SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

HISTORY AND STATISTICS,

The History of Oregon and California, and the other Territories on the North-west Coast of North America; accompanied by a Geographical View and Map of those Countries, and a number of Documents as Proofs and Illustrations of the History. By Robert Greenhow, Translator and Librarian to the Department of the United States ; Author of a Memoir, Historical and Political, on the North-west Coast of North America, published in 1840, by direction of the Senate of the United States. Murray. History of the Oregon Territory and British North American Fur-trade ; with an Account of the Habits and Customs of the principal Native Tribes on the Northern Continent. By John Dunn, late of' the Hudson's Bay Company; eight years a

resident in the country Edwards and Hughes.

ARCH/EOLOOT.

A Short Abridgement of Britane's Distemper, from the Yeare of God m.nc.xxxix.

to st.nc.xma. By Patrick Gordon of Ruthven Printed for Me Spalding Club.

TRAVELS.

Scotland. Glasgow, the Clyde, Edinburgh ; the Forth, Stirling ; Drummond Castle.

Perth, and Taymouth Castle ; the Lakes. By J. G. Kohl Chapman and Hall.

BOOKS ON THE OREGON TERRITORY.

DOUBTLESS to a gentleman like Mr. GREENHOW, invested with an official character, and author of a political memoir on the disputed territory of Oregon published four years ago by order of the Senate of the United States, it would seem real or affected ignorance of his position to place his work on a footing with that of Mr. Duna, ex-employe of the Hudson's Bay Company, and to call their books statement and counter-statement of American and British claims to the Oregon territory. More impartial readers than Mr. GREENHOW might entertain the same opinion. And yet plausible arguments may be advanced for treating them in this way. British sub- jects, the agents of a British chartered company, have been settling the Oregon territory, •while the Americans have been talking of settling it. Since the publication of WASHINGTON IRVING'S Astoria, American publicists have been incessantly putting forth books, pamphlets, and newspaper-articles, all labouring to produce an impression that the United States have the best claim to the whole Oregon territory ; while the British Government has utterly neglected the controversy, and the Hudson's Bay Company, bent upon keeping the British public in ignorance of the scene of its labours lest rivals should be attracted thither, has preserved a solemn silence. The works of Messrs. GREENHOW and Dusts' are statements o: the claims of the rival communities, each character- istically representing the spirit in which the author's countrymen have set to work, at the same time that it expresses their sentiments.

Mr. GREENHOW writes with the caution and decorum of a diplo- matic character ; like one conscious of filling a public office, and of having been employed to publish a state memorial. He is as candid as a Government advocate can be—more candid, we are bound in fairness to state, than such writers generally are, and honourably distinguished from his rabid fellow-citizens of the TYLER school of politics : still he is an advocate, consciously or unconsciously trying to make out a case. His knowledge is book knowledge, and mostly derived from European sources, not of the most recondite kind. The truth is, that notwithstanding the in- troductory flourish about the Department of State being in posses- sion of " much information relating to the territory of Oregon," that information, with the exception of the papers relating to the expedition of LEWIS and CLARKE, and some valuable manuscript documents obtained from the Hydrographical Depot at Madrid, the archives of the Department of State, in so far as Oregon is con- cerned, appear to be mainly stuffed, as far as is indicated by Mr. GREENHOW'S History, with books of voyages and travels, chiefly of European origin, and reports of Missionaries and Trappers, as pub- lished in periodicals, Annual Registers, and Quarterly Reviews. Mr. GREENHOW'S History, making allowance for its partisan cha- racter, is chiefly valuable as a resume of all the information relative to Oregon scattered through too many works to be of use to the general reader, but equally accessible to any European or American . who chooses to devote himself to the inquiry. The worst fault of the book is that it is too big—unnecessarily spun out, like a Pre- sident's message. The "Memoir Historical and Political on the North-west Coasts of North America," by the same author, pub- lished by order of the Senate in 1840, contains all that is of con- sequence in this amplification of it down to 1838; and the sup- plementary account of transactions from that period down to 1844, which is here spun out to forty pages, might have been advan- tageously compressed into ten. Mr. DUNN'S book is in every respect different from that of Mr. GREENHOW. It is written with the unsuppressed prejudices of an employe of' the Hudson's Bay Company, and with no small share of the affectation of rough swagger which characterizes these gentlemen nearly as much as their American rivals. Of the ex- tensive erudition displayed by Mr. GREENHOW there is quite as little in Mr. Dimes work as of his diplomatic suavity. The his- torical resume in Chapter XVIII, entitled " Relative Claims of Great Britain and America," though slight and sketchy, yet evinces an acquaintance with the subject that would almost tempt one to attribute it to a different and perhaps to an official hand. In a less degree, a similar suspicion attaches to the review of the strug- gle between the North-west and the Hudson's Bay Companies pre- vious to their junction; a review executed quite in the spirit of an old Hudson's Bay man. But with respect to the information it contains relating to the actual state of the Oregon territory, Mr. DUNN'S work is as far superior to that of Mr. GREENHOW as it is inferior in finished execution and historical learning : it has all the freshness and fullness of a description by an eye-witness—by one who has resided for some time among the scenes and persons de-

scribed. Even the prejudices we have alluded to scarcely detract from its trustworthiness, as they are so obvious that due allowance can easily be made for them.

