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ITS

POSITION AND PROSPEOm

THE SUBSTANCE OF AN ADDRESS, DELIVBBED AT '-^ MEETING OF

THE JJHAREHOLDERB, IN THE LONDdU^AVijRN,

ON TriB 24tH JANUARY, 186^.

JAMES DODDS.

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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.

JAMES DODDS.

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LONDON :
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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

PREFACE.

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.

THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY.

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

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.

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

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THE TERRITORY.

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 Cana<la, and many of the eastern
States of America. It is very happily situated for the
benignant operation of atmospheric influences. From
the south come up the warm currents of the Gulf of
Mexico, which, gliding over the low water-shed of the
Mississippi, continue to drop fatness in the vallies of the
Red Riv3r and AVinnipeg, to the very mouth of the Sas-
katchewan. On the west again the country is equally
favoured by what we, in our ignorance of flrst causes,
call a freak of Nature. A great dip or depression takes
place in the Rocky Mountains just at the boundary line
(the 49th parallel), and through this hollow pass, scooped
out by Nature, pour the balmy and fostering gales of
the Paciflc, which circulate all over the prairies and
float down the Saskatchewan, at the mouth of which
they meet and mingle with the southern currents,
already mentioned, coming up from the Mississippi.
Both these radiations of tropical heat, the southern
and the western, from time to time encounter the pre-
vaiUng northern winds, which descend keen and fierce
from the caverns of perpetual ice ; and being chilled by
the contact, condense into heavy clouds, and precipitate
themselves, sometimes in torrents of rain, sometimes in
light and refi-eshing showers, over the whole regions
which compose the Winnipeg Basin. Hence the mois-

THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY.

tiire and teeming vegetation which characterise the
whole of this country, and, notwithstanding the severity
of its winter, the length, the warmth, the prvi^lificness,
the beauty of its summers. Its summer isothermal
passes through the Azores and the centre of France.
The country produces almost every crop and every
plant which belong to the Temperate zone, and that
with a fulness, fineness, and luxuriance which few of
our northern kingdoms can equal.

Besides the richness of its vegetable growth, the whole
Territory is no doubt amply stored with minerals.
But I do not dwell upon this, because our present
object is more particularly to bring out its capability for
agricultural settlement ; and as there has been nothing
like a mineral survey made, only scattered and super-
ficial observations, our information on that branch of
its resources remains meagre and indefinite. However,
I may as well notice in passing, that traces of mineral
have been perceived almost everywhere. Iron and
copper in the Granite region, and gold has lately
been discovered on the American side, to the west of
Lake Superior, and no doubt will soon be traced in
ours. Limestone on the Eed Eiver. Salt springs all
through the prairies. Coal near the Couteau-ground on
the frontier. Iron and coal on the Saskatchewan, and
now also the cry of gold on the Saskatchewan is begin-
ning to be raised.

Rupert's Land has the golden domains of British
Columbia, the mineral wealth and maritime capabilities
of Vancouver's Island, immediately on its west. It has
a brotherhood of hardy and thriving British provinces,
Canada taking the lead, and the means of continuous
water communication with the Atlantic on the east.
On the south it has the young swarming hives of

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THE TERKITOUY.

American States, with the broad bosom of the Mississippi
inviting commerce, with access to the network of rail-
ways now converging upon Minnesota. It stands almost
midway between the toiling, hard-working, money-
making, and money-spending nations of Europe, and the
ancient civilizations, the rare and highly coveted
treasures of the East, and midway also to the new-born
and richly productive continents and islands of the South
Pacific. The time is perhaps not far distant when, by
this Territory being opened up, the British traveller, or
British merchandise, may j^ass from London to Canton,
to Nangasaki, to Auckland, to Sydney, or make the
return, without ever quitting British soil, or only quit-
ting it for the great ocean, the free common pathway of
all nations.

The Eed River Settlement is the one solitary little
colony in all this Territory, now half a century old,
10,000 strong^ with its Selkirk town, named after its
founder (of whom more anon), baptized in blood,
cradled in the blast — the child of scorn, neglect, ad-
versity ; yet struggling into manhood, full of free bold
life, growing into a settled community, with smiling
farms, well-filled shops, steamers plying upon the river,
its little ^'Nor'-wester" newspaper, racy of the soil,
schools that would put many of our own to shame, and
churches where every variety of worshippers offer up
their prayers as their own soul dictates, with no one
to make them afraid. The Prairies undulating west
and north-west of the Red River can be easily tra-
versed in all directions with waggons or on horseback.
The rivers roll almost without interruption for thou-
sands of miles, and capable of being navigated, from
tlie Canadian Lakes and the head-waters of the Missis-
sippi into the very shadows of the Rocky Mountains. In

TIIK HUDSON S HAY COMPANY.

time till' Iron Highway from our own conn try to China,
''.•i])an, Xt'w Zeahmd, Australia, and for that part to
India, will span the Fertile Belt — the only practicable
route, it is now believed, across the American continent
to join the Atlantic and Pacific. A new Empire Avill
burst from the soil, which now knows only the feet of
wandering Indians and the tramp of long herds of buffalo.

