ton Curacy (No. 2); Petty Bag, &c. Office (Court of Audit. 3a and passed:-Stock in Trade Exemption; Boroughs' 2a Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers; Wolverhamp- ated; they were liable to be warped by transitory and personal interests-an object which was in contest, whether in war or negotiation, was likewise too often overappreciated by contending Powers. Scientific authorities on this account were more to be relied on; and he therefore appealed with confidence to the testimony of the eminent geographer, Malte Brun, who seemed to have discover Incorporation; Out Pensioners. Reproductive Loan Fund, in the County of Galway, against the Reproductive Loan Fund Institution (Ireland) Bill.-From Agriculturists, Merchants, and Others, complaining of the Depressed State of Agriculture and Commerce in the Island of Jamaica. From the Town of Liverpool, against the present Ecclesiastical Law.ed, almost by intuition, the future destiFrom the Willeton Board of Guardians, against so much of the Parochial Debt and Audit Bill as deprives them of Administering Relief.-From Merchants, and Others, in the Province of New Brunswick, against any Alteration of the Navigation Laws.-From the Guardians of the Poor of the Lancaster Union, against the Poor Law Union Charges (No. 2) Bill. VANCOUVER'S ISLAND. nies of Vancouver's Island. His observations on the subject were as follows: "The vegetable earth in some places forms a bed of ten feet in thickness. A traveller is agreeably surprised to find a milder climate here than on the eastern coast of America in the same latitude. In the month of April, Fahrenheit's thermometer was never below 40° during the night, and in the LORD MONTEAGLE, pursuant to no-day it rose to 60°. The grass was already a foot in height. The climate is as favourable to the tice, rose to move for certain papers re-growth of trees as that of the Continent. What specting the grant of Vancouver's Island negligence on the part of the Spaniards not to to the Hudson's Bay Company. The have taken possession of this agreeable and fertile question was one which involved important country!-a country which being situated in the rear of their country might, in the hands of intelpublic interests, both present and reverligent masters, become a military and commercial Those of their Lordships who sionary. post of the highest importance." had taken an interest in the negotiations Mr. Pitt and his Government, in 1790, carried on between this country and the acted on the admission of the same fact. United States of America previous to the The port of Nootka Sound, situated on the completion of what was called the Oregon western coast of Vancouver's Island, was Treaty, must be familiar with the political considered at that time to be so important and commercial importance attached to as to be worth the risk of a European war. the possession of Vancouver's Island, si- In the debate on the 6th of May, 1790, tuated as it was between the territories of Mr. Pitt observedRussia on the north, and those of the United States on the south. This portion of Her Majesty's dominions was at the present moment a possession of great value, and it might become of almost incalculable importance hereafter. The climate of the island was fine, the soil fertile, its harbours were excellent, and the place was in all respects most favourable for settlement and colonisation; it contained, moreover, extensive mines of coal, invaluable in its future applicability to the steam navigation of the Pacific. He was not aware that from the possessions of Russia to the Isthmus of Panama, there existed any other place near the coast capable of furnishing this important article. Whenever a communication should be made, either by railroad or by a canal, across the Isthmus-and that time could not be very distant-the Pacific must become the highway of maritime nations to China and other parts of the Eastern world; and in that event Vancouver's Island would become a position essential to our commercial superiority. The opinions of politicians on subjects of this kind were often exagger "If the claims of Spain were given way to, it must deprive the country of the means of extending its navigation and fishery in the southern ocean: it would go far towards excluding His Majesty's subjects from an infant trade, the future extension of which could not but be essentially beneficial to the commercial interests of Great Britain." Yet the importance of Nootka Sound was nothing as compared with the possession of the entire island, more especially in reference to its coal field. In the Oregon negotiations, the possession of Vancouver's Island was regarded, both by England and by the United States, as a primary object. The Columbia was a barred river, and the passage to Puget's Sound, surrendered to the United States, was held almost at the sufferance of the Power to whom the possession of Vancouver's Island was secured. The most unquestionable evidence that he could refer to in proof of the resources of this possession, was