The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-23 00:00:00

THE HUDSON'S BAY TERRI TORY.

IGNORANCE OF MEN IN OFFICE.
The debate in the House of Commons on Mr.
Roebuck's motion as to the Ilud,on's Bay Com-
pany brought out very cmatradictory statements of
the country between Lake Superior an .I the Rocky
Mountains, which may be called th 9 basin of Lake
Winnipeg and its tributaries, all the speakers eulo-
gi•ling its ferility, rivers, mines, woods, prairies,
and capabilites for supporting man, when, lo and
behold, up starts Mr. RobaCLowe, who described
tberegton in question as being frozen groan I and
inaccessible, Mr. Forte3cue supporting his state

ment.
One would think that a person once holding high
office, and look• d upon as a business adviser by the
late Government, should have some knowledge.
Whether Mr. Lowe and the others wore the right
persons in the right places appears now very ques-
tionable.
Had either of those gentlemen acquaheted them-
selves with the ficol from Woks, theey. would find
the country in its natural state of prairie and forest
superior t Prussia end No them Germany, with
as good a climate and equsl to lowa and Minne-
sotte, with a natural navigation second only to the
Mississippi.
Instead of applying to Sir John Richardson as
the "Bradshaw" of that region, if the right. hon.
gentlemen had only gene to the obliging secretary
of the Grand Trunk Railway in Broad-street, Sir
Cusick Roney would be happy to hook him as first
and second, or emigrant passenger from London to
Collingwood in 14 days, whence the Canadian mail
stsamer would bring him to Fort William in three
days more, and thence by a road now making by the
Canadian Government, which will be travelled over
in eight days, or to Detroit, whence there are al-
most daily steamers for all ports on Lake Superior ;
and in the winter to. St. Paul in sixteen days,
whence they sin sleigh to the Red River in eight
or ten more. In the days of Sir John R:chardson
there were no s'eemboa's on the lakes or railroads
in Canada or the United States, but rail and stelm
now bring the Hudson's Bay territory,. de facto,
nearer to us than Montreal was forty years ago.
It is odd to find the member for KiddertDinster,
returned on free-trade principles, advocating mono-
poly ;- this is a matter between him and his consti-
tuents ; but to find the Times doing so is passing
strange, its leader on the 10th on this subject hav-
ing drawn out counter ones in the daily and even-
ing as well as most of the weekly press.
The triumphant m .jority against Mr. Hutt's
motion supported by that piper, as well as the
almost unanimous verdict of the house on Mr.
Roebuck's resolution, show that on the great ques-
ti'ms of slavery and monopoly advocated by it, the
Times is not the exponent, but the opponent, of
British opinion.
The company do use the Hudson's Bay route to
the Red River as described by Sir John Richard-
son, instead of the right road by Lake Superior.
Our readers will not forget how-the Rifles, with
their wives and children, were sent last year from
Toronto, at the suggestion of Sir George Simpson,
a round of 3,000 miles through this icy sea, at
the risk of their live', taking 12) days to the
R'd River, when at the same time chief-trader
Rowan went by the right route •to it in 14, Mr.
Clarke Rosa returning from Red River to
Fort William in 8. Sir George (lid this to
show the Briti-1 public that tl;era Wc3 no access to
the country but by Hudson's Bay, the route so
highly reeommended by Mr. Lowe.
The Celoniel Secretary deserves great credit for
his enlightened views ou the colonisation of British
America, as well as the honourab'e members who
so ably proposed, supported, and spoke to the reso-
lutions, and the press, British and Canadian, which
with one or two exseptione, so ably advocated the
rights of civilisation and humanity against one of
the most illegal and despotic monopolies that ever
existed, whose death-leuell has lseu at last
tolled. .
Hereafter her Majesty's subjects Oa be placed
on an equality iu British .North Ainsrics, all
privileges being withdrawn.—Morning Chronicle,