II. Tjie Title.

In the IGtli and 17th centuries all the famous naviga-
tors and discoverers were bending their sails to the
West, over the Atlantic main, to find there the gateway
into India, and that East which had long haunted every
mind with dreams of almost uneai'thlv wealth and
goi'geousness. Seeking a land of fable, they found what
has turned out to be a land of the most glorious leality
— the Continent of America. All the great powers of
Europe soon filled its Atlantic sea-board, for beyond
the sea-board, into the uidviiown forests and wildernesses,
they could scarcely be said for many ages to penetrate.
Spain took possession of South America and of Florida.
England had all the intervening country from Florida
to Canada ; and Canada was held by the French.

There still remained a wide territory to the north of
Canada. That was entered in 1610 by Henry Hudson,
who gave his name to the famous Bay, and who took
possession of the territory in the name of the Crown of
England.

For many years no regard was paid to this extreme
northern part of the continent. People were doubtless
deterred from visiting it by its supposed Arctic and
dismal character. At length a body of merchants and
adventurers, under the patronage of Prince Eupert,
second cousin of Charles II. directed some expeditions

sha

of
suri

THE TITLE.

into that quarter; and being- impressed with its resources,
and with the notion that they would find in that di-
rection a North-west passage to the Pacific, they applied
for and obtained a Charter from the Crown in 1070,
constituting them into the Hudson s Buij Company.

This is the title by which we still hold our possessions
and rights.

AVith the Charter most of the sharehohlers liave lately
Ijccome familiar, and I shall run very rapidly over its
leading provisions.

1st. There are the usual incorporating powers to
carry out the purposes of the Charter.

2nd. Powers of management and direction, but of a
wonderfully liberal and popular character, throwing the
whole real power into the hands of the shareholders,
without proxies, only those personally present at the
Court Meetings.

3rd. The grant of exclusive trade, not in furs only
(which in fact are not specified), but in all khids of trade
by land or water, and in fisheries and mines.

This clause declares, that the Territorv shall be one
of the British '"^plantations or colonies in America," and
shall be called '•'' Kupert's Land."

4th. There is the grant of the absolute property of
the Territory; ^' the Governor and Company" being
'' the true and absolute lords and proprietors of the
same territory," holding in freehold of the royal manor
of East Greenwich in Kent. Ex facie then as good,
sure and indefeasible a title as any held by the Duke of
Bedford, or the Marquis of Westminster, or any other
the most undoubted proprietor in the kingdom.

A loose objection has been raised, that the title is un-
certain, but there is no such uncertainty. When the
grant is carcfull)' analysed, it is found, as Sir Samuel

1 ;tl

THE HUDSON !^ BAY COMPANY.

Roniilly and other eminent counsel pointed out long
tigo, to amount to a grant of all land, territory and
other subjects within the water-shed of Hudson's Bay,
This is a perfectly good and clear description. A water-
shed is quite capable of being accurately traced
and laid down. According to my recollection of title-
deeds, this of a water-shed is a common bounding
description of the estates of very large proprietors. If
there be any vagueness at any point of the water-shed,
tliat vagueness is removed and cured by the course of
possession that follows upon the title.

This title has been the subject of critical dissection,
and tlic subject of opinions of counsel for upwards of a
hundred years, and by this time we should pretty well
know what is the net result of all this keen and prac-
tised scrutiny. I believe it comes to this : —

(1) Almost all the jurists have agreed, that the title
to the freehold is valid i. iid indisputable ; it is a perfect
freehold title to the land.

(2) They have almost equally agreed, that the grant
of exclusive trade is invalid; that the Crown alone
could make no such grant, and that it would have re-
quired for its confirmation the sanction of Parliament.

(3) Many jurists have also doubted the validity of
the grant of general exclusive government and jurisdic-
tion over the territory, and affirm that the Crown could
not, without the concurrence of Parliament, make over
such a delegation of the public authority.

At the same time they acknowledge that, although
the Charter does not carry exclusive trade, yet the
Company, as sole owners of the land, had a right to
exclude trespassers, and thus might secure, in a different
form, something like exclusive trade ; and that, although
the Charter does not carry exclusive jurisdiction, yet

THE TITLE.

the Company, as sole owners of the land, had a right to
make and execute lawfid bye-laws and regulations
amongst their servants, agents, tenants and assignees,
and thus might exercise, in a different form, something
like exclusive jurisdiction. But in neither case, under
the Charter, only as owners of the land.