to be found in the correspondence of the Hudson's Bay Company itself:— "In the neighbourhood of Port Vancouver," writes Captain Pelly, "the Company have large pasture and grain-farms affording most abun dantly every species of agricultural produce, and maintaining large herds of stock; and it is the intention of the Company, not only to increase them, but to encourage the settlement of their retired servants, and other emigrants under their protection. The soil, climate, and circumstances of the country are as much, if not more, adapted to agricultural pursuits than any other spot in America; and with care and protection the British dominion may not only be preserved in this country, which it has been so much the wish of Russia and America to occupy to the exclusion of British subjects, but British influence may be maintained as paramount in this interesting part of the coast of the Pacific." out rent or other consideration to a trading made of an island, the very key of our pofor ever. And this grant was company sition in North Western America, the very island for which we had run the risk of two wars. But he had a further complaint to make. He asked the noble Lord how it could enter his mind to grant this charter, and to part with this territory, without providing in the very charter itself some stipulation for the future government of the island? After the charter had been approved of, indeed, there was a letter from the UnThe Peers who had listened to the noble der Secretary of State, containing some Earl (Earl Grey's) argument on colonisa- vague propositions for the government tion a few nights back, could not but re- of the island. This was evidently an aftermember the point on which the noble Earl thought. The question of the future go(Earl Grey) had mainly relied, as charac- vernment of the island had been till then teristic of a sound policy in colonisation altogether overlooked. This reminded him -namely, the abolition of land grants, of the blunder of a countryman of his and the substitution of a system of sale. own, who, after completing the building After this declaration, it would hardly be of his house, discovered, when about to believed that the noble Earl had been him- enter into possession, that he had forself the party to propose, by a charter to gotten the staircase. A right thing was the Hudson's Bay Company, not a lease sometimes marred by being done in a wrong of Vancouver's Island, but a grant, the manner; but in the case of the grant of most lavish, the most inconsiderate, and, Vancouver's Island the engagement enhe must add, the most reprehensible ever tered into was most unwise, and the mode before made by any Colonial Minister. of executing it had rendered it still worse. The much-condemned grants of Prince If such a grant were expedient, he conEdward's Island were infinitely less liable tended that at a time when Parliament to censure. The noble Earl seemed ori- was sitting it should not have been made ginally to have proposed making this grant by the mere prerogative of the Crown, without condition, safeguard, or reserve; and without a previous legislative sanche proposed to make it gratuitously to the tion. He (Lord Monteagle) had acted Hudson's Bay Company. The noble Lord on this principle; and in 1834, before would say, that the grant was "made founding the now flourishing colony of to the intent that the Company should South Australia, he had introduced a Bill establish upon the island a settlement which led to discussion and examination, or settlements of emigrants from Great particularly on the part of his late noble Britain;" and that the express mean- Friend Lord Ashburton. It was still more ing of the condition was, that if the necessary to have applied the same princiCompany should not, within five years, ple in the present instance. This island, so have established "a settlement," the valuable both on commercial and political grant might be revoked. This condi- grounds, ought never to have been parted tion was, however, without value from its with, and never parted with by the mere indistinctness. Who was to define "a fiat of a Secretary of State, without any settlement?" It was not said, of how communication to Parliament. But there many families the settlement should con- were other causes of complaint, when the sist; any "settlement" would satisfy the grant was viewed in relation to the characprovisions of the charter, however in-ter of the grantee. He maintained, that no significant the settlement might be. trading company was a fitting depository Then, in regard to the reserved power for the functions of emigration or colonisaof resumption by purchase, it was not tion: he knew of no example to the cona power of purchase at the improved value trary. Even the East India Company, the of the property; but on repaying the greatest corporation of the kind in the amount expended by the Company. What world, had not exhibited any great apticourt of equity was to determine this amount? In fact, the proposed charter might be