The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-23 00:00:00

',T,7l.t..ertin4 ~A111'„

LONDON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23. 1849.

Last evening it was formally announced to the
House of Commons by the Under-Secretary in the

Colonial Department, that " the Government has con-

veyed rancouver's Island to the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany who are now in possession of it." So! the
murder is out at last : the transfer has been actually
accomplished : the only English colony which could
be said to actually command the eastern shores of the
Pacific, from Behring's Straits to Terra del Fuego,
has been juggled out of the power of the nation,
has been snugly deposited within the boundaries
of the already gigantic dominions subject to the bar-
barous despotism of a mere trading association. It
rests now with Parliament to confirm or to invalidate
this shameless act of underhanded jobbery. And it
becomes doubly imperative upon our repre-
sentatives to inquire into the legality of the
transference, seeing that the future prosperity of
the country is in a great measure involved in the
transaction. We have already observed that nothing
more inauspicious for the promoters of the whole
arrangement could have happened, than the recent
discoveries of gold-dust and quicksilver in the auri-
ferous soil of California—discoveries which, by at-
tracting enormous crowds of colonists to the settle-
ments now rising on the banks of the Sacramento,
are substantially conducing to the advancement of
civilization, with all its social, political, and commer-
cial enterprises, in that quarter of the New World.
In accordance with this opinion, it was yesterday
observed by the Honourable Member for Montrose,
that, since the occupation of their lately acquired de-
pendencies
become
a possessionbytheUnited Sotfates
marvellously
e enhanced
Islandhsn ced
s
importance. And it is precisely at this period, when
events are revealing the necessity for our retaining
some central and capacious port on the western side
of the North American Continent, that we, are in-
formed that Vancouver's Island—an island aboun
d-
ing in all the requisite advantages, an island of ample
dimensions, of central position, admirably wooded,
prolific in that commcdity (coal) which is absolutely
essential in steam navigation, affording a safe and
sufficient anchorage in Nootka Sound, and command-
ing by its position the whole of those magnificent
seas which wash the shores of our oriental and
southern possessions—we are told, we say, at this
time, that a colony, so inestimable from its
geographical situation
a
physical characteristics, hass wellbeen as from its
quietly ceded
into the hands of a private company, and that com-
p ny of all companies in the world the Company of
the Hudson's Bay Fur-traders. We know not how
to characterise in terms of fitting severity a procet d-
ing which reflects so' much and such grievous dis-
credit upon the Government. To say the very least
of the transaction, it betrays a rashness, a precipi-
tance, and an indisel etion which are altogether in-
cornyatible with the qualities required in statesmen
or administrator s. But when, in addition to this
rashness, this precipitation, and this monstrous indis-
cretion, there is added the suspicion of family mo-
tives leading to
the transfer -a certain pecuniary aggrandisement,
appears not only as a slur upon the

z c.i...4... ),
''
...:. 4• - ',, -
4- •, 1 iirk c-N-1 0.0 i• .4 4,....i. .
q
. ~... . t
- .........3.1,Rv ,irl'e ••• - .. - i,*
. i._ "........,...,,,..., .. 4:,,,,,'.". Bhp .. yo •,t,t . _