"I desire at once to say that the heads of arrangement which I have
written down with the Montreal Telegraph Company and with Mr. Wood, for
your consideration, were of course entirely subject to the sanction of
the Governor and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company. And, in
accordance with what I understood to be your views, when to-day you
were good enough to leave the Deputy-Governor in order to see me in the
board room by appointment, I shall consider it my duty to cancel all
that has passed, in such a manner as, I trust, will be perfectly
satisfactory to your colleagues. There will then remain nothing beyond
a responsibility for a few essential materials, as to which time was an
object, amounting to not more than a few hundred pounds at the utmost,
which I shall take entirely upon myself, under the circumstances of
doubt and difficulty as to the opinions of the shareholders of the
Hudson's Bay Company which you represented to me. And with a desire to
avoid similar complaints, I do not propose to make any charge whatever
for my own expenses, or, if I may be excused the word, services, in
connection with the mission I have had to undertake. That mission,
however, cannot go without explanation, for I am anxious to avoid all
misconception now, or hereafter, and I desire, therefore, by a frank
statement, at once to court contradiction, should it be merited.
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