held to transfer the island with tude for colonisation. But the East India Company was not a company of hunters. If any trading company were to be en The original charter of 1670 partook of the lofty claims of prerogative of the Stuarts. It gave exclusive rights of trading to Prince Rupert and the newly-constituted corporation in all the lands in North America, which could be approached by land or by water from Hudson's Bay, and which lands were not in the possession of any other Christian Power. This grant extended over more than 2,500 square miles. It was not wonderful that the validity of this charter should have been doubted. Accordingly, in 1690, a Bill was introduced into Parliament confirm trusted with uncontrolled dominion, and | The whole history of the Company, and were selected as the guides and governors its conduct from its origin, 180 years of future bands of emigrants-a body like back, was condemnatory of the grant. the Hudson's Bay Company, founded, not for the purpose of occupying land for agriculture or settlement, but for the sake of procuring the fur of wild animals, was the least likely, of all others, to exercise such functions properly. Another matter was deserving of special note. He alluded to the free gift of the coal mines without any reserve, either of rent or royalty, or any stipulated obligation assumed by the Hudson's Bay Company even to work the mines. This was the more surprising from reference to the official correspondence. It would appear that the Colonial Office had at first neglected the subject altoge- ing the charter. The history of these ther, or perhaps were not aware of the existence of this valuable property. It was only on the 25th of February, 1848, the negotiations having been in progress from 7th September, 1846, that Mr. Hawes refers for the first time to the "value of the coal" as "necessarily forming a material consideration," and transmits a copy of the agreement made with Mr. Wyse at Labuan as 66 a guide for any proposal the Company may make for working the coal at Vancouver's Island." But no sooner was this hint given, than on the 4th of March, Captain Pelly, in the frankest and most explicit manner, states," that if the grant is to be clogged with any payment to the mother country, the Company will be under the necessity of declining it." In this declaration the Colonial Office seems to have very graciously acquiesced, although at the time the proposed establishment of American steamers in the Pacific gave to the coal a peculiar value. If the question of the constitution of the island had been forgotten from September 1846 to July 1848, and if the question of the coal was noticed only to be abandoned, the principle under which the Company should be required to alienate their lands to colonists and emigrants, seems to have been neglected to the present hour. It should have been known to the Secretary of State, that if the same slavish conditions were to be attached to the future land contracts in Vancouver's Island which were enforced on the main land, it would be impossible that any independent settlement could ever take place. A monopoly of trade, an exclusive command of freight at their own prices capriciously, or perhaps partially, granted or conceded, would wholly defeat the ostensible object sought for by his noble Friend. proceedings was curious. The Act as originally applied for was perpetual; but on the third reading, a clause was introduced limiting its duration to ten years. The House of Commons, which evidently appears to have felt itself aggrieved, passed a Standing Order contemporaneously, prohibiting, in future, the reception of any Bill confirming a charter, unless the charter itself were specifically recited in the Bill. But the House of Lords was even more scrupulous than the Commons. The duration of the Bill was still farther limited; it was reduced from ten years to seven, and in that form was passed. A subsequent application was made to Parliament for a renewal of this Act, but without success, and the Act had never since been renewed. Was it not evident from these facts that the Company themselves acknowledged the invalidity of their charter without the confirmatory Act, and that after the expiry of that Act the charter must be considered invalid? Subsequently in the year 1749, the complaints addressed to Parliament against the Company were almost universal. Petitions were presented from Chester, Newcastle, Hull, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Lancaster, Kendal, Whitehaven, Bristol, Carlisle, Wakefield, and other commercial towns. They prayed for freedom of trade within the jurisdiction of the Company. They impugned the charter. They complained that hands of a few to the detriment of the many; that "An important trade was locked up in the the Company only employed a few ships, to the detriment of the nation; and that the Company had made but few settlements, and those mainly of their own hired servants, every public benefit being neglected." A Select Committee was