§ MR. GLADSTONEwished to give notice of his intentions with respect to some papers recently laid upon the table of the House referring to the proceedings of the 638 Hudson's Bay Company. The House would recollect that an address had been already laid before the Crown, calling upon Her Majesty to take measures for discovering the legality or illegality of the rights claimed by the Hudson's Bay Company over the vast territories possessed by them. Papers had been presented a few clays ago to the House, by which it appeared that the course taken by the noble Earl the Secretary for the Colonies in the matter had been this: He had called upon the Hudson's Bay Company to state their case; that case he submitted to the law officers of the Crown, and having received their opinion on the case—that was to say, the case of the Hudson's Bay Company, drawn up by itself and for itself—the noble Earl had despatched a letter to a young gentleman who had recently arrived from America in this country for the purpose of his education, and who was without any other means than those actually requisite for his own support—to inform him that he might, if lie thought fit, prosecute a petition against the Hudson's Bay Company at his own proper costs and charges. On the young gentleman's declaring that he could undertake no such task, the matter, if he (Mr. Gladstone) might judge from the papers, appeared to have fallen to the ground. On the presumption, then, that the proceeding had thus terminated, he wished to give notice that—if he were correct in his supposition—believing in that case that the noble Earl the Colonial Secretary had most grossly neglected his duty—he should, at the earliest possible period next Session, call the attention of the House to the whole proceeding. He might add, that he was only precluded from immediately proceeding with the matter by the advanced state of the Session, and the difficulty of securing a proper discussion for such a subject.
§ LORD J. RUSSELLhad not had his attention called to the subject lately. In the last communication he had with his noble Friend the Secretary of State, he said he was taking measures to ascertain the matter with a view to which the address was presented. However, he would communicate with his noble Friend on the matter.
§ MR. HUMEthought that it was the bounden duty of the Government to prevent great companies like the Hudson's Bay Company from tyrannising over and setting at nought the rights of individual subjects.