The freehold good— the monopoly bad — the jurisdic-
tion more than doubtful — the Company therefore only
legally incorporated to the effect of holding, disposing
of, and managing the land — this comes to be about the
result of the opinions of all the most eminent counsel
for the last hundred years.

It may here be noticed, that the Company has
hitherto relied and acted on those grants of the Charter
now held to be illegal — the exclusive trade and jurisdic-
tion; and has made little or no use, has in fact ignored
and carefully and purposely thrown aside, the alone
grant which was legal — the freehold right to the land.

The freehold of two-and-a-half millions of square
miles! No doubt this sounds to the ear prodigious — a
freehold in a Continent nearly as large as Europe. This
result could not be foreseen or contemplated by the
original grantor and grantees, to whom the interior was
enveloped in darkness. But the conveyance was a suffi-
cient warrant; and time, events, and possession have
swelled out and knit together this magnificent inheritance.
The one sole estate of the kind now remaining in the
world — a private Corporation, lord of two-and-a-half
millions of square miles. But magnitude has no effect
upon title. The vastness of an estate cannot weaken the
force of the Cliarter. A good title is a good title,
whether it be for a cottage or a continent.

yet

THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY.

III. The History.

I do not mean to go at large into this liistoiy, but
only into so much of it as tends to illustrate —

(1.) That the Hudson's Bay Company formerly were
not unfavourable to settlements within their temtory.

(2.) That, though certain rivals and antagonists from
an early period, and though at a later period certain
Canadian partisans, and latterly the Canadian Govern-
ment, have kept up a running fire of cavils against the
Company's title, they have either been defeated, or have
failed, and have positively refused, when opportunity
was given to them, and when they were challenged
to the combat, to raise and try the question of tlie
Company's Charter.

(3.) That the Imperial Government have always re-
spected and supported our title, have on all occasions
declared that they have no ground to challenge it, and
have always made it a condition of any diplomatic
negotiation about a transfer of the possession of Rupert's
Land, that arrangements should first of all be come to
with the Hudson's Bay Company.

1670.

For many years, after taking possession under the
Charter, the Company do not seem to liave pushed their
establislnncnts much beyond the shores of Hudson's Bay;
but the natives came down from all parts of the interior,
and brought skins and furs and similar articles, re-
ceiving in cxcliange tlie various gooc^s whicli they
required. Tlie natives were in fact tlic Company's
hunters and trappers, acting in their employment ; and
such use and occupation l)v the natives on their account

Hit

for

ne^
pi a

THE HISTORY.

was really the possession of the territory by the Com-
pany — the only kind of possession of which it was then
susceptible; for agricultural or any other civiUzed mode
of settlement was at that distant period entirely out of
the question.

It is quite true, that at this time the boundary be-
tween Rupert's Land and the French colony of Canada,
was not precisely fixed, nor has it ever been precisely
fixed. But this is not peculiar to Eupert's Land. There
are few neighbouring countries in the world that have
their boundary-lines absolutely and exactly settled ;
there are almost always some disputed points, some
questions of rectification. The Company have offered
over and over again to concur Avith Canada in subui it-
ting the question of boundary to any competent court,
or to arbitration ; but the Canadians on one pretence
and another have always held back, or refused. It has
been their game apparently to fight in the shadow, to
fish in troubled water ; and by stirring up doubts and
uncertainties, and never bringing them to a solution,
eitlier to frighten the Company into some rash compro-
mise, or to mislead the Ih'itlsh Government to aid and
abet them in their hoi low pretensions and unjust designs.
Hitherto they have been foiled : — and so tliey will be,
so long as tlie (/ompany have manliness, and the Ih'itisli
Government a sense of justice — which I hope will be
for ever.

The bVencli in Canada liad an evil eye against tliis
new-arrived Company of British adventurers, who were
planting tlicmselves so firm on the northern territory.
Taking advantage of tlie unfixed state of the bcmndaries,
they not only roved and hunted over the wliole territory
without regard to boundary, but, insolent in their mili-
tary force against a few eom])aratively defenceless

THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY.

traders, they frequently marauded to the very shores
of Hudson's Bay, and burned down, phindered and
spoiled the forts and factories of the Company. In a
few years upwards of £120,000 worth of the Company's
property was thus destroyed ; but somehow they flou-
rished bravely notwithstanding, connnonly dividing 50
per cent., and often trebling their capital without the 'M
shareholders paying any subscription. '

I notice these old maraudings of the Canadian French,
because it is very much on these that the later Canadians |

have endeavoured to fabricate some kind of claim to a |

great part, if not the whole of the Hudson's Bay
Territory. A respectable origin certainly, for a claim
of proprietorship ! as if somebody were to claim an
estate in Norfolk, because his grandfather and great-
grandfather long ago used to poach there, and shoot
tlie partridges and pheasants, and occasionally a trouble-
some gamekeeper who came out to prevent them. In t
these poachings and maraudings there was not a vestige
of legality, and no legal right could accrue to any one
from such unwarranted and predatory incursions.

