Opening of Cairn on Point Victory which Contained the Record of the Franklin Expedition.
Discovery of Relics of Franklin Expedition.
Franklin was virtually the discoverer of the long-sought north-west passage, inasmuch as he had all but traversed the entire distance between Baffin's Bay and Bering's Strait.
The North-West Passage discovered at last.
Yet it should be observed that in 1853 Commander McClure, who was in charge of an Arctic expedition from the Pacific, was rescued near Melville Island by Sir Edward Belcher, who came from the side of the Atlantic, and both he and his ship's company returned to Europe via Baffin's Bay. Thus the secret of the north-west passage was disclosed at last. It was now known that a continuous passage by water existed between Baffin's Bay and Bering's Strait, and that was the last of the voyages undertaken for the purpose through Rupert's Land.
For ten years past the profits of the Company had already increased. In 1846, there were in its employ five hundred and thirteen articled men and thirty-five officers. It controlled a net-work of trading routes between its posts situated between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. In 1856 it had one hundred and fifty-two establishments under Governor Simpson's control, with sixteen chief factors and twenty-nine chief traders, assisted by five surgeons, eighty-seven clerks, sixty-seven postmasters, five hundred voyageurs and one thousand two hundred permanent servants, in addition to sailors on sea-going ships and other employees, numbering altogether above three thousand men.
Imperial Parliament appoints Select Committee.
At the beginning of 1857 the opponents of the Company were on the qui vive. They had at last succeeded in procuring a Select Committee of the Imperial House of Commons for the purpose of considering "the state of those British possessions in North America which are under the administration of the Hudson's Bay Company, or over which it possesses a license to trade." The committee was composed of the following persons: The Right Honourable Henry Labouchere (afterwards Lord Taunton), Sir John Pakingham, Lord John Russell, Mr. Gladstone, the Right Honourable Edward Ellice, Lord Stanley, Viscount Sandon, and Messrs. Lowe, Adderley, Roebuck, Grogan, Kinnaird, Blackburn, Charles Fitzwilliam, Gordon, Gurney, Bell and Percy Herbert. Evidence was taken from the 20th of February to the 9th of March, which comprised the first session of the committee. It sat again in May, and the examination of the numerous witnesses ended on the 23rd of June. Public interest was aroused, and the Company and its doings again became a standing topic at London dinner-tables. The Honourable Adventurers were again on their trial—would they come out of the ordeal as triumphantly as on the occasion of the previous great investigation a full century and a decade before? The list of witnesses comprised some of the best known names of the day. There were: Sir John Richardson, Rear Admiral Sir George Back, Dr. Rae, Chief Justice Draper of Canada, Sir George Simpson, Hon. John Ross, Lieut.-Colonel Lefroy, Lieut.-Colonel Caldwell, Bishop Anderson, Hon. Charles Fitzwilliam, Dr. King and Right Hon. Edward Ellice. At the second session Messrs. Gordon, Bell and Adderley retired, and Viscount Goderich, and Messrs. Matheson and Christy took their places. The first witness examined was the Honourable John Ross, then President of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. "It is complained," said he, "that the Hudson's Bay Company occupy that territory and prevent the extension of settlement and civilization in that part of the continent. I do not think they ought to be permitted to do that; but I think it would be a very great calamity if their control and power were entirely to cease. My reason for forming that opinion is this: during all the time that I have been able to observe their proceedings, there has been peace within the whole territory. The operations of the Company seem to have been carried on, at all events, in such a way as to prevent the Indian tribes within their borders from molesting the Canadian frontier; while, on the other hand, those who have turned their attention to that quarter of the world must have seen that, from Oregon to Florida, for these last thirty years or more, there has been a constant Indian war going on between the natives of American territory, on the one side, and the Indian tribes on the other. Now, I very much fear that if the occupation of the Hudson's Bay Company were to cease, our fate in Canada might be just what it is with Americans in the border settlements of their territory."