his removal and settlement. In the consummation of a policy originating at an early period, and steadily pursued by every administration within the present century, - so just to the states, and so generous to the Indians, — the executive feels it has a right to expect the co-operation of Congress, and of all good and disinterested men. The states, moreover, have a right to demand it. It was substantially a part of the compact which made them members of our confederacy. With Georgia there is an express contract; with the new states, an implied one, of equal obligation. Why, in authorising Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama, to form constitutions, and become separate states, did Congress include within their limits extensive tracts of Indian lands, and, in some instances, powerful Indian tribes? Was it not understood by both parties that the power of the states was to be co-extensive with their limits; and that, with all convenient despatch, the general government should extinguish the Indian title, and remove every obstruction to the complete jurisdiction of the state governments over the soil? Probably not one of those states would have accepted a separate existence (certainly it would never have been granted by Congress) had it been understood that they were to be confined for ever to those small portions of their nominal territory, the Indian title to which had at the time been extinguished. It is, therefore, a duty which the government owes to the new states, to extinguish, as soon as possible, the Indian title to all lands which Congress themselves have included within their limits. When this is done, the duties of the General Government, in relation to the states and Indians within their limits, are at an end. The Indians may leave the state or not, as they choose. The purchase of their lands does not alter, in the least, their personal relations with the state government. No act of the General Government has ever been deemed necessary to give the states jurisdiction over the persons of the Indians. That they possess, by virtue of their sovereign power, within their own limits, in as full a manner before as after the purchase of the Indian lands; nor can this government add to or diminish it. May we not hope, therefore, that all good citizens, and none more zealously than those who think the Indians oppressed by subjection to the laws of the states, will unite in attempting to open the eyes of those children of the forest to their true condition, and, by a speedy removal, to relieve them from the evils, real or imaginary, present or prospective, with which they may be supposed to be threatened?"

CHAP. XVIII.

TRADE OF THE CANADAS. - сомMERCE WHILE UNDER THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT. - ANNUAL EXPENSES OF THE COLONY. NORTH-WEST AND SOUTH-WEST AND NEW YORK COMPANIES. - POT-ASHES. - AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE, ETC.

FUR TRADE. - COUREURS DE BOIS. HUDSON BAY COMPANIES.

THE Commerce of Canada, since the time it became possessed by England, has advanced in importance nearly in the same ratio as its population has increased; accompanying in its natural course the settlement and improvement of the country, when not paralysed or impelled by war or casual circum

stances.

While the country was possessed by France, trade, except the commerce in peltries, was nearly altogether neglected. A few ships, it is true, were built in Canada, and sent with wood to France. Seal oil, flour, and pease, in trifling quantities, were also exported; and for some time ginseng, which grows wild in abundance, was sent, first to France, and then to China, the only country which at that time afforded a market for it, to the value, one year, of 500,000 livres (about 20,000l.). This trade the French lost, from not having patience to cure the ginseng, and thus imposing a bad article on the Chinese.

The balance of trade was always greatly against the colony, and the difference was remitted to France in bills of exchange, drawn by the intendant-general, for the expenses of the civil and military government, and for the cost of public works. The greatest exports of Canada, previous to 1759, appear, by existing statements, to have amounted only to the value of

£88,333 6 8 in furs.

10,416 13 4 in seal oil.
10,416 13 4 in flour and pease.
6,250 0 0 in timber.

£115,416 13 4

The annual expenses of the government, in salaries to public officers, in presents to the Indians, and in money expended in the erection of fortifications at Quebec, Montreal, and upwards, along the St. Lawrence, in order to form a line of forts from Quebec to New Orleans, so as to prevent the English from penetrating the regions west of the Ohio, or the Great Lakes, increased 'from 16,663l. 13s. 4d., the expenditure in 1729, to more than a million sterling before 1759.

This immense expenditure did not, however, augment or encourage the trade of the country; but, as Raynal observes, " military glory, and its dazzling grandeur, maintained the ascendant, and every other employment was considered mean, unless it were the fur trade. This pursuit was always connected with arms, and accompanied by the military, who not only guarded the posts, but enjoyed the benefits of the trade."

The fur trade, after marts were established, first by Pontgrave, at Tadousac, and, about the middle of the 17th century, at Trois Rivières and Montreal, for the purpose of bartering firearms, gunpowder, shot, brandy, red cloths, knives, hatchets, trinkets, and a few other articles of European manufacture, for furs, with the Indians, was afterwards conducted by coureurs du bois, who penetrated the remote upper wilds of Canada, and accompanied the savages with their furs, down to Montreal.

Many of the coureurs du bois settled among the Indians, and defrauded those who intrusted them with goods; while the rivalry of the English traders began, also, at the same time, to divert to New York the furs that would otherwise have found their way to Montreal. The French government, then, to change and regulate this commerce, undertook its management, and granted a limited number of licences to poor gentlemen and old officers, who were burdened with families, to enable them exclusively to carry merchandise to the fur countries. It was expressly prohibited, on pain of death, to all persons, of whatever rank, to go themselves, or employ others to go, to the great lakes, or to any part of the fur countries.

Each licence allowed two canoes, loaded with merchandise, to proceed to the lakes. Those authorised were privileged either to act themselves, or to dispose of their licences to others. These licences were usually estimated at 600 crowns each, and generally purchased by the merchants, who employed coureurs du bois to carry on a trade that was attended with extraordinary hardships and dangers. To traverse the lakes, and penetrate the forests of the western region were, particularly at that period, undertakings attended with great peril and fatigue. Savage nations, wild inland seas, thick and seemingly interminable woods, cataracts, rapids, musquitoes in summer, and snow and ice in winter, were all to be encountered.