Part 45 (1/2)

[118] Indeed it cannot be doubted that Great Britain was wholly influenced by the position of the Company. It has been said that she did not antic.i.p.ate any permanent possession of the country. ”The British have certainly no other immediate object,” wrote Mr. Gallatin, the American commissioner, to Henry Clay, ”than that of protecting the Company in its fur-trade.”

[119] Sir Edward Walkin tells how, when he was for a short time, in 1865 and 1866, shareholders' auditor of the Company, he cancelled many of these notes which had become defaced, mainly owing to the fingering of Indians and others, who had left behind on the thick yellow paper, coatings of pemmican.

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

1846-1863.

The Oregon Treaty -- Boundary Question Settled -- Company Proposes Undertaking Colonization of North America -- Enmity and Jealousy Aroused -- Att.i.tude of Earl Grey -- Lord Elgin's Opinion of the Company -- Amended Proposal for Colonization Submitted -- Opposition of Mr. Gladstone -- Grant of Vancouver Island Secured, but Allowed to Expire in 1859 -- Dr. Rae's Expedition -- The Franklin Expedition and its Fate -- Discovery of the North-West Pa.s.sage -- Imperial Parliament Appoints Select Committee -- Toronto Board of Trade Pet.i.tions Legislative Council -- Trouble with Indians -- Question of Buying Out the Company -- British Government Refuses Help -- ”Pacific Scheme” Promoters Meet Company in Official Interview -- International Financial a.s.sociation Buys Company's Rights -- Edward Ellice, the ”Old Bear.”

On the 15th of June, 1846, the famous ”Oregon Treaty” was concluded between Great Britain and America.

[Sidenote: The Oregon Boundary Question.]

By the second article of that instrument it is declared that: ”From the point at which the forty-ninth parallel of north lat.i.tude shall be found to intersect the great northern branch of the Columbia River, the navigation of the said branch of the river to the point where the said branch meets the main stream of the said river shall be free and open to the Hudson's Bay Company, and to all British subjects trading with the same, and thence down the said main stream to the ocean, with free access into and through the said river or rivers, it being understood that all the usual portages along the line thus described shall, in like manner, be free and open. In navigating the said river or rivers, British subjects, with their goods and produce, shall be treated on the same footing as citizens of the United States; it being, however, always understood that nothing in this article shall be construed as preventing, or intending to prevent, the Government of the United States from making any regulations respecting the navigation of the said river or rivers not inconsistent with the present treaty.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: HUDSON'S BAY CO.'S EMPLOYEES ON THEIR ANNUAL EXPEDITION.

(_From ”Picturesque Canada,” by permission._)]

According to Article III, ”In the future appropriation of the territory south of the forty-ninth parallel of north lat.i.tude, as provided in the first article of this treaty, the possessary rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, and of all British subjects who may be already in the occupation of land or other property lawfully acquired within the said territory, shall be respected.”

The Oregon boundary question was thus settled. Immigrants were pouring into Oregon from all parts of America, and California was already receiving numerous gold miners. It was therefore natural that Vancouver Island and British Columbia should receive attention. The climate was known to be almost perfect, and a motion to encourage colonization in those territories was made in the British Parliament.

But the Company was quite alive to the situation. A letter was addressed to Earl Grey, the Colonial Secretary, dwelling on the efforts the Adventurers had made in the British interest, and urging that Vancouver Island be granted to them.

The negotiations continued until March, 1847, when Sir J. H. Pelly, the Governor of the Company, again wrote to Earl Grey, informing him that the Company would ”undertake the government and colonization of all the territories belonging to the Crown in North America, and receive a grant accordingly.” Such a proposition staggered Her Majesty's Ministers, who were for the most part ignorant of the work the Company had already accomplished, of the position it occupied, or of the growth of its establishment on the Pacific. Already it governed and was now busy colonizing the territory, doing both in a manner superior to that adopted by the Americans in their adjacent territories. Such a proposition, too, awakened all the jealousy and enmity against the Company which had been latent for so long.

[Sidenote: Enmity and jealousy aroused.]

One of the most determined and virulent in his attacks on the Company at this time was one A. K. Isbister, who addressed a long communication to Earl Grey, besides other letters to public men in England. In answer to Mr. Isbister, Earl Grey forwarded the substance of a report which had been made by Major Griffiths, late in command of Her Majesty's troops at Fort Garry, to whom had been communicated the pet.i.tion of certain residents of Red River settlement.

