A result of this correspondence has been the definite refusal of the Crown to renew the exclusive license to trade in Indian territory.  The license had been twice granted to the Company, under an act of Parliament authorizing it, for periods of twenty-one years,—­once in 1821, and again in 1838.  It expired on the 30th of May, 1859.  In consequence of this refusal, the Company must depend exclusively upon the terms of their charter for their special privileges in British America.  The charter dates from 1670,—­a grant by Charles II. to Prince Rupert and his associates, “adventurers of England, trading into Hudson’s Bay,”—­and is claimed to give the right of exclusive trade and of territorial dominion to Hudson’s Bay and tributary rivers.  By the expiration of the exclusive license of Indian trade, and the termination in 1859 of the lease of Vancouver’s Island from the British government, the sway and influence of the Company are greatly restricted, and the feasibility of some permanent adjustment is proportionately increased.

There is no necessity for repeating here the voluminous argument for and against the charter of the Hudson’s Bay Company.  The interest of British colonization in Northwest America far transcends any technical inquiry of the kind, and the Canadian statesmen are wise in declining to relieve the English cabinet from the obligation to act definitely and speedily upon the subject.  The organization of the East India Company was no obstacle to a measure demanded by the honor of England and the welfare of India; and certainly the parchment of the Second Charles will not deter any deliberate expression by Parliament in regard to the colonization of Central British America.  Indeed, the managers of the Hudson’s Bay Company are always careful to recognize the probability of a compromise with the government.  The late letter of Mr. Barens to Lord Caernarvon expressed a willingness, at any time, to entertain proposals for the surrender of franchises or territory; and in 1848, Sir J.H.  Pelly, Governor of the Company, thus expressed himself in a letter to Lord Grey:—­“As far as I am concerned, (and I think the Company will concur, if any great national benefit would be expected from it,) I would be willing to relinquish the whole of the territory held under the charter on similar terms to those which it is proposed the East India Company shall receive on the expiration of their charter,—­namely, securing the proprietors an interest on their capital of ten per cent.”

At the adjournment of the Canadian Parliament and the retirement of the Derby Ministry, in the early part of 1859, the position and prospects of English colonization in Northwest America were as follows:—­

1.  Vancouver’s Island and British Columbia had passed from the occupation of the Hudson’s Bay Company into an efficient colonial organization.  The gold-fields of the interior had been ascertained to equal in productiveness, and greatly to exceed in extent, those of California.  The prospect for agriculture was no less favorable,—­while the commercial importance of Vancouver and the harbors of Puget’s Sound is unquestionable.