Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-06 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL FINANCIAL REFORM
ASSOCIATION.

The weekly meeting of the council was held by special
Summons, on Monday last ; Robertson Gladstone, Esq.,
President, in the chair. Various suggestions were thrown
out for obtaining a better attendance of the members, and
giving increased efficiency to the operations of the associa-
tion. Amongst the means recommended for consideration
were a monthly publication, and the holding of a monthly
meeting in the evening, open to the public. The time for
the weekly meeting was changed to Monday at two
o'clock, that being the day on which the President ( who
said he was so much engaged on Town and Dock Com-
mittees as almost to have given up his own business) is
least engaged.

THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY.
The proceedings of the House of Commons Committee
of Inquiry into the condition of the country under the rale
of the Hudson's Bay Company, whether by charter or
royal license, were discussed. It was regarded as ex-
tremely probable that, the result would be the renewal or
the company's privilege-, failing some strong mauls .tetion
of the popular will against it. The testimony of the Right ,
Ron. Edward Ellice, given on the preceding Tuesday,
(when the committee adjourned sine die) was specially
adverted to, as showing how self-interest may warp the
iudgment, and revolutionize the convictions of public men.
This gentleman, it was observed, was a leading member of
the North-West Far Company of Montreal, in which
escapacity he utterly denied the validity of the Hudson's ,
Company's charter—charged the company itself with
Ine grossest injustice and oppression towards all other British
aubjects—and preferred against it and its agents a long
catalogue of outrages and crime, in which robbery and
murder were included Since the two companies bee-me
one concern, with the same common interests, about
Eve-and-twenty years ago, the Right Hon. gentleman an d
his associates seem to have completely changed their views,
both as to the charter and the rights of British subjects
tenerellY• In his evidence before the Parliamentary
ommittee (of which his son, another sharehol 'er and
director,
was a member) the other day, Mr. Ellice
eulogised the rule of the Hudson's Bay Company as
One almost unexampled for the paucity of complaints
against it, .of course forgetting the terrible array
of offences which he was instrumental in get-
ting up for its condemnation. Just as Sir George
'''lrcpson, another of the company's witnesses, ate his own
Published description of the grew fertility, inexhaustible
mineral resources, and other natural advantages of the
country, which he now clroses to call a barren and nnin
habitable waste, coolly telling the Committee that the truth
Was to be looked for in his evidence—not in his bjok.
Mr. Ellice speaks of the charter-rights of the Hudson's
Bay Company, which he once ignored, and set at defiance
With complete legal impunityas perfectly incontestable. He
pretends that the preservation of the monopoly (in which
he is himself so largely interested) is necessary to protect
the Indians from being deluged with spirituous liquors,
and to prevent their going to war with each other, for the
attainmer t f which objects he considers it desirable that
the company should be allowed to retain its privileges,
and, with them, the power of fixing its own prices on all
that it buys or sells, or rather barters, in its dealings with
the Indians, Yet, even this champion of the c- mpany
Ivatnitted that Vancouver's Island ought to be taken from
It and constituted a British colony as soon as possible.
The apathy of the public and of the press generally, with
some honourable exceptions, on a matter involving nothing
less than the question whether a country larger than the
Whole of Europe, and great part of it admirably fitted for ;
colonisati,n should remain subject to the desolating mono-
P°l3' under which it has laboured for nearly 200 years,
Was spoken of as only to be accounted for by want of
information. The constitution of the committee, and the
Simmer in which the inquiry has been hurried over, were
commented upon as very ominous of the intentions of
Ilcvernitent unless parliament and the public should
Interfere authoritatively to prevent the completion of an
etinl'%us job, most prejudicial to the interests both of
British America and the mother country. It way stated
1,
"Y the secretary that he had forwarded, to a friend
in London the name of a gentleman resident here who
4.,W118i1l a position to gve mast valuable evidence relative
'4' the operations of the company and their effiAs ;
and, further, that he bad reason to believe that the
name was given in to the chairman. This witness
Was not called. The gentleman who was com-
municated with on the subject says, in a letter to the
secretary; "I equally regret with yourself than Me.
Was not summoned. The bias of -- and the govern-
ment is, however, now so open and manifest that it would
Only have been a waste of Mr. ---'s time to have come
up. We ought to get np petitions from the large towns,
and the principal public bodies throughout the country ;
otherwise, nothing can prevent the renewal of the com-
pany's privileges.' It was stated that the publication of
the association's tract on the subject had been delayed in
consequence of its being thought desirable to accompany
it with a coloured instead of a skeleton map, since the
latter would have been comparatively useless to all but
those who took the trouble to examine it minutely,
Whereas, the coloured map will show at a glance, all that
the company possesses either by charter or by license. On
the motion of Mr. John Smith, seconded by Mr. Johnson,
it was resolved unanimously:—" That this council views
with astonishment and indignation the attempt of a few
individuals in these days of coniparative political and
commercial freedom, to retain the government of, and con-
tinue to monopolise the trade with, a vast important
territ°l7, belonging to the crown and people of these
kingdoms, there being no individuals, or company, or
state in the world capable of giving a tithe of the value
;neeuch privileges, when measured against the rights of
.
trade, and the c,rntraereial progress of this ,rious
and enterprisisg nation; and that the council therere
calls urgently on the people of the United Kingdom, and
on all such members of parliament as really represent,
and wish to promote the national interests, to adopt
instantly the measures necessary to resist, with effeet, the
unjustifiable claim of the Hudson's Bay Company to that
renewal of its absolute control over a cenntry considerably
larger than the whole of Europe, which the British govern.
went seems but too much disposed to grant." " That
the tract of this association ou the subject, just prepared,
be published as speedily as possible, with an illustrative
coloured may, for the information of the country at large ;
which judging from the prevalent apathy and indifference,
would seem not to be aware that the c ,ntinuance of
the Hudson's Bay Company's chartered and licensed
privileges, means the sacrifice of sources of national wealth
which would soon realise millions yearly, in order that a
tnere handful of influential persons may divide amongst
them a few hundred thousand pounds par annu n." " That I
these resolutions be advertised in the London Times, Daily
News, Morning Star, and Daily Telegraph, and in the
Principal Liverpool papers." Another resolution, soliciting
the co-operation of the Chamber of Commerce of Liverpool,
Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, and other
places, in a matter so seriously involving the principles of
free trade, was passed, on the motion of Mr. Johnson,
seconded by Mr. Finch. And it agreed that a deputa-
tion from the council should
wawititon Charles Holland,
Esq., chairman of the
Live;
il
Chamber,
to call the
attention of that body to the
apparent imminent danger of
the continuance of the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay
Company.

