An influential body of Red River settlers, too, at this time
petitioned the Canadian Parliament to extend to the North-West
its government and protection; and in the same year the late Chief
Justice Draper was sent to England to challenge the validity of the
Hudson's Bay Company's charter; and to urge the opening up of the
country for settlement. But, above all, a committee of the British
House of Commons took evidence that year upon all sorts of questions
concerning the North-West, and particularly its suitability for
settlement, much of which was valueless owing to its untruth.
Nevertheless, the Imperial Committee, after weighing all the evidence,
reported that the Territories were fit for settlement, and that it
was desirable that Canada should annex them, and hoped that the
Government would be enabled to bring in a bill to that end at the
next session of Parliament. Five years later, the Duke of Newcastle,
who became Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1859, and
accompanied the Prince of Wales to Canada as official adviser
in 1860, having in his possession the petition of the Red River
settlers, as printed by order of the Canadian Legislature, brought
the matter up in a vigorous speech in the House of Lords, in which
he expressed his belief that the Hudson's Bay Company's charter
was invalid, though, he added, "it would be a serious blow to the
rights of property to meddle with a charter two hundred years old.
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