Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1858-09-18
To the Hudson Bay Possessions via st
Paul.

To the Hudson Bay Possessions via st.
Paul
We mentioned day or two since the visit
of some principal railroad officers of Canada,
to personally inspect our country and estim-
ate its business Importance, with the view oil
arrangements by proper and timely railroad
connections, to secure the travel and transpor-
tation of our young and growing State.
We have now to announce another visit
from foreign official personages to St. Paul,
for purposes that must eventuate in much
benefit to our city and State. Sir GEORGE
SIMPSON, the longtime Governor of the Hud-
son Bay Company's Possessions Hon. Henrik
ELLIS, Member of the British Parliament
for Coventry, and formerly British Minis
ter of War, and DIR. JOHN Rae, the Arctic
Explorer; who discovered the remains and
ascertained the fate of Sir JOHN FRANKL1N's
party; are the personages to whom we now al
Jude, and who are stopping for few days at
the Winsow House while observing the sur
rounding country and pursuing the inquiries
which to make is the main object of their
visit.
This object is to ascertain the advantages
which may be offered by this ronte for the
transportation hereafter of all the goods re-
quired by the Hudson Bay Company's trade,
and for the return ofther furs, in preference to
the long, tedious and expensive transit, by
water and land, from York Factory on Hud.
sons Bay, to which two ships now semi-annu-
ally bring their goods, and on returning, car
ry their peltries to England.
Messrs. CULVER & HARRINGTON, for the sup
ply of their various posts on the Red River
and elsewhere, have imported directly from
England, in bond, packages of English cloths
and wooden goods, to the amount of several
thousand dollars annually. Taught, perhaps,
by the success of this experiment, which
would enable the private traders in the Hud-
son Bay Possessions, to undersell the Com
pany on their own ground; and observing
moreover that the natural conrse of trade was
in this direction; the Company have deputed
these gentlemen to act as committee to gain
the necessary information on which to base
an entire abandonment of the Hudson Bay
ships as means of import or export: and
the adoption Of the overland route from St.
Peul in its stead
We understand, that these gentlemen are
very much pleased with what they have seer
OF our city; and they do not doubt that this
route will be hereafter used by the Company
exclusively for the transportation of theil
goods.
Sir George Simpson last passed through
st. Paul eleven years ago, on his return from
a visit to Selkirk Settlement. He then stop
ped, he says, at the house of Henry Jackson
the well-known first settler" now deceased
and was then glad to find in one small room
of an exceedingly small house, lodgings fol
the five persons in his party. He thinks a
few years have wrought an almost miracu-
lous change, from the few log cabins of hi.
previous sojourn to the broad cast city which
meets his gaze on this his last visit Mr.
ELLIS, too, in noting the magnificent floating
palaces which bore him to this far North
Western region, could not but think of the
triumphs won by steam, and the empires il
has built, since the period when in 1907, hi
and his father stood upon the deck of Fulton /
trial steamboat and was borne by her on hel
first experimental trip up the Hudson! TIC
DR.. REA, even, who last saw us on wintry
spring two or three years ago when returning
from finding the remains of Sir John Frank
Inns party-even he finds something to won
der at in our growth in the comparatively
brief interval since his previous visit.
We bid these gentlemen welcome to Saint
Paul. The positions they bear towards the
country which bounds our own State the
growing intimate relations of trade and bust
ness probable between that country and US
in the future demand the cultivation o.
friendly feelings and more intimate social in
tercourse, which will doubtless lead to the
development of mutual advantages on more
material basis.