appointed, and reported facts fully confirming these com- | On these grounds he contended that the plaints, which were all couched in lan- Company was altogether unfit to be trusted guage applicable to the present state of things. But the matter was dropped. Financial embarrassments were not peculiar to the present times. It was felt that a supercession of the charter would have cast on the public the duty and the expense of governing the country. England was not rich enough to do what was right and just, and the matter was allowed to drop. He must also remind the House of the violence, lawlessness, and bloodshed which were proved before Parliament in 1819 to have taken place in the case of the Red River settlement. These facts were proved in official documents laid before Parliament, on which occasion Mr. Edward Ellice, though stating himself to be a large shareholder in the Company, gave evidence to their unfitness to undertake colonisation. His words were remarkable, and were applicable and conclusive at the present time: "Though Lord Selkirk's primary and principal object was colonisation, yet he must be pardoned for saying that it had afterwards become connected with purposes of trade. The noble Lord was a considerable proprietor in the Hudson's Bay Company; and he could not help thinking that if his Lordship's only object was colonisation, he should not have embarked in trade. He (Mr. Ellice) was a considerable proprietor in the Hudson's Bay Company; and when the plan of colonisation was first proposed, he, at a meeting of the shareholders, entered his protest against it. The opinion of the late Attorney General, now Chief Baron of Scotland, was, that the Crown, had no right to grant the land to the Hudson's Bay Company." At that time an opinion was given by lawyers of the very highest eminence, who agreed in questioning the validity of the That opinion was signed by Sir Arthur Pigot, Mr. Brougham, and Mr. Spankie, and it contains the following pas charter. sage: "By the temporary Act of 2nd William and Mary, for confirming to the Governor and Company their privilege and trade, the duration of that confirmation is expressly limited to seven years, and to the end of the next Session of Parliament, and no longer. Part of the preamble to the Act is, in fact, a legislative declaration of the insufficiency of the charter for the purposes professed in it, without the authority of the Legislature, and which authority ceased entirely soon after the expiration of the seven years after that passed. * There are various clauses in the charter-particularly those empowering the Company to impose fines and penalties, to seize and confiscate goods and ships, and seize by arrest the persons of interlopers, and compel them to give security in 1,000l. which are altogether illegal, and were always so admitted." with the duties of government, and contended that the Parliamentary inquiries of 1749 and 1819 had proved that, whatever might be the professions of this Company, they had exhibited a total forgetfulness of those moral obligations which were connected with the functions of a Government. Nor did he believe them to have advanced the progress of religion or civilisation within their territories; what had been done was, he believed, mainly attributable to the religious societies of this country; and the conduct of the Company towards the Indians was alleged to have been oppressive. Memorials setting forth these facts were now lying in the Colonial Office. Such were the circumstances which had induced him to bring the matter under the consideration of the House. The noble Lord concluded by moving "For Copies of the Correspondence between the Government and the Hudson's Bay Company, and for other Papers relating to the Grant of Vancouver's Island to that Association." EARL GREY: I am very much indebted to my noble Friend for bringing this question before the House, because I find, from my noble Friend's speech, that he is entirely ignorant of the nature of the arrangement with the Hudson's Bay Company, and the grounds on which that arrangement was contemplated. I presume that my noble Friend, with all his acuteness and with all his research, has failed in acquiring a correct knowledge of the question. I am very glad to have this opportunity of explaining what really is intended to be done, and what are the intentions of the Government. speech, my noble Friend entered into the natural adantages of Vancouver's Island. I have no reason to controvert anything which he said upon that part of the case. On the contrary, it is because I believe that it is a most valuable possession, and that it is an island which it is of the utmost importance for the interests of this country to secure, that I venture to ask this House to approve what we have done. It is true, by right of treaty this country has been settled upon us; it is equally true that if this right were not acted upon, the practical right of the territory would become lost to us. It is abundantly evident from the symptoms which