1748.

The first recorded attempt, so far as I have seen,
was made this year to challenge the validity of the
Company's Charter, and have it declared void. '9

This was by a Petition to the Crown on the part of
certain " Subscribers for finding out a passage to tlie
Western and Southern Oceans of America,^' praying for
incorporation, and for possession in fact of the same
territories as were contained in tlie Hudson's Bay Charter.
The latter (.ompany of course opposed them.

The petition was referred to the Privy Council, and
was again by them refei-red to the attorney and solicitor-

all
arl

P^
III

THE HISTORY.

seen,

general of the d;iy, Sir Dudley Ryder, and William
Murray, afterwards the celebrated Lord Mansfield, who
heard counsel both for the Petitioners and for the
Hudson's Bay Company.

Their Eepoi't, dated 10th August 1748, sets forth —

" The Petitioners insisted on two general tilings, tliat the Companj^'s
Charter was either void in its original creation, or became forfeited by

the Company's conduct under it."

# # * *

" As to the first, the Petitioners endeavoured to show that the grant
of the country and territories included in the Company's Charter was
void for the uncertainty of its extent, being bounded by no limits of
mountains, rivers, seas, latitude or longitude ; and that the grant of the
exclusive trade within such limits as these were, was a racuopoij, and
void on that account.

" With respect to botli these, consiilor'ntf] hoto long the Company have
cnjoijed and acted under this Charter xoithout interruption or encroachment,
we cannot think it advisable for his ZVlajesty to make any express or
implied declaration against the validity of it till there has been some

judgment of a Court of Justice to warrant it."

# * # *

" As to the supposed forfeiture of the Company's Charter by nonuser
or abuser, the charge upon that head is of several sorts, viz. that they
have not discovered, nor suillciently attempted to discover the North-
west passage into the South Seas or Western Ocean ; that they have not
extended their settlements through the limits of their Chartor ; tliat they
have designedly confined their trade to a very narrow compass ; and have
for that purpose abused tlie Indians, neglected the'v own forts, ill-treated
tlveir own servii its, and encouraged the French.

"13ut on CO isideratiou of all the evidence laid before us by many

affidavits on both sides we think these charges are either not

sufficiently supported in point of fact, or in a great measure accounted for
from the nature or circumstances of the case."

The C^Irown acted upon and confirmed this Rc])ort ;
the Petition was refused, aiul the (Company left in undis-
turbed enjoyment of their property and rights.

l^y this solemn State-proceeding the Crown ac-
knowledged —

a. That the Hudson's Pay Company had then, for 78
years (from 1070 to 1748), possessed the territory
^'' withotU i'nfemiption or encroachnumt.'' Contrary to the
allegations of recent writers, having no sucli means of
ancient knowk'dge, venting guesses for Facts, that the
possession of the Comi)any was interrupted, encroaclied

upon, and defeated from tlie very bcginnin

«■•

THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY.

h. That, even if the extent of the Charter was origm-
ally uncertain as to limits, it was now rendered certain,
and the limits legally defined, by long and uninterrupted
possession.

c. That (so far differing I admit from a later Opinion,
to which I shall afterwards advert,) the same lengthened
possession had confirmed and validated the grant of
exclusive trade.

d. That, under the conditions in which they have been
placed, the Company had not lost right to any portions
of their territory in consequence of their not fully oc-
cupying or using them.

e. That they had not given up to the Canadian Frencli,
or been legally deprived by them of any portion of
territory belonging to the Company under the Charter.

1763.

The French now made a total surrender of Canada to
the British, so there was no longer any conflict of
government. The whole American continent became
British from the Arctic ocean to Florida ; and Canada,
equally with Rupert's Land, was a colony or province
subject to the British Crown.

1783.

For many years, however, after the surrender of
Canada, multitudes of the inhabitants conti-ned, after
the old French fashion, to roam and hunt and maraud
over the North and North-west territories, without any
distinction whether the territory was Canadian, or
belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company, These poach-
ings took a head in 1783, when the North- West Com-
pany of Canada was formed, chiefly as a fur-trading
Company: nd its adventurous spirits at once liung

THE HISTORY.

themselves broad- oast into tlie territory, in defiance of
the Hudson's Bay Company, hunting and trading up to
the Bay itself, and along the western prairies and river-
courses, over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. Such
a daring and formidable competition, instead of co whig,
roused up the Hudson's Bay Company to equal deter-
mination. They came down from their more northern
reti'eats, encountered their rivals on the broad hunting
grounds, and by stratagem and by force tried to expel
them. The hunters on both sides became soldiers ;
the Indian was called in with his tomahawk, as well as
his bow and arrow ; murderous attacks, bloody battles,
cruel massacres ensued ; and the herds of buffalo were
grazing in safety, wliilst the White Men were reddening
the prairie-grasses with each other's blood.

