CHAPTER XXXV.
1863-1871.
Indignation of the Wintering Partners—Distrust and Misgivings Arise—Proposals of Governor Dallas for the Compensation of the Wintering Partners in Exchange for their Abrogation of Deed Poll—Threatened Deadlock—Position of those in Authority Rendered Untenable—Failure of Duke of Newcastle's Proposals for Surrender of Territorial Rights—The Russo-American Alaskan Treaty—The Hon. W. McDougall's Resolutions—Deputation Goes to England—Sir Stafford Northcote becomes Governor—Opinion of Lord Granville as to the Position of Affairs—Lack of Military System Company's Weakness—Cession now Inevitable—Terms Suggested by Lord Granville Accepted—First Riel Rebellion—Wolseley at Fort Garry.
All this had taken place in London. The sale had been negotiated between financiers. Not a word of what was impending had crossed the Atlantic to the hunting-grounds of the North-West—to the body of men who were, as much as the Governor, the Committee and the sleeping partners, members of the Great Company. Yet their voice had never been heard, nor their consent to the transaction obtained. By the Deed Poll it was provided that the profits of the fur-trade (less interest on capital employed) were to be divided into one hundred parts, sixty parts going to the stockholders and forty to the "wintering partners." What would the "wintering partners" say to this brilliant "game of chess" which had been played with the stockholders for interests which were jointly theirs?
Indignation of the Wintering Partners.
No sooner had the papers been signed, and the million and a half sterling paid over, than misgivings seem to have seized the minds of those directly interested. Yet, on their behalf, it was urged that the Company's posts and hunting grounds still remained. That the factors and traders would be as well off under the new régime as the old—that the mere change of one body of shareholders for another could affect them nothing—that, in fact, they would really benefit by having men of newer ideas and a more progressive spirit.
The news, once in the newspapers, travelled fast, and in a few weeks at the less distant posts, and in a few months at the more remote ones, the rumour ran that the Company had sold out—that the London partners had betrayed the real workers in the wilderness.
Fort Garry.
A large number of the Company's chief factors and traders had, it appeared, addressed a memorial to the Company in London, when first the rumour of a sale had reached them. They declared that they had been informed that no transfer was probable, but if it took place it would not be without previous consultation. They now learned for the first time from the newspapers that these arrangements had been made. An influential member of the new Company predicted that a general resignation of the officers from Labrador to Sitka would ensue, followed by a confederation amongst themselves, in order to carry on the fur-trade in competition with the Company. They had, they said, "the skill, the will, and the capital to do it."