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In this chapter it is
intended to bring the history of British settlement in the North-West
down to the present time, including the disputes regarding the Charter
of the Hudson Bay Company, the purchase of its vested rights, the
formation of the Province of Manitoba, the Red River rebellion, and
other matters of more recent date. After the union of the Companies, as
already stated, the settlers met with a new enemy, against which forts
and ammunition were futile, the grasshopper. But there was still another
fruitful source of trouble and loss which intervals marred and retarded
the progress of the co1ony. In 1826, and much more recently, in 1852 and
1861, the sudden thawing of the snows upon the banks of the great rivers
which form the arteries of the North-West, caused wide-spread desolation
by floods, on some occasions covering hundreds of square miles. The year
1826 was one of the most disastrous in the history of the Settlement. It
was ushered in with a terrible season of want and suffering amongst the
hunters, the story of whose appalling destitution on the plains seemed
to indicate a sum of misery beyond the power either of the Company or
the colony to do more than slightly alleviate with their slender
resources. The prospect was not less desperate than the cry of India for
help a short time ago. Mr. Donald Mackenzie was Governor of the colony
at that time, as well as the Company’s representative at Fort Garry,
and what could be accomplished was cheerfully set about, but
the success of any relieving movement was not so much problematical as
hopeless. The starving people were scattered over great distances; the
snow was unusually deep, and there was no mode of conveyance but by
dog-sleighs, and this was tedious and difficult. Sympathy and assistance
were freely extended to the poor creatures, and all that thought or pity
could suggest was promptly put in execution. The scenes on the road from
Pembina to the colony were harrowing in the extreme, and the feeling of
utter despondency which prevailed was only dispelled by a great calamity
at the colony itself.
The severe frost, and the
fearful snow-storms which had wrecked the hopes of the hunters, killed
their horses, and starved or chilled to death many of themselves, their
wives and children, soon wrought mischief in another shape when the iron
rule of winter was broken by the summer sun. There had been drifting
snows of unusual depth; the thermometer had fallen to 45 degrees below
zero; the ice measured five feet seven inches in thickness, and, when on
the 2nd of May the great thaw came, there was an alarming inundation On
that day, just before the ice started, Red River rose nine feet in the
twenty-four hours—an unprecedented occurrence even in the traditions
of the Indians. Soon the whole country appeared like a vast lake. Human
lives were destroyed, cattle, horses and every living thing that
encountered the flood was swept out of existence; the houses were
demolished, the movable property, with the debris of buildings,
carriages, furniture, and all "were seen floating along over the
widely extended plain, to be engulfed in Lake Winnipeg." The height
to which the water had risen above its ordinary level was fifteen feet.
When it subsided, the tale may best be told in the language of the
prices current, "Wheat, which had fallen to 2s. per bushel at the
commencement of the disaster, now rose to 15s.; beef from 1/2d, per
pound to 3d." It was not until June 13th that the colonists were
again able to draw near to the site of their old habitations. [Hargrave:
Red River, p. 81. Also in Ross: Red River Settlement, pp.
101-105, where a graphic account of the inundations is given by an
eye-witness.]
During these early years
of peace, several events occurred of considerable importance to the
struggling colony. The distresses of the settlers had placed them more
or less at the mercy of the Hudson Bay officers, and the result was an
immense amount of extortion, either in the shape of overcharges or of
usurious interest. Mr. Halkett, one of Lord Selkirk’s executors, put a
stop to this nefarious system. Armed with a decision pronounced by Lord
Ellenborough, he compelled the local Governor to strike off five per
cent. from all accounts, and to withdraw the claim of five per cent. for
interest altogether "as a fraudulent and legal transaction."
[See Ross, p. 68, where the Lord Chief Justice’s judgment on this
point is given.] In future, English goods imported at York Factory were
to bear 33 1/2 per cent. on their prime cost, and 25 per cent, on their
arrival at the colony, and nothing additional. Mr. Halkett also
discovered that, in order to enhance the price of provisions, the
Company’s servants had secreted large quantities in their
depositories. Two experiments were tried at this period which resulted
in financial collapse. The first was the formation of the "Buffalo
Wool company," a joint-stock concern by which everybody at Red
River was to be suddenly enriched. The idea was that, as owing to the
prevalence of wolves at the time, sheep-raising was precarious, a
substitute must be found for wool, and the speculators proposed the
shaggy hair of the buffalo. Counting the raw material as nothing, they
soon reared many financial castles in the air. Expensive machinery was
imported, and an extravagant establishment set up. Hides rose in price,
and agriculture was set aside in favour of buffalo-hunting. Had the
visionary scheme succeeded, a step backward into barbarism would have
been taken; but the result proved to be an ignominious collapse.
