41
up in order to blind the public to the real character of that system of iniquity which prevailed over the whole continent of North America, under the sway of the Hudson's Bay Company." Our British author, page 17, charges the company with having an American policy as "a matter of suspicion," and says: "It is very easy to say these are idle tales; they are tales, but such tales as parliament ought to make a searching investigation into their truth."
On the 18th page, he discards the validity of the American testimony, on personal grounds, as favorable to the company, and also that of the bishop of Montreal, claiming that he only went to the Selkirk settlement and saw nothing beyond. He also gives us to understand the full cause of his convictions, and says: "A corporation, who, under the authority of a charter which is invalid in law, hold a monopoly in commerce and exercise a despotism in govern ment, and has so used that monopoly and wielded that power as to shut up the earth from the knowledge of man and man from the knowledge of God."
THE MISSIONARY INFLUENCE.
Will the Hon. Mrs. Victor and the Hon. Mr. Evans claim further testimony to show the character of a company that in Oregon, up to 1834 or 1836, had held absolute control over a country that by the influence of two little missionary bands, in a few years, could drive them out of it, and change it from a savage to a civilized people?
The Hon. Mrs. Victor, in her "River of the West," page 274, has given us, from her pen, a most apt picture, to show us how it was accomplished, and has sarcastically named it, "The Missionary Wedge." It is due at this time to say of that woman that she, like Hon. Mr. Evans, has apparently withdrawn, and now attempts to prove a truth a falsehood, which our British author and prime minister deemed important enough for parliamentary investigation.
The result of that "missionary wedge," and investigation, has taken from the Hudson's Bay Company half of its Indian dominion. To whom must we look for cause? Certainly not to the beaver trappers, hunters, traders, casual sailors, nor diplomatists, as the two great countries did not settle it till eleven and one-half months be fore the Whitman massacre, and at that time there were in the country five hundred men brave enough to overcome the savage element, and as many more to defend the homes of the American settlers. Such as claimed to belong to the "King George party"
