Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/486

Rh law of 1844 placed the missions on the same footing with other claimants. It also ignored the issues between McLoughlin, and Lee and Waller, with regard to the proprietorship of Oregon City.

The seat of government was established by law at Oregon City, called in the act Willamette Falls, after the custom of the early American settlers. The annual meeting of the legislature was fixed for the fourth Tuesday in June. An act was passed fixing the time of holding courts in the several districts, and another regulating the salaries of the officers. On petition of J. L. Parrish, a new district called Clatsop was established, of the extent of which there is no information.

It will be remembered that the whole territory of Oregon was divided into five districts by the committee of 1843, but in language so vague that a strict constructionist would be in doubt as to whether the country north of the Columbia was included. The committee of 1844 confined the jurisdiction of the provisional government to the south side of the Columbia, by an act making that stream the northern line of the several counties.

This action was susceptible of two interpretations. It might mean that they abandoned the country north of the Columbia to the British government, or it might indicate to the Hudson's Bay Company that its servants were excluded from participation in the benefits of the organization. If the latter, it was more powerful to influence the company than the law