The other scheme was of a
different stamp, but was also foredoomed to failure. Lord Selkirk, who
well knew the rude sort of husbandry his Highlanders had been accustomed
to, had projected an experimental farm and dairy. The "Hay Field
Farm" was placed in charge of a Scotsman of great agricultural
experience named Laidlaw, specially brought out for the purpose;
"but," says Mr. Ross (p. 77), "in this, as in every other
attempt to benefit the colony in those early days, mismanagement,
disappointment and ruin, were the only results. Expensive buildings were
erected, good labourers and servants employed; "and yet all the
time there was not an ox to plough or a cow to milk." Finally the
manor-house or mansion, which had cost £600 was accidentally burned,
just at its completion, in a drunken orgy. "After several years’
labour, waste and extravagance, every vestige of property on the farm
had disappeared"—the experiment having sunk £2,000 of Lord
Selkirk’s money. In view of all that had thus befallen the settlers,
it may surely be said that the most patient and unyielding perseverance
was never so sorely tried before; and it speaks volumes for the singular
energy and persistence of the Scot, that, after so many years of loss,
suffering, hardship and disappointment in every form, they continued to
hold on with dogged pertinacity until they at last achieved a complete
victory for themselves and for civilization.
The union of the Pembina
settlers with the colonists of Red River, was another event worthy of
note, inasmuch as it placed in juxtaposition the Scottish, the
French-Canadians, and the half-breeds, in much the same relation to each
other as they still remain. When all the immigrants were united they
numbered about 1,500; and the French, finding their old occupation gone,
and being also in dread of the Sioux raid, betook themselves to the
colony. These alien elements did not mingle well together; the French
half-breeds "squatted" on the land, but they never attempted
cultivation—the Indian penchant for hunting, fishing and a
roving life generally, being too strong to be eliminated. The Scottish
settlers, who retained the strong religious feelings they had brought
from home, felt disquieted about the future of their children, liable,
as they were, to contamination from the semi-savage influences about
them. A separation was resolved upon, the Scots remaining on their lands
at the centre of the colony; the French were settled in one parish, St.
Boniface, now the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishopric; whilst the
half-breeds, under Cuthbert Grant, were removed to "White Horse
Plains," twenty miles up the Assiniboine; the Forks being the
common centre.- - - Mr. Ross (p. 81) is probably right in his opinion
that this separation was, on the whole, a mistake. The Canadians and
half-breeds gradually grew together, and although they and the Scots
have generally lived on passable terms, there has never been a cordial
understanding, and party spirit has continued to grow more intense from
that day to this.
Meanwhile agricultural
progress, though slow, was continuous. Successive importations of cattle
had raised the quality and amount of the stock, and Governor Simpson
gave a powerful impetus to the settlement by promising to take all the
Company’s supplies from the colony. This stimulated the people to
extraordinary exertions, with the unfortunate result that, after the
Company’s wants were supplied, there was no market for the surplus.
Prices rapidly fell, and Red River suffered from all the consequences of
an evil heard of in later times and more settled communities—that of
over-production. But the want of markets was not the only difficulty in
the path of the farmers. There were not the necessary appliances for
ordinary agricultural operations. At that time there was not to be found
in the whole colony, it is said, either a smut-mill, or fanning machine,
to clean the grain, and but few barns to thrash it in, and still fewer
kilns to dry it; much, therefore, of the grain had, of necessity, to be
thrashed on an ice-floor, in the open air, during all weathers, and then
ground, in a frozen state, and immediately packed off in casks of green
wood, furnished by the Company itself. It was the same with butter and
all other products of the dairy and farm. It was no wonder that the
difficulties of their situation, with lack of experience and judgment,
should have caused many failures. The Orkney men, a frugal and
industrious people, from whom sprang such hardy explorers as Dr. John
Rae, who first ascertained positively the fate of Sir John Franklin—were
wanting still more than their mainland brethren in agricultural skill
and resource; they were poor and could not, procure the necessary
conveniences, and yet they toiled on and prospered in the land.
A bare reference to
Governor Simpson’s attempt to establish a second experimental farm,
under Chief Factor McMillan, will suffice. It was a failure, and cost
the Company £3,500 sterling; worst of all the Governor, whose hobby it
had been, lost his self-control, and exclaimed in the bitterness of his
heart:—"Red River is like a Lybian tiger, the more I try to tame
it, the more savage it becomes; for every step I try to bring it
forward, disappointments drag it two backward." Then followed the
"Assiniboine Wool Company," in which the sheep was to take the
place of the buffalo; but the views of its projectors were too
extravagant, and the new project followed its predecessor into the limbo
of abortive speculations. This was also a device of Governor Simpson’s,
and that it failed was not his fault. He desired to divert the people
from over-production in grain, and if his agents had only carried out
the scheme reasonably, it might have succeeded; but, as a resident there
remarks, "The people of the Red River grasp at anything new, as
hawk pounces upon a bird, and then abandon it without waiting with
patience for the anticipated result." The catastrophe, in this
case, resulted from over-eagerness at the outset, and want of constancy
in the sequel.
