There was the Company's weakness. No sovereign in Europe had a clearer right to his or her dominions, perhaps no rule was wiser or more beneficent, but the one powerful, indispensable adjunct to sovereign authority it lacked—a military system.[127] With a standing army the Company's rights would have been secure—but it was a king without soldiers. It required ten thousand drilled men to defend its frontiers—it was too late in the day to organize such a force, it could only submit gracefully to its envious and powerful neighbours. Cession was perhaps inevitable; the terms which Lord Granville now proposed it decided to accept.
1. The Hudson's Bay Company to surrender to Her Majesty all the rights of government, property, etc., in Rupert's Land, which are specified in 31 and 32 Victoria, clause 105, section 4; and also all similar rights in any other part of British North America, not comprised in Rupert's Land, Canada, or British Columbia.
2. Canada is to pay to the Company £300,000 when Rupert's Land is transferred to the Dominion of Canada.
3. The Company may, within twelve months of the surrender, select a block of land adjoining each of its stations, within the limits specified in Article 1.
4. The size of the blocks is not to exceed —— acres in the Red River country, nor 3,000 acres beyond that territory, and the aggregate extent of the blocks is not to exceed 50,000 acres.
5. So far as the configuration of the country admits, the blocks are to be in the shape of parallelograms, of which the length is not more than double the breadth.
6. The Hudson's Bay Company may, for fifty years after the surrender, claim in any township or district within the Fertile Belt, in which land is set out for settlement, grants of land not exceeding one-twentieth of the land so set out. The blocks so granted to be determined by lot, and the Hudson's Bay Company to pay a ratable share of the survey expenses, not exceeding —— an acre.
7. For the purpose of the present agreement, the Fertile Belt is to be bounded as follows: On the south by the United States Boundary; on the west by the Rocky Mountains; on the north by the northern branch of the Saskatchewan; on the east by Lake Winnipeg, the Lake of the Woods, and the waters connecting them.
8. All titles to land up to the 8th of March, 1869, conferred by the Company, are to be confirmed.
9. The Company to be at liberty to carry on its trade without hindrance, in its corporate capacity, and no exceptional tax is to be placed on the Company's land, trade or servants, nor an import duty on goods introduced by them previous to the surrender.