Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/99

48 So absolute was McLoughlin's authority that previous to the settlement of Americans in the Willamette Valley no legal forms had been thought necessary, except such as by the company's grant were so made; the governor and council having power to try and punish all offenders belonging to the company or any crimes committed in any of "the said company's plantations, forts, factories, or places of trade within Hudson's Bay territory." The Canadians and other servants of the company yielded without question to the company's chartered right to judge and punish. But with the Americans it was different. The charter forbade any British subject from trespassing upon the company's territory for purposes of trade; but it could not forbid Americans or other people. The charter permitted the company to go to war, on its own account, with any unchristianized nation; but the Americans could not be styled unchristianized, though they might, if provoked, become belligerent. The Americans, though so lacking in civilized conceptions according to the ideas of the gentlemen at Fort Vancouver, were stubborn in their legal rights, and were, besides, turbulent in their habits, and might put thoughts of insubordination into the minds of the company's people.

Foreseeing the troubles that would arise on this account, McLoughlin took timely measures to provide against them, and procured, by act of parliament, the appointment of justices of the peace in different parts of the country, James Douglas filling that office at Fort Vancouver. These justices were empowered to adjudicate upon minor offences, and to impose punishment; to arrest criminals guilty of serious crimes and send them to Canada for trial; and also to try and give judgment in civil suits where the amount in dis-