It seems not difficult from these premises to estimate the com- parative value of the two books. Mr. GREENHOW presents us

with an elaborate synopsis of all that has been published relative to the Oregon territory previously to his publication. So far from seeking to misquote, he evidently labours against a half-conscious bias to adapt his narrative to the views be entertains in common with his countrymen. In this he is not always successful; but his variations consist rather in framing his expressions so as to dove- tail smoothly into his inferences than in perversions of fact. You can generally get at the real facts if you read cautiously, keeping in view his prepossessions, and the assimilating process by which he

seeks to render smooth and imperceptible the transition from facts to inferences. At the same time, it would be unadvisable to decide finally upon any essential point from Mr. GREENHOW'S narrative without turning to his originals. Mr. Maw, from his bold swag-

gering style, is little likely to mislead; but on the other hand, with the exception of what he may be supposed to have seen and experienced himself, he adds comparatively little to our stock of

knowledge. The use of the two works may be thus briefly dis- criminated—Mr. GREENHOW'S is a useful manual for those who

would investigate the contending titles of the rival claimants of the Oregon territory ; Mr. Misses is valuable as being the only recent and complete account of the actual state of occupation of that region.

With regard to the right of property in the Oregon territory, we incline to bring the controversy within much narrower limits than

Mr. GREENHOW. He exhausts the whole fund of what has been said, or perhaps can be said on the subject ; and of course relates much that, although useful to know as history, must of necessity be

totally irrelevant in so far as the settlement of the controversy is

concerned. Two important admissions are made by Mr. GREEN- HOW. The first is, that the Western boundary of French Louisiana,

wherever it may have been, cannot by any possibility be carried further West than the Rocky Mountains. The second is, that the Commissioners appointed under the treaty of Utrecht did not select the 49th parallel of latitude as the line of separation between the French territories and those of the Hudson's Bay Company in North America. In examining British and American claims

to the territory West of the Rocky Mountains, therefore, we

may dismiss everything that relates to French settlements and French treaties. We may add, that no claims on the part of the United States to a right of sovereignty in that region can go further back than 1784, when the States were for the first time recognized and treated with by Great Britain as an alien

and independent nation. Before the War of Independence, the Colonies could not acquire a right of sovereignty ; and during the war they had other matters to think of. When the independence of the United States was first recognized by Great Britain, they claimed no lands West of the Mississippi.

Let us now inquire what Great Britain has done to establish a title to any part of the American continent West of the Rocky Mountains, and between the frontiers of the Russian and Mexican

dominions. Very soon after the conquest of Canada, a series of systematic efforts on the part of Great Britain for examining and

taking possession of unoccupied portions of the American continent, by sea and land, were commenced ; which, though not so vigorously carried on as they might have been, have never been intermitted.

The principal over-land operations were—CARVER, in 1666 ;

HEARNE, 1771 ; MACKENZIE, 1792-3. The principal maritime operations were—Coox, CLERKE, and GORE, 1776-9 ; HANNA, 1785 ; MEARES, 1788 ; VANCOUVER, 1792-4. CARVER'S ex- peditions may perhaps be considered as mere efforts of individual enterprise ; but the journies of HEARNE and MACKENZIE were

made by officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, with a view to ex-

tend the limits of the undefined region over which its charter ex- tended. COOK and VANCOUVER were commissioned not only to

discover but to take possession. Simultaneously with the despatch of the latter, a controversy—warlike and diplomatic—was waging between the Courts of Spain and Great Britain as to their claims

upon the North-west coast of America. The message of GEORGE the Third to Parliament in May 1790 complains of " the direct claim asserted by the Court of Spain to exclusive rights of sovereignty, &c. in the territories, coasts, and seas of that part of the world." The claim advanced by the British Government was the right of the English to trade to all parts of the coast, and to

form settlements on any parts not occupied by an European nation. This claim, in so far as it regarded the West coast of America, was conceded by Spain in the treaty of 1790. Mr.

GREENHOW attempts to represent the treaty as conceding on the

part of Spain to the British a mere " leave or licence" to settle ; and argues, that as all treaties granting such a privilege are annulled by war, this concession was annulled by the war of 1796.

