In the evening I went, by invitation, to Mr. Siveright’s at the North West House.  The party was numerous, embracing most of the officers of the American garrison, John Johnston, Esq., Mr. C.O.  Ermatinger, a resident who has accumulated a considerable property in trade, and others.  Conversation turned, as might have been expected, upon the topic of the Fur Trade, and the enterprising men who established, or led to the establishment of, the North West Company.  Todd, Mackenzie, and M’Gillvray were respectively described.  Todd was a merchant of Montreal, an Irishman by birth, who possessed enterprise, courage, address, and general information.  He paved the way for the establishment of the Company, and was one of the first partners, but died untimely.  He possessed great powers of memory.  His cousin, Don Andrew Todd, had the monopoly of the fur trade of Louisiana.

M’Gillvray possessed equal capacity for the trade with Todd, united to engaging, gentlemanly manners.  He introduced that feature in the Company which makes every clerk, at a certain time, a partner.  This first enabled them successfully to combat the Hudson’s Bay Company.  His passions, however, carried him too far, and he was sometimes unjust.

Sir Alexander Mackenzie was at variance with M’Gillvray, and they never spoke in each other’s praise.  Mackenzie commanded great respect from all classes, and possessed a dignity of manners and firmness of purpose which fitted him for great undertakings.  He established the X.Y.  Company, in opposition to the North West.

29th.  The days are still very short, the sun having but just passed the winter solstice.  We do not dine till four; Mr. Johnston, with whom I take my meals, observing this custom, and it is dark within the coming hour.  I remained to family worship in the evening.

30th.  Read the articles in the “Edinburgh Review” on Accum’s work on the adulteration of food, and Curran’s Life by his Son.  Accum, it is said, came to England as an adventurer.  By assiduity and attention, he became eminent as an operative chemist, and accumulated a fortune.  Curran was also of undistinguished parentage.  His mother, in youth, seems to have judged rightly of his future talents.

Mr. Johnston returned me “Walsh’s Appeal,” which he had read at my request, and expressed himself gratified at the ability with which the subject is handled.  Captain Clarke, an industrious reader on local and general subjects, had come in a short time before.  Conversation became general and animated.  European politics, Greece, Turkey, and Russia, the state of Ireland, radicalism in England, the unhappy variance between the king and queen, Charles Fox, &c., were successively the subjects of remark.  We adjourned to Mr. Johnston’s.

In the evening I went into my office and wrote to Mr. Calhoun, the Secretary of War, recommending Captain H.’s son William, for the appointment of a cadet in the Military Academy.[28]