The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-08 00:00:00

HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY,

The territories over which the Hudson's Bay.
Company claims to exercise, and does actually exer-
cise, exclusive rights of jurisdiction, exclusive title
to land, and a monopoly of trader extend from
Hudson's Bay across the Rocky Mountains to the
shores of the Pacific. In addition, the Company
holds under lease from the Crown, Vancouver's
Island—a British possession destined, it canhardly
be doubted, to become the most valuable and im-
portant colony in the Pacific, a great naval station,
and the point whence the adjacent coast will one
day be settled and peopled.
These extensive territories are held by the Com-
pany under various and different titles. Its oldest
title is, of course, the charter of Charles 11. Under
it the company now claims in fee simple all the
landa the waters from which run into Hudson's
Bay. But here a serious question at once arises.
The colony of Canada contests this pretension. At
the time the Charter was granted, all of the
lands so watered did not, it is clear, belong
to the British Crown to grtint jurisdiction over. In
the reign of Charles 11. Hudson's Bay itself and its
coasts were claimed by France as well as England.
And, although the English claim so far prevailed,
the French colony of Canada extended over a large
portion of those territories which the Company now
possesses. The English colony of Canada, therefore
contends that this portion of the Hudson's Bay
Company's territories belongs not to that corpora-
tion, but to the colony of Canada. Now, the terri-
tory in dispute between the company and the colony
comprises not the least valuable of the fur-bearing
districts out of the profits of which the dividends of
10 per cent. on the stock of the company' are paid.
The question is one of the highest importance. If
the colony be right, i ill regain a portion at least
of the fur trade. If t ompany be wrong, its com-
mercial prosperity will be endangered.
At first the Company only formed forts or facto-
ries on Hudson's Bay, to attract thither the Indian
fur trade. As, however, that trade was vigorously
pursued by the French in Canada, the English
Company, very naturally and laudably, pushed
into the interior ; and as the two advancing rivals
approached each other, the company, as well as the
French, properly desired to have their boundaries
defined. Negotiations ensued as well at and after
the Peace of Ryswick as that of Utrecht. But, say
tto Canadians, although, during the French domi-
nion in Canada, the company sought a delimitation,
it was by a defined and positive line, to be acquired
by negotiation. The C rporation neither then pre-
tended that there was anything in its charter which
gave it a rule by which it could insist that the extent
of its territories to the southward should be ascer-
tained ; nor then asserted a right to all the coun-
tries the waters of which flow into Hudson's Bay.
The colony of Canada, now claiming to enjoy allthe
territorial rights which the French had when it was
ceded to England, altogether denies the indefinite
pretensions of the Hudson's Bay Company. It
points out to the Queen's Government that the
claim now advanced is at variance with the boun-
dary line which the Company endeavoured to ob-
tain by negotiation from the French after the

Peace of Utrecht, and that, had France accepted
the line then proposed by the Company, that boun-
dary would have made a large part of the territory
now occupied by the Company a portion of the
province of Canada. It insists on the infinite im-
portance to Canada of knowing accurately where
the boundary is ; and as plans for internal commu-
nication connected with schemes for agricultural
settlements and for opening new fields for commer-
oioi enterprise are all more or less dependent on the
qneAtion, the people of. Canada call on the Queen's
Government for a solution of it.
The question is, then, what the Charter did give
the Company. The Colony requires that the Charter
shall be strictly construed. The Company contends
that, in grants of a considerable ago, where the lan-
guage is indefinite and ambiguous, usage and enjoy-
ment are essential elements of consideration. In
this position of affairs, where the Crown bas at
once to-protect the property of the Company, and
to satisfy its colonial subjects, its law officers have

,
proposed that the question of the boundary, as be-
tween the Company and Canada, should be referred
to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council,
and that the determination of the committee,
which would not of itself have any binding effect,
should be confirmed by an act of Parliament. This

is probably the course that will be adopted, unless,
indeed, the larger question of the continuance of
the Hudson's Bay Company at all, should be de-
cided adversely to the Corporation by the political
advisers of the Crown and the Imperial Legislature.
The Hudson's Bay Company's territories are,
however, much more extensive than those which
they exercise jurisdiction over under their own
construction of the charter. There is, however, a
distinction between the two classes of territory.
Whatever rights the Company possesses under the
charter, the Crown can of course resume only by its
surrender or on purchase and compensation. it has.
no power to override the rights of the Hud,,on's
Bay Company within its own chartered territories,
unless it first of all establish the il!egality of the
Charter it elf. The case is very different with the
other or non-chartered districts. They can be re-
sume I by. the Crown in the year 1859. The ques-
tion of their resumption, therefore, equally presses
for decision.

The history of those districts is briefly this :
When Mr. Ellice, at the request of Lord Bathurst,
then Colonial Ministe,r, negotiated the amalgama-
tion between the Hudson's Bay and North-West
Companies, it became an important object of the-
united lildy to avoid all rivalry and competition
within British terntories. But a considerable tract
to the east of the Rocky Mountains and all the
British possessions (then more extensive than
now) between that range and the Pacific to
the West, were not within the Charter. United
States Fur Companies were, moreover, pushing
forward in that direction. As a counterpoise to
American enterprise, and as a means of preserving
the peace of these countries, Mr. _Ellice, with that
forethought and sagacity which so eminently dis-
tinguish him, suggested to Lord Bathurst that an
Act of Parliament should be obtained giving the
Queen's Government authority to grant a license of
exclusive trade over this district to the east and west
of the Rocky Mountains. 'Lord Bathurst acted- on
this suggestion. The statute was passed, and under
its provisions two licenses of 21 years' duration each
have been granted to the Hudson's Bay Company.
It is the latter which terminates in 1859.

At the time when Mr. Ellice's suggestion was
adop+ed and first acted on, the regions to the west
of the Rocky Mountains, and the shores of the
Pacific were comparatively unkown, and were re-
garded only as fur-bearing countries ; and it was in
reference to that capacity and character that the
act was passed. Time and the spirit of enterprise
have, however, changed their destination. A large
part of the Oregon territory, then included in the
purview of the British Statute, was transferred in
1846 to the United States. Settlement and civilisa-
tion a-e driving onward to the Pacific ; and Mr.
Ellice himself is now foremost in advocating the
withdrawal of a large part at least of this territory
from the Hudson's Bay Company ; while Mr. Roe-
buck, more ardent if less astute, pictures another
Germany arising under the auspices of England in
this district, to preserve the equilibrium of North
America.

Lastly, the Hudson's Bay Company have been
entrusted with the temporary charge of Vancouver's
Island. The Nor:h Western Boundary Treaty,
which do rived England of Oregon, finally secured
to it this island ; and, important though its position
is, Lord Grey was in 1849 not a little embarrassed
by its legal acquisition. Afraid of the expense of
constituting a British colony, yet desirous of utilis-
ing it to some extent, Lord Grey, notwithstanding
tho prophetic objections of Mr. Gladstone, trans-
ferred it to the Hudson's Bay Company, which had
already some es'ablishments on it, and carried sup-
plies thence to their exclusive territories on the
mainland.

The transfer has in every respect proved unfor-.
tunate. Under the company, Vancouver's Island
had made scarcely any progress. Possessing on the
opposite coast a trading monopoly, the company
has not invited settlers to the island. Indeed had
it been so inclined, the terms which Lord Grey im-
posed on it as to the price of land would have effec-
tually. repelled settlement. Lord Grey gave, too„
free luaitutions to the island. But ho fixed the: