er some shrewd thinking Lord Selkirk decided to throw in his lot
with the Hudson's Bay Company. Why he did this will subsequently
appear. At first, one might have judged the step unwise. The
financiers of London believed that the company was drifting into deep
water. When the books were made up for 1808, there were no funds
available for dividends, and bankruptcy seemed {29} inevitable. Any
one who owned a share of Hudson's Bay stock found that it had not
earned him a sixpence during that year. The company's business was
being cut down by the operations of its aggressive rival. The chief
cause, however, of the company's financial plight was not the trade war
in America, but the European war, which had dealt a heavy blow to
British commerce. Napoleon had found himself unable to land his army
in England, but he had other means of striking. In 1806 he issued the
famous Berlin Decree, declaring that no other country should trade with
his greatest enemy. Dealers had been wont to come every year to London
from Germany, France, and Russia, in order to purchase the fine skins
which the Hudson's Bay Company could supply. Now that this trade was
lost to the company, the profits disappeared. For three seasons bale
after bale of unsold peltry had been stacked to the rafters of the
London warehouse.

The Earl of Selkirk was a practical man; and, seeing the plight of the
Hudson's Bay Company, he was tempted to take advantage of the situation
to further his plans of emigration. Like a genuine lord of Galloway,
however, he proceeded with extreme caution. His {30} initial move was
to get the best possible legal advice regarding the validity of the
company's royal charter. Five of the foremost lawyers in the land were
asked for their opinion upon this matter. Chief of those who were
approached was Sir Samuel Romilly, the friend of Bentham and of
Mirabeau. The other four were George Holroyd and James Scarlet, both
distinguished pleaders, and William Cruise and John Bell. The finding
of these lawyers put the question out of doubt. The charter, they
said, was flawless. Of all the lands which were drained by the many
rivers running into Hudson Bay, the company was the sole proprietor.
Within these limits it could appoint sheriffs and bring law-breakers to
trial. Besides, there was nothing to prevent it from granting to any
one in fee-simple tracts of land in its vast domain.

Having satisfied himself that the charter of