The Great Company Part 45

[118] Indeed it cannot be doubted that Great Britain was wholly influenced by the position of the Company. It has been said that she did not antic.i.p.ate any permanent possession of the country. "The British have certainly no other immediate object," wrote Mr. Gallatin, the American commissioner, to Henry Clay, "than that of protecting the Company in its fur-trade."

[119] Sir Edward Walkin tells how, when he was for a short time, in 1865 and 1866, shareholders' auditor of the Company, he cancelled many of these notes which had become defaced, mainly owing to the fingering of Indians and others, who had left behind on the thick yellow paper, coatings of pemmican.

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

1846-1863.

The Oregon Treaty -- Boundary Question Settled -- Company Proposes Undertaking Colonization of North America -- Enmity and Jealousy Aroused -- Att.i.tude of Earl Grey -- Lord Elgin's Opinion of the Company -- Amended Proposal for Colonization Submitted -- Opposition of Mr. Gladstone -- Grant of Vancouver Island Secured, but Allowed to Expire in 1859 -- Dr. Rae's Expedition -- The Franklin Expedition and its Fate -- Discovery of the North-West Pa.s.sage -- Imperial Parliament Appoints Select Committee -- Toronto Board of Trade Pet.i.tions Legislative Council -- Trouble with Indians -- Question of Buying Out the Company -- British Government Refuses Help -- "Pacific Scheme" Promoters Meet Company in Official Interview -- International Financial a.s.sociation Buys Company's Rights -- Edward Ellice, the "Old Bear."

On the 15th of June, 1846, the famous "Oregon Treaty" was concluded between Great Britain and America.

[Sidenote: The Oregon Boundary Question.]

By the second article of that instrument it is declared that: "From the point at which the forty-ninth parallel of north lat.i.tude shall be found to intersect the great northern branch of the Columbia River, the navigation of the said branch of the river to the point where the said branch meets the main stream of the said river shall be free and open to the Hudson's Bay Company, and to all British subjects trading with the same, and thence down the said main stream to the ocean, with free access into and through the said river or rivers, it being understood that all the usual portages along the line thus described shall, in like manner, be free and open. In navigating the said river or rivers, British subjects, with their goods and produce, shall be treated on the same footing as citizens of the United States; it being, however, always understood that nothing in this article shall be construed as preventing, or intending to prevent, the Government of the United States from making any regulations respecting the navigation of the said river or rivers not inconsistent with the present treaty."

[Ill.u.s.tration: HUDSON'S BAY CO.'S EMPLOYEES ON THEIR ANNUAL EXPEDITION.

(_From "Picturesque Canada," by permission._)]

According to Article III, "In the future appropriation of the territory south of the forty-ninth parallel of north lat.i.tude, as provided in the first article of this treaty, the possessary rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, and of all British subjects who may be already in the occupation of land or other property lawfully acquired within the said territory, shall be respected."

The Oregon boundary question was thus settled. Immigrants were pouring into Oregon from all parts of America, and California was already receiving numerous gold miners. It was therefore natural that Vancouver Island and British Columbia should receive attention. The climate was known to be almost perfect, and a motion to encourage colonization in those territories was made in the British Parliament.

But the Company was quite alive to the situation. A letter was addressed to Earl Grey, the Colonial Secretary, dwelling on the efforts the Adventurers had made in the British interest, and urging that Vancouver Island be granted to them.

The negotiations continued until March, 1847, when Sir J. H. Pelly, the Governor of the Company, again wrote to Earl Grey, informing him that the Company would "undertake the government and colonization of all the territories belonging to the Crown in North America, and receive a grant accordingly." Such a proposition staggered Her Majesty's Ministers, who were for the most part ignorant of the work the Company had already accomplished, of the position it occupied, or of the growth of its establishment on the Pacific. Already it governed and was now busy colonizing the territory, doing both in a manner superior to that adopted by the Americans in their adjacent territories. Such a proposition, too, awakened all the jealousy and enmity against the Company which had been latent for so long.

[Sidenote: Enmity and jealousy aroused.]

