the Stores of the North-West Company at Fort William that this Deponent, and three other Clerks, advised the said men of the said North-West Company, not to break their solemn engagements with the North-West Company, or suffer themselves to be debauched, as was attempted; that as soon as this came to the knowledge of the said Earl Selkirk, he ordered a subpoena to be served upon this Deponent and the other three Clerks, to appear at York, in Upper Canada, to give evidence on a certain accusation against "the Honourable William M'Gillivray, for conspiracy;" that the said subpoena was served upon this Deponent and the other Clerks on the second day of September instant, and this Deponent and the others were ordered to leave Fort William in half an hour for York; that they left Fort William in the course of the next day,

That the said Earl of Selkirk never examined this Deponent, or enquired of him if he knew of any fact or circumstance respecting any charge whatever against Mr. William M'Gillivray or otherwise; and the fact is, that this Deponent does not know any fact or circumstance relative to the matter for which he was subpoenaed by the said Earl of Selkirk; and this Deponent verily believes, that the said Earl of Selkirk made use of his office of Justice, to send him, this Deponent, and three other Clerks of the NorthWest Company away from Fort William, because they had advised the men not to depart from their engagements, or suffer themselves to be debauched from their bounden duty; that the day before this Deponent left Fort William, he, the said Earl of Selkirk, had taken possession of the keys of all the provisions of the North-West Company in the said Fort, and had given orders that none were to be taken out but by the order, or through the medium of Captain Matthey, late of the De Meuron Regiment; and this Deponent verily believes, that this act of violence on the part of the said Earl of Selkirk, was done, the more effectually to get all the men of the North-West Company at Fort William aforesaid into his power and service, in order to assist him in his ulterior proceeding.

(Signed)

Sworn at Montreal, the 21st

day of September, 1816,

before me,

(Signed) ROD. M'KENZIE,

J. P. and Civil Magistrate for Indian Territories.

ROBERT COWIE.

No. XXIII.

To the Right Honorable Earl Bathurst, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for War and Colonies.

The Memorial and Petition of M'Tavish, Fraser, and Co., and Inglis, Ellice, and Co. of London, Merchants, on their own behalf, and on behalf of other Persons interested in the North-West Company of Fur Traders of Canada;

HUMBLY SHÉWETH,

THAT the events of the late Campaign in Upper Canada, have entirely cut off all communication between the Lower Provinces and the Establishments of the NorthWest Company in the Interior of the Continent; and the Americans having obtained the temporary ascendancy on Lake Erie and Lake Huron, it will be impracticable to send up supplies of goods for the Trade, or the necessary subsistence for the persons conducting it, by the usual route from Montreal to Lake Superior.

That your Memorialists have now actually employed in their Service nearly two thousand persons, including Partners and Clerks, who are dispersed over the immense countries between Lake Superior and the Pacific Ocean, and engaged in the Fur Trade, with the different Indian Nations who inhabit these extensive regions: that your Memorialists have hitherto respected the supposed rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, by not opening through the Territories which they claim as their property under their Charter, the more direct and expeditious communication from Lake Winipic to Hudson's Bay, but have been contented for a long series of years to conduct their Trade through the Province of Canada, to their serious inconvenience and disadvantage. The route from Lake Winipic to Montreal, exceeding in distance 2500 miles, and requiring a period of 80 days to effect it, that to Hudson's Bay being only 500 miles, and affording in every respect greater facilities.

That the route through Hudson's Bay to the Trading Posts of your Memorialists in the interior, is now the only

one through which they can establish a communication, and bring out their returns of the last year's trade; and they humbly beg leave to represent to your Lordship, that unless they shall be authorized by His Majesty's Government to transmit, through this route, the provisions for the subsistence of their people, and the supplies necessary for their trade, it must be entirely sacrificed during the war.

Although your Memorialists are advised, and have ever contended, that the rights of the Hudson's Bay Company are only nominal, and that those conferred by their Charter, supposing it to be legal, have become void, by their non-compliance with the terms required in it, still your Memorialist's have hitherto been averse to enter into any discussions on the subject, further than to attempt a treaty with the Company to define their boundaries in the interior, founded on the rights of each party to the benefits of their own discoveries, but which was defeated by the claim set up by the Hudson's Bay Company, to the whole territory through which the different waters flowing into the Bay, passed in their course, and by the recent Grant in Fee Sim ple to the Earl of Selkirk, of a large tract of land in the interior for the purposes of colonization.

