268 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. | Vou. INDE 
the legislatures declined or neglected to impose regulations, and he 
congratulated Sir Guy Carleton upon the general absence of these abuses 
in his government. But unlicensed traders found their way into Canada 
and Johnson asserted that some of the French Canadian traders were 
disloyal and were inciting the Indiaus to hostilities. Canadian merchants 
whom Carleton consulted denied the charge indignantly, and instanced 
the general good conduct of their countrymen during Pontiac’s war as a 
proof of their trustworthiness. 
In response to many urgent appeals, on the 15th of April, 1768, Lord 
Hillsborough at length addressed a circular to the Governors of all the 
British Provinces in America in which he said :—“ The objects which 
upon this occasion will principally demand the attention of the several 
colonies are to provide by the most effectual laws for preventing any 
settlement being made beyond the line which shall be agreed upon with 
the Indians and for the control and punishment of those atrocious 
frauds and abuses which have been practiced by the traders and have 
been one principal cause of the disaffection of the savages.” 
These apparently reasonable and prudent recommendations were 
either ignored altogether by the local legislatures or resented as an 
improper attempt to interfere in their local affairs, and five years later 
his successor, Lord Dartmouth, confessed his utter helplessness to afford 
aremedy. ‘As the colonies,” he said, “do not seem disposed to concur 
in any general regulations for Indian trade I am at a loss to suggest any 
~ mode by which this important service can be otherwise provided for than 
by the interposition of the Supreme Legislature, the exertion of which 
would be inadvisable until truth and connection have removed the 
unhappy prejudices which have so long prevailed in the colonies on this 
subject.” In the eyes of the typical American historian, a British minister 
is always the haughty noble, always stupid, always selfish, always insolent. 
The colonist to whom his policy proved obnoxious is as inevitably the pure 
patriot, intelligent, firm, and honest. It is not surprising then that this 
feeble attempt to protect the Indians should often be enumerated among 
the crimes of a wicked ministry and the worst of motives assigned for it. 
Even in Canada the regulations of the governor were systematically 
evaded and disregarded. This unfortunate state of affairs culminated in 
the wanton and brutal murder of several Indians among whom were a 
woman and a child, on the north shore of Lake Erie by a trader of the 
worst reputation named Ramsay. The murderer was arrested and sent 
down to Montreal for trial, but after long confinement, had to be released 
for lack of evidence.* 
*For Ramsay’s own version of this affair vzde P. Campbell’s travels. 
oak ages 
= aoe 