In 1835 and 1836, a
change took place in the management of the Red River Settlement. After
Lord Selkirk’s death his executors attempted to direct its affairs;
but finding the task impracticable they transferred the government to
the Company. The time arrived when this anomalous state of things was to
be succeeded by the Company’s rule as proprietors of the colony. In
1834, it may be as well to note, the first outbreak of the half-breeds,
thoughtless, thriftless, and dependent as usual, startled both the
Company and the colony; but no great harm befell the latter except the
necessity of submitting to extortionate charges and demands. The Hudson
Bay officers had thus two totally different sorts of people to deal
with. The half-breeds required support, control and advice at every
turn, whilst the colonists, true to their national genius, were proud,
self-reliant, impatient of restraint, and passionately fond of freedom
and independence. The former were always in a state of tutelage,
expected everything from the Company and complained vigorously if they
were denied what they sought. The Scots, on the other hand, could not
work the paternal system, and rebelled against the leading-strings of
the Company. Notwithstanding the honest desire of Governor Simpson, and
many of his subordinates, to assist the Colony, Hudson Bay rule was
always galling to the true-born Briton, and in addition to that
irregular, arbitrary and capricious.
As the representatives of
Lord Selkirk took little or no active interest in the progress of the
settlement, the Hudson Bay Company offered to purchase their
proprietary rights in the colony. Altogether, the Earl had expended no
less than £85,000 upon his scheme—three times as much, says Mr. Ross,
as the whole colony would have brought if put up at auction at any time
in the first twenty years of its existence. In 1836, an agreement was
come to under which the Company paid the heirs of his lordship £84,000
in full satisfaction of their claims, proprietary or otherwise, saving
only the rights of those who had purchased lands between the years 1811
and 1836. Strange to say this transfer was effected without consultation
with the people of the colony, who were made over as unceremoniously as
French Alsace or Turkish Bosnia to a power they were not by any means
attached to ["During all these political changes, the colonists
were kept in the dark never having been put in possession of their
intellectual rights, by knowing what was going on, or to whom the colony
belonged. Nor was it till many years after the settlement became
virtually the Company’s own property, that the fact was made known to
the people, and then by mere chance. Till this eventuality the people
were under the persuasion that the colony still belonged to the
executors of Lord Selkirk, and were often given to understand so. By
this political finesse, or shall we rather call it, political absurdity,
the Company preserved themselves clear of all responsibility, whatever
transpired." Ross: Red River, pp. 173-4.] This step, and
more especially the secret manner of it, only tended to widen the breach
already open between the Company and the colonists. Under the new regime,
a Council was constituted, and a brief code of laws, fiscal,
judicial and administrative was drawn out. These changes might, of
themselves, have aroused the suspicions of the colonists, had not the
country been under the Company as representing Lord Selkirk’s
representatives for some years past. That the Company desired to conceal
the transfer of the Selkirk rights is clear from the fact that when the
Church of England chaplain—the only Protestant minister at hand—refused
any concession to presbyterian feelings touching the Liturgy, the answer
to their remonstrances was an evasive reference to Lord Selkirk’s
executors, who had no longer any more to do with the matter than the
President of the United States.
The history of the colony
during succeeding years, was one of considerable fluctuation; still no
temporary check to its prosperity stayed the march of progress. The few
incidents, it may be well to mention, may be compressed into a
paragraph. The first petit jury under the new code was empannelled on
the 28th of April, 1836, to try a prisoner for theft. The unfortunate,
who attained a bad eminence on this occasion, was Louis St. Denis, and
one part of his sentence consisted of a public flogging. A German
wielded the "cat" on this occasion, and he was permitted to
perform his novel task without molestation. But he had no sooner stepped
out of the ring than the mob began to raise cries of "stone
him," and he was marked out for public execration under the name of
"Bourreau," the hangman. So unaccustomed were the people to
the execution of a legal sentence, and so venial an offence were theft
and violence in their eyes, that the punishment of St. Denis seemed to
the French a gross violation of the liberty of the subject. At an early
period (1839), a Scot named Thom—Judge Thom, as he was popularly
called—became Recorder of Rupert’s Land. He was a lawyer of ability;
but there were two objections to him. He had been no favourite with the
French party of Lower Canada during Papineau’s rebellion, and
therefore the French portion of the population at Red River were
prejudiced against him from the start. Besides that, he was interested
in the prosperity of the Company, was its officer during pleasure and
therefore, in any case between the Company and the colony, he was looked
upon as an interested party. Although Mr. Ross. from whose work these
facts are taken, was no admirer of the Company’s procedure in many
respects, he was clearly of opinion that the monopoly of trade was
decidedly a benefit to the population, and more especially to the
Indians. He regards the cry of the French and half-breeds "Le
commerce est libre"— "Trade is free"—as merely
a pretence used by lawless and ungovernable men to cover rapine and
violence. Into these disputes, as well as the controversies concerning
Judge Thom’s decisions and Major Caldwell’s method of
administration, it would be beside the present purpose to enter. It may
not be amiss, however, to notice here once more the striking contrast,
apparent to every visitor, between the frugal, provident and intelligent
Scots and the other colonists or quasi colonists around them. One
illustration in the shape of a scrap of conversation between Mr. Ross
and a friend with whom he was riding about on a tour of inspection may
suffice. At "a place called the middle-church, my friend made a
halt, and turning to me observed, ‘This part of the colony we have
just passed, is the thickest settled I have yet seen and, if we may
judge from outward appearances-—horses, barn-yards, parks and
inc1osures – the land of industry has been indeed busy.’ ