to go and return through such passage in one year; and he thinks 'tis the general opinion of seamen that there is no such passage." Mr. John Tomlinson, merchant, of London, said, "He was a subscriber to the undertaking for finding a North-west Passage; which undertaking was dropped for want of money: that he should not choose to subscribe again upon the same terms; that he cannot pretend to say whether there is such a passage or not, or whether, if found, it could be ever rendered useful to navigation." The merchant witnesses were in favour of throwing open the trade of Hudson's Bay; and this Mr. Tomlinson said more ships would be sent, and more people brought down to trade. "This is confirmed," he said, "by the experience of the Guinea trade, which, when confined to a company, employed not above ten ships, and now employs 150;" and "that the case of the Guinea trade was exactly similar (to the Hudson's Bay), where the ships near one another, and each endeavours to get the trade; and the more ships lie there, the higher the price of negroes." The capital of the Hudson's Bay Company, increased by doublings and treblings of its nominal amount, was, in 1748, 103,950_l_., held by eighty-six proprietors. The trade between London and Hudson's Bay was carried on in 1748, and for some previous years, by four ships. The cost of the exports was in 1748 5,102_l_. 12_s_. 3_d_., and the value of the sales of furs and other imports in that year amounted to 30,160_l_. 5_s_. 11_d_d. The "charge attending the carrying on the Hudson's Bay trade, and maintaining their factories," in 1748, is stated at 17,352_l_. 4_s_. 10_d_. The original cash capital was 10,500_l_. That capital was "trebled" in 1690, making the nominal capital 31,500_l_.; in August, 1720, it was proposed to augment the cash capital, and to make the nominal total 378,000_l_. But at a "General Court," held on the 23rd December, 1720, it was resolved to "vacate" the subscription "by reason of the present scarcity of moneys, and the deadness of credit." And it was further "Resolved, that in the opinion of this Committee, that each subscriber shall have 30_l_. stock for each 10_l_. by him paid in," "which resolutions were agreed to by this Court." Anyhow, the capital in 1748 is stated at 103,950_l_. A trade which, by sending out about 5,000_l_. a year, brought back a return of 30,000_l_., was no doubt worth preserving; and even taking the outlay for working and maintenance of forts and establishments, there was over 8 per cent, on the nominal capital left, or probably 40 per cent on all the cash actually paid in; not too great a reward for the benefits gained by the country from this trade. Some particulars of the regulation of exchange of commodities may here be interesting.