From No Merit Or Prevision
Of Theirs, A Happy And Profitable Transformation Has Been Made Of Their
Undertaking.
The individuals, as well as Canada as a State, and the
Empire, also, have gained largely.
The monopoly has been broken up,
under liberal and generous treatment of the monopolists - monopolists
who had deserved their monopoly by their able administration; and those
who ran the risk, paid the cost, and incurred the anxiety, neither
complain nor ask for the credit of their work. The merchant adventurer
trading to the Eastern Indies, and the merchant adventurer trading into
Hudson's Bay, each on his side of the world, has preserved vast
territories to the Crown and people of England. Their conquests have
cost the taxpayers of England nothing; while the trade and enterprise
they promoted have enriched millions, and have opened careers, often
brilliant, for men of courage and self denial, many of whose names will
go down to posterity in fame and honour.
The Hudson's Bay Company was constituted under a charter of Charles the
Second. That charter began thus: "Charles the Second, by the grace of
God King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the
Faith, to all to whom these presents shall come greeting:
"Whereas our dear intirely beloved cousin, Prince Rupert, Count
Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria and Cumberland; George Duke of
Albemarle, William Earl of Craven, Henry Lord Arlington, Anthony Lord
Ashley, Sir John Robinson, and Sir Robert Vyner, Knights and Baronets;
Sir Peter Colleton, Baronet, Sir Edward Hungerford, Knight of the Bath,
Sir Paul Neele, Sir John Griffith, Sir Philip Carteret, and Sir James
Hayes, Knights; John Kirke, Francis Millington, William Prettyman, John
Fenn, Esquires, and John Portman, citizen and goldsmith of London, have
at their own great costs and charges undertaken an expedition for
Hudson's Bay, in the Northwest parts of America, for the discovery of a
new passage into the South Sea, and for the finding of some trade for
furs, minerals, and other considerable commodities; and by such their
undertaking have already made such discoveries as do encourage them to
proceed farther in pursuance of their said design, by means whereof
there may probably arise great advantage to us and our kingdom:
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