the Directors. There need be no wonder then if the movement which originated among-st certain of the Shareholders only in January last has not yet produced any astonishing* chang-e. None but the over-sang-uine and inexperienced could expect any such miracle. But the movement, though short and g'entle, and meant to be an appeal to g'ood sense, not an exhibition of force, has not been barren of results. Amongst these may be enumerated : — 1st. That for the first time since the reconstruction of the Company in 1863, the Shareholders, roused by the critical state of their affairs, and no doubt disappointed by the continued silence and non-direction of their Direc- tors, have been drawing- into a bond of union, into a mould of joint action, and are not now likely to break up this connection until they see their affairs placed on a clear and distinct footing-, and the future policy of the Com- pany firmly fixed and positively announced. 2nd. That a considerable number of them, at least 130, representing* no doubt many more who could not or did not attend the meeting-, have unanimously and emphati- cally declared, 1 lat their territory and territorial rig'hts ought not to be sold and transferred except at a full and adequate price (su}^ £5,000,000); and if these terms cannot at once be obtained, that then the Company for itself ought immediately to prepare and carry into txe- f(!i 70 STATEMENT. ■>i n ! 'I !!! cution a j)laii for the colonization of their territory, and for realising" in that form profits on their capital, which it is now vain to expect from the mere prosecution of the Fur-Trade. 3rd. That the Board, in answer to this Resolution, have given two categ'orical pledges — (a) thiit they will not close finally with any offer of purchase without bringing* the whole terms before a regularly constituted meeting* of the Shareholders; (b) that when satisfied of the n.erits and expediency of any scheme of colonization, they will be prepared to act upon it. If these results are not a rcvolutioiij they are u 'progress » Growino' union amono'st the Shareholders — a firmer conviction amons'st them of the securitv ^nd value of their property — the beginning of a clearer understand- ing' and accord between the Directors and Shareholders ; — this is no bad fruit of two months of a very quiet and temperate movement. If continued sincerel}^, prudently and firmly, the Hudson's Bay Company, by the month of June next, will stand clear of clouds, will have a defined policy ; ever}^ cold shadow between Directors and Shareliolders will disappear, and they will equally rejoice in the pros- pect of reaping- the full fruits of their property, besides the blessings which they w ill be the means of bestowing' upon countless generations of the human fliniily. It must constantlv be remembered, that hi their Pros})ectus of 1803, on the faith of which the recon- structed Com})any was formed, the Directors bound themselves by this most absolute and solemn j)ledge : ^' The Southern Distriet mil he opened to Evropenn colonlxation under a JiheraJ and sjjstematic scheme of U ol ii \\\ STATEMENT. 71 iand settlement^ As this Prospectus is now difficult to obtain^ and is the pact on which the capital of £2,000,000 was raised, it is repubhshed at the end of this Statement. Unless words are breath, unless Directors are decoy- ducks, unless two milhons are a bauble — This Pledge MUST be redeemed ! Althoug'h the movement of the Shareholders up to this point lias not been fruitless, but has at least morally advanced the question, yet there are many causes of misgivino', many warning* notes of alarm j and if the Shareholders are not to lose the advantag'e they have o'ained, if they are to go forwards and not backwards, they ought to continue and streng-then their bond of association, until the present crisis is safely over, until their interests are secure, and until the final arrang^e- ment (whether for sale or settlement) is definitely fixed. Till the fate of Riiperfs Land is decided^ let the Shareholders maintain their association. The Board's letter of tlie 14th February, without scanning' it too critically, implies the j)ossibility that the terms of any offer of purchase may ])e kept back from the Shareholders until neg'otiations have proceeded too far, and the honour of the Company is too mucl> com- mitted, for the Shareholders to refuse their assent, even thoug'h the price were most inadequate and nugatory. It implies that the previous question may never be submitted to the Shareholders— which certainly oug-ht— " Is it your wish to sell, or is it your wish to settle your territory ?" It implies that the Directors have no plan of land-settlement, althoug'h they volunteered the pledge in 1 8(1.*^, as one of the conditions on which the capital was subscribed and paid. It implies that tlicy may in- 7S STATEMENT. I I IK )' ii! I I definitely stave off any plan sug-g-ested to them, on the plea mentioned in their letter — that they are not satisfied that such a ^^ a scheme of colonization can be pursued with advantag'e/' Whilst the Board's letter is too oracular to be reas- suring-j hints are ever and anon appearing* in well- informed quarters as if neg-otiations were actually g'oing on, and near their completion, of which (if true) the Shareholders oug'ht to have timeous notice, and which they oug'ht to be called upon to sanction by a preliminary vote. I^hus in the City article of the Morning Post of 21st February, discussing* the transfer of the territory to Canada — the writer states very ictiong'ly : " We have reason to beliexe that the sum demanded by the Com- pany is considered reasonable both by the Canadian Government and the Colonial Minister, and under these circumstances the lohole trans- action may heJinaUy settled in the course of a few weeks.