Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-08-14
NJ | S C Z L L A n Y.
THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY AND
THE NEW GOLD REGION.
A New w worId 10 be Thrown Open.

The wonderful event that has made the coast
of the North Pacific and the courses of Fraser's
River the theatre of great concentration of
population seems to be but one i'll series of con-
tspring causes destined to throw open mighty
and magnificent region to the commerce and cul-
tivation of the world. The fact of the new au-
riferous region being in the domain over which
the Hudson's Bay Company claims to exercise
jurisdiction has nccessitated new realization of
political power, and all the territory in British
North America, between the Rocky Mountains
and the Pacific, enter into the list of British
Colonies, under the name of New Caledonia
But this is not all. In, May, 1859, the license
by which the Hudson's Bay Company holds the
immense Territory east of the Rocky Mountains
expires, and so passes away that mighty corpo-
ration which has existed for two hundred
years. For two centuries has country larger
than the whole of Europe, been shut up as
private preserve, excluding exploration, com
merce, civilization, under a system of the most
monstrous cruelty and oppression.
1t was on May ., 1910, that Charles ii. made
grant of ''all the lands and territories upon
the countries, coasts and confines of the seas
&C., thatlie within Hudson Straits" What this
means has never been ascertained lawyers have
been befogeing over it for century or so but
they get no nearer it. 1t is very evident that
the Crown was entirely ignorant of the geogra-
ply of the country, it was so layiShly given away
so there was no course but to resort to mystif-
cation. To this elastic grant the Company, of
course, gave whatever Interpretation they chose
For long time they confined themselves to a
narrow strip of hundred miles or so, along the
south and west coats of Hudson's Bay. After
wards, they were not so modest as we shall Sec
Meanwhile, there is strong reason to doubt
whether, when Charles III. signed the Charter,
the territory he was so generously bestowng
belonged to the Crown of England at ALL There
is special proviso in the Charter excluding all
regions possessed by any other Christian
Prince" Now for fifty years previous to the
date of the Charter, in 1910, France had occu-
pied all the domains around the shores of lIud-
sons Bay, and these very territories were held
by the Company of New France, under and by
virtue of Charter granted by Louis XIII, of
France, and bearing date 1926, forty-three
years anterior to the date of the Charter of
Charles III. And at the Treaty of Byswick,
when the rights and relations of France and Eng
land to the soil of North America came to be
settled, the whole of the Hudson's Bay region
was recognized as belonging to France Thus
the very words of the Charter itself exclude
from the operation of the Grant those identical
territories the Hudsons Bay Company has SO
long claimed.
ADRoIT FRAUDS.
One of the prominent objects the Hudson's
Bay Company was to keep in view, according
to the charter, was the discovery of a northwest
passage. Another was the development of the
industrial resources of the country. Here are
the express words of the charter; "For the dis
covery of new passage to the South Sea, and
the finding some mines, minerals and other re-
sources"
The mastery activity the Company has always
displayed i'll not doing any such thing, would be
very amusing were it not so very melancholy.
For 80 years they never made the first attempt
towards discovering Northwest passage. Sub
sequently, two or three insignificant efforts were
made though it turns out, from certain indicia,
that their real aim on these occasions was the
hope of making good speculation out of GER
tain copper-mines reported up north. Spas
medically since then, when other parties have
been about taking the business out of their
hands, they have assumed the appearance of
intense devotion to the cause of discovery,
though the ruse has always been too fragrant to
deceive any one. In fact, their entire policy
has been privately to impede and persecute all
who attempted any exploration of the territory.
As for developing the resources of the country,
it is still more diverting to think of the course
the Company has always taken. A spell laid
upon the country could not have more effectual-
y prevented all exploration of its resources
Never did they make, never did they permit,
the smallest attempt at Throwing open its rich
mines' fisheries, and agricultural possibilities
stern and wicked prohibition has always been
laid on agriculture and settlement. "Farming
and fur-trading are reckoned incompatible pur-
suits by the Company's managing oiIicers."-
Such is the declaration of one of the witnesses
who testified last year before the Committee ap-
pointed by Parliament to inquire into the doings
ofthe Hudson's Bay Company And more than
hundred years before Mr.. Robson, six years
one of the Companys servants, testifes to the
subtle and systematic manner in which they
managed to keep the country locked up, not al
lowing the language of the natives to be learn
ed by any but few half-breed interpreters, and