The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-08 00:00:00

FRANCE.

BOURSE, July 7.—The market continues firm, but
without, up to this hoar, any further advance,
Threes, for the Account, being unvaried at 68f. 75c.
Railway Share Market quiet, and without much
change. The market closed as follows :

4t per Cents. 96 85
Do. end month
3 per Cents
Do. end month 6B 60
Credit Mobilier..., 1197 50
Do. end raontli 1192 50
Bank Shares 3405
Credit k oncier 1332 50

Italian Loan 72 10
Do. end month 72 20
New ditto
Do. end month 72 60
Russian .. 93
Austrian .. —
Spanish Threes~,
Home Debt

RA ILWAYB.

Cash. Account.
Orleans
Northern ....
New ditto
Lyons and Mediterranean 1035 .. 1032 50
Geneva 467 50 .. 468 75
Southern 666 25 .. 671 25
Western
Eastern . ...... 502 50 ~ 500
Sardinian ........... 413 75 .. 413 75
Austrian
Lowbard
North of Spain
Saragossa
Ditto to Barcelona 372 50 .. 370

The Hudson's Bay Company's Territory.

hi further illustration of the momentous quea-
tion affecting those regions of British North Ame-
rica—a question discussed to-day in our first leading
article, and referred to elsewhere in a brief commu-
nication addressed to us by an intelligent cone-
span dent—we are tempted to quote the following
passages from a petition transmitted from the
Liverpool Financial Reform Association, and pre-
sented by that association as far back as 1858:
TO THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONS OP THE
itNITEP
KINGDOM OF GREAT DRITAIN AND IRELAND, IN FAA-
LIAMENT ASSEMBLED;
Humbly showeth,—That the British possessions in North
America, entitled the Hudson's Bay and Indian territories,
exceed the whole of Europe in extent—abound in agricul-
tural and mineral wealth, possess facilities for a most com-
plete system of inland water communication, and enjoy
many other natural advantages and sources of commercial
greatness, which render them a most eligible field for
British colonisation.
That the alleged rights of absolute ownership and exclu-
sive trading over the whole of these immense regions,
held by a small number of private individuals, are
contrary to justice and public policy; and that such
rights and privileges have been exercised in a man-
ner most prejudicial to the British colonists
settled therein, to the native races, and to the interests of
the empire at large.

That the posseseion of such monstrous privileges by a
few persons,
is ons,tothemanifest injury of all the rest of the
directlycom-
munity, opposed to the theory of free trade, so
happily inaugurated by your honourable house, and ought,
therefore, to be forthwith abolished.
That your petitioners have learnt with great apprehen-
sion, and even with dismay, that a legislative measure is
about to be submitted to your honourable house continuing
the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company, so far as re-
gards the Hudson's Bay and Indian territories,with no other
modification than the cession of certain districts to Canada,
on what are called " equitable principles," by which
phrase your petitioners understand that either Canada or
the mother country is to pay the Hudson's Bay Company
for the ceded districts; and that your honourable house ie
to be advised to ratify this arrangement, " whatever may
be the validity or otherwise of the rights claimed by the
Hudson's Bay Company under the charter," and this
mainly on three grounds—lst, the maintenance of law ana
order; 2dly, presumed fatal effects to the Indians from
open competition in the fur trade ; and, idly, the probable
destruction of the more valuable fur-bearing animals at no
distant period.
That your petitioners believe that the charter grantecUy
hasand since Parliament
usurped
territories expressly excluded from its ope-
ration, which then belonged to France, and should now form
part of Canada.
That, in the opinion of your petitioners, the legality or
illegality of the charter, and, if it be legal, the limits of the
company's jurisdicion under it, ought to be decided by a
competent judicial tribunal before any question of compen-
sation is entertained ; and that to plead for the application
of " equitable principles" in favour.of the company, whether
its claims be valid or invalid, without reference to any such
principles against the company, involves not simply an in-
consistency but a denial of justice to the people of Great
Britain and Canada.
That the reasons alleged for treating the validity or non-
validity of the charter as a matter comparatively unimpor-
tant are, in the opinion 01 your petitioners, wholly insuffi-

cient.
That your petitioners cannot believe that a system which
creates such intense dissatisfaction amongst the one small'
body of British settlers under the sway of the Hudson Bay
Company as to induce amongst them a desire to throw oft
their allegiance to the British Crown, and which invites
constant encroachments on British territories, now lying
waste and unoccupied, by citizens of the United States, is
conducive to the maintenance of law and order.
e e
That your petitioners greatly doubt the sincerity of a
per
with
n
t. on
sympathy for the Indians, which
is coincident
exact-
ingeverfy rtiroamtchleelu thep prcoofimtsrany anging from 20 to
buys2,ooo or sells, as also with a de-
crease in their numbers, and with little or no progress in
their civilisation, or improvement in their condition.
That your petitioners, believing that the vast regions
which it has been the object of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany to retain, as nearly as possible, in a state of desert na-
ture, for the breeding and hunting of wild beasts, may,
under a proper system of colonisation and government, be •
come covered with populous towns, and flourishing commu-
nities of British subjects, who would otherwise have re-
sorted to the United States and other foreign countries,
would rejoice in such a consummation, even though it
should be attended with the extinction of all fur-bearing
animals.
That, whether as regards Vancouver's Island, the Hud-
son's Bay territories, or the Indian territories, the great
natural advantages possessed by them all will be best de-
veloped by their severance from a company whose policy
has always been, as it gill is, opposed to all development
excepting that of a paltry trade in furs, realising only a few
hundred thousand pounds annually from nearly half the
continent of America, whose imports and exports, under
other auspices, would soon be estimated by millions sterling.

CLEVER SHAVERS !—Talleyrand told Lord Hol-
land, "A king by birth is shaved by another. He who
makes himself king shaves himself." Napoleon, like Wel-
lington, shaved himself.
Mr. BOUCICAULT'S THEATRICAL REFORMS.—
It is well known that Mr. Boucicault had no sooner
realized a fortune at one of our London theatres, than he
made the discovery that our theatre accommodation wasex-
tremely defective, and promised that he would set to work
and amend it. With this view he became the lessee of
Astley's Amphitheatre, and effected certain alterations
which were not generally accepted as improvements. He
also stated that he intended to purchase houses on each
side of the theatre, and to convert these into waiting saloons.,
corridors, &c., for the. comfort and convenience of his visi-
tors. Not content with these promises, he organised a
"Theatre Company,"
whose management included some
high sounding and influential names—ho pitched upon a
site in the Haymarket, opposite Mr. Buckstone's establish.
ment, and somehow or other made the public believe that
preliminaries were satisfactorily settled, and that in a few
dais the builders would commence. Bat there splendid
projects appear to have been doomed to a hasty and rather
undignified abandonment. The Westminster Theatre has
oti
pn
at intend d
advertised to.
Subsequently,
suddenly closed its doors, and the threatened houses on
hi s
severance he brokerm thef project
e ojet Theatre,
either aide remain unmolested. With regard to the grander
tfroo te,eaatur
Company de
nparted with his property and did
scene at the West-end' the proprieter of the coveted site
declared that he hadnot
finally, we understand, that the dukes, lords, and so on,
who had been persuaded to lend their names to the specu-
lation, have withdrawn their support.—Building Arno.