The Sun. — 1849-02-23 (London, England)

LONDON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23. 1849.  Last evening it was formally announced to the House of Commons by the Under-Secretary in the  Colonial Department, that " the Government has con veyed rancouver's Island to the Hudson's Bay Company who are now in possession of it." So! the murder is out at last : the transfer has been actually accomplished : the only English colony which could be said to actually command the eastern shores of the Pacific, from Behring's Straits to Terra del Fuego, has been juggled out of the power of the nation, has been snugly deposited within the boundaries of the already gigantic dominions subject to the barbarous despotism of a mere trading association. It rests now with Parliament to confirm or to invalidate this shameless act of underhanded jobbery. And it becomes doubly imperative upon our representatives to inquire into the legality of the transference, seeing that the future prosperity of the country is in a great measure involved in the transaction. We have already observed that nothing more inauspicious for the promoters of the whole arrangement could have happened, than the recent discoveries of gold-dust and quicksilver in the auriferous soil of California—discoveries which, by attracting enormous crowds of colonists to the settlements now rising on the banks of the Sacramento, are substantially conducing to the advancement of civilization, with all its social, political, and commercial enterprises, in that quarter of the New World. In accordance with this opinion, it was yesterday observed by the Honourable Member for Montrose, that, since the occupation of their lately acquired dependencies become a possessionbytheUnited Sotfates marvellously e enhanced Islandhsn ced s importance. And it is precisely at this period, when events are revealing the necessity for our retaining some central and capacious port on the western side of the North American Continent, that we, are informed that Vancouver's Island—an island aboun ding in all the requisite advantages, an island of ample dimensions, of central position, admirably wooded, prolific in that commcdity (coal) which is absolutely essential in steam navigation, affording a safe and sufficient anchorage in Nootka Sound, and commanding by its position the whole of those magnificent seas which wash the shores of our oriental and southern possessions—we are told, we say, at this time, that a colony, so inestimable from its geographical situation a physical characteristics, hass wellbeen as from its quietly ceded into the hands of a private company, and that comp ny of all companies in the world the Company of the Hudson's Bay Fur-traders. We know not how to characterise in terms of fitting severity a procet ding which reflects so' much and such grievous discredit upon the Government. To say the very least of the transaction, it betrays a rashness, a precipitance, and an indisel etion which are altogether incornyatible with the qualities required in statesmen or administrator s. But when, in addition to this rashness, this precipitation, and this monstrous indiscretion, there is added the suspicion of family motives leading to the transfer -a certain pecuniary aggrandisement, appears not only as a slur upon the  z c.i...4... ), '' ...:. 4• - ',, 4- •, 1 iirk c-N-1 0.0 i• .4 4,....i. . q . ~... . t - .........3.1,Rv ,irl'e ••• - .. - i,* . i._ "........,...,,,..., .. 4:,,,,,'.". Bhp .. yo •,t,t . _