colonization, which, if success in them was not absolutely impracticable, could alone prosper by the destruction of the Canadian trade. It is intended in pursuance of the Resolutions, to appoint Dependants of Lord Selkirk and the Hudson's Bay Company, both Judges and Juries in causes between themselves and their opponents. These Judges and Juries so appointed and selected, are to administer impartial justice in causes where their immediate interests must be always in question, and where between the parties there must necessarily exist a certain state of rivalship and animosity. The Canadian Defendants in these suits have never hitherto acknowledged the jurisdiction of their opponents, and will not now feel more disposed, from the violence of these measures, to respect its authority. The natural consequence of attempting to enforce by the Sheriffs a verdict obtained from such a Court, will be resistance by arms upon the plea of self-defence; and each individual will conceive himself entitled to defend his person and property against what he considers incompetent and illegal authority. These disputes must end in bloodshed, and the scene will be in many instances from one to three thousand miles from the residence of the Chief Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, in a country where the strong must prevail against the weak, and where it would scarcely be practicable even to enforce the due execution of acknowledged law. The Hudson's Bay Company, in making appointments under the present Resolutions, appear also to have in view those persons for carrying their objects into effect, who may do so with the greatest rigour, and whose conduct and character may not entitle them to a respect which the appointment should create. If authority of so grave a nature could be legally exercised, probably it might be safe in the hands of such a respectable person as Mr. Semple, nominated Governor in Chief of Rupert's Land, although he still must have in view the interests of his employers; but it scarcely could have been believed, that the Directors should appoint Mr. Miles Mac Donell one of the Chief Governors and Judges, who has hitherto shown himself a most violent par tizan in the country, and not over scrupulous in the means he has employed to promote the objects of his patron Lord Selkirk. The persons appointed Counsellors and Sheriffs are of a description perfectly unfit for those situations; possibly they may be able to read and write, but beyond those qualifications, they can possess none fitting them for such frusts, or to have power such as the Resolutions of the Hudson's Bay Company would invest them with, over the lives and properties of their fellow subjects. From Lord Selkirk's acquisition of the majority of votes, the Hudson's Bay Company may be said to center in one individual. The Governor and Court are merely his agents, and the remaining Proprietors, bound by the sense of the majority, can make no opposition. Without intending the slightest imputation on the Directors, they can have only the option of resignation, in the event of difference of opinion with his Lordship, and the re-election of their successors must depend solely upon his decision. In this manner his Lordship has acquired the immense grant of land before stated, and no attempt till the present one, has ever been before made to take advantage of the supposed Territorial Rights under this Charter. We humbly conceive, therefore, that before a title can be secured by length of possession, it ought to be made the subject of enquiry by His Majesty's Government, and directions given to the Attorney-General to eject his Lordship from the occupancy of the land in question at the suit of the Crown, to whom it can alone belong. It is unnecessary to add any remarks on the manifest partiality and injustice that must accrue from a jurisdiction so constituted as the one now sought to be established, or further to detail the serious evil consequences that must ensue from it. We have only therefore to beg, you will be pleased to represent to Earl Bathurst the situation in which the Canadian Traders and their Servants (to the number of probably 2000 persons, the greatest part of whom have been for the last thirty years, and are now actually resident and trading in the Territories over which the jurisdiction is claimed to extend) will be placed by the operation of this proceed. ing of the Hudson's Bay Company, and to pray on their behalf the interference of His Majesty's Government, to prevent the exercise and consequent abuse of this assumed judicial power. We do not deny that violences have been occasionally committed on both sides, and to show that we have some better proof in our possession than that adduced by Lord Selkirk against the Servants of the North-West Company, in his Letter to the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, transmitted by them to Lord Bathurst, and by you to us in your Letter of the 2d March, we inclose a Copy of Instructions from Lord Selkirk, of which we possess the original, to one of the Servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, from some parts of which it will appear that his Lordship supposes the Clause in the Charter, authorizing K the Company to make war, and "right and recompense" themselves by hostilities against any persons interrupting or injuring them in their trade within the territories and limits of their Charter, as effectual for his purposes as the authority under which he now seeks to establish his jurisdiction. His Lordship's intentions indeed appear in the present proceeding more favourable towards the Canadian Traders: it is now proposed, first to obtain a verdict from his Dependants and Servants, before the property of his rivals is seized and destroyed; whereas, in the Letter inclosed, his Lordship directs seizure and destruction upon