He Had Seen, And We Had
Often Previously Discussed, The Questions Raised In The Article Above
Quoted, And Which He Had Carefully Read.
The interview took place on
the 17th July, 1861.
Every point connected with the British Provinces
in America, as affected by the then declared warlike separation of the
northern and southern portions of the United States, was carefully
discussed. The Duke had the case at his fingers ends. His visit to
America with the Prince of Wales, already alluded to more than once,
had rendered him familiar with the Northern Continent, and its many
interests, in a way which a personal study on the spot can alone bring
about; and he declared his conviction that the impression made upon the
mind of the Prince was so deep and grateful, that in anything great and
out of the ordinary rut of our rule at home, he would always find an
earnest advocate and helper in the Prince, to whom he said he "felt
endeared with the affection of a father to a son." I called the Duke's
special attention to the position and attitude of the Hudson's Bay
authorities. How they were always crying down their territory as unfit
for settlement; repelling all attempts from the other side to open up
the land by roads, and use steamers on such grand rivers as, for
instance, the Assiniboin and the Saskatchewan. He said Sir Frederick
Rogers, the chief permanent official at the Colonial Office, whose
wife's settlement was in Hudson's Bay shares, and who, in consequence,
was expected to be well informed, had expressed to him grave doubts of
the vast territory in question being ever settled, unless in small
spots here and there.
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