as the value of a territory bigger than Russia in Europe. Such a
company would have to raise additional capital of its own to modernize
its business, to improve the means of intercourse between its posts,
and to cheapen and expedite the transport to and fro of its
merchandise. I carefully described the nature of these changes and all
that they involved. The Duke seemed to favour this idea. Then I pointed
out that, if desired, a land company could be organized in England,
Canada, and the United States, which, on a similar principle of rental
and redemption, might take over the lands--leaving a reserve of
probably a fourth of the whole as the, unpaid for, property of the
Government--at the price of 700,000_l_. If these proposals
succeeded, then all the country would have to do was to lend
1,500,000_l_. on such security as could be offered, ample, in each
case, in my opinion. But I said it must be a condition, if these plans
were adopted, to erect the Hudson's Bay territory into a Crown Colony,
like British Columbia, and to govern it on the responsibility of the
Empire. I showed that this did not involve any large sum annually; and
that, as in the case of British Columbia, the loss would be turned into
a profit by sales of the one-fourth of the land to be given, in return
for the responsibilities, taken, to our country. Again, the cost of
government might be recouped by a moderate system of duties in and out
of the territory, to be agreed with Canada and British Columbia on the
one hand, and the United States on the other. This, in outline, was one
plan. The next was, to sell a portion of the territory to the United
States at the price, which I knew could be obtained, of a million. A
third plan which I suggested was, to open up portions of the "Fertile
belt" to colonization from the United States. To offer homes, in a
bracing, healthy country--with fertile lands and long waterways--to the
multitudes of men and women in Ohio, Kentucky, Maryland, and many other
States, who desired to flee from war and conflict; whose yearning was