The Statesman.
London, England, 1819-06-25 00:00:00

petchts from the prntinciel Goverement in Gene&

to lhe Cogerentent in this country ; bet he should I
not pies th%t oTtlett at present ; ho tbo•IJ ..tidy
hirtgolf with onting.for Copies of ell the Coinunbni.
rations seat by the Secretary of !hate fog the Colonial
Department, to the preglacial Goierentent its Upper

semi Lower C. anode, rospoedog the dosirsedon of the
Red River Sediment, and rospretiog dor leg? pro.

ceedings Instituted thereon is Upper anduawer

Casoad;. The ilow.Datt. after a few other observoiess,

concluded by moving that an Address be preseaTod to
his (Loyal Highness the Prince itegent, for the pro-
duction of copies of these communications, and of
several other papers connected with the same tries-
•clinns.

Mr. ELLICE socooded theinetion for the prodoc.
tion of those papers. The Honourable Baronet had
slated the proceedings of Lord Selkirk from the time
_ .

at which he tiro wria le America up t• the present

time. Before the Noble Lord hod entered an this
plan of colonization, he (Mr. Ellice) had the honour
of being acquainted wide Ms views. The Noble Lord
was a considerate. proprietor in the ilodson's Bay
Cowpony, and ho meld net help thinking. that if
his Lordship's only object was colonization, he
should not hare embarked in tied.. Ile was • sitar,.
holder in lb. Hudson's Bay Cornpaoy as well as the
Honourable Baronet opposi•e; and when the plan of
toloolzttion was first proposed, he, at a Inveting of
the proprietors entered Ms protest against it. The
Honourable ll:meet bad quoted the opinions of
. .

nest lawyers IN f f• the right which the Com-
pany had to make the grant of used to Lord
Selkirk; be also bad cossetted end applied to ell the
eminent lawyers who had not been cossetted by the
opposite party, and their opinion wee directly °pp..
site to that which the advisers of the floe. But. bad

.
given. be opinion of the late Attorney-General,
new Chief Baron of F.scheqeer in Scotland, was that
Government had no right to grant the land to the
flodson's Bay Company, sod consequently that the
Company could hate no right to grant it to Lord
Selkirk. lie had given entice that he would respect
that right. until it was confirmed by the decision of
a Court of Law ; and if it was so well.founded as
the Honourable Hareem supposed, why bed Not Lord
Selkirk appealed to a Coert of Law ? He bad slow
Daly stated the objectless which he had t.rged splint
the grant to Lord Selkirk long before any of the
transactions in gentles bad taken place. It was
art possible to *oppose human nature capable
of such actioes as the Memorable Baronet bad
described, voles, there bad been great preview
provocation. The Memorable Baronet had mod
several letters velum' by agents of the North
West Compaq; he regretted that those let.
ten hid been brewed forward, sod particularly
est of the letters of an lion. Gentleman; but be
would read, In rep'y, a letter written, by the Noble
Earl, much earlier than those transactions, to a per.
son going to establish a trading post on the Red
River. From the statement of the Hon. Baronet ono

might have supposed that the Noble !Abed bad not
been at all conoected with the proceedings ; but his
Lordship thee wrote—" Yoe most give them (the
Canadians) solemn warning that the coantry belongs
to Ow Hudson's Bay Company, and yes will, so for
as you have physical means, prevent them from cultist/
timber or fishing, end treat all who fish with mesas
peecbers ; If they resist, they most bear the cons«
imams ; bet you are safe oldie yea set in a r -
abloom! proper manner:" The House would attend to
the rmeammeadatlen to prevent these things, so far as
physical mesas permitted. It would be seen how
fee these lestryclieas were acted span. In 1811,
the colony was for the first tints established.—
Hering the lint winter they did prevent the settlers
from start*. This impaired from Governor Mae-
denell's letter. Is the nest season they opposed
various ebstreellerns to the for trade. Mr. Cameron,
the North West Compsny's agent, foetid it owe«
eery le use the best moons of self-defence sit his
power. Ile would here mention a particular act of
Mr. Miles Macdomil, the Governor of the Co-
lony. He wrote to Mr. Cameron in these terms:—
" Take orifice, I hereby give warning, in the name
of the Right Hoe. Thomas Earl of Selkirk, that no
provisions are to be carried out of the territory of
the Colony."—Another estraordinary step taken by
Mr. Miles Maedonell was, to order ill the previ-
sions to be delivered up to him, while he prohibited
any to be token out of the territory. If the Cana-
dians could not carry provisions with them, they
could neither carry on trade that year, nor brine in
the supplies of next year. In the winter of 1814,
or spring of 1815, Mr. Macdonell sent a company
who actually seized 500 begs of wheat, weighing
1 cwt. each. In that post this Petitioner, Pritchard,
was the Clerk, end basely allowed the provisions to
be seised. Let the Howse see to whet those proceed-
ings led. Arrangements were made by the North
West Company to allow some provisions to be eon-
veyed up the River. It became evident, ths.t if Lord
Selkirk adopted such regulations us had been stated,
and could enforce them, their trade was it en end.—
Dosing the two succeeding winters verioes conflicts
took place. He came now to that unfortunate con-
flict in which Governor Semple, who wee, be believ-
ed, all straights sama,aed 17 associates, lost their lives.
Such an outrage would not have been committed sin-
less it had been preceded by a very different series of
facts from what the Hon. Bart. bad stated. Ile would
now state some of the preceding occerrences. On
the 17th of March, 1817, the operations of the Had-
son's Bly Company for obstructing the trade of the
North West Company began. Ile said the Iledsou'a
Ray Company, for when the views and interests of
the Company end of the Noble Earl were almost
inifted, he could make no distinction between them.
Mr. Cameron was taken prisoner, end sent down to
the Bay. A regular plan was formed, eccording
to which a gun-boat was sent to intercept the
canoes. There were two posts at the mouth of
the ItNl 'tire?, on which the Canadians depended
in esrr)ing on their trade. On the 17th of March
one of thee. posts was attacked ; all persons found
in it were made prisoners, and the provisions were
seized. On the 10th the other post was taken, the
porter's niggle prisoners, and the provisions seised.—
Both posts were burnt and rased to the ground.—
Lienteasot Holt, who conducted this affair, wrote an
account of his meets to Lord Selkirk, of the 14th of
April. and proceeded towards the only ether post be-
t inging to the North West Company on the Rest
Rim-. Mr. Alexander Mactloneell, who command-