One of the most determined and virulent in his attacks on the Company at this time was one A. K. Isbister, who addressed a long communication to Earl Grey, besides other letters to public men in England. In answer to Mr. Isbister, Earl Grey forwarded the substance of a report which had been made by Major Griffiths, late in command of Her Majesty's troops at Fort Garry, to whom had been communicated the pet.i.tion of certain residents of Red River settlement.

To all the pet.i.tions, memorials, and complaints of interested parties and self-seekers against the Company, Earl Grey had but one answer. He said he had gone to the bottom of the matter, and he believed the Company was honest and capable. If he had had any doubt about it, this doubt must have been removed by a remarkable despatch of Lord Elgin, Governor-General of Canada, under date of 6th June, 1848. "I am bound to state," he wrote, "that the result of the enquiries which I have hitherto made is highly favourable to the Company, and that it has left on my mind the impression that the authority which it exercises over the vast and inhospitable region subject to its jurisdiction, is, on the whole, very advantageous to the Indians.... More especially it would appear to be a settled principle of their policy to discountenance the use of ardent spirits. It is indeed possible that the progress of the Indians toward civilization may not correspond with the expectations of some of those who are interested in their welfare. But disappointments of this nature are experienced, I fear, in other quarters as well as in the territories of the Hudson's Bay Company; and persons to whom the trading privileges of the Company are obnoxious may be tempted to ascribe to its rule the existence of evils which are altogether beyond its power to remedy. There is too much reason to fear that if the trade were thrown open and the Indians left to the mercy of the adventurers who might chance to engage in it, their condition would be greatly deteriorated."[120]

Such was the opinion of the Earl of Elgin on the Hudson's Bay Company, and it was the opinion of all who really understood the Company's aims, its history and its position. "Persons to whom the trading privileges of the Company are obnoxious." It was thus that the Earl laid his finger upon the cause of the whole onslaught. Jealousy of the Company's rights was at the bottom of the whole matter.

[Sidenote: Opposition of Mr. Gladstone.]

The Vancouver Island negotiations were suspended for a year, and then the Company, seeing the opposition it had evoked, put forward a less extensive proposal, by which it offered to continue the general management of the whole territory north of the forty-ninth degree, and for colonizing purposes to except Vancouver Island alone. It agreed to colonize the island without any pecuniary advantage accruing to itself, and promised that all moneys received for lands and minerals should be applied to purposes connected with the improvement of the country. The proposition seemed a reasonable one; but in a certain rising statesman, who had inherited his opposition to the Company from his father, and who had many followers, the Honourable Adventurers had a powerful enemy. His name was Mr. W. E. Gladstone, and his enmity to the measure caused the Government to halt.

The Company was not without strong friends, as well as enemies. It drew up a deed of charter, and boldly relied on the Earl of Lincoln (afterwards Duke of Newcastle) to procure favour for it in the House of Commons. On the 17th July the Earl opened the subject, and drew from Mr. Gladstone a speech which occupies many columns of Hansard's Debates. With mighty energy he hurled argument, invective, appeal and remonstrance at the heads of his fellow-members. It was even suggested that he was actuated by personal malice. Every statement, every slander that could wither or blacken the fair fame of a corporation which had deserved well of its country, was employed on this occasion, and his conclusion was that the Company was incompetent to carry out its promises. Mr. Howard, who followed, believed that it would be "most unwise to confer the extensive powers proposed on a fur-trading Company." Yet he did not deny that as California had recently been ceded to America, it was a matter of the highest importance that a flourishing British Colony should be established on the Pacific Coast as an offset to that power. Lord John Russell undertook to enlighten the House as to the achievements of the Company, apart from fur-trading. He said that it already held exclusive privileges, which did not expire until 1859; that the western lands were controlled by a Crown grant, dated 13th May, 1838, confirming the possession by the Company for twenty-one years from that date; that these privileges "could not be taken away from it without breach of principle and that if colonization were delayed until the expiration of this term squatters from America might step in and possess themselves of the Island."

[Sidenote: The grant of Vancouver Island.]

It was voted to refer the matter to the Privy Council Committee for Trade and Plantations; and on the 4th September this body reported in favour of granting Vancouver Island to the Hudson's Bay Company. The grant was duly signed, sealed and delivered on the 13th January, 1849.

