when, to use Mr. Buchanan's own words, the President would "be relieved from the embarrassment in which he has been involved by the acts, offers, and declarations of his predecessors," and be justified in going to war for the whole territory. The remarkable thing in this dispatch is the confidence which it betrays that, in the course which the President had made up his mind to follow with reference to the Oregon question, he would receive the countenance and support of the Senate and the country, even to the extremity of a war with England. The result has shown that, in this expectation, he did not do justice either to the wisdom and integrity of the Senate, or to the intelligence and good sense of the American people. Within a few days after the opening of the late session of Congress it became evident that Mr. Polk's policy respecting Oregon was viewed with no favor by a large majority of the Senate, nor was the war cry raised by the more ardent partisans of the Administration responded to in any part of the country. In process of time this conclusion forced itself on the mind of the President and his advisers, and hence your Lordship will find in the ulterior dispatches of Mr. Buchanan to Mr. MacLane a far more moderate and subdued tone, until at last they exhibit a positive and conciliatory desire to settle the question by compromise, the title of the United States to "the whole of Oregon" having apparently been forgotten. If further proof were wanted of the anxiety of this Government to be extricated from the mistaken position in which they had placed themselves, it would be found in the alacrity in which the terms last proposed by Her Majesty's Government for the settlement of the controversy were accepted. Sufficient time has now elapsed since the promulgation of the Treaty to enable us to judge of the light in which the transaction has been viewed throughout the country, and it is gratifying to say that it has been everywhere received with satisfaction and applause. No evidence whatever of a contrary feeling has come within my observation, except it be among the disappointed advocates of a war policy, who had staked their political fortune upon the adoption of extreme measures, and even in these quarters, I am bound in truth to say that the irritation is rather against the President and his ministers for having, as they say, deceived and betrayed them, than from any express condemnation of the Treaty itself. I have, &c., R. PAKENHAM. [xxiii] "Chronological List, showing the Names and Dates of Appointment of the various Principal Secretaries of Stute for Foreign Affairs in Great Britain, and British Ministers at Washington, and of the various Presidents and Secretaries of State of the United States, and United States Ministers at London, from 1818 to 1872.1 Period of Office. March 4, 1812, to September 16, 1822. July 6, 1846, to December 27, 1851 December 27, 1851, to February 28, 1852. February 26, 1858, to June 18, 1859 December 9, 1868, to July 6, 1870 1 Referred to in the Statement, page 2, note March 4, 1829, to March 4, 1837 M. Van Buren W. L. Marcy. H. Fish Chargé d'Affaires. March 8, 1825, to March 6, 1829 March 6, 1829, to 1831 March 5, 1841, to May 9, 1843. May 9 to June 24, 1843.... March 4, 1869 R. King. W. B. Lawrence1. J. Barbour.. L. MacLane. A. Stevenson . With vacancy from May, 1856, to January, 1857. December 22, 1817, to April, 1825. August, 1825, to June, 1826. July, 1828, to September, 1829. Sept. 21, 1829, to June 9, 1831. November, 1841, to August 4, 1845. August 5, 1845, to Aug. 15, 1846. October 10, 1849, to Sept. 25, 1852. October 4, 1852, to Aug. 20, 1853. May 14, 1861, to May 9, 1868. [xxvii] *MEMORANDUM RELATIVE TO THE ORIGIN AND PRIVI LEGES OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY.1 In 1669, certain British subjects formed themselves into a Company, for the purpose of undertaking an expedition to Hudson's Bay. The object of this expedition was twofold: 1. To discover a passage through those parts to the Pacific Ocean, or, as it was then oftener called, the South Sea; and, 2. To establish a trade in furs, minerals, and other things. For the encouragement of this enterprise a Royal Charter was granted to the Company on the 2d May, 1669. By the terms of this Charter, the Company obtained a Royal Grant of the sole trade and commerce of all the seas, straits, bays, rivers, lakes, creeks, and sounds, in whatsoever latitude they should be, lying within the straits commonly called Hudson's Straits, together with all the lands and territories upon the countries, coasts, and confines of the seas, bays, lakes, &c., aforesaid, that were not already actually possessed by the subjects of any other Christian Prince or State. The territory thus acquired was to be thenceforth reckoned and reputed as one of the British Plantations or Colonies in America, to be called Rupert's Land. For nearly a century after the formation of the Company, they confined their posts to the ample territory which had been granted to them by the Charter of Charles II, and left the task of procuring furs to the enterprise of native hunters, who brought the produce of their hunting to the established marts of the Company. The Company continued to enjoy, until 1784, the monopoly of the trade in these territories, when a rival Company was established, called the North-West Company, which had their head-quarters at Montreal. The North-West Company, instead of following the system of trade adopted by the Hudson's Bay Company, dispatched their servants into the very recesses of the wilderness to bargain with the native hunters at their homes. As the nearer hunting grounds became exhausted, the North-West Company advanced their stations westwardly into regions previously unexplored; and, in 1806, they pushed forward a post across the Rocky Mountains, and formed a trading establishment on a lake, now called Fraser's Lake, situated in 54° north latitude. This would appear to be the first settlement made by civilized men west of the Rocky Mountains. Other posts were soon after formed amongst the Flat-head and Kootanie tribes on the head-waters or main branch of the Columbia; and Mr. David Thomson, the astronomer of the North-West Company, descended with a party to the mouth of the Columbia in 1811. Mr. Thomson and his followers were, according to Mr. Greenhow, the first white persons who navigated the northern branch of the Columbia, or traversed any part of the country drained by it. [xxviii] In consequence of the rivalry existing between the Hudson's Referred to in the Statement, page 2, note *. |