^' Is this SO ? are our Government and Canada, without any reference to tli>; Shareholders, coolly pinning' a ticket on our property, and are our Directors mixed in the trans- action ? And if this be the case, how could the Share- holders repudiate the bni'g'ain, howevei' injurious or unfair, if they are not to be called tog'ether and consulted till just hcjore the matter is ^finally closed ? That these reports should prevail, and disquiet the minds of Share- holders, is an histance of 1 he baneful effect of a secret system of maiiag'ement. In an extraordinary case, like the conteni})lated transfer of their whole proi)erty. Shareholders are not simply entitled to have the matter submitted to them before it is finally closed ; they lU'e entitled to be consulted, and their sanction received, before the neijotUUions are serloushf entered upon at all. It is a perverted juid arbitrary view, that Directors a)c' eiiipoucred In com- STATEMENT. 73 the isfied •sued ' mence neg'otiating' for the transfer of a Company's property^ without previously getting- any authority what- ever from the Shareholders. To keenly watch the course of events^ to determinedly g'uard and preserve their interests, to save the Directors from any political pressure, is the plain and undeniable duty of the Shareholders^ and they can only do so effectually by acting* iu a united and concerted manner, until all danger has blown past. An opportunity will be again afforded for them to continue the movement which has so far favourably beg'un. On ascertaining* that there is a general feeling* of this kind among'st them, means will be taken to form an Association for the better protection of common interests. A letter is attached to the end of every copy of this Pamphlet forwarded to Shareholders, which may be signed and returned to the address given. If it appear from the letters so returned, that a sufficient number of Shareholders are willing* to co-operate, not in any factious way, but simply for self protection, a meeting- will be convened to enable them to form an Association, and ag'ree upon a Programme of action, to be broug-ht in due time before tlie consideration of the Directors. PROSPECTUS, 18C3. THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SOCIETY LIMITED ARE PREPABED TO RECEI\E Subscriptions for the Issue at Par of Capital Stock, IK fHE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY, INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER, 1670. The Stock will be issued in Certificates of £20 each, and the Instalments will -be payable as follows : — n, . . _ , A T i. • S To be returned in the event £1 being 5 per cent, on Application. J ^^ ^^ Allotment being made. j> )> >j 5 20 ,, ,, on Allotment. 25 ,, ,, on 1st Sept., 1863. 25 „ ,, on 2nd Nov., 1863. 25 ,, ,, on 1st January, 1^64. £20 "With an option of pivpayment in full on Allotment, or < a oillier of the days fixed for payment of the inslalmeuts, under discoiiLt, at the rate of 4 per cent, per annum. The Capital of the Hudson's Bay Ct s ipany )iae be. u duly fixed at £2,000,000, of which amount the Inteiiiational Financial Society Limited have obtained, and are prepared to offer to the Public, £1,930,000. 2'lie Subscrihersmill he entitled to an Interest, corrcspondhiQ to the amount oj their Suhiwri/ttion, in — 1. The Assets {exclusive of Kos. 2 and 3) of the Hudson's Hay Company, recently and specially valned by competent Valuers at £\,&2'S,C)&Q. 2. y. • J.anded 'Territory of the Company, held nnder their Chfirfrr, and irhich (.•■/','.' i\)er an rstimuted area of more than l,-iOi),(\ijU stjuure miles, or iipwf n,s oj 89 •. JOO.OOO acres, n. .1 Cat'h Mala uf>e tf £1)70,000. The pr I'll nJ focoru , avail Me for dlvii'grid amouffst Stoeliholdcr.i of the Company, stiure.i n iniumn inttfttl eunrcding A per cent, on the above JJ -',000,000 Sloc/i. 1} PROSPECTUS; 1863. 75 THE DIRECTORS OF THE HUDSON'S BkY COMPANY ARE AS UNDER :— The Right Honourable Sir EDMUND HEAD, Bart., K.C.B. (Late Governor General of Canada), Governor. CURTIS MIRANDA LAMPSON, Esq. (C. M. Lampson and Co.), Deputy Governor. EDEN COLVILE, Esq.. Hudson's Bay House, Fcnchurch Street. GEORGE LYALL, M.P., Headley Park, Surrey. DANIEL MEINERTZHAGEN, Esq., (F. Huth and Co.) JAMES STEWART HODGSON, Esq., (Finlay, Hodgson and Co.) JOHN HENRY WILLIAM SCHRODER, Esq., (J. H. Schroder and Co.) RICHARD POTTER, Esq., Standish House. Gloucestershire. The Hudson's Bay Company were incorporated under a Royal Charter pjranted by King Charles II. in 1670, by the name of " The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay," and, by the Charter, a vast tract of territory was vested in the Company, together with the sole right of trade and commerce, and all " mines royal," as well then discovered as not dis- covered, within the said territory. The operations of the Company, which, with slight exceptions, have been hitherto exclusively of a trading character, have been prosecuted from the date of the Charter to the present day. It has become evident that the time has arrived when those opera- tions must be extended, and the immense resources of the Company's Territory, lying as it docs between Canada and British Columbia, should be developed in accordance with the industrial spirit of i ho age, and the rapid advancement which colonization has made in the countries adjacent to the Hudson Buy territories, The average net