CHAPTER VIII. OF THE RESULTS OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S CHARTER IN RESPECT TO ITS EFFECTS IN UPON THE COLONISTS WHO ARE TO ITS INFLUENCE. SUBJECTED In pursuance of the plan laid down, the next subject which must occupy our attention, is the mode in which the powers claimed under the Charter have worked, as regards the Colonists who are living under its influence. No part of the whole subject can be more important than this, because from it we may gather what are likely to be the results of a policy which contemplates making the Hudson's Bay Company the agent of colonization throughout the greatest part of our possessions in North America. A short account has been given before, at page 54, of the events connected with the foundation of the Red River settlement. It is now a matter of public notoriety, that the inhabitants of that settlement have expressed their dissatisfaction at the government to which they are subject, and have appealed from the power of the Company to that of the Crown. It is not within the limits or the intention of this work, to detail the whole transaction of that appeal; but it may be of use to state some few facts, with the object of shewing, as briefly as possible, how the government of the Company has worked already, and therefore how it may be expected to work in future, should any new colony be subjected to its rule. The principal part of the population of the Red River is composed of half-breeds, the children, or descendants, of native women, by the servants and officers of the Company. It appears, at least this is the statement made on behalf of these half-breeds, that a few years ago the Americans began to put a stop to the buffalo hunting which was carried on, by the settlers at the Red River, in the plains south of the boundary line; and no one was to be permitted to hunt within the American frontier, except citizens of the United States. Hence the occupation and means of subsistence of a considerable number of the halfbreeds and Indians of the settlement were much curtailed. In consequence of this new state of affairs, new : modes of industry were contemplated, in order to obtain subsistence: the first idea was to commence an export trade in tallow to England. Mr. James Sinclair, it appears, was the first person who engaged in this speculation. He sent a small quantity of tallow to London, in one of the Company's vessels. The adventure succeeded in the following year, therefore, he sent a much larger quantity to York Factory, for the purpose of exportation to England. For some reason or other, the Company's officers at York Factory refused to take Mr. Sinclair's tallow on board; it remained for nearly two years at the factory, at the end of which time, Mr. Sinclair was obliged to sell it to the Company at prime cost. In consequence of the prospects which were opened by Mr. Sinclair's first speculation, and before the subsequent refusal of the Company's officers to take his tallow, a second time, to England, a letter, signed by about twenty of the principal half-breeds of the settlement, was addressed to the Governor and Committee in London. The following is a copy : "HONOURED SIRS, "Red River Settlement, "Presuming on the liberal manner in which your Honours met Mr. James Sinclair's views of export ing tallow on his own account to England, in your ships, at the moderate freight of 40 francs per ton, We, the undersigned, have determined to turn our attention to collecting a quantity of the article sufficient to become a matter of some consideration in the London market, as well as a source of profit and employment to a large portion of the population at the settlement, who arețincapable of directing themselves to agricultural occupations, and whose orderly conduct and attachment to the Honourable Company so materially depends on a market being afforded for the proceeds of the chase. "After giving the subject a careful consideration, we are of opinion that, if your Honours would favour us so far as to lower the very high freight charged at present on the goods we import from London, we can send a considerable quantity of tallow to England, with a small profit to ourselves and considerable benefit to the general prosperity of the settlement. It would be presumptuous in us to pretend to a knowledge of the extraordinary expense of fitting out a ship for Hudson's Bay, but £8 per ton is so much more than the freight exacted on goods sent to far more distant parts of the world, as to induce us to indulge a hope that your Honours will take our case into your favourable consideration. "To the Governor, Deputy Governor, and Committee, of the Honourable Hudson's Bay Company." To this letter, it appears, no answer was returned. If the above be facts, there cannot be anything more contrary to the truth, than the statement made by Mr. T. Simpson, and quoted at page 19 in Mr. M. Martin's book, that, "the Hudson's Bay Company have long endeavoured, by rewards and arguments, to excite an exportation of tallow, hides, wool, &c., to England; but the long and dangerons navigation to Hudson Bay, and the habits of the half-bred race, who form the mass of the people, and generally prefer chasing the buffalo to agriculture or regular industry, have rendered their efforts ineffectual." This opinion of Mr. T. Simpson, indeed, in a measure, contradicts itself: one does not see how the love of chasing the baffalo, by which the tallow was to be obtained, can be given as a reason why no tallow should be exported. And that the length or difficulty of the voyage to Hudson's Bay need form no obstacle to such a trade, is manifest from Sir J. H. Pelly's own letter to Lord Glenelg, (Parliamentary paper, May 8, 1842, No. 547,) in which the advantages to be gained from such an export trade are strongly dwelt upon. The settlers, on the other hand, complain, that every endeavour which they have made to better their condition, by opening a traffic with England, has been frustrated by the tyrannical regulations of the Company,-by the enormous freights demanded, and by the jealousy with which the advancement |