1812.

In the midst of these scenes of violence, rapine, and
carnage, one little ark of promise suddenly upheaved
on tlie Bed Biver, — I mean in the formation, now more
than half a century ago, of the first and still (with ex-
ceptions too trifling to mention) the only settlement in
Rupert's Land.

Iliis was the work of a man whose name has nearly
sunk in the stream of Time, but will yet re-appear
in its native strength and lustre. Thomas Earl of
Selkirk, about forty years of age, in the prime of his
life, in the noon-tide of his enthusiasm and benevo-
lence. A Scottislv nobleman, descended from the doughty
Douglases of old, with much of the hard strong will
of the old barons, but more of the liberal ideas and
practical i-eforms of the modern statesman, bent upon
spreading civilization, and elevating the masses of man-
kind above want and misery. For the present I can

THE HUDSON « BAY COMPANY.

only bow to liis shade as it passes, and recognize in him
the same majestic lineaments which mark his brother-
heroes, the Smiths of Virginia, the Penns of Pennsyl-
vania, the Baltimores of Maryland, who laid the found-
ation-stones of American greatness and progress. He
was less fortunate than they, in the obscurity of his
early theatre, the seeming failure of all his efforts, and
in altogetlier wanting a " sacred poet'' to commemorate
his fame. By him was the first Red River Hettlement
founded ; by him was that settlement guarded for many
years with paternal fondness and anxiety ; by him was
it cherished as the sign of a new era, as the little root
that would swell and ^rcad, and become part of some
future new empire of humanity. From some passages
in his little work on '' The British Fur Trade in North
America," we infer that tlie Hudson's Bay Company at
that time were well disposed and prepared to carry out
a system of such settlements in their territory. Gazing
at the infant settlement in 1816, with a fatlier's pride,
yet with a father's disappohitment, and turning for
relief, as all noble minds must, to the hopes of the
future, he exclaims with prophetic glow : '• It is
a very moderate calculation to say^ tliat if these regions
were occupied hy an industrious population^ they miyJd
afford ample means of subsistence to more than thirty
millions of British subjects /"

1821.
The North-AVest Company meanwhile had abated
none of their hostility against the Hudson's Bay, and
amongst other attempts took Opinions from time to time
of all distinguished counsel, to see whether they could
not attack and overthrow the Charter. Edward Ellice,
the Corypluxius of the North-west, before he carried

THE HISTORY.

I-

the weight of his abilities and influence into the service
of the Hudson's Bay, admitted long afterwards, before
the Select Comml tee of 1857, (to which I shall pre-
sently have occasion to allude,) that all those Opinions,
though taken at the instance of the North- West Com-
pany, agreed more or less strongly, that the Hudson's
Bay Charter was a good conveyance of the freehold;
though many cast doubt upon the exclusive trade and
government. Ilie North- West Company, with all their
money and all their animosity, never d^ired to raise in
any tribunal the question of the validity of the Hudson's
Bay (Charter.

After long-continued, bitter and sanguinary conflicts,
the two Companies, having exhausted each other's ex-
chequer, became sobered by poverty, and like the modern
Ilailway companies, thought of uniting when their quar-
rels had reduced them both nearly to beggary. They
amalgamated in 1821, under the name of the Hudson's
Bay Company, and under the wing of the Charter.
The British Government, as a dowry to the impoverish-
ed couple, presented them with a license of exclusive
trade over the whole Indian territory west of Bupert's
Ijand, over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, in-
cluding wluit has shice been constituted into the colony
of British (Columbia. Tliis license was terminable in
21 years, but in 1838 was renewed, again termhiable
in 21 years, or in the year 1859.

The only occupation that the Canadians can pretend
in l^upert's Land from 1783 was the occupation, such
as it was, of the parties forming the North- West C\)m-
pany, by themselves, their huntei's, traders, and ser-
vants. No other class of the Canadian people went
into these remote and almost Inaccessible i-egions. The
rest of the Canadians — good, plain, slow, sturdy fellows

THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY.