CONVEYANCE or LAND.
The President thought it very desirable, both financially
and commercially, that the attention of some competent
Person should be directed to the best mastic rf facilitating
and economising the transfer of real property. It was
understood that ministers had something in hand on the
subject, and there could be no question as to the necessity
of such a measure. lie could not Nee what occasion there
the for a new abstract of title, and new deeds, with all
e repetitions on every transfer, when all that was
required was a simple transfer of the deeds, and regietra-
tion of the new ownership. Mr. J. Smith put the question
in this way—" I have a parchment tide to laud, which my
Lawyer says is g.,ed. I sell this land to Mr. Gladstone, or
sornebody else ; and if the title is geed for me, sarely it is
good for the buyer. All that is necessary is a transfer ou
the back of it, and a registration in some public office to
show the change of ownership." Mr. Finch : But that
would not suit the lawyers. The President said that was
the very question, It was the lawyers only that
Were interested in the multiplication of these wordy
and very expressive documents_ For his own part,
he did not see why the selling of land or house's, or the
exchange of one for the ether, ehould not be as simple a
matter as the selling or exchanging of anything else.
Tun PINANCZ ACCOUNTS AND THE AUDIT.
The following is an extract from a letter :addressed to
the secretary by a London ruembee of the ascociation
Si You will observe that neither the finance accounts, which
were promised to be ready between the 13th and 90th cf
June, nor Mr. Bowyer's audit TALLITH, which was ordered
on the 21st May, have yet made their appearance. Thera
is no difficulty in accouutirg for the delay with respect
to the audit return, as there can be little doubt of the
alarm which must be felt by persons connected with the
Duchy of Lancaster •; but I suppoFe -that affair will be
hushed up. It is quite obvious from the manner in which
the committee was appointed, that, so far from any
thorough investigation being likely, the probability is, that
the, whole thing will be a sham, and the parties implicated
Comfortably whitewashed. I hop you intend to follow
tip the "Fiscal Doirgs of the Session," as those two
numbers are of infinite value, and will enable us to com-
pare the amount voted with the amount expended, whet)
the finance accounts are put into shape.
ELNANCIAL RICFORMILES THI BEST MORAL ItEMZEIVIS.
Mr. Thomas Hodgskin, of the London Economist office,
forwarded two lectures recently delivered 14 him 94
the