certain capitalists, the founders of the Stop
the Way Company, for a good round sum in
hard cash, upon certain conditions.

What those conditions were; how far they
have been fulfilled; of what those territories
consisted; and, to what extent the Company
have succeeded in maintaining the integrity
of their No Thoroughfare, it will be now our
endeavour to show, as well as existing records
will enable us.

The charter under which the Hudson's
Bay Company hold their territories and
exercise their monopoly of the fur trade, derives
additional interest from its intimate connection
with the attempts at the discovery of the
north-west passage, as well as with the origin
of the premium offered to successful navigators
in those dangerous seas. The preamble of the
charter runs as follows: "Whereas certain
parties have, at their own cost and charges,
undertaken an expedition for Hudson's Bay
in the north-west part of America, for the
discovery of a new passage into the South
Sea, and for finding some trade for furs,
minerals, and other considerable commodities,
&c., now, know ye, that we, being
desirous to promote all endeavours tending
to the public good of our people, and to
encourage the said design, have" &c. The
charter then goes on to grant to the Company,
in consideration of their making attempts
for the discovery of the said north-west
passage, the privilege of exclusive
trade throughout certain territories which
it pretends to describe in very vague and
unsatisfactory language, and which it calls
Rupert's Land: also the property and lordship
of the soil of the said Rupert's Land;
together with the privilege of exclusive trade
with all countries into which the Company
might find access by land or water, out of
Rupert's Land.

It is not our intention to discuss the construction
placed on the Royal charter, which
thus dealt so freely with, not thousands,
but three millions of square miles of
territory, nor to inquire into the intention of
the language employed in endeavouring to
lay down the boundaries of this Company's
territorial and trading rights. These questions,
not less than the validity of the charter
itself—which does not appear to have received
the sanction of the Legislature at the period
of the grant—will, it is understood, form matter
for Parliamentary inquiry. Let us rather
examine the vast tract of country which forms
the subject of these remarks, and ascertain
what are its capabilities and at the same time
learn if the great object, "the public good,"
for which it was made over to the Company,
has been attained.

The Directors, it would appear, have construed
"the public good" to mean their own
"private gain;" and no body of men have ever
pursued any definite object through a period
of two hundred years, with more watchful, unflagging
zeal, than have this Company. The
enormous profits realized by the fur trade,
the ease with which it was kept up, the small
capital required, were inducements sufficient
to make them not only not attempt to open
up any other resources of the country, but
actually to interdict any effort of the kind.
With this view ever before them, it has been
their endeavour to paint the territories, over
which they exercise sovereign rule, as barren,
uninhabitable, and profitless; fitted only for
the abode of the wild animals in whose skins
they traded, and of the equally savage natives
who trapped them.

Unfortunately, however, for this policy, one
or two gentlemen in their employment, as
well as one of their own governors, Sir
George Simpson, took a fancy to travel
through these sterile, useless wilds; and,
what is more to the purpose, resolved to
publish the results of their observations.
From the journals of these officials, and from
the notes of some few other chance travellers
who have broken through the Stopped Way,
we are able to present a tolerably detailed
sketch of this enormous tract of private
continent.

If the reader will open before him a map
of North America of any recent date he will
observe a line drawn across it, from east to
west, in the latitude of forty-nine degrees
North. This forms the boundary between
the British territories and those of the United
States. Of the former vast tract, it will be
readily perceived how small is the portion
included in the boundaries of Canada as compared
with the remainder. It is indeed but
a narrow slip of it—little more than a south-westerly
crust. Canada is nevertheless a
large country, for it contains about four hundred
thousand square miles. The shape of
the remainder of the huge northern private
continent is very irregular. We will not go
into any very nice calculations, but call it
in round numbers three millions of square
miles, or about the extent of the great Australian
continent.

A certain portion, or, we should rather say,
a very uncertain portion of this northern
country is denominated Rupert's Land, or
Hudson's Bay Territory. Geopraphers have
differed as to the limits of this land quite
as much as certain persons once did in
regard to the colour of a certain chameleon.
Some amongst them wiser than the rest
hazard no particular limit—they content
themselves with inserting the name, and
leave the imagination of the reader to define
the boundary-line.

It would be in vain to consult the Company's
charter. Its vague language may be
made to signify anything clever lawyers
choose. Some aver that the Company's territorial
rights extend round Hudson's Bay in
a horseshoe form for several hundreds of miles,
in the latitude of fifty-eight degrees north,
extending as far as the Rocky Mountains,
and thence running south as far as the