the sole assertion, that the Territory of the Hudson's Bay Company had been violated by mere occupation, which in this particular instance relates to a country where the Canadians have been settled for thirty years, and where the Hudson's Bay Company had never formed an establishment. Before the undertaking of his Lordship, the disputes al luded to were of perpetual occurrence, but they were never of much consequence, and subsided nearly as soon as they arose. Complaints were made from and of both parties, and before they were enquired into, the causes had generally ceased. These disputes certainly too, occasionally led to the commission of crimes, to restrain which, the Act of the 43rd of the King was passed, and which having been put in force by the trial of offenders at Montreal, has had a proportionate effect. His Lordship's attempt to colonize Assiniboin has also led to more serious difficulties (we allude to the jealousy of the Indian Tribes, as well as to the distresses of the Colonists), and these would probably attend the next attempt of the same na'ure his Lordship may think it equally prudent to make, either in the interior of Africa or of America. Such difficulties are always attendant on similar undertakings, and form part of the risk of them. We beg, however, to assure Lord Bathurst, that we should be too happy, if a feasible plan to restrain violences could be pointed out by the Hudson's Bay Company, to concur with them in it, but this has only appeared possible to us by placing those Territories under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Courts, to which they in fact properly belong, and where an equitable administration of justice is secured to all parties. Perhaps a Charter of Justice from the Crown might be resorted to, but whether it is fair to call upon the Public to bear the expence, and whether the same difficulty which is experienced in remote Provinces, of finding competent persons to superintend the administration of Justice, might not still more forcibly apply to the interior of North America, are points of which His Majesty's Government in their wisdom will readily determine. We have the Honour to be, &c. HOWEVER unwilling we feel again to trouble you on the subject of the conflicting claims of the Canadian Tra ders, and the Hudson's Bayompany and the Earl of Selkirk, we find ourselves compelled by the following circumstances, which we beg you wiil lay before Earl Bathurst, to entreat the interference of His Majesty's Government, that some measures may be taken, at least to prevent the recurrence of these scenes of violence and animosity, which have unfortunately taken place, and which have terminated, as we predicted in our Letter of the 29th May, 181.5, would be the case, in more instances than one, in bloodshed, and the loss of lives. We had hoped this dispute was in a fair train of judicial decision, by the trial of Lord Selkirk's Governor and Sheriff, who were committed in Canada for seizing and confiscating the property of the Canadians; but it now appears (although a True Bill for Larceny has been returned against them by the Grand Jury of Montreal) from the best Legal Opinions in this Country, it will be impossible to proceed further, as the Defendants evidently acted under a misapprehension of authority, and no sufficient proof can be adduced of a felonious intent. We have therefore lost no time in writing to Canada to drop these proceedings, and it is not in our power to substitute in their place any action for damages, as the Act under which their trials might otherwise have been conducted, confines the jurisdiction of the Courts in Canada over the Indian Countries, to criminal cases. The Legal Opinions we have taken upon the whole subject in this Country, are quite decided as to most of the powers granted by the Charter to the Hudson's Bay Com pany, and especially those under which the Company claim to seize persons and confiscate property; they also leave no doubt as to the invalidity of the Grant to Lord Selkirk, or to the extension of any grant or power purporting to be made by the Charter, beyond the immediate confines of the Bay. We would willingly, were it in our power, institute any process in this Country, by which the question could be decided, but we are advised it would be scarcely practicable, and if at all so, not in any way from which an immediate or satisfactory decision could be expected, and it is not till we have perfectly ascertained the difficulties in our way, that we have considered ourselves again justified in intruding the subject on His Majesty's Government. Although we are not disposed to trouble you with any detail on the part of the North-West Company, in answer to the allegations we understand to be adduced by Lord Selkirk, and the Governor and Directors of the Hudson's Bay Company, respecting the conduct of the Canadian Traders in the Interior, during last winter, we cannot omit the opportunity of stating, that we are ready, whenever we may be called upon for that purpose to bring forward satisfactory proof of the justice of their proceedings, and that if they have been called upon to defend their persons and property, against attempts repeatedly made upon both, under the plea of rights contained in this extraordinary Charter, they have not done so without due regard to the acknowledged Laws of their Country, We do not presume to point out the particular proceeding which in this case would be satisfactory to ourselves; our sole object is to put an end to violences and bloodshed; and we are perfectly satisfied that in the discussion which such proceedings must give rise to, the interests of His Majesty's Canadian Subjects will at least meet with as favourable consideration from His Majesty's Government, as those of their opponents. We have the Honour to be, &c. (Signed) M'TAVISH, FRASER, & Co. |