:'"'i

— were ploughing and digging away on the St. Law-
rence and Lake Erie, or bringing down lumber by St.
Anne's. There was no Canadian occupation, except
through the North- West Company. The benefit of
that occupation therefore, whatever was the value of it,
was brought, on the amalgamation of 1821, in aid of
the Hudson's Bay Charter. Whether it was mere
poaching, as I assert, or whether it had any legal effect,
this use and occupation of Rupert's Land fi'om 1783,
passed, on the amalgamation of 1821, to the account of
the Hudson's Bay Company and their Charter. And
it cannot be pretended that since then, that is for the
last 45 years, Canada has enjoyed or kept up any
kind or shadow of occupation of Rupert's Land. The
whole recent, authentic, verifiable possession that can
count for any thing in law, has been by the Hudson^s
Bay Company. All the rest is old wives gossip — ante-
diluvian stuff, an amusement for antiquarians, but
despised by the practical lawyer. I shall have occasion
to substantiate, from their own lips, that this much-
paraded claim of Canadian I'ight to Rupert's Land was
a mere nightmare dream that came into their heads
about the year 1857.

1848-9.

The Company, freed from all rivalry, Canada and the
United States still far off, the natives bowing to them
as a Manitou, the settlers few, and all their own subjects,
went on swimmingly for many years, almost reviving
the old dividends.

About 1848 tlie Imperial Government began to feel
some anxiety about Vancouver's Island, lest it might
fall a prey to the " annexing " Yankees ; and as the
best measure for its preservation and development,

^ i

THE HISTORY.

rpiolved to place it under the management of the Hud-
son's Bay Company, This was accordingly done in 1849.
A license of exclusive trade and management was
granted for 10 years, terminable therefore in 1859 (the
time of expiration of the similar license over the Indian
Territory).

This was the palmy time of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany. Its possessions and powers were then at their
zenith. They held Eupert's Land by the Royal Charter,
which was perpetual. They held the whole Indian
Territory to the Pacific by an exclusive license, which
was terminable in 1859. They held Vancouver's Island
bv a similar license, also terminable in 1859. Three
different possessions by three different titles. The Com-
pany is believed at this time to have had under its sole
sway about 4,000,000 square miles — a dominion larger
than the whole of Europe.

But at the very time of the license over Vancouver's
Island being granted. Parliament, in July 1849, had,
under various influences, passed a resolution requesting
the Government to " ascertain the legality of the powers
in respect to territory, trade, taxation, and government,
which are, or recently have been, claimed or exercised
by the Hudson's Bay Company, on the continent of
North America, under the Charter." At this time the
inhabitants of Red River, who professed to have, and
probably had, many causes of complaint against the
Company, appeared publicly against them, in the persons
of Mr. Isbister and Mr. M'Loughlin, natives or residents
of the Red River. The Colonial Minister, Earl Grey,
as the Government did in 1784, submitted the question
to the attorney and solicitor-general. Sir John Jervis
and Sir John Romilly ; and these learned gentlemen, offi-
cially at the head of their profession, and undoubtedly

THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY.

I' ^i

able lawyers, and under the most serious responsibility to
Parliament and to the Government, returned the follow-
ing Opinion.

" Having rcgjird to the powers in respect of territory, trade, taxation,
and government elaimoJ by the Hudson's Bay Company in the statements
t'lirnislied to your Lordship by the Chairman of that Company, we are of
opinion that the rights so claimed hy the Company do properly belong to
them,. Upon this subject we entertain no doubt."

The learned gentlemen then added —

'• But as it will be more satisfactory to the complainants against the
Companjr, to the promotors of the discussion in the House of Commons,
and possibly to the Company themselves, if the questions are publicly
urged and solemnly decided, we humbly advise your Lordship to refer
these questions to a competent tribunal for consideration and decision, and
to inform Mr. Isbister that he may appear as complainant, and the Com-
pany that they maybe heard as respondents upon tlie argument."

They then suggest what ought to be the particular
form of legal proceeding.

The Government, with the concurrence of the
Hudson's Bay Company, put it to Mr. Isbister and Mr.
M'Loughlin, if they would adopt the course pointed out,
and appear as complainants in such suit, so as to try
the legality of tlie powers claimed by the Company under
their Charter. Both these gentlemen refused, and upon a
ground which 1 must characterise as disingenuous and
irrelevant, a ground which was afterwards repeated as a
cuckoo-song by other parties who in course of time came
forward to attack the title. The ground was shortly this:
— that the inhabitants of the Red River, through their
representatives, were not called upon to raise the action
against the Charter ; that the duty of doing thin devolved
upon the Imperial Government. It is a very invidious,
a very rare and extreme measure, for a lord to attack
the title of his OAvn vassal — to tear up the charter
which he has granted under his own hand and seal. Still
a case may be supposed, and indeed has sometimes
liappened, where the lord has so raised action against
his own vassal's title. But in such a case he has been

THE HISTORY.

is:

instructed by his responsible advisers, that the title is
manifestly and flagrantly bad ; and also that his interests
are prejudiced by it. But in the present instance, the
Crown was advised, (as it had been in 1 748, but this
time in far moro strong and unqualified language), that
ex facie the Charter was good and indisputable; tliat the
Crown had no cause or excuse to impugn it. Under
such advice the Crown could not take action, without
the most glaring injustice, partiality and inconsistency.
It remained then for the objectors to take the initiative ;
and if they refused, the matter was at an end.

