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A DREAM OF EMPIRE
LORD SELKIRK'S first
visit to Montreal in 1803 was a notable event. As already mentioned,
having seen his body of Scottish emigrants settled in Prince Edward
Island he crossed to the United States to examine the problem of
settlement in the republic. Here he was distressed to see his
countrymen living under a foreign flag, and absorbing the spirit
hostile to the mother country so largely prevailing at that time
among the first generation of Americans. The thought came to his
mind of endeavouring to counterwork this loss to the empire. He was,
as we have seen, a man not easily overcome by difficulties, and he
bethought himself of the plan already described of founding
settlements in Upper Canada and inducing British subjects in the
United States to come to these. Some of the Baldoon settlers were
actually of this class.
Montreal was at this
time the centre of commercial life for Canada. The open mind of the
imaginative earl was greatly impressed by what he saw there. He saw
his own countrymen, the McTavishes, Mackenzies, McGillivrays,
Camerons, and the rest, the magnates of the fur trade and leaders in
the public life of Lower Canada. He saw at Ste. Anne and Lachine the
arrival and departure of the voyageurs in their canoes, going and
coming over a route hundreds of miles long to Grand Portage, the
depot on Lake Superior, and this but the introduction to a course
thousands of miles further inland to far distant Athabaska. There
was a sense of mystery connected with the many Indian tribes of
which he heard, and a romantic inspiration in the conception of the
rapids and waterfalls and portages of the little-known journey, and
in the spectacle of a few hundreds of white men governing a region
without law or military force, or even a respectable show of numbers
at any one point. All this appealed strongly to the mind of a man of
Selkirk's temperament. The impression made upon him was similar to
that expressed by Washington Irving in the opening chapter of
"Astoria," in which that writer speaks in his now well-known phrase
of the "Lords of the North."
The reception given
the noble earl by the successful traders of Montreal was distinctly
cordial and enthusiastic. His rank, his open-mindedness, and his
successful achievement in settling his and their countrymen in
Prince Edward Island were well known to them. Masson says of his
arrival: "Lord Selkirk was received with open arms in Montreal. His
reputation had preceded him, and all regarded it as an honour to be
allowed to entertain him. The bourgeois of the North-West Company,
who held the highest place in the English society of Montreal, and
among whom the Scottish element predominated, were the first to
offer him the abundant hospitality for which they were
distinguished."
The embodiment of the
fur traders' pride and position was the Beaver Club of Montreal. It
had been founded some twenty years before Lord Selkirk's visit with
less than twenty members, and could only receive new members from
officers who had endured the hardships of the interior of the fur
traders' country. The appointments of their club house were notable.
On their tables silver and glassware, of a kind unknown elsewhere in
Canada, shone with resplendent light at their feasts. Each member on
such occasions wore an elaborate gold medal bearing the motto,
"Fortitude in distress." Bear, beaver, pemmican, and venison were
served in the fashion of the Posts, song and dance gave
entertainment during the evening, and when wine brought exhilaration
in the early morning hours, partners, factors, and traders, in the
sight of all the servants or voyageurs who happened to gain
admittance, engaged in the "grand voyage" which consisted in all
seating themselves in a row on the rich carpet, each armed with
tongs, poker, sword, or walking stick to serve as paddle, and in
boisterous manner singing a voyageur's song, "Malbrouck " or "A la
Claire Fontaine," while they paddled as regularly as the excited
state of their nerves would allow.
Some parts of the
proceedings did not meet the taste of the philosophic and
high-minded earl, but the motto "in vino veritas" came to his mind,
and he was given a great opportunity of learning the spirit,
objects, and even details of the fur trade which he could have
obtained in no other way.
It is stated by
Masson that several of the bourgeois were suspicious while others
were surprised at the persistence with which Lord Selkirk pursued
his researches and investigations into the affairs of the fur trade.
It has often been stated by the advocates of the case of the
Nor'-Westers in the subsequent troubles of the fur trade, that Lord
Selkirk played an unworthy part in obtaining detailed information
about the fur trade, which he used to the disadvantage of the
Montreal company in after years. It has even been said that Lord
Selkirk returned to England completely decided to take advantage of
the information that he had thus obtained.