Your Memorialists have hitherto desisted from troubling His Majesty's Government on the subject of the Claims of the Hudson's Bay Company, being aware of the interpretations which would be put on such an interference, from the jealousy which may naturally be supposed; and actually does exist between two Trading Companies in rivalship with each other; but as there now appears an indispensible necessity that your Memorialists should be permitted to carry on their Trade through its natural channel, they beg leave to submit to the consideration of your Lordship, the necessity of some investigation into the rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, in order that they may be defined and ascertained. The Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company, if valid in all the privileges it is supposed to confer, would indeed be a singular monopoly in the annals of any country: in virtue of it, the Company claim a perpetual right to the exclusive Trade, Navigation, and Fisheries in the Bay, and the absolute property, to be disposed of by deed, under their Seal, of all the Countries bordering upon Hudson's Bay, and upon all the Rivers and Lakes communicating with it from the interior.

The conditions of this Grant by the Charter are, that they should colonize and settle the Bay, carry on the Fisheries, and make discoveries in the interior; instead of which,

previous to the discoveries of your Memorialists, they con tented themselves with trading such Furs as the Natives brought down to their settlements in the Bay, and have only attempted a communication with the interior, as the enterprise of your Memorialists made fresh discoveries, and the Servants of the Company tracing their route, have formed establishments after them. They have neither colonized the Territory of the Bay, nor carried on the Fisheries to any

extent.

The Capital of this Company is undefined by their Charter, but your Memorialists believe it amounts to about 100,000l. tock, which Stock has fluctuated, during the last twenty years, from 230 a 50 per cent., and during the last seven years the Directors have neither declared or made any dividend, or laid any statement of their affairs before their Proprietors; so that the value of the Stock must be now very trifling; and your Memorialists are informed, that the Grant to the Earl of Selkirk was made after the Earl had by himself or his connections, by purchases of St ck, obtained a preponderating influence in the direction. The Directors claim also a right from their Charter, when their Stock is insufficient for the purposes of their trade, to borrow loans by bond under their Seal, which under their present circumstances, may become highly prejudicial to such of His Majesty's subjects as might be tempted to advance money under the supposed authority of the Charter.

The predecessors of your Memorialists, who carried on the Fur Trade from Canada to the Countries West of Lake Superior, made their first establishments on that Lake succeeding those of the French Traders in the year 1761, the year after the conquest of Canada by His Majesty's arms, and gradually, as independent Traders, penetrated further into the interior, in every instance preceding the establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company, till the year 1779, when the different Traders, for their common safety in a country where they had no protection from their Government, entered into agreements, and united the Trade under the title of the North-West Company of Canada, and which has been continued by different coalitions of contending parties till the present time. The North-West Company has now extended its establishments to the shores of the Pacific, and have recently sent two vessels round Cape Horn, to connect those with the Trade to China, a trade hitherto carried on with avidity by the Americans. The Hudson's Bay Company have slowly followed their movements in the interior, but without the ability to profit by the Trade.

I

The Capital which your Memorialists employ in this Trade, is much more extensive than that of the Hudson's Bay Company: their returns have, ever since their establishment, four times exceeded those of that Company, and they have equally been obtained in barter for British Manufac

tures.

The North-West Company and the other British Traders in Canada, have been the great means of cementing our connections with the Indian Nations of the Continent, who are and have always been particularly attached to them. Under these circumstances, and the peculiar situation in which the War has placed them, your Memorialists have it in contemplation to send an Expedition from Quebec to Hudson's Bay, with the requisite supplies for their Traders in the interior, and they have applied to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, for protection to their ships while in the Bay.

Your Memorialists have found themselves compelled by the unexpected events of the War, to submit their case to the consideration of your Lordship, and humbly hope for the protection of His Majesty's Government, in their endea vours to retain this valuable Trade to the Country; and they respectfully pray, should it be inconvenient to your Lordship to take these circumstances into your immediate consideration, that you will be pleased, in the mean time, to recommend to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, to grant the Convoy requested, and to give instructions to the Captain of the Ship of War which may be ordered on this service, to protect the property of your Memorialists against any attempts on the part of the armed vessels of the Hudson's Bay Company, or others, to capture or detain it as a prize, or to obstruct their proceedings, under the alleged plea of infringing the Law, by a breach of the supposed Chartered Rights of the Hudson's Bay Company.

Memorialists will ever pray,

And your

London, February, 1814.

&c. &c. &c.