This was the conclusion to which the Government
came, and which was forcibly and tersely expressed in
the closing letter of the Colonial jVIinister.

^' Lord (jlrey having on behalf of Her ^la-

jesty's (Government, adopted the most effectual means
open to him for answering the requirements of the
Address, has been obliged, in the absence of any parties
prepared to contest the rights claimed by the Company,
to assume the opinion of the Law-Officers of the Crown
in their favour to be well-founded."

But you will naturally inquire — where were the
Canadians in 1849? The Hudson's Bay Charter was
assailed in the British Parliament ; it was being sub-
jected to a rigorous investigation by the British Govern-
ment ; and Mr. Isbister and Mr. M'Loughlin came
dragging all tlie way from the Bed River to do their
best to blow it up. Where were the Canadians ?
According to their modern pamphleteers, they — about
three millions of people — had been for two hundred
years robbed, plundered, abused, and oppressed by tlie
handful of Hudson's Bay traders, had been kept out of
tlicir rights, and barred by some kind of witchcraft fiom
eutei'ing and taking possessicju of tlie wliole country to

THE Hudson's bay company.

tlie Pacific. Here then, in 1849, was the time for fell
revenge. Earl Grey was holding out the Charter for
any body to come and tear it to pieces that could.
Then where were the robbed, plundered, abused Cana-
dians ?

It must be confessed that they were fast asleep — in.
a state of dead unconsciousness as to their having any
rights that had been stolen, any rights to claim or
recover. In the Committee of 1857 (to which I am
just about to pass in my narrative) Lord John Russell
naturally puts this very question to the leading Canadian
witness, Chief Justice Draper: —

" When the opinion of Lord Grey was known in Canada (that is in
1849), was there a disposition to acquiesce in the mode pointed out by
Lord Grey ?"

'"' I amnot aware" — answers Chief- Justice Draper— "^Aa^ the matter
was in any way discussed or considered in Canada at that particular
period : I do not think it was."

Lord John Russell (somewhat surprised no doubt at
this naive confession on the part of the deeply injured
Canadians) : —

" Has it been since ?"

" I cannot say that it has : I am not able to answer the question."

Another authority, almost equal to Chief- Justice
Draper, John Ross, member of the Canadian Pa. 'lament^
confirmed this extraordinary case of sleep.

Mr. Labouchere. — " Have those questions only recently occupied public
attention in Canada, or have they been discussed for some time there?"

Answer. — " I think it was during the very last stcmmer that the discussion
first commenced upon the subject" — that is the summer of 1856.

The Canadians, robbed of half a continent since 1670,
fell fast asleep, like Rip Van Winkle, but drowsier than
he, slept for 200 years ; then starting up and rubbing
their eyes, raised an outcry that has echoed all over
England : " Where's our Red River gone ? and our
Western Prairies? Where's our Saskatchewan? and
who stole the Rocky Mountains ?"

Pos

adn

wli

tha
oth(
limi
into

THE IlLSTORY.

iblic

ssion

Uncharitable people will conclude, tliat a dreaclfiil
robbery, which the victim could sleep over for 200
years, never had any existence but in his own diseased
imagination.

1857—8.

For seven years the Company seem to have moved
on unmolested and prosperous, ruling and ti'ading over
their vast dominions. But as the time approached
(1859), when their licenses over the Indian Territory
and Vancouver's Island would expire, attention was
again drawn to their position and claims. The Cana-
dians — or at least some who assumed to be their leaders
— were now rubbing up their eyes, and working them-
selves into a belief that the Company had robbed them
of their rights for the last two hundred years, and that
they were entitled to the whole continent. The Impe-
rial Government was dropping into the conclusion that
the time had arrived to form Vancouver's Island and
the Indian Territory into British colonies. Out of this
ferment of circumstances there again came up an agi-
tation to inquire into the Hudson's Bay Company —
which seems to be a periodical mania with a certain
class of politicians. In February 1867, when Mr.
Labouchere was Colonial Minister, a motion was canied
in the House of Commons, '" that a Select Committee
be appointed to consider the state of those British
Possessions in North America which are under the
administration of the Hudson's Bay Company, or over
which they possess a license to trade."

This was the most searching and unsparing inquiry
that was ever made into the position of that or any
other public company. I cannot, with my present
1 united object, and the short time at my command, enter
into details; but I cannot help recording my conviction

'"^

THE HUDSON S liAY COMPANY.

as I pass, tliat the Company came well out of the ordeal
— as well as poor Imman creatures and poor human
institutions can ever come out of any strict and merciless
examination.

