THE NORTHWESTERN BOUNDARY - LINE. 219 



tensions of proprietorship founded upon license to 

 trade ; its license was revoked ; it was compelled to 

 yield up Oregon to the United States; and it was 

 half -persuaded and half - constrained to sell its char 

 tered rights to the Canadian Dominion, and to shrink 

 into comparative insignificance in America. 



When the Government of the United States enter 

 ed into negotiations with Great Britain for termina- 







ting the joint occupation of Oregon, the machinations 

 of the Hudson s Bay Company were the great disturb 

 ing fact which for a long time prevented the conclu 

 sion of a treaty and its due execution. 



Meanwhile the two Governments, after extraordi 

 nary contention, at length arrived at a settlement of 

 another boundary question, which had remained open 

 ever since the Treaty of Independence, namely, the 

 boundary -line on the northeast between the British 

 possessions and the United States [Treaty of Novem 

 ber 20, 1842]. 



The duration of the Treaty of 1818 was limited to 

 ten years. As the expiration of this time approached, 

 the American Government offered to settle the ques 

 tion of Oregon by extending the line of 49 to. the 

 Pacific Ocean, and announced this as &quot;our ultimatum.&quot; 

 The British Government objected that this line would 

 cut off the southern part of Vancouver s Island. We 

 replied by proposing to yield this part for an equiv 

 alent. But it was for the interest of the Hudson s 

 Bay Company, which was in practical possession of the 

 w r hole country, to defeat this attempt at settlement, 

 and it was defeated, and the United States reluctant- 



