_The Right Honorable Edward Ellice, M.P._
I have alluded to this remarkable man under the soubriquet attached to
him for a generation--"the old Bear." I assume that when his son, who
for many years represented the Scotch constituency of the St. Andrews
Burghs, grew up, the father became the "old" and the son the "young"
Bear. Mr. Ellice was the son of Mr. Alexander Ellice, an eminent
merchant in the City of London. Born, if the "Annual Register" be
accurate, in 1789, he died at the end of 1863. It is strange that he
began life by uniting the Canadian fur trade with that of the Hudson's
Bay Company, and just lived long enough to witness the sale and
transfer of the interests he had, by a bold and masterly policy,
combined in 1820. Leaving Canada, Mr. Ellice joined the Whig party, and
was returned to Parliament for Coventry in 1818; and, with the
exception of the period from 1826 to 1830, he retained his seat till
the day of his death. Marrying the youngest sister of Earl Grey, of the
Reform Bill--the widow of Captain Bettesworth, R.N.--who died in 1832,
leaving him an only son; and, in 1843, the widow of Mr. Coke, of
Norfolk, he became intimately connected with the Whig aristocracy.
In Mr. Ellice's evidence before the Parliamentary Committee of 1857, on
the Hudson's Bay Company, I find that, in answer to a question put by
Mr. Christy, M.P., as to the probability of a "settlement being made
within what you consider to be the Southern territories of the Hudson's
Bay Company?"--he replied, "None, in the lifetime of the youngest man
now alive." Events have proved his error. Mr. Ellice was a man of
commanding stature and presence, but, to my mind, had always the
demeanour of a colonist who had had to wrestle with the hardships of
nature, and his cast of countenance was Jewish. According to his own
account, he went out to Canada in 1803, when he must have been a mere
youth, and then personally associated himself with the fur trade, a
trade which attracted the attention of almost the whole Canadian
society. It was, in fact, at that time, the great trade of the country.
The traders had inherited the skill and organization of the old French
voyageurs, who, working from Quebec and Montreal as bases of their
operations, were the doughty competitors of the Hudson's Bay Company,
many of whose posts were only separated by distances of a hundred miles
from those of the French. When Canada became the possession of our
country, in the last century, Scotch and English capital and energy
reinforced the trade; and, as time went on, a powerful organization,
called the "North-West Company," arose, and extended its operations
right across to the Pacific.
At the end of the last century, or the beginning of this, Mr. Ellice's
father, as Mr. Ellice stated, "had supplied a great part of the capital
by which the whole north-west trade was conducted." Profitable trading
brought division of interests; and, in addition to smaller swarms from
the parent hive, a new organization, called the "X. Y. Company," or
"Sir Alexander Mackenzie and Company," carried on trade in competition
with the original "North-West Company of Canada." Mr. Ellice became
connected with this "X. Y. Company" in 1805. The leading spirit of the
North-West Company was Mr. McGillivray: and Mr. McGillivray and Mr.
Ellice were, as a rule, cordial allies. Two leading firms engaged in
the fur trade were McTavish, Fraser & Co., and Inglis, Ellice & Co.
Competition raged amongst these Canadian interests, and between them
and the Hudson's Bay Company, whose affairs were administered from
England. The business was carried on, therefore, with great
extravagance. The Indians were tempted and corrupted by strong drink.
Frequent collisions took place between the Indians and the whites, and
everything grew worse till 1811. In 1811 Lord Selkirk joined the
Hudson's Bay Company. He became not only a stockholder in the Company,
but took great interest in the trade; and he was the proprietor of a
large tract of territory on the Red River, acquired from the Hudson's
Bay Company under a deed dated 12th June, 1811. In this territory, he
made settlements for the purposes of agriculture.
The conflict of interests between the Canadian fur traders and the
Hudson's Bay Company became more and more violent, and ended in
bloodshed. Finally Lord Selkirk, in virtue of his assumed powers as a
magistrate, seized Mr. McGillivray, of the North-West Company, at Fort
William, at the head of Lake Superior, and the whole of his property.
The confusion and outrage became so great that Canada became alarmed,
and a Mr. Coltman was sent up as Commissioner. Mr. Coltman reported,
and made a recommendation that, to restore peace and order, some
attempt should be made to unite the interests of the various fur
traders in the country. In the meantime the Hudson's Bay Company ceased
to pay dividends, and the other companies were almost bankrupt. At this
moment Mr. Ellice, by great tact, and force of will, succeeded in
uniting all the conflicting combinations; and from that time onwards
the fur trade has been carried on under the Charter of the Hudson's Bay
Company, extended by licenses, from time to time renewed, of exclusive
trade in the North-West and in the Pacific States, including
Vancouver's Island. Out of these fusions arose the Puget Sound Company,
created to utilise, cultivate, and colonise the Pacific territories,
over which licenses to trade had been given to the Hudson's Bay
Company.
The vigorous action of the united interests soon told upon the trade
and discipline of the vast area hunted and traded over. The Indians
were brought back to tea and water in place of rum and brandy; and
peace was restored, everywhere, between the white man and the red. The
epidemics of small pox, which had at times decimated whole tribes of
Indians, were got rid of by the introduction of vaccination.
Settlement, if only on a small scale, was encouraged by the security of
life and property. The enlargement of their action, as issuers of notes
and as bankers aided the trade and the colonists; and so good was a
Hudson's Bay Company's note that it was taken everywhere over the
northern continent, when the "Shin Plasters" of banks in the United
States and Canada were refused. When, for a short time, in 1865 and
1866, I held the office of shareholders' auditor of the Hudson's Bay
Company, I cancelled many of these notes, which had become defaced,
mainly owing to the fingering of Indians and others, who left behind on
the thick yellow paper coatings of "Pemmican,"--the pounded flesh and
fat of the buffalo, done up in skins like sausages--a food eminently
nutritious and lasting long, but fearfully odorous and nasty.
Mr. Ellice supplied much of the political energy inside the old Reform
party, displayed in the Reform Bill struggle of 1830-1832. He became
one of the Secretaries of the Treasury; and, in 1831, had to organize
the eventful election of that year. His great powers and never-failing
energy, devoted in early life to the fur trade and its conflicts,
became of infinite value to the country, in many momentous struggles,
at home, for liberty and progress. It amused me much when, by chance,
meeting Mr. Ellice, after we had bought and paid for his Hudson's Bay
property, to see the kind of astonished stare with which he regarded
me. I think the purchase of the Hudson's Bay Company was a mystery to
him. I remember meeting him at the Royal Academy a few months before
his death. He stopped opposite to me, as if to study my features. He
did not speak a word, nor did I. He seemed in a state of abstraction,
like that of a man endeavouring to recollect a long history of
difficulty, and to realize how strangely it had all ended,--by the
negociation I had brought to a head.