city of San Francisco of 1,000 acres, and sold it just before the gold
discoveries for 1,000_l_., because two factors quarrelled over it.
I learnt a great deal of the inside of the affair, and got some
glimpses of the competing "North West" Company, amalgamated by Mr.
Edward Ellice, its chief mover, many years agone with the Hudson's Bay
Company. Pointing to some boxes in his private room one day, Mr.
Maynard said: "There are years of Chancery in those boxes, if anyone
else had them." And he more than once quoted a phrase of the "old
bear": "My fortune came late in life."

On the 8th May I went to see the Duke. He was very ill; but his
interest in the Hudson's Bay purchase was unabated. I saw him again on
the 15th, and wrote a letter to the Hudson's Bay Company. On the 19th
Mr. Maynard told me that the Hudson's Bay Court were meeting that day
to reply to my letter. The reply came on the 21st, and was "nearly what
we wished."

Owing to the Duke's illness, and to some secret difficulty which he
never enlightened me upon, I was given to understand, after a short,
but anxious delay, that any purchase must be carried out by private
resources; but all sorts of moral support would be at our service. What
good was moral support in providing a million and a half? What was to
be done? There were only two ways: one, to make a list of fifteen
persons who would each take a "line" of a hundred thousand pounds for
himself and such friends as he chose to associate with him; the other,
to hand the proposed purchase over to the just founded International
Financial Association, who were looking out for some important project
to lay before the public.

Leaving out Mr. Baring and Mr. Glyn (senr.) we had a strong body of