The Select Committee, on Hudson's Bay Affairs, of
1857.
This Committee was appointed "to consider the state of those British
possessions in North America which are under the administration of the
Hudson's Bay Company, or over which they possess a licence to trade."
Lord John Russell, Mr. Gladstone, the present Lord Derby, Mr. Roebuck,
Mr. Labouchere, Mr. Lowe, and Mr. Edward Ellice, were of the nineteen
members of which the Committee originally consisted. Later on, the
names of Mr. Alexander Matheson and Viscount Goderich were substituted
for those of Mr. Adderley and Mr. Bell; and Mr. Christy was added to
the Committee. The evidence before the Committee much resembled that
taken by the Committee of 1749. There were the same disaffected, and
discharged, officials; the same disappointed merchants and rivals; the
same desire, in varied quarters, as before, to depreciate and despoil a
somewhat prosperous undertaking. The rival views were those of the
majority of the Committee, on the one hand, and of Mr. Gladstone, on
the other. The claims of Canada to annex territory useful, in her
opinion, to her inhabitants, was solidly urged. But the Honorable John
Ross, then President of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, who was the
first witness examined, said, "It is complained that the Hudson's Bay
Company occupy that territory and prevent the extension of settlement
and civilization in that part of the Continent of America. I do not
think they ought to be permitted to do that; but I think it would be a
very great calamity if their control and power in that part of America
were entirely to cease. My reason for forming that opinion is this:
during all the time that I have been able to observe their proceedings
there, there has been peace within the whole territory. The operations
of the Company seem to have been carried on, at all events, in such a
way as to prevent the Indian tribes within their borders from molesting
the Canadian frontier; while, on the other hand, those who have turned
their attention to that quarter of the world must have seen that, from
Oregon to Florida, for these last thirty years or more, there has been
a constant Indian war going on between the natives of American
territory, on the one side, and the Indian tribes on the other. Now, I
fear very much that if the occupation of the Hudson's Bay Company, in
what is called the Hudson's Bay territory, were to cease, our fate in
Canada might be just as it is with Americans in the border settlements
of their territory."
Mr. Ross advocated a railway to the Pacific, and he showed good
practical reasons for it. Failing a railway, he claimed a "good, broad
open road." On the question of renewed competition in the fur trade, he
added, "I believe there are certain gentlemen at Toronto very anxious
to get up a second North-West Company, and I dare say it would result
in something like the same difficulties which the last North-West
Company created.
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