Part 21 (1/2)

[48] THE COMPANY'S PEt.i.tION TO QUEEN ANNE FOR ACT OF CESSION.

_To the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty_:--

The humble pet.i.tion of the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay, sheweth:

That your pet.i.tioners, being informed that the Act of Cession is come over, whereby (among other matters thereby concerted) the French King obliges himself to restore to your Majesty (or to whom your Majesty shall appoint to take possession thereof) the Bay and Streights of Hudson, as also all forts and edifices whatsoever, entire and demolished, together with guns, shot, powder and other warlike provisions (as mentioned in the 10th article of the present treaty of peace), within six months after the ratification thereof, or sooner, if possible it may be done.

Your pet.i.tioners do most humbly pray your Majesty will be graciously pleased to direct the said Act of Cession may be transmitted to your pet.i.tioners, as also your Majesty's commission to Captain James Knight and Mr. Henry Kelsey, gentleman, to authorize them, or either of them, to take possession of the premises above mentioned, and to const.i.tute Captain James Knight to be Governor of the fortress called Fort Nelson, and all other forts and edifices, lands, seas, rivers and places aforesaid; and the better to enable your pet.i.tioners to recover the same, they humbly pray your Majesty to give orders that they may have a small man-of-war to depart with their s.h.i.+ps, by the 12th of June next ensuing, which s.h.i.+p may in all probability return in the month of October.

And your pet.i.tioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray.

By order of the Company.

per WM. POTTER, SECRETARY.

[49] ”MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,--The Queen has commanded me to transmit to you the enclosed pet.i.tion of the Hudson's Bay Company, that you may consider of it and report your opinion what orders may properly be given upon the several particulars mentioned. In the meantime I am to acquaint you that the places and countries therein named, belonging of right to British subjects, Her Majesty did not think fit to receive any Act of Cession from the French King, and has therefore insisted only upon an order from that Court for delivering possession to such persons as should be authorized by Her Majesty to take it; by this means the t.i.tle of the Company is acknowledged, and they will come into the immediate enjoyment of their property without further trouble.”

[50] In 1714 the Hudson's Bay Company sent a memorandum to the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, accompanied by a map in which they claimed that the eastern boundary should be a line running from Grimington's Island through Lake Miscosinke or Mista.s.sinnie, and from the said lake by a line run south-westward into 49 degrees north lat.i.tude, as by the red line may more particularly appear, and that that lat.i.tude be the limit; that the French do not come to the north of it, nor the English to the south of it.

[51] MR. BLADEN TO MR. DELEFAYE.

PARIS, November 11th, 1719, N.S.

On Wednesday last, my Lord Stair and I delivered to the Marechal d'Estrees the demand of the Hudson's Bay Company, with respect to their limits, and by comparing the enclosed, which is a copy of that demand, with the instruction upon his head, you will perceive the same has been fully complied with.

So soon as I shall have the French Commissary's answer to our demand, I shall likewise take care to transmit you a copy of it, to be laid before their Excellencys the Lord Justices.

[52] PARIS, May the 4th, N.S., 1720.

MR. PULTENEY TO MR. SECRETARY CRAGGS.

My Lord Stair has spoke to the Regent, who said immediately that the conferences shall be renewed whenever we please; His Excellency then desired His Royal Highness would appoint a day, which he promised to do. This is what the Regent has promised my Lord Stair once every week, for four or five months past, without any effect, and his Excellency does not expect any more from the promise now, though possibly a conference may be appointed for form sake. I have been here near six months, and have seen only one conference, which was appointed by my Lord Stanhope's desire. I think there had been two conferences before I came; at the first of them the commissions were read, and at the second my Lord Stair and Mr. Bladen gave in a memorial about the limits of the Hudson's Bay Company, to which no answer has been made. I must own that I never could expect much success from this commission, since the French interests and ours are so directly opposite, and our respective pretensions interfere so much with each on the several points we were to treat about; but that the French have not been willing to entertain us now and then with a conference, and try how far we might be disposed to comply with a conference, and try how far we might be disposed with any of the views they had in desiring the commission, cannot, I should think be accounted for, but by supposing they knew we came prepared to reject all their demands, and to make very considerable ones for ourselves.... I shall expect your further direction as to my stay or return; I cannot help owning I heartily wish for the latter, but I shall always submit to what His Majesty likes best, and shall only desire in this case that I may have a supply from the treasury, since I have not had the good fortune to be concerned in either of the Misiseppis.

CHAPTER XVIII.

1719-1727.

The South Sea Bubble -- Nation Catches the Fever of Speculation -- Strong Temptation for the Company -- p.r.i.c.king of the Bubble -- Narrow Escape of the Adventurers -- Knight and his Expedition -- Anxiety as to their Fate -- Certainty of their Loss -- Burnet's Scheme to Cripple the French -- It Forces them Westward into Rupert's Land.

The cause of the Governor's recall lay in the existence of a crisis which promised a happy issue. It arose through the venality of some of the Company's directors, who were victims of the South Sea fever.

[Sidenote: South Sea Company.]

The South Sea Company, whose extraordinary success gave rise to a thousand joint stock enterprises equally unsound and fatuous, owed its origin to Harley, Earl of Oxford, in 1711, who in return for the acceptance of a government debt of 10,000,000 granted to a number of merchants a monopoly of the trade to the South Seas.

At that time the most extravagant ideas prevailed concerning the riches of South America. ”If,” it was said, ”the Hudson's Bay Company can make vast moneys out of the frozen North, what can be done with lands flowing with milk and honey?” The South Sea Adventurers carefully fostered all the current notions, spreading likewise the belief that Spain was ready to admit them to a share of its South American commerce.

In 1717 this Company advanced to the English Government five more millions sterling, at an interest of six per cent. Their shares rose daily. Even the outbreak of war with Spain, which destroyed all hope in the minds of sensible persons of any share in the Spanish traffic, did not lessen the Company's popularity. In Paris, John Law's Mississippi Bubble burst, ruining thousands, but, far from being alarmed at this catastrophe, it was universally believed that Law's scheme was sound, but had been wrecked through unwise methods. In May, 1720, the South Sea Company proposed to take upon themselves the entire national debt of upwards of 30,000,000 upon a guarantee of five per cent. per annum for seven and one-half years, at the end of which period the debt might be redeemed if the Government chose, or the interest reduced to four per cent. The nation was dazzled; Parliament accepted the offer; and the Company's stock rose steadily to 330 on April 7, falling to 290 on the following day.

[Sidenote: A fever of speculation.]