We can see no ground
for believing this to have been the case. Lord Selkirk's attention
arose from the same disposition that led him to interest himself in
the poor of his own country and of Ireland; in the question of
repatriation from the United States; in the condition of the
Indians; and in the defence of Britain from the dangers of a
Napoleonic invasion. Minds such as that of Lord Selkirk require
material for constant thought, and find satisfaction in discussing
such problems and planning useful enterprises. The enthusiasms of
such men have often been of the greatest value to the world.
The disproof of this
slur thrown upon the honour of Lord Selkirk, that he took advantage
of the hospitality of the Nor'-Westers to obtain private information
to be used in injuring their company, is seen in the fact that there
is no evidence that for the following seven years the subject of
gaining a hold of any portion of the fur traders' country for the
purposes of colonization occupied his mind. Even if the subject were
before his mind in those years, it seems very unlikely that he
planned any scheme which would not allow the Nor'-Westers freedom of
the vast territory which was sufficient for all their purposes.
As we have seen, philanthropic problems as to agriculture, the
condition of the poor, the safety of the country, and the spread of
civilization occupied his mind during these seven years. Lord
Selkirk's work on emigration, consisting of well-nigh three hundred
pages, discusses the state of the Highlands and the benefit of
emigration to the colonies, but gives no hint that at that time he
saw in the fur traders' land a field for emigration, or that envious
thoughts had any place in his mind. He was in no way interested in
the Hudson's Bay Company, and had no hostility to the Nor'-Westers.
By the year 1810 a
plan had matured in the mind of the Earl of Selkirk to help the poor
in his native land and to carry out a project magnificent in its
proportions and sufficient, if successfully executed, to relieve the
widespread distress. This we may call the founding of a great colony
in the interior of Rupert's Land—in other words the dream of a New
World empire.
It is not necessary
to suppose that any interest in the fur trade, for or against either
of the companies, had anything to do with this great project. It was
simply a comprehensive philanthropic scheme on the part of Lord
Selkirk to relieve distress in his native land. In it was involved
the ambition to succeed in so vast an enterprise.
As to the state of
England in the first decade of the nineteenth century there can be
no two opinions. A great English historian has said: "During the
fifteen years which preceded Waterloo, the number of the population
rose from ten to thirteen millions, and this rapid increase kept
down the rate of wages, which would naturally have advanced in a
corresponding degree with the increase in the national wealth. Even
manufactures, though destined in the long run to benefit the
labouring classes, seemed at first rather to depress them. While
labour was thus thrown out of its older grooves, and the rate of
wages kept down at an artificially low figure by the rapid increase
of population, the rise in the price of wheat, which brought wealth
to the landowner and the farmer, brought famine and death to the
poor, for England was cut off by the Napoleonic war from the vast
cornfields of the continent of America. Scarcity was followed by a
terrible pauperization of the labouring classes. The amount of the
poor rate rose fifty per cent.; and with the increase of poverty
followed its inevitable result, the increase of crime."
It was in 1809 that
the state of despair reached its worst, and the kind-hearted and
ingenious-minded earl was impelled to action. He began to consider
how, even though he should involve himself and his estate in heavy
financial obligations, he might assist his Highland
fellow-countrymen, whose traditions and associations he admired.
Judged by the hard canons of finance we can see that he was
projecting a very unlikely and doubtful enterprise; but to the earl
with his deep sympathy and somewhat too vivid imagination it seemed
feasible. Whatever the leading motive which dictated his course, it
was certainly neither a partizan nor a sordid one.
With the remarkable
caution that was united with his spirit of enterprise, he sought to
know the legal basis on which the Hudson's Bay Company founded its
title. In view of the importance which afterwards became attached to
the legal question involved, it may be well to give the opinion of
five distinguished English lawyers to whom the question was
submitted.
