"But let it be hoped that this necessity of continued government by the Hudson's Bay Company may be avoided by the wise and far-sighted action of the Home Government and of Canada. No beneficial decision can be arrived at without the concurrence of both powers, for each have rights and ideas in some respects differing, and Canada especially has the deepest concern in the future organization of the North-west. In selecting a governing power for such a country, the strength and influence of that power are the grand essentials. Even with equal enlightenment, these essentials could not be overlooked. A weak Government would invite attack, deter investment, and check general confidence. "Apart from the government by the Hudson's Bay Company, there appear to be these alternatives:-- "1. Government by Canada annexing to her territory a tract of country extending to the limits of British Columbia, under some reasonable arrangement with the Hudson's Bay Company, fairly protective of their rights, and which arrangement ought not to be difficult to draw out, when once the principle of the settlement of the country, and the land system, and extent of land reserves, are agreed upon. "2. Government by the Crown, as a separate Crown Colony, totally independent of Canada. "3. Government by the Crown as a separate Crown Colony, with federation, more or less extensive, with Canada, and the establishment of a customs union between the new and old communities. "It must always be observed that a decision as to the fate of this territory must be immediately made. It cannot wait political necessities elsewhere, or be postponed to suit individual wishes. The fertile country between Lake Winnipeg and the Rocky Mountains will be now settled, since that is now a fixed policy, and its plan of government must be in advance of, and not lag behind, that settlement. The electric wire, the letter post, and the steamboat, which two years more will see at work, will totally change the face of things; and as Minnesota has now 250,000 inhabitants, where, in 1850 there was hardly a white man, so this vast district may, when once it can be communicated with from without, with reasonable facility, be flooded with emigrants, not forgetting a very probable rush of English, Irish, and Scotch farmers, and settlers from the United States, who here will find a refuge from conscription and civil war. "The discoveries of gold, and the disturbed state of the border Indians in Minnesota, are both unanswerable reasons of necessity for the immediate establishment of a permanent form of Government, and fixed laws and arrangements for the settlement and development of the country.