And With A Desire To
Avoid Similar Complaints, I Do Not Propose To Make Any Charge Whatever
For My Own Expenses, Or, If I May Be Excused The Word, Services, In
Connection With The Mission I Have Had To Undertake.
That mission,
however, cannot go without explanation, for I am anxious to avoid all
misconception now, or hereafter, and I desire, therefore, by a frank
statement, at once to court contradiction, should it be merited.
"Having had much to do with the discussions which led to the transfer
of the Hudson's Bay Company's property, I had expressed my willingness,
inconvenient as it must be to me, to act as a member of a proposed
commission of three, including Captain Glyn, R.N., and Captain Synge,
R.E., whose duty would be to investigate the position of the
undertaking at its head establishment, - to report upon the re-
organization of its business, the development of its mineral resources,
the settlement of portions of its territory as a new colony, and the
opening up of the country by the telegraph and by means of transit.
Captain Glyn and Captain Synge had both been consulted, and the Duke of
Newcastle had been applied to to obtain leave for Captain Synge at the
War Office. I had been led to believe that my services were considered
of some value, and I left England on the 20th June, expecting that
Captain Glyn and Captain Synge would follow me in a week, and that we
should at once proceed to Red River, and send home a first, but full,
report by the beginning of October. I understood also that such a
report was desired, to clear away any objections to the operations of
the re-organized Company which might be factiously raised. And when,
after my arrival in Canada, I received the prospectus with your name as
Governor of the Company at its head, I found a condition of that
document to be that I was to examine and report and advise generally,
in concert with other gentlemen, specially qualified for the duty, not
only upon the question of telegraphic and postal communication, but
also as to the other objects proposed in the scheme officially laid
before the public.
"Before leaving England, I repeatedly pressed the necessity of
communicating with the Governor and 'wintering partners' of the Company
in America, so that they should not hear of the transfer of the
property for the first time from the newspapers; and I expected to be
specially authorized to give the needful information and assurances. I
was no party, I beg to say, to this mention of my name in the
prospectus; but my friends and business connections who may have taken
shares on the faith of my name, will naturally hold me responsible
accordingly. Still, anxious to witness the success of a project which,
energetically managed, is so intrinsically sound, I refrained from
writing to you to decline the responsibility, hoping that the original
plan of delegation, though delayed, would be carried out. That plan, I
must observe, involved not a mere commission of engineers to explore
the route for a telegraph to Jasper House, as assumed in the
Secretary's letter of the 13th inst., but far wider objects, the
realization of which would, I venture to think, have given satisfaction
at home, and have dissipated many misconceptions, now existing,
inimical to the interests of the new proprietary.
"Your letter to me of the 6th July did not reach me till the 20th, and
in the meantime the newspaper notices in England led to many official
and unofficial inquiries from me, involving difficulty of answer. I
found, in fact, that the staff of the Hudson's Bay Company was quite at
fault, and that public men in Canada misunderstood the objects of the
new organization, for want of information very simple in its nature,
but which - except so far as the prospectus authorized me - I had no
right to supply.
"Several of the Hudson's Bay Company's chief factors and traders had,
it appeared, addressed a memorial to the then Governor and Committee,
some months ago, upon the rumoured sale of the property, and had been,
as stated to me, informed that no transfer was likely to take place, or
would in fact be undertaken without previous consultation; and yet
these gentlemen learnt for the first time from the public papers that
new arrangements had been made. It was not unnatural, therefore,
considering the relations of these gentlemen with the Company, that
they should feel much annoyed; nor was it, perhaps, surprising that an
influential member of the body should have predicted a general
resignation of the factors 'from Labrador to Sitka,' followed by a
confederation amongst them, in order to carry on the fur trade in
competition with the Hudson's Bay Company, they possessing, as was
said, 'the skill, the will, and the capital to do it.'
"The appearance of Mr. Lampson's name as Deputy-Governor, in the
absence of any prior explanation, aggravated the first feeling of
distrust; for it was said that he and his connections had been, and
then were, the Company's great, and often successful, rivals in the fur
trade, carrying on a vigorous competition at all accessible points.
"The arrival of Governor Dallas at Montreal some days before my receipt
of your letter of the 6th July, enabled these misconceptions to be
dealt with; and the issue of a circular by the Governor, together with
many personal explanations, and some firmness on the part of Mr.
Dallas, will, I trust, very soon remove the want of confidence and
dissatisfaction on the part of the staff, which at first looked
threatening. These explanations, of course, took time, and rendered the
Governor's presence in Canada necessary.
"Governor Dallas and myself made various opportunities of meeting
members of the present and of the late Government of Canada, and of
talking over the subject of the North-west, and of its organization and
government; and I feel convinced that these unofficial discussions were
of considerable use, and may help to prevent antagonism and territorial
claims on the part of Canada, which, in my opinion, might be very
embarrassing, and ought to be foreseen and avoided.
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