them no western limits. Consequently the proclamation was regarded with
much disfavour by the English colonists on the Atlantic coast. No
provision was even made for the great territory which extended beyond
Nipissing as far as the Mississippi and included the basin of the great
lakes. It is easy to form the conclusion that the intention of the
British government was to restrain the ambition of the old English
colonies east of the Appalachian range, and to divide the immense
territory to their north-west at some future and convenient time into
several distinct and independent governments. No doubt the British
government also found it expedient for the time being to keep the
control of the fur-trade so far as possible in its own hands, and in
order to achieve this object it was necessary in the first place to
conciliate the Indian tribes, and not allow them to come in any way
under the jurisdiction of the chartered colonies. The proclamation
itself, in fact, laid down entirely new, and certainly equitable,
methods of dealing with the Indians within the limits of British
sovereignty. The governors of the old colonies were expressly forbidden
to grant authority to survey lands beyond the settled territorial limits
of their respective governments. No person was allowed to purchase land
directly from the Indians. The government itself thenceforth could alone
give a legal title to Indian lands, which must, in the first place, be
secured by treaty with the tribes that claimed to own them. This was the
beginning of that honest policy which has distinguished the relations of
England and Canada with the Indian nations for over a hundred years, and
which has obtained for the present Dominion the confidence and
friendship of the many thousand Indians, who roamed for many centuries
in Rupert's Land and in the Indian Territories where the Hudson's Bay
Company long enjoyed exclusive privileges of trade.

The language of the proclamation with respect to the government of the