FITZGERALD ON THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY. * Ma. FtrzunaeLn's Examination of
the Charter and Proceedings of the Budson's Bay Company, with reference to the Grant of Vancouver's .Island, hart been prompted by Mr. Montgomery Martin's trashy pamphlet upon, the subject. It is likely enough, as Mr. Fitz- gerald asserts, that that publication was in reality a semi-official puff of the Hudson's Bay Company and a defence of Lord Grey in the matter of Vancouver's Island : but if so, the concocters of the scheme will rue it. Mr. Fitzgerald's Examination wants the urgent political importance at- tached to Dr. Twiss's work on the Oregon question, and is more limited in as range over topics of geographical discovery and curious bibliography ; but in intrinsic merit it is equal to that remarkable book. It exhibits as distinct an arrangement of its topics, as thorough a knowledge of their subject matter, coupled with as close and convincing a mode of argu- ment; while it has greater vivacity or vigour of manner. Writing in reply to an author who is all the more unscrupulous as an advocate from Possessing a sort of foolish faith in the side he takes, Mr. Fitzgerald may make too little allowance for the Company, but the merchant princes of Leadenhall Street have scarcely been subjected to sharper attack or a keener exposure than the Hudson's Bay Company are obnoxious to in Ibis little volume.
Mr. Montgomery Martin's argument was somewhat after this fashion : the Hudson's Bay Company are excellent people, therefore Lord Grey was quite in the right to give them Vancouver's Island ; and upon this question issue is joined. Mr. Fitzgerald first examines the right of the Company to their territories and powers, and concludes that they have none. Their charter is really invalid. All the dicta of the sages, all the decisions of the courts, agree that such an extensive monopoly as Was granted by Charles the Second, and has been continuously renewed, cannot be granted by the Crown alone : it is against common right and common law. By an historico-diplomatic examination, Mr. Fitzgerald shows that the territory granted by Charles was at the time not his to grant, a great part of it belonging to France ; but if the charter were valid in law, and the territory had really belonged to the Crown of England, the terms of the charter effectually bar the pretended power of the Company to prevent settlement : the charter declares that "the territory, &c. shall beetle of his Majesty's Plantations or Colonies in America" ; and so well do the Company know the fact, that when their pretended rights have been set at defiance by persons too powerful to be oppressed, they have com- promised, not contended. It is perhaps rather a significant fact, than an argument for forfeiture, that they have never conscientiously attempted to fulfil the main condition of their charter—the discovery of a North-west Passage, or attempted it at all except for an interested purpose. The fol- lowing summary is from an account of the different expeditions of dis- covery undertaken by the servants of the Company under their auspices. 6 An Examination of the Charter and Proceedings of the Hudson's Bay Company. pith reference to the Grant of Vancouver's Island. By James Edward Fitzgerald, Published by Saunders. * Mr Fitagerald, egtaM ,jtilekrtue41.,1,/ icti"the Company have recetiiif L4cli inimle,..11n}In Pody, au4estate., lie shd K" ir.„. -..,„„,,,, J.., th, . Yrios Icnowl p.nbOws,kons the same antborities, that gross , ill-treatment of the natives tales place; and then he' Celle* accounts to- ' gether front all sources, whieh prove that their own profit itiiif4riiiire Of their Indian management; that they give runt to get skins ; that they wink, at murder to get skins; that they abandon the Indians to starvation when
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they can procure them skins no longer; and that their zeal for the
, spiritual comfort of the natives is on y , warm about the time When their charter expires.
