VANCOUVER'S ISLAND.
A SUSPICION has been naturally excited, that Lord Grey is about to give away a very valuable piece of national property. Vancouver's Island, on the American Pacific coast, is to be ceded under a Royal charter to the Hudson's Bay Company ; what for, does not appear. But, unless the transaction should wear a td- tally different aspect on fuller explanation, it is one of the most glaring abuses of official power. Lord Lincoln has drawn atten- tion to the subject in Parliament ; and the Morning Chronicle opportunely puts together what scanty information on the sub- ject at present exists. "Vancouver's Island is situated in the Pacific, very nearly in the same latitude as the British Islands; and enjoys a climate very similar to our own, but milder and more equable. It possesses a fertile soil, magnificent forests, and immense tracts of good coal, reaching to the water's edge on various parts of the coast. What makes the latter peculiarly valuable at this moment is, that an American company is about to run a line of steamers from the Columbia river (almost within sight of the island) to Panama and that this company are at this moment contracting for their coals in England. Another project is on foot for establish- ing steam communication between the West coast of America and China; in short, an opening exists for supplying, exclusively from a British possession, the whole Pacific trade with the means of steam navigation. Above all, Vancouver's Island possesses, or commands, all the harbours on the Western coast of North America—for there is not one between San Francisco, in California and the Straits of Juan de Fuca. For all these reasons, it is highly important that a body of British colonists, prepared to turn these natural advantages to account, and to maintain our supremacy in the Pacific, should be established in this favoured situation; and as the demand for coal offers the unusual inducement of an immediate export trade, it is not wonderful that there should be persons in this country ready and willing to make the adventure, if they could obtain the support and encouragement of Government."
Is Lord Grey about to spite the country, which has detected his feebleness in office, by making away with its property'? Ile should remember, and his more responsible colleague Lord John
Russell should remember, that the lands of the empire are no longer recognized as the personal property of the Sovereign, to be given away at pleasure, as James the First or Elizabeth gave away provinces ; but that they are only the property of the Crown as trustee for the nation. Public land, therefore, can only be ceded for objects which conduce to the national interest ; and the public should know the terms of the bargain before it is ratified.
As yet, nothing is adduced to show that the cession of the is- land to the Hudson's Bay Company would be advantageous to the public interest. That company is a trading association, whose traffic in furs might be presumed to make it share the Red Indian prejudice against the intrusion of civilized life upon the wild hunting-grounds whence the trade is supplied. And the presumption is corroborated by the fact, that with all its broad operations, from Atlantic to Pacific, the company has not been a colonizing body. Much is due to it on the score of geographical discovery : we are not disposed to forget that the officers of the company preceded Franklin and Back in exploring the terrible deserts of the North, or that the names of Mackenzie and Simpson belong to the history of mankind. But the question now is one of colonizing. Vancouver's Island is a commanding point ; it should be a master-key to the colonization and commerce of An- glo-American domains on the Pacific; its alienation to the Hud- son's Bay Company will frustrate its most valuable uses, besides serving as a bad precedent for reviving the anti-colonial privi- leges and practices of,the Crown.
It should be understood that any Minister who disposes of public property in a clandestine way, as richly merits impeach- ment as if he were guilty of embezzlement or peculation : and indeed, whatever the motive, the alienation of Vancouver's Island does not appear to differ materially from either of those criminal offences. It is to be hoped that the Colonial Office will not in this case be allowed to enjoy its usual secrecy, but will be obliged to explain, before it would be too late to arrest a bad bargain.
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