"We are of opinion
that the grant of the soil contained in the Charter (H. B. Co.'s
Charter, of 1670) is good, and that it will include all the country,
the waters of which run into Hudson Bay, as ascertained by
geographical observations.
"We are of opinion
that an individual, holding from the Hudson's Bay Company a lease,
or grant in fee simple of any part of their territory, will be
entitled to all the ordinary rights of landed property in England,
and will be entitled to prevent other persons from occupying any
part of the lands, from cutting down timber, and fishing in the
adjoining waters (being such as a private right of fishing may
subsist in), and may (if he can peaceably or otherwise by due course
of law) dispossess them of any buildings which they have recently
erected within the limits of their property.
"We are of opinion
that the grant of the civil and criminal jurisdiction is valid, but
it is not granted to the company, but to the government and council
at their respective establishments; but we cannot recommend it to be
exercised so as to affect the lives or limbs of criminals. It is to
be exercised by the governor and council as judges, who are to
proceed according to the law of England.
"The company may
appoint a sheriff to execute judgments, and to do his duty as in
England.
"'We are of opinion
that the sheriff, in case of resistance to his authority, may
collect the population to his assistance, and may put arms into the
hands of his servants for defence against attack, and to assist in
enforcing the judgments of the court; but such powers cannot be
exercised with too much circumspection.
"We are of opinion
that all persons will be subject to the jurisdiction of the court
who reside, or are found within the territories over which it
extends.
"We do not think the
Canada Jurisdiction Act (43. Geo. III.) gives jurisdiction within
the territories of the Hudson's Bay Company, the same being within
the ,jurisdiction of their own governors and councils.
"We are of opinion
that the governor (in Hudson Bay) might, under the authority of the
company, appoint constables and other officers for the preservation
of the peace, and that the officers so appointed would have the same
duties and privileges as the same officers in England, so far as
these duties and privileges may be applicable to their situation in
the territories of the company.
(Signed)
"Samuel Romilly
"G.S. Holroyd
"W.M. Cruise
"J. Scarlett
"John Bell
The report of these
prominent lawyers gave Lord Selkirk his warrant for proceeding with
his scheme. This was nothing else than obtaining, by purchase of its
stock, a controlling interest in the Hudson's Bay Company. In the
year 1810 he and his friends succeeded in purchasing a large
quantity of the stock of the Hudson's Bay Company, and by May, 1811,
they owned £35,000 out of a total of £105,000.
The general court of
the proprietors was called together for a meeting on May 30th, and
the decision arrived at was of momentous interest not only to Lord
Selkirk, but to the North-West Company, to the Hudson's Bay Company,
and to British interests in the whole fur country of Rupert's Land,
the Indian territories, and even in Canada. About £45,000 worth of
stock was represented at the meeting. Nearly £80,000 of this amount
was in the hands of Lord Selkirk and his friends. Such well-known
Hudson's Bay Company names as Wedderburn, Mainwaring, Berens, and
Pelly are chronicled in the minutes as on Lord Selkirk's side, while
of the opponents Thwaytes and Whitehead owned £13,000, while three
Nor'-Westers, who had purchased their stock within forty-eight hours
of the time of the meeting, opposed the majority. These were
Alexander Mackenzie, John Inglis, and Edward Ellice, and they
together held £2,500 of stock.
The proposition Lord
Selkirk made to the company was a great and important one. It was
for the purchase of a tract of land in Rupert's Land lying east and
west of the Red River of the North, and it involved the obligation
on the part of the earl to settle, within a limited time, a large
colony on the lands acquired, and the assumption of the expense of
transport, of outlay for the settlers, of government, of protection,
and of quieting the Indian title to the lands.
The die was now cast.
A territory consisting of some one hundred and ten thousand square
miles, a region larger than Manitoba, was possessed by one man. He
was a determined enthusiast who would imperil his estates and all
his means for the furtherance of his project. He would beat down
opposition, whether from the British government, the jealousy of the
fur-trading section of the Hudson's Bay Company, or the bitter
animosity of the North-West Company which considered the scheme one
deliberately aimed at its influence, if not at its very existence. |