But in truth, no application for " leave or licence " to settle was applied for ; but a right to form settlements on any unoccupied part of the Western coast North of the then existing settlements of

Spain was asserted by the British Government and sustained by Parliament ; and this right these representatives of the nation were prepared to maintain by force when Spain yielded. In 1790,

then, Spain, the only other power whose discoveries afforded it any plea to contest the point, acknowledged that Great Britain had a right equal to its own of forming settlements on any part of the coast of America West of a point nearly coinciding with the

Western termination of the existing Northern frontier of Mexico. The United States advanced no claim to such a right then ; they were not in a condition to do so; they did not dream of doing so. Self-governed, but in every other economical respect still colonies,

they did not dream of distant settlements. This right to form settlements Great Britain has followed up since 1790, by actually forming settlements—not by isolated settlements merely, for she has steadily advanced the frontier of her occupation from Canada and the Hudson's Bay territories Westward to the Pacific, and thence Southward across the Columbia river. De facto as well as de jure, Great Britain has settled the territory West of the Rocky

Mountains, from the Arctic Ocean and the Russian frontiers Southward as far as the Lower Columbia, and pushed its outposts

beyond that river. To this portion of what has been called the Oregon territory the British title is clear and indisputable. It is only as to whether the United States have a title to any part of the territory (and how much of it) between the British outposts South of the Columbia and North of the Mexican frontiers, that any doubt can be admitted. No such title can be asserted on the ground of maritime discovery ; for the Columbia river was not discovered by GREY in 1790, having been previously discovered by the Spa- niards in 1775. The United States cannot go further back than the expedition of LEWIS and CLARKE. That expedition was fitted out, it is true, by the Government of the Union, but for purposes of discovery alone : LEWIS and CLARKE had no warrant to take possession. The settlement of Astoria was begun without the sanction of the Government at Washington, and was never recognized by it. The validity of claim founded upon actual occupancy since the discoveries of LEWIS and CLARKE, Ma depend upon settlements formed since 1818 ; and how such could be formed, without violating the treaty of that year, it is difficult to conjecture.

Mr. DUNN'S account of the actual state of the occupants or set- tlers in this territory is important, as enabling the British public to form a fair estimate of the value of the property at stake. He pre- sents us with an unexaggerated statement of the capabilities of the region, and the extent to which they have been developed. On the ruins of Lord SELKIRK'S settlement on the Red River, the Hudson's Bay Company have established a community which is steadily rising to prosperity and importance. A chain of posts connects this frontier settlement of the Eastern portion of British North America with the Company's establishments on the West coast. The most important of these is Fort Vancouver on the Columbia ; which has already advanced from a mere trading station to the dignity of an agricultural colony. It exports produce to the Sandwich Is- lands. Similar colonies are growing up in the principal vallies to the Northward ; and in the neighbourhood of Fort M'Loughlin coal has been found " of excellent quality, running in extensive fields, and even in clumpy mounds, and most easily worked, all along that part of the country." The Wallamette settlement, of which American writers talk so much, clearly appears from Mr. DUNN'S statements to be a British, not an American settlement. It was founded seventeen or eighteen years ago, by retired servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, who are now owners of thriving farms. A number of American missionaries, and a few American farmers, have settled among them; but the bulk of the inhabitants are British subjects. The settlement has grown up under the protection of the delegated authority of the IIudson's Bay Com- pany; and British law, as far as it is applicable to such an infant settlement, prevails there.

That all the territory North of the parallel of the Lower Co- lumbia, at least, will be retained by the British Government, there can be no doubt. It is already occupied by British subjects ; British laws and forms of administration already prevail there. British feel- ing—that is, the feelings of Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Canadians, as opposed to those of the Republicans of the Union—are there in the ascendancy. This community must be protected, and its loyalty to the British empire encouraged and fostered. It may easily be done. The Hudson's Bay Company ought to feel that a new mra has commenced; that a field of useful and honourable exertion, far beyond what was contemplated by its earlier organization, is opening upon it. By slightly modifying the constitution of that body—by extending its powers in some respects, and modifying and rendering less invidious some of its exclusive privileges, Go- vernment may render it an admirable instrument for carrying on the work which has been so well begun under its auspices. By this means, a British community already accumulating wealth, and evincing energy, hardihood, and enterprise, will be preserved, and its progress accelerated ; a power will be retained to this country of protecting the native tribes; a field for judicious and regulated missionary enterprise will be opened; and security will be afforded to British participators in the infant commerce of the Northern Pacific. It is not Oregon alone that the long-headed statesmen of America have in view ; it is influence in or ascendancy over the Sandwich Islands ; it is the trade with China and the Eastern Archipelago, about to be yearly extended. Their agents are traders and missionaries. Ours are as yet merely the agents of the Hud- son's Bay Company. These agents, from their organization and discipline, will be found in the external commerce of Oregon, as they have approved themselves in its internal, more than a match for their desultory American rivals : but we must have real religious English missionaries to supply the place of American political missionaries, and British institutions to preoccupy the ground over which those of the United States are sought to be extended.