The Company, in the midst of its triumph, was not satisfied. It had aroused enmities which it was powerless to allay. It had been lured, by too zealous friends, into making promise of a policy which it foresaw could not be followed without ruinous cost. It also foresaw that the rush to the Pacific, consequent upon the gold-fever of 1849, would bring about new interests not its own and, in brief, that the colony would pa.s.s from its hands, and that all its outlay and labour would have been expended without profits. What it antic.i.p.ated came about sooner than it expected. Opposition had been collecting from without, and had been engendered from within. Some of the Adventurers announced that when, in 1859, the grant would expire, they would object to its renewal. The Company's enemies a.s.serted that it had not exerted itself to bring about the desired colonization of Vancouver Island. The settlers forwarded a memorial asking to be relieved from the Company's control. At the same time, the Governor it had appointed, Mr. Douglas (afterwards Sir James Douglas), was popular, and when the grant was allowed to expire and Vancouver Island became a Crown colony in 1859, he was retained in the same office.

Soon afterwards, a Government was organized, with Mr. Douglas at its head, on the mainland of British Columbia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SIR GEORGE SIMPSON RECEIVING A DEPUTATION OF INDIANS.]

Meanwhile, in the eastern as well as the western extremity of the Company's domains, agitation and malcontent was being fomented.

Certain residents of Red River settlement had forwarded pet.i.tions to Earl Grey. Lieutenant-Colonel Crofton, in command of Her Majesty's troops at Fort Garry, was asked to send in a report of the state of affairs at Red River. At a little later period his successor, Major Griffiths, was requested to do the same. Neither had any connection with the Company, and both might therefore be regarded as unbia.s.sed as well as fully informed. Both exonerated the Company from most of the charges brought against them, and as to the remainder, which were preferred on untrustworthy evidence, they professed ignorance. They rendered full credit to the Company "for the manner in which it has of late years exercised its powers."

In the year of the Oregon treaty the Company caused some valuable exploration to be made of its northern coasts. Dr. Rae and his party reached Chesterfield Inlet 13th July, 1846, pa.s.sed Repulse Bay safely, and conveyed their boats thence into Committee Bay, at the bottom of Boothia Gulf. The Company's expedition wintered at Repulse Bay, and again entering Committee Bay, in April, 1847, by the following month had completed a survey, with the exception of Fury and Hecla Straits, of the entire northern coast of the North American continent.

[Sidenote: Fate of the Franklin Expedition.]

In the previous year, 1845, Sir John Franklin, who had, since his last travels in Rupert's Land, been Governor of Tasmania, was offered the command of another expedition in search of the north-west pa.s.sage by the British Government. He embarked in the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, and his ships were last seen on the 26th of July in Baffin's Bay by a whaler.

Several years pa.s.sed without tidings of the expedition. In 1850 traces of the missing ships were discovered by Ommaney and Penny, and it was thus ascertained that the first winter had been spent behind Beechy Island. No further news came until the spring of 1854, when an expedition of the Hudson's Bay Company, under Dr. Rae, from Republic Bay, received information from the Esquimaux that four years before about forty white men had been seen dragging a boat over the ice near the north sh.o.r.e of King William's Island. Somewhat later in the same season of 1850, declared the natives, the bodies of the entire party were found at a point a short distance to the north-west of the Great Fish River. To prove their a.s.sertion the Esquimaux produced various articles which were known to have belonged to the ill-fated explorer and his party. The Government having previously offered a reward of 10,000 "to any party, or parties who, in the judgment of the Board of Admiralty, shall, by virtue of his or her efforts, first succeed in ascertaining" the fate of the missing expedition, Dr. Rae laid claim to and obtained this reward. Another expedition under Anderson and Stewart went in two canoes, in 1855, down the Great Fish River, and further verified the truth by securing more European articles and clothing from the Esquimaux. It now became clear that a party from the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ had sought to reach, by the Fish River route, the nearest Company's post to the south, and had been arrested by the ice in the channel near that river's mouth. In 1857 Lady Franklin, whose efforts to set at rest the fate of her husband had been most heroic, sent out the yacht _Fox_, commanded by Captain (afterwards Sir Leopold) McClintock, who had already taken part in three expeditions despatched in search of Franklin. In the following year more relics were obtained, closely followed by the discovery of many skeletons. In a cairn at Point Victory Lieutenant Hobson unearthed the celebrated record kept by two of the explorers, which briefly told the history of the expedition for three years, or up to April 25, 1848. It appeared that Sir John Franklin had perished on the 11th of June, 1847. It is believed that one of the vessels must have been crushed in the ice and the other stranded on the sh.o.r.e of King William's Island, where it lay for years, a mine of wonderful implements and playthings for the Esquimaux.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OPENING OF CAIRN ON POINT VICTORY WHICH CONTAINED THE RECORD OF THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: DISCOVERY OF RELICS OF FRANKLIN EXPEDITION.]

