as stirring. The expiry of certain trading privileges granted to the
Hudson's Bay Company in 1838 offered the occasion for an inquiry by a
committee of the Imperial House of Commons into the claims of the
company to the immense region associated with its name. The Canadian
Government accepted an invitation to be represented at this
investigation, and in the early part of the year 1857 dispatched to
England Chief Justice Draper as commissioner. The committee, which
included such eminent persons as Lord John Russell, Lord Derby, and Mr
Gladstone, reported to the effect that terms should be agreed upon
between the company and the Imperial and Canadian governments, in order
that the territory might be made available for settlement; but no
further steps were then taken. The question was not to be settled
until some years later.

About the same time certain adventurous spirits approached the Canadian
Government with a suggestion to build a railway across {50} the
prairies and through the Rocky mountains to the Pacific ocean. From
Sir John Macdonald's papers it appears that a proposal of this nature
was made to him in the early part of 1858. There is a letter addressed
to Macdonald, dated at Kingston in January of that year, and signed
'Walter R. Jones.' In the light of subsequent events this letter is
interesting. The writer suggests that the time has arrived to organize
a company to build a railway 'through British American territory to the
Pacific.' It would be some years, of course, before such a company
could actually begin the work of construction; therefore action should
begin at once. Nothing will be gained by delay, the writer points out;
and if Canada does not seize the golden opportunity, it is probable
that the United States will be first in the field with such a railway,
'as they are fully alive to the great benefit it would be to them, not
only locally, but as a highway from Europe to China, India, and
Australia.' This would greatly lessen the value of a Canadian and
British railway, and would cause the enterprise to 'be delayed or
entirely abandoned.' Thus Canada would lose, not only the through
traffic and business of the railway, but also the {51} opportunity to
open up the Great West to settlers, 'which of itself would be a great
boon to Canada.'

The letter proceeds to say that, as the claims of the Hudson's Bay
Company to the lands of the West are shortly to be extinguished, the
railway compan