CONTENTS. Page Of the Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company, in respect to the recognition which it has received Of the Results of the Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company, as affecting the Int rests of the DEDICATORY LETTER TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, M.P., SIR, &c. &c. WHEN a work appears from the pen of an able advocate, containing an elaborate reply to all the charges which have been made against his clients, written under the manifest patronage of the highest authority, and in the enjoyment of all the information which such patronage alone can supply, there is one very satisfactory light in which to view such a publication,-viz., that we are at last in possession of the whole defence which can be made. For this reason, those who doubted the expediency of granting Vancouver's Island to the Hudson's Bay Company, hailed with pleasure the appearance of the book which has lately been published, under the name of Mr. R. Montgomery Martin, entitled, "The Hudson's Bay Company's Territories and Vancouver's Island;" because they could not regard it as other than a statement, by authority, of all the grounds upon which the character of that Company, and the policy of the Colonial Minister respecting it, are to be defended. It seemed right, however, that the statements put forward by Mr. M. Martin should not be allowed to remain unanswered. I have therefore thrown together, in the following pages, those facts and arguments which appear to cast discredit upon such statements; and I have arranged them in that order which seemed to me clear and logical, in several chapters, as follows: I. A statement of recent occurrences in connection with the discussion of this question. |