Franklin was virtually the discoverer of the long-sought north-west pa.s.sage, inasmuch as he had all but traversed the entire distance between Baffin's Bay and Bering's Strait.

[Sidenote: The North-West Pa.s.sage discovered at last.]

Yet it should be observed that in 1853 Commander McClure, who was in charge of an Arctic expedition from the Pacific, was rescued near Melville Island by Sir Edward Belcher, who came from the side of the Atlantic, and both he and his ship's company returned to Europe _via_ Baffin's Bay. Thus the secret of the north-west pa.s.sage was disclosed at last. It was now known that a continuous pa.s.sage by water existed between Baffin's Bay and Bering's Strait, and that was the last of the voyages undertaken for the purpose through Rupert's Land.

For ten years past the profits of the Company had already increased.

In 1846, there were in its employ five hundred and thirteen articled men and thirty-five officers. It controlled a net-work of trading routes between its posts situated between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. In 1856 it had one hundred and fifty-two establishments under Governor Simpson's control, with sixteen chief factors and twenty-nine chief traders, a.s.sisted by five surgeons, eighty-seven clerks, sixty-seven postmasters, five hundred voyageurs and one thousand two hundred permanent servants, in addition to sailors on sea-going ships and other employees, numbering altogether above three thousand men.

[Sidenote: Imperial Parliament appoints Select Committee.]

At the beginning of 1857 the opponents of the Company were on the _qui vive_. They had at last succeeded in procuring a Select Committee of the Imperial House of Commons for the purpose of considering "the state of those British possessions in North America which are under the administration of the Hudson's Bay Company, or over which it possesses a license to trade." The committee was composed of the following persons: The Right Honourable Henry Labouchere (afterwards Lord Taunton), Sir John Pakingham, Lord John Russell, Mr. Gladstone, the Right Honourable Edward Ellice, Lord Stanley, Viscount Sandon, and Messrs. Lowe, Adderley, Roebuck, Grogan, Kinnaird, Blackburn, Charles Fitzwilliam, Gordon, Gurney, Bell and Percy Herbert. Evidence was taken from the 20th of February to the 9th of March, which comprised the first session of the committee. It sat again in May, and the examination of the numerous witnesses ended on the 23rd of June.

Public interest was aroused, and the Company and its doings again became a standing topic at London dinner-tables. The Honourable Adventurers were again on their trial--would they come out of the ordeal as triumphantly as on the occasion of the previous great investigation a full century and a decade before? The list of witnesses comprised some of the best known names of the day. There were: Sir John Richardson, Rear Admiral Sir George Back, Dr. Rae, Chief Justice Draper of Canada, Sir George Simpson, Hon. John Ross, Lieut.-Colonel Lefroy, Lieut.-Colonel Caldwell, Bishop Anderson, Hon.

Charles Fitzwilliam, Dr. King and Right Hon. Edward Ellice. At the second session Messrs. Gordon, Bell and Adderley retired, and Viscount G.o.derich, and Messrs. Matheson and Christy took their places. The first witness examined was the Honourable John Ross, then President of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. "It is complained," said he, "that the Hudson's Bay Company occupy that territory and prevent the extension of settlement and civilization in that part of the continent. I do not think they ought to be permitted to do that; but I think it would be a very great calamity if their control and power were entirely to cease. My reason for forming that opinion is this: during all the time that I have been able to observe their proceedings, there has been peace within the whole territory. The operations of the Company seem to have been carried on, at all events, in such a way as to prevent the Indian tribes within their borders from molesting the Canadian frontier; while, on the other hand, those who have turned their attention to that quarter of the world must have seen that, from Oregon to Florida, for these last thirty years or more, there has been a constant Indian war going on between the natives of American territory, on the one side, and the Indian tribes on the other. Now, I very much fear that if the occupation of the Hudson's Bay Company were to cease, our fate in Canada might be just what it is with Americans in the border settlements of their territory."

