1821.] JURISDICTION OF THE CANADA COURTS EXTENDED. 325 



1819 ; and a debate ensued, in the course of which the proceedings 

 of the two rival associations were minutely investigated. The 

 ministry then interposed its mediation, and a compromise was thus 

 at length effected, by which the North-West Company became 

 united with, or rather merged in, the Hudson's Bay Company. At 

 the same time, and in connection with this arrangement, an " act 

 for regulating the fur trade and establishing a criminal and civil 

 jurisdiction in certain parts of North America " was passed in 

 Parliament, containing every provision required to give stability to 

 the Hudson's Bay Company, and efficiency to its operations. 



By this act, passed on the 2d of July, 1821, the king was 

 authorized to make grants or give licenses to any body corporate, 

 company, or person, for the exclusive privilege of trading with the 

 Indians, in all such parts of North America as may be specified 

 in the grants, not being parts of the territories previously granted 

 to the Hudson's Bay Company, or of any of his majesty's provinces 

 in North America, or any territories belonging to the United States 

 of America: provided, however, that no such grant or license shall 

 be given for a longer period than twenty-one years ; that no grant 

 or license for exclusive trade, in the part of America west of the 

 Rocky Mountains, which, by the convention of 1818 with the United 

 States, remained free and open to the subjects or citizens of both 

 nations, shall be used to the prejudice or exclusion of citizens of 

 the United States engaged in such trade ; and that no British sub- 

 ject shall trade in those territories west of the Rocky Mountains 

 without such license or grant. By the same act, also, the courts of 

 judicature of Upper Canada are empowered to take cognizance of 

 all causes, civil or criminal, arising in any of the above-mentioned 

 territories, including those previously granted to the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, and " other parts of America, not within the limits of 

 either of the provinces of Upper or Lower Canada, or of any civil 

 government of the United States ; " and justices of the peace are to 

 be commissioned in those territories, to execute and enforce the 

 laws and the decisions of the courts, to take evidence, and commit 

 offenders and send them for trial to Canada, and even, under cer- 

 tain circumstances, to hold courts themselves, for the trial of crimi- 

 nal offences and misdemeanors not punishable by death, and of 

 civil causes, in which the amount at issue should not exceed two 

 hundred pounds.* 



* See the act and the grant here mentioned in the Proofs and Illustrations, at the 

 end of this volume, under the letter I, No. 2, 



