This Committee was appointed "to consider the state of those British possessions in North America which are under the administration of the Hudson's Bay Company, or over which they possess a licence to trade." Lord John Russell, Mr. Gladstone, the present Lord Derby, Mr. Roebuck, Mr. Labouchere, Mr. Lowe, and Mr. Edward Ellice, were of the nineteen members of which the Committee originally consisted. Later on, the names of Mr. Alexander Matheson and Viscount Goderich were substituted for those of Mr. Adderley and Mr. Bell; and Mr. Christy was added to the Committee. The evidence before the Committee much resembled that taken by the Committee of 1749. There were the same disaffected, and discharged, officials; the same disappointed merchants and rivals; the same desire, in varied quarters, as before, to depreciate and despoil a somewhat prosperous undertaking. The rival views were those of the majority of the Committee, on the one hand, and of Mr. Gladstone, on the other. The claims of Canada to annex territory useful, in her opinion, to her inhabitants, was solidly urged. But the Honorable John Ross, then President of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, who was the first witness examined, said, "It is complained that the Hudson's Bay Company occupy that territory and prevent the extension of settlement and civilization in that part of the Continent of America. I do not think they ought to be permitted to do that; but I think it would be a very great calamity if their control and power in that part of America were entirely to cease. My reason for forming that opinion is this: during all the time that I have been able to observe their proceedings there, there has been peace within the whole territory. The operations of the Company seem to have been carried on, at all events, in such a way as to prevent the Indian tribes within their borders from molesting the Canadian frontier; while, on the other hand, those who have turned their attention to that quarter of the world must have seen that, from Oregon to Florida, for these last thirty years or more, there has been a constant Indian war going on between the natives of American territory, on the one side, and the Indian tribes on the other. Now, I fear very much that if the occupation of the Hudson's Bay Company, in what is called the Hudson's Bay territory, were to cease, our fate in Canada might be just as it is with Americans in the border settlements of their territory."