course involves a far
heavier expense. Considering these things, no reasonable person can
surely find fault with us for preferring those who allow us to put
what construction we please on the moral law, and at the same time
oppose no obstacles to the advancement of our temporal interests.

And here I cannot but express my regret that our Protestant churches
should have so long neglected the cultivation of a field that promised
such rich harvests as the interior of America. The superstitions
of the aborigines scattered through the Hudson's Bay Company's
territories are so gross, and so inconsistent with unsophisticated
common sense; and their prejudices in favour of them have been so much
shaken by their intercourse with the gentlemen of the trading posts
and the other Europeans, whom they are accustomed to look up to as
beings of a superior race, that there could be but little difficulty
in removing what _remains_ of these prejudices; and thus one of the
greatest obstacles to the success of a Missionary in other parts of
the heathen world, can scarcely be said to exist among them.

The Church of England, it is true, has done a little, but she might
have done more--much more. Had the Missionaries at Red River exerted
themselves, from the time of their first arrival in the country, in
educating _natives_ as Missionaries, and sent them forth to preach
the Word, the pure doctrines of Christianity would, ere now, have been
widely disseminated through the land. But nothing of this kind has
been attempted: nor could it be attempted--now that I think of it--the
laying on of "the hands of a Bishop" being indispensable.

As to the diseased and infirm being frequently left at our posts in
winter, all I can say is, that I have never seen any such at any
of the posts I wintered at, or at any of the posts I visited; nor
is it likely that, when we ourselves depend on the natives for a
considerable part of our subsistence, we can do much to support them.
We support neither old nor young, diseased nor infirm--that is the
truth.

In the work above quoted I find the following paragraph relating to
the North-West Company.

"Although the rivalry of the North-West Company had the effect of
inspiriting and extending the trade; it was carried by them in many
respects beyond the legitimate limits, not scrupling at open violence
and bloodshed, in which Europeans and natives were alike sufferers."

The controversy between those rival comp