| Summary: | It will be our endeavour to show that the acquisition
of Rupert's Land and the North-West by the Dominion of
Canada was not a fortunate after-thought of Confederation,
but that there were men who recognized the value of opening
the west for settlement while Confederation itself was still
only a pleasant dream. We wish to draw attention to the fact
that there were men who made Rupert's Land a subject of their
interest, who recognized the difficulties involved in breaking
the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company, and who saw the need
of opening a means of communication through British North
America to the Pacific Ocean. These men were also cognizant
of the dangers inVOlved in allowing the United states to
encroach on this territory lying to its north. The period
with which we deal in tracing the general trend of feeling of
Canadians towards the west embraces the years from 1843 to
1870. In our discussion there are numerous factors to be
considered, the question of the validity of the charter of
the Hudson's Bay Company upon which it based its monopoly and
which was so often called into dispute, the attitude of the
British Government which wished to deal fairly with both
Canada and the Company and act in the best interests of both,
and the general trend of events in the Red River Settlement
itself. But above all it is our object to trace the awakening
of interest in Canada, the general movement towards the
consummation of the aim of those Canadians who wished to see
the North-West joined by ties of government and of national
feeling to themselves.
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