annual profits of the Company, (after setting aside 40 per cent, of them as remuneration to the factors ana er- vants at the Company's posts and stations) for the ten years endiag the 31st May, 1802, amount to £81,000, or upwards of per cent, on the present nominal capital of cr2,000,000. A pc) on only of this income has been distributed as d vidend, while the omainder is represented in the assets and balance <. The assets of t ' c Company, in which the Subscribers will be entitled to an inter( -t correspond- ing to the amount of their Subscription, will consist i goods in the interior, on shipboard, and other stock in trade, iucJiuling shipping, business premises, and other buildings necessary for carrying on the fur trade, in addition to whicli there will be funds immediately UNuilable for the proposed extended operations o-f tlie Company, 76 PROSPECTUS, 18G3. 'It M m y II i"i derived partly from the cash balance of the ITudsoii's Bay Company, and partly from the new issue of Stock, uud amounting in the whole to a sum not less than £370,000. The Company's territory, embraces an estimated area of more than 1,400,000 square miles, or eight hundred and ninety-six millions of acres, of which a large area, on the Southern Frontier, is well adapted for European colonization. The soil of this portion of the territory is fertile, producing, in abundance, wheat, and other cereal crops, and is capable of sustaining a numerous population. It contains 1,400 miles of navigable lakes and rivers, running, for the greater part, east and west, which constitute an important feature in plans for establishing the means of communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, across the Continent of British North America, as well as for immediate settlement in the intervening country. The territory is, moreover, rich in mineral wealth, including coal, lead, and iron. In addition to its Chartered territory, the Company possesses the following valuable landed property : Several plots of land in British Columbia, occupying most favourable sites at the mouths of rivers, the titles to which have been confirmed by Her Majesty's Govern- ment ; farms, building sites in Vancomer's Island ; and in Canada ten square miles at Lacloche, on Lake Huron, and tracts of land at fourteen other places. The trading operatious of the Company are Ci'"'^f ' carried on in the fur-bearing and norclioru ])oftion of the territory, where the 'climate is too severe for European colonization. These trading operations will be actively continued, and as far as possible extended, whilst the management will be judiciously economized. Consistently with these obje(-ts, the outlying estates and valuable farms will be realised where the land is not required for the use of the Company — the southern district will be opened to European colo- nization, under a liberal and systematic scheme of land settlement. Pcsjessing a staif of factors and officers who are distributed in small centres of civilisation over the territory, the Company can, without creating new and contly establishments, inaugurate the new policy of colonization, and at the same time dispose of mining grants. "With the view of providing the means of telegraphic and postal commuiiication between Canada and British Columbia, across the Company's territory, and thereby of connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, by an exclusively Brilinh i-outo, ncgociations Jiave PROSPECTUS, 18C3. 77 the been pending for some time past between certain parties and Her Majesty's Government and the representatives of the Government of Canada, and preliminary arrangements for the accomplishment of these objects have been made through Her Majesty's Government (subject to the final sanction of the Colonies), based upon a 5 per cent, guarantee from the Government of Canada, British Columbia, and Vancouver Island. In further aid of these Imperial objects, Her Majesty's Government have signified their intention to make grants of land to the extent of about 1,000,000 acres, in portions of the Crown territory traversed by the proposed telegraphic line. One of the first objects of the Company will be to examine the facilities and consider the best means for carrying out this most important work, and there can bo little doubt that it will be successfully executed either by the Hudson's Bay Company itself, or with their aid and sanction. For this, as well as for the other proposed objects, Mr. Edward "Watkin, who is now in Canada, wnll be commissioned, with other gentlemen specially qualified for the duty, to visit the Red River and southern districts, to consult the Officers of the Company there, and to report as to the best and safest means of giving eftect to the con- templated operations. Applications for allotments of Certificates of S' .k of £20 each, to be made to the International Financial Society Limited, at their Offices, 54, Old Broad Street, E.C. A preference in allotment will be given to parties hitherto holders of Stock in the Hudson's Bay Company, and to the Shareholders in the International Financial Society Limited. '4 : ? i- hi'^l I * • I. • : f ■ - » t • •> t » * NOTICE. Shareholders are requested to sign and fill up the following Letter, and return it at their earliest possible convenience. Lionel N. Bonar, Esq. 53, Welheck Street, London, W. (Date.) Sir, I approve of the Shareholders of the Hudson's Bay- Company uniting at the present time into an Association for the protection of their interests and the improvement of their property. I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, : Si