THE NORTHWESTERN BOUNDARY - LINE. 919 
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trade; its license was revoked; it was compelled to 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 “our ultimatum.” 
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 
whole country, to defeat this attempt at settlement, 
and it was defeated, and the United States reluctant- 