To all the pet.i.tions, memorials, and complaints of interested parties and self-seekers against the Company, Earl Grey had but one answer. He said he had gone to the bottom of the matter, and he believed the Company was honest and capable. If he had had any doubt about it, this doubt must have been removed by a remarkable despatch of Lord Elgin, Governor-General of Canada, under date of 6th June, 1848. ”I am bound to state,” he wrote, ”that the result of the enquiries which I have hitherto made is highly favourable to the Company, and that it has left on my mind the impression that the authority which it exercises over the vast and inhospitable region subject to its jurisdiction, is, on the whole, very advantageous to the Indians.... More especially it would appear to be a settled principle of their policy to discountenance the use of ardent spirits. It is indeed possible that the progress of the Indians toward civilization may not correspond with the expectations of some of those who are interested in their welfare. But disappointments of this nature are experienced, I fear, in other quarters as well as in the territories of the Hudson's Bay Company; and persons to whom the trading privileges of the Company are obnoxious may be tempted to ascribe to its rule the existence of evils which are altogether beyond its power to remedy. There is too much reason to fear that if the trade were thrown open and the Indians left to the mercy of the adventurers who might chance to engage in it, their condition would be greatly deteriorated.”[120]

Such was the opinion of the Earl of Elgin on the Hudson's Bay Company, and it was the opinion of all who really understood the Company's aims, its history and its position. ”Persons to whom the trading privileges of the Company are obnoxious.” It was thus that the Earl laid his finger upon the cause of the whole onslaught. Jealousy of the Company's rights was at the bottom of the whole matter.

[Sidenote: Opposition of Mr. Gladstone.]

The Vancouver Island negotiations were suspended for a year, and then the Company, seeing the opposition it had evoked, put forward a less extensive proposal, by which it offered to continue the general management of the whole territory north of the forty-ninth degree, and for colonizing purposes to except Vancouver Island alone. It agreed to colonize the island without any pecuniary advantage accruing to itself, and promised that all moneys received for lands and minerals should be applied to purposes connected with the improvement of the country. The proposition seemed a reasonable one; but in a certain rising statesman, who had inherited his opposition to the Company from his father, and who had many followers, the Honourable Adventurers had a powerful enemy. His name was Mr. W. E. Gladstone, and his enmity to the measure caused the Government to halt.

The Company was not without strong friends, as well as enemies. It drew up a deed of charter, and boldly relied on the Earl of Lincoln (afterwards Duke of Newcastle) to procure favour for it in the House of Commons. On the 17th July the Earl opened the subject, and drew from Mr. Gladstone a speech which occupies many columns of Hansard's Debates. With mighty energy he hurled argument, invective, appeal and remonstrance at the heads of his fellow-members. It was even suggested that he was actuated by personal malice. Every statement, every slander that could wither or blacken the fair fame of a corporation which had deserved well of its country, was employed on this occasion, and his conclusion was that the Company was incompetent to carry out its promises. Mr. Howard, who followed, believed that it would be ”most unwise to confer the extensive powers proposed on a fur-trading Company.” Yet he did not deny that as California had recently been ceded to America, it was a matter of the highest importance that a flouris.h.i.+ng British Colony should be established on the Pacific Coast as an offset to that power. Lord John Russell undertook to enlighten the House as to the achievements of the Company, apart from fur-trading. He said that it already held exclusive privileges, which did not expire until 1859; that the western lands were controlled by a Crown grant, dated 13th May, 1838, confirming the possession by the Company for twenty-one years from that date; that these privileges ”could not be taken away from it without breach of principle and that if colonization were delayed until the expiration of this term squatters from America might step in and possess themselves of the Island.”

[Sidenote: The grant of Vancouver Island.]

It was voted to refer the matter to the Privy Council Committee for Trade and Plantations; and on the 4th September this body reported in favour of granting Vancouver Island to the Hudson's Bay Company. The grant was duly signed, sealed and delivered on the 13th January, 1849.

The Company, in the midst of its triumph, was not satisfied. It had aroused enmities which it was powerless to allay. It had been lured, by too zealous friends, into making promise of a policy which it foresaw could not be followed without ruinous cost. It also foresaw that the rush to the Pacific, consequent upon the gold-fever of 1849, would bring about new interests not its own and, in brief, that the colony would pa.s.s from its hands, and that all its outlay and labour would have been expended without profits. What it antic.i.p.ated came about sooner than it expected. Opposition had been collecting from without, and had been engendered from within. Some of the Adventurers announced that when, in 1859, the grant would expire, they would object to its renewal. The Company's enemies a.s.serted that it had not exerted itself to bring about the desired colonization of Vancouver Island. The settlers forwarded a memorial asking to be relieved from the Company's control. At the same time, the Governor it had appointed, Mr. Douglas (afterwards Sir James Douglas), was popular, and when the grant was allowed to expire and Vancouver Island became a Crown colony in 1859, he was retained in the same office.

Soon afterwards, a Government was organized, with Mr. Douglas at its head, on the mainland of British Columbia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SIR GEORGE SIMPSON RECEIVING A DEPUTATION OF INDIANS.]

Meanwhile, in the eastern as well as the western extremity of the Company's domains, agitation and malcontent was being fomented.