the Noble Lord's plans of aggression and competition against their trade.

The North-West Company was founded in 1783, by an association of Traders, prior to that time engaged in rival undertakings, and who, on the conquest of Canada, following the footsteps of their predecessors, the French Colonists, had engaged in the trade. Every Legal Opinion* they had been able to obtain, strengthened their determination to resist these proceedings; and the following Abstract of the History and Discovery of the Country, will show the grounds on which they founded their opposition, and will appear at least to justify it, till a legal decision had been obtained by the Hudson's Bay Company, or Lord Selkirk, in confirmation of the validity of their claims.

Hudson's Bay had been discovered prior to the attempt in which Hudson perished in 1610; but from the voyage of Sir Thomas Button in 1611, till the year 1667, it appears to have been wholly neglected by the English government and nation?. In the latter year, the communication between Canada and the Bay was discovered by two Canadian gentlemen, Messrs. Raddisson and De Groselliers, who were conducted thither across the country by Indians. Succeeding in this, they returned to Quebec, and offered the merchants to conduct ships to Hudson's Bay, the proximity of

Appendix, Nos. IV. V. VI.

+ See Harris's Voyages, vol. ii. pp. 245–286.

which to the principal Fur districts, was now ascertained. This proposal was rejected, as well as a subsequent one to the French government at Paris: there they were persuaded by the English Ambassador to go to London, where they were favourably received by some merchants, and persons of quality, who entrusted a Mr. Gillam, long accustomed to the Newfoundland trade, to prosecute the discovery. Mr. Gillam sailed in the Nonsuch ketch, in 1667, into Baffin's Bay, to the height of 75° north latitude, and from thence southward to 51°, where he entered a river, to which he gave the name of Prince Rupert's; and finding the Indians friendly, erected a small Fort. The persons interested in this vessel, upon the return of Gillam, applied to Charles the Second for a Patent, who granted them the Hudson's Bay Charter, dated the 2d May, 1670.

In that year the Company sent out a Mr. Bailey, Governor, who with Mr. Raddisson, settled at Rupert's River, and established Fort Nelson; and that these Establishments were then considered an encroachment on the French Province, is evident, from the instructions to Mr. Henry Sargeant, who succeeded as Governor at Rupert's River in 1683, which enjoined him to be careful of the French, who were already jealous of the Trade. In 1686 the Hudson's Bay Company had five Forts, which, though all on the shores of the sea, so much increased the jealousy of the French, that Chevalier de Troyes was sent overland from

Canada to attack them; and in July of that year, the two Nations being then in a state of profound peace, and the two Governments in more than amicable understanding, Mr. Sargeant was compelled to surrender his Fort to the Chevalier, after a defence of a week. In the period from 1693 to 1696, these Forts were all retaken, and again captured by the French in the succeeding war. At the Peace of Utrecht they were restored to the English Government, and by the 10th Article* of

* Tenth Article of the Treaty of Utrecht, concluded in 1713. "The said Most Christian King shall restore to the Kingdom and Queen of Great Britain, to be possessed in full right for ever, the Bay and Straits of Hudson, together with all lands, seas, and sea-coasts, rivers, and places situate in the said Bay and Straits, and which belong thereunto; no tracts there, of land or of sea, being excepted, which are at present possessed by the Subjects of France. All which, as well as any buildings there made, in the condition they now are, and likewise all Fortresses there erected, either before or since the French seized the same, shall, within six months from the ratification of the present Treaty, or sooner if possible, be well and truly delivered to the British Subjects, having Commission from the Queen of Great Britain to demand and receive the same, entire and undemolished; together with all the cannon, &c. &c. It is, however, provided, that it may be entirely free for the Company of Quebec*, and all other the Subjects of the Most Christian King whatsoever, to go by land or by sea, whithersoever they please, out of the lands of the said Bay, together with all their goods, merchandizes, arms, and effects, except such things as are above reserved in this Article. But it is agreed on both sides, to determine within a year, by Commissaries to be forthwith

This is a conclusive proof, that the Company of Quebec had discovered and explored the Interior, even to the immediate confines of Hudson's Bay, above sixty years before the Hudson's Bay Company ventured out of sight of the Bay; for it was after the year 1763, that the Servants of that Company first followed the Canadian Traders into the Interior.-ED.

that Treaty, it was stipulated that Commissioners should be appointed to settle the boundaries of the British Settlements with Canada, but none ever met for that purpose.

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About 1628 or 1630, a Beaver Company was established in Canada, prior to the date of the Hudson's Bay Charter; and it is evident from the accounts of all writers on the subject, that the persons engaged in the latter Company never attempted to extend their Trade beyond the immediate confines of the sea, till subsequent to the cession of Canada in 1763, when the Trade of the Province was opened to all His Majesty's subjects. As the Canadian Traders, by penetrating into the Interior, were more successful, the Hudson's Bay Company followed their example by slow degrees, and established Posts in the countries previously occupied by the Canadians. These approaches of the Hudson's Bay Company experienced no molestation from their competitors; nor would any difficulties have now arisen, except those which naturally occur in the rivalship of trade, if the monstrous pretensions to the exclusive property and Trade of all territories through which any rivers or waters flow in their course to Hudson's Bay, had not been recently asserted by that Company and their Grantee.

named by each party, the limits which are to be fixed between the said Bay of Hudson, and the places appertaining to the French; which limits both the British and French Subjects shall be wholly forbid to pass over, or thereby to go to each other by sea or by land.”

The provisions of the Charter are in themselves, if legal, sufficiently extensive; but even the Grant contained in it, is only of Countries "not occu

pied or discovered by the Subjects of any other "Christian Prince or State" and it is perfectly evident from the facts above stated, that this could not include any part of the property ceded to Lord Selkirk. The Grant commences only at Lake Winnipic, at least 700 miles distant from either of the original Establishments of the Company in the Bay, and extends some hundred miles into the territory of the United States, blotting from the map entirely the intermediate dependencies of Canada.

The Earl of Selkirk's title appeared to the Canadians totally destitute of all authority, either from the legality of the Grant in point of law, or the powers of the Grantors as to the subject mat

He found others, at least in long undisputed Occupation of what he claimed by virtue of an obsolete Charter, emanating from a prerogative which was extremely questionable; and which certainly has never in any instance been exercised by the Crown, nor recognized as legal by any judicial decision since the Revolution.

The North-West Company, therefore, candidly stated their objections, both to the Hudson's Bay Company and to Government, and their determination to maintain their own rights and possessions at the same time they added, that however much they regretted the adoption of such measures