I should be guilty of an injustice, if I were to neglect this opportunity of acknowledging how largely I am indebted to Mr. Isbister, for his assistance and information in drawing up the following statement, and to the intimate acquaintance which he possesses with the proceedings carried on in the Hudson's Bay Company's territories, a very large part of which he has himself traversed. For the beneficial results which must ensue from the public interest being attracted to the subject, the settlers, as well as the native population, will owe much to the unwearied exertions of that gentleman. The interest which you took, during the last Session of Parliament, in the question which is the subject of the following pages, will, I hope, be accepted as a sufficient apology for having ventured to connect your name with so humble a performance. If more were needed, I should seek it in the sympathy you have ever displayed with any effort, however humble, to vindicate the rights of the oppressed, and to extend the influence of those sacred principles of religion, of liberty, and of law, by which the foundations of this empire have been laid, and by which alone its greatness is pre served. It is, Sir, only in the hope that it may, in however small a degree, advance the cause of truth and of civilization, that this book is presented to you, with the greatest respect, by Your most obedient and most humble Servant, JAMES EDWARD FITZGERALD. London, Feb. 1, 1849. CHAPTER I. A STATEMENT OF SOME RECENT OCCURRENCES COM DURING the last Session of Parliament, rumours went about that it was the intention of Her Majesty's Government to grant Vancouver's Island to the Hudson's Bay Company, with a view to founding a colony there. There were several public men who doubted whether such a Corporation as the Hudson's Bay Company were likely to colonize effectually; whether the very nature of their constitution, and the character of their operations, would not forbid their doing so; and, more than this, whether they have not a direct interest in preventing Colonization, from the fear that the peculiar monopoly of the fur trade, which they possess, might be practically endangered by a colony in any part of the country;-because the collection of the natives into villages, which would be the tendency of a colony, and the communication to them of agricultural B tastes and habits, in however small a degree, would interfere with their occupation as hunters and trappers ;-in fine, whether it were . common sense to expect that the task of civilizing and settling a country, should be entrusted to those whose obvious interest it is to keep it wild and uncultivated. But, besides this, it was within the recollection of those who had taken any interest in the matter, that the colonists of the Red River settlement, the only colony within the dominions of the Hudson's Bay Company, and which is entirely under its government, had, not very long before, expressed great dissatisfaction at the rule to which they were subject; and that they had sent over a petition, signed by almost all the adult male population of the settlement, praying that Her Majesty would be pleased to inquire into the nature of the government exercised over them, and stating many grievances to which they were subject, and from which they prayed to be relieved. The charges made by the settlers of the Red River against the Hudson's Bay Company, were referred by the Colonial Office to the Governor of the Company for a report thereon. That Report was considered by Earl Grey to be so far from |