44 NARRATIVE, &c. 



the Hudson's Bay Company. On inquiry, I found this clerk to 

 be Mainville, one of the murderers of Keveny. He said that 

 high wines was the great power of the supremacy of the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company on the lines, and brought forward the usual 

 arguments of those persons, who either deem ardent spirits es- 

 sential to the success of the trade, or justify its temporary use 

 on the principle of expediency. 



It may here, in brief, be observed., that all such arguments 

 plausible as they may appear, are founded on a false principle. 

 They assume the existence of an evil, which is alleged to be 

 so fixed, that it is better to tolerate it, than to run the risk of up- 

 rooting it ; as if it were better to submit to a disease, than to 

 attempt its cure, by a removal of its causes. No trader, will 

 however, deny the existence of the evil, as an abstract question. 

 Neither is it denied, that ardent spirits is a tax upon the trade., 

 in the exact ratio of its entire cost, doubled, and trebled, and 

 quadrupled, as this cost is by the expense of interior transporta- 

 tion. But the question is, " Who shall begin to give up its 

 use V This is a question internally, between trader and trader, 

 externally, between company and company. As such it has 

 been bandied between New-York and London, the seats of 

 commercial power. But neither side has felt the requisite de- 

 gree of confidence, to risk the experiment of a voluntary ar- 

 rangement for its entire exclusion from the lines* Congress 

 has terminated this question, so far as it respects American cit- 

 izens, by an act of the 9th of July, of the present year, (1832.) 

 which contains this provision : " That no ardent spirits shall 

 be hereafter introduced, under any pretence, into the Indian 

 country." The enforcement of this act, has been rigidly en- 

 joined, and it is in the process of succesful execution. Posterity 

 will probably regard this measure as reflecting more honor up- 

 on our national legislation, than if we had decreed a hundred 

 monuments to fallen greatness. 



* It is believed that the American Fur Company, did, however, submit such a 

 proposition to the Directors of the Hudson's Bay Company in London, which was 

 t ac ceded to by the latter. 