exist, that the land would become occupied with squatters, whom neither the Americans nor ourselves would be able to restrain, and in the course In the outset of his of a few years the practical possession of the sale of the land would have been the the island would become lost to the Eng-proper course. But if we do not choose to lish nation. I have lately been informed undertake that expense, the only course that there are a certain sect called Mor- that remains open to us is, to place some monites, who, having been forced to quit other authority over the territory, to make the United States, are thinking of moving them the trustees of the duties of the Goin a body, and setting themselves up in vernment, and to make them a grant of the Vancouver's Island. It is obvious, when land. I am persuaded that if this enteran eligible territory is left to lie waste, un-prise be well managed by the Hudson's subdued to the use of man, it is impossible Bay Company, it will only give them a fair to prevent persons from taking irregular return for the outlay of their capital. That possession of the land. We have found it it can do more is hardly possible. The impossible in all our dominions to restrain land at present is entirely valueless. No such persons. The Government of the matter how fine the soil, or however great United States will equally be unable to the natural advantages, when it lies unprevent such an occurrence, and unless the used or unoccupied by man, land is perisland is regularly settled and regularly fectly valueless. It is only by being settled colonised, it is quite certain that it will be that land becomes of value; and I am perirregularly colonised by squatters. This fectly persuaded that if this territory is ever being the state of the case, how is Van- so well managed by the Hudson's Bay couver's Island to be settled? If this Company, that they cannot realise more country had a very large surplus revenue than a moderate remuneration upon their free to be engaged in expensive under- outlay. The principle upon which they takings, it might have been very advan- will proceed will be this, they will sell tageous to have asked Parliament for a the land in retail-in small portions grant of 50,000l., to be followed up by to settlers, and the money thus obtainsucceeding grants of 20,000l. or 30,000l. ed must be devoted to the purposes of for several years to come; and without colonisation. This was the course pursued such a demand being assented to by Par- towards the New Zealand Company. They liament, it would have been utterly impos- obtained a grant of 1,000,000 of acres sible to have colonised the island. I be- which they disposed of to the settlers, aplieve no fact is better established than that plying the money so received to the exa large expenditure is necessary to colo- penses of colonisation. This is precisely nise a territory with any advantage. It is the arrangement which is made with the quite obvious under present circumstances Hudson's Bay Company. They have reit would be utterly unjustifiable to propose ceived a grant of land which is at present any such expenditure; therefore, either utterly valueless. The noble Lord drew a Vancouver's Island must have been left a distinction between the manner in which barren waste, without any measures being the grant of Labuan had been made to the taken to colonise it, or else some means Eastern Archipelago Company, and the must be found independent of Parlia- manner in which this grant had been made mentary assistance to make a settlement of Vancouver's Island. In Labuan the upon the island. How was this to be ac- Company had been made a present of a complished? I believe the only possible large tract of coal. The cases were difway was by entering into an arrangement ferent. Labuan was a settlement surwith the Hudson's Bay Company. They rounded by fully colonised districts, where undertake, in consideration of a grant of labour could be obtained in any quantity. I the land, to settle and colonise the island. had only two days ago an account from Sir I have no hesitation in saying I think that James Brooke that the contract for building this is a very advantageous arrangement. the Government house only amounted to My noble Friend says that it is a very 6501. Everybody will agree that it is the reckless one, and he alluded to a speech cheapest Government house that ever was of mine made some two years ago, where I built; and it is a very excellent house into expressed myself in favour of the principle the bargain. Labuan possesses the adof disposing of the land by sale and not by vantages of being surrounded by colonised grant. There is no inconsistency between districts-it has the advantage of being in that statement and the present policy of the vicinity of Singapore. Parliamentary the Government. If the Government was arrangements were made, and Her Magoing to meet the expense, and had dis-jesty's Government had asked Parliament posed of the land to settlers, undoubtedly for pecuniary assistance. When the colo |