Lord Elgin had showed the weak spot of the opposition. Mr. Ross indicated it more precisely. "I believe," said he, "there are certain gentlemen at Toronto very anxious to get up a second North-West company, and I daresay it would result in something like the same difficulties which the last North-West company created. I should be sorry to see them succeed. I think it would do a great deal of harm, creating further difficulties in Canada, which I do not desire to see created."

At the close of the evidence, Mr. Gladstone proposed resolutions unfavourable to the Company, which were negatived by the casting vote of the chairman, Lord Taunton, the numbers being seven to seven. The committee agreed to their report on the 31st July. It recommended that the Red River and Saskatchewan districts might be "ceded to Canada on equitable principles," the details being left to Her Majesty's Government. The termination of the Company's rule over Vancouver Island was advised; and this advice was not distasteful to the Company. The committee strongly urged, in the interests of law and order, and of the Indian population as well as for the preservation of the fur-trade, that the Company "should continue to enjoy the privileges of exclusive trade which they now possess."

[Sidenote: Toronto merchants pet.i.tion Legislative Council.]

As an ill.u.s.tration of the spirit prevalent in many quarters in Canada towards the Company, the pet.i.tion which on the 28th of April, 1857, reached the Legislative Council of Canada, may be cited. It emanated from the Board of Trade of the City of Toronto. After reciting in anything but a respectful manner the history and status of the Company, it declared that the Company acted under a "pretended" right, that it "a.s.sumed the power to enact tariffs, collect custom dues, and levy taxes against British subjects, and has enforced unjust and arbitrary laws in defiance of every principle of right and justice."

The pet.i.tioners besought the attention of the Government "to that region of country designated as the chartered territory, over which the said Company exercises a sovereignty over the soil as well as a monopoly in the trade, and which said Company claims as a right that insures to it _in perpetuo_, in contradistinction to that portion of the country over which it claims an exclusive right of trade, but for a limited period only." The "gentlemen from Toronto" admitted that this latter claim was founded upon a legal right, but submitted that a renewal of "such license of exclusive trade was injurious to the interests of the country so monopolized, and in contravention of the rights of the inhabitants of Canada."

In this year the claims of the Company in connection with the Treaty of 1846 were finally arranged by a special treaty concluded through the Hon. W. H. Seward for America, and Lord Lyons, the British Amba.s.sador. The Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, which was an offshoot and subordinate concern of the Hudson's Bay Company, for the purposes of wheat, wool, hides and tallow production, was also named as one of the interested parties.

"Whereas," so ran the new treaty, "it is desirable that all questions between the United States authorities on the one hand, and the Hudson's Bay and Puget's Sound Agricultural Companies on the other, with respect to the possessary rights and claims of these companies, and of any other British subjects in Oregon and Washington Territory, should be settled by the transfer of those rights and claims to the Government of the United States for an adequate money consideration: It is hereby agreed that the United States of America and Her Britannic Majesty shall, within twelve months after the exchange of the ratification of the present treaty, appoint each a commissioner for the purpose of examining and deciding upon all claims arising out of the provisions of the above-quoted articles of the Treaty of June 15, 1846."[121]

[Sidenote: Unwholesome temper amongst the Indians.]

The commercial rivalry existing between the Russian-American Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, which held a trading lease of part of the sea-bound territory, naturally tended to engender and keep alive an unwholesome temper amongst the Indians. They were frequently troublesome, and occasionally murderous. In May, 1862, between two hundred and fifty and three hundred of the natives on the west side of Chatham Strait, twenty-five miles north of Cross Sound, seized on the quarter-deck the captain and chief trader of the Company's steamer _Labouchere_, of seven hundred tons and taking possession of the vessel, drove the crew forward. But the crew had a large gun trained aft, and parleying took place. The Indians had not known that this was a Company ship. It was agreed that both parties should discharge their rifles, and peace was proclaimed, the Indians finally leaving the vessel. Before their departure, however, they covered the deck with fine sea-otter and other skins as a present to the captain and traders, and as a token of peace.