"in 036, Mr, Beaver Was appointed Chaplain to the Company' at Fort Van. convert. on the Columbia river ; but in i83 after the licence had been renewed, , Mr. Beaver aPpears to have left—anything but pleased with the facilities afforded, him: his post has not since been supplied up to the present time. . . "The same idea of trading upon a missionary obaracter—as if the immortal souls of men were to be bartered for fur-idpis—seetas to have Induced the Com- pany, at the time of the renewal of their licence Of trade, to apply to theN'es- leyan Missionary Society for assistance; and in 1839 'six missionerres prodeeded to the country. We have lately been told; in the eintipany's defence; that five, missionaries; and one Indiamassistantlaiasionary, are no* actually employedia:: this sacred service.' A very cursory inspection of the Wesley11U Imports is *MB, dent M show that such a statement is untrue. The same inspection wails& display the policy of the Company, which seems to be, to get rid or missionaries as soon as they are no longer of any use to prop up the monopoly of the-fur- trade. We find that in 1843, there were six Wealeyae missionaries in'the whole- of the Company's territories; from 1844 to 1846, there were live; in 1847, thero were four; in 1848, three; and, one having since returned, there are at this mo- ment but two, of whom one is an Indian assistaat missionary; so that there is- but one regular missionary in the whole of the Compkny'S territory." A much graver charge is brought against the agentsof the Comp-- any-
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that of actual if not of legal treason in inciting Americans to settle in the. 6
disputed Oregon territory, and sacrificing the, national intereat's to their
own. , '
"The American policy of the Hudson's Bay Company would seem from the. above facts to be more than a matter of suspicion. "it is very easy to say these are all idle tales: they are tales, but math tales that Parliament ought to make a searching investigation into their truth. Thus-. much at least is certain, that Dr. II‘Laughlin provided for himself ',very large tract of land, on what title no one knows; that lie formed a considerable farm in what was certain to become American territory, and that he encouraged the im- migration of settlers from the United States, well keeWing that his own property.' would thus be raised in value. It is certain- that be has now left the Hudsonbi. Bay Company, and has become nominally, what he seems to have been for years really, an American citizen, living in the midst of an American population, whielr he collected round him, upon soil to which he knew that his own country had all along laid claim. 5 • S • •
"The Oregon territory was peopled, under the influence of the Company, with subjects of the United States: that lost us the boundaey Of the Columbia river.
"Since writing the former chapter, I have heard this account given of the con- duct of the Hudson's Bay Company in respect to the Oregon boundary; which offers still stronger ground for inquiry. The country South of the 49th parallel, it seems, was hunted up; therefore the posts of the Hudson's Bay Company were, become of no value at all. By annexing all that 'country to the United States; and inserting in the treaty a clause that the United States should pay the Com- pany for all its posts if it turned them out, the Company were able to obtain from' the Americans a large sum of money for what would have been ,worth nothiag had the territory remained British." .
We could easily extend our notice of topics and extracts, especially in reference to the value of the territory for colonization purposes; but our object is to give an idea of the scope and character of the book, rather than to enter fully into the rights and conduct of the Hudson's Bay Company, or to reopen in this department of the journal the question or Vancouver's Island. We trace nothing of oredulily.or partisanship in Mr.. Fitzgerald's book, though there is evidently a feeling against the Com- pany; but there is an accumulation of facts which will materially diminish. the good esteem of that corporation in public opinion, and require some abler advocate than Mr. Montgomery Martin to explain away. The. new connexion which Lord Grey has introduced to "this Office" in the Company will not turn out so valuable as might have been supposed. so tP64 tdniOanynkaik, theii. senbabet; bun Mir expealliers,inttesethilleftlViihq -theireeenf time4asflrhiTh orb enet,weit Weir trkiiiRZ .1)3IMIKOSthe Oleig9Reisij aiti.fTeMbSITIrse!ar_241i,t9i *topper. -They werOn 'W?utd-lieg ;SAW' idlisVIStediikyAtitriti Wri tpier,„ the two, filo Ff,e,re tO Oh al:lea-gm tAio great rneasinh' trading; tipeciffittroni; ithe tether twilavelti 'both viectilieniit when the Briersh'Goterranent,hadAsentl made in Order to enable tl1e CeelPe9YliM. PAL Jortlil 41.4iqmlifv4r.. ec'vr, 0eAtIAU NP4.649011eFe1117."1 ,i1Ft,IF-enc4-9f:cC4qq`v.c ,9a -- for, their trisatmentef, that those praises are: nothing beyond : but
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