"The present state of government in the Red River Settlement is
attributable alike to the habitual attempt, encouraged, perhaps very
naturally, in England and in Canada, to discredit the traditions, and
question the title of the Hudson's Bay Company, and to the false
economy which has stripped the Governor of a military force, with
which, in the last resort, to support the decisions of the legal
tribunals. No other organized Government of white men in the world,
since William Penn, has endeavoured to rule any population, still less
a promiscuous people composed of whites, half-breeds. Indians, and
borderers, without a soldiery of some sort, and the inevitable result
of the experiment has, in this case, been an unpunished case of prison-
breaking, not sympathised in, it is true, by the majority of the
settlers, but still tending to bring law and government into contempt,
and greatly to discourage the governing body held responsible for
keeping order in the territory.
"At the same time it must be conceded, that, while government by a
merchant organization has eminently succeeded, up to an obvious point
of time and circumstances, in the cases both of the East India and
Hudson's Bay Companies, and is still applicable to the control and
management of distant districts, it contains within itself the seeds of
its own ultimate dissolution. In fact, the self-interest, however
enlightened, which brings a dividend to stockholders, is opposed to the
high impartiality and absence of individualism which should
characterize a true Government. Individuals and corporations may trade
and grow rich, - Government may not; they may embark in constant
speculation, while it cannot; they must either insensibly measure their
dealings by consequences, as affecting gain, or be suspected of
doing so, while the interest of Government is not individual, but
collective; its duty being, to give facility to the acquirer, security
to the possessor, and justice and equal protection to all.
"Therefore, although the Government of Red River has had few faults and
many excellences, and has been marked by a generous policy, in many
instances it has been, and is, open to suspicion; because the
commercial power which buys furs, trades with Indians and whites alike,
and is, in fact, the great merchant, storekeeper, and forwarder of the
country; appoints a Governor and assistants, places judges upon the
bench, selects magistrates, and administers the law, even amongst its
possible rivals and trade competitors. Such a state of things is
unsound in principle, and ought only to be continued until a stronger
and permanent Government can be organized; at the same time it can only
be continued in safety, on the opening up of the country, by arming the
Governor with a military force of reasonable amount.
"That the Hudson's Bay Company can govern the country
efficiently, on this obvious condition of all other Governments, is
clear enough; and the peaceable relations between the Indians and the
whites, and between the various tribes themselves, throughout the whole
of this enormous territory, as well as the general state of health and
occupation of the aborigines, prove how perfect and wise has been the
management of the country.
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