Tlie meeting of the Select Committee of 1857 was a
great field-day for the opponents of the Company. It
was attended by our old acqvuiintances of 1849 — Mr.
Isbister and Mr. M'Loughlin, whose hostility time had
rather embittered than abated. But a much moi*e
august personage appeared on the scene — Canada, almost
in propria persona — '' The Honourable William Henry
Draper, C.B., Chief Justice of the Court of Common
Pleas of Upper Canada," and who had been commissioned
by the Government of Upper Canada " to undertake the
duty of coming to England for the purpose of watching
the investigation." Not merely however of watching
the investigation before the Committee, but also of
bringing the question of the Company's Charter and
whole rights before some competent tribunal. Being
asked on the 28th May, 1857, "Do you believe that tlie
province of Canada would be disposed themselves to
raise the question of the validity of tlie Charter of the
Hudson's Bay Company, either in wliole or in part,
before either the Judical Committee of the Privy Coun-
cil, or some other tribunal ? " he answers, " 1 can best
answer that question by stating that I have express in-
structions and authority to retain counsel to represent the
province, whenever in my judgment it is necessary." He
adds, '' it' her Majesty's Government were broadly to say
that (;anada must appear before tlie Judical Committee
of the Privy (council for the purpose of determining
her boundaries, 1 a])prchend that my instructions go the
full length of enablhig me to do so."

Now then the battk^- closes in earnest, and must be

THE ITISTOliY.

say
littee

\t b(

sluirply decided. No more skirmishing, but a stand-up
iio'lit between Canada and Hudson's Bay for the title to
the North- West !

The Government, anxious that this vexed territorial
question should be determined, but equally anxious, as
every British Government of whatever party is, and ever
will be, till our national character is debased, and our
constitution subverted, that legality shall be paramount
over every other consideration, —the Government, I say,
again referred the matter, in June 1857, as the Govern-
ments of 1748 and 1849 had done, to the responsible
law-officers of the Crown.

The attorney and solicitor-general at this time were
Richard Bethell, now Lord Westbury, and Henry, now
Judge Keating. I think there is no man in tliis meeting,
or in this country, who has any intelligence in puljlic
affairs, any knowledge of the status of public men, but
will agree that this age has not seen a greater jurist, a
surer legal guide, than Eichard Bethell. With a mind
of rare combination, as acute as profourul, with severe
early training, and a comprehensive knowledge of all
jurisprudence, with a largeness and equipoise of powers
that always made him strike the true medium, with that
innate wisdom which enabled him almost unerringly to
prophesy legal results, the Opinion of Richard Bethell
is the nearest thing we can have in weiglit aiul
authority to an ultimate judgment of the House of
Lords, or of the Privy Council. In this instance he
was delivering his opinion, not as an ex-parte advocate,
but as a responsible offi(5er of the Crown, sworn to
advise truly, for the guidance of the Government^
on a matter raised by the Mouse of (\)mmons, and
on wliicli tlie briglitest luminaries of the law for a
hundred years had spoken. He was called upon to
advise, with all sources of information now thoroughly

THE

IIUDSON*S

BAY COMPANY.

i 1
f

\: V'

ransacked, with the American colonies on tlic watch, and
the eyes of the jurists and politicians of both sides of the
Atlantic upon him.

I cannot pass cursorily over such an Opinion from
such a man; I must give it nearly at full length.
Anxious as I am to save time, I must claim some
indulgence at this point ; our whole case lies here ; this
is the highest authority on our title ; and on our title
our whole future policy depends.

Without making any preliminary quotations, the fol-
lowing then is the true substance of the Opinion : —

" The questions of the validity and construction of the Hudson's Bai/
Company's Charter cannot he considered apart from the enjoyment that has
been had under it during nearly two centuries, and the recognition made of
the rights of the Company in various acts both of the Government and the
Legislature.

"Nothing could be more unjust, or more opposed to tlie spirit of our
law, than to try this Cliarter as a thing of yesterday, upon principk>8
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.

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*'

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.

■

THE HISTORY.

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

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.

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

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

THE HISTORY.

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-

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.

— 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.

THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY.

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

- -■^-*M.WMi|i>««iiigi^?HNwB!.pgM

THE NEW POLICY.

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

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.

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. ,

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

£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.

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

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.

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.

THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY.

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.

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

THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY.

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

THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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"

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.

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

THE HUDSON S BAY COMPANY.

li 1;

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.

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

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.

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

STATEMENT.

^.<

I'E '*■ 'f

^Mi;

''I

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

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.

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

STATEMENT.

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.

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

STATEMENT.

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

STATEMENT.

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

STATEMENT.

■>i

! '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.

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-

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.

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,

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.

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.

PROSPECTUS; 1863.

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,

PROSPECTUS, 18G3.

'It M

m y

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.

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.

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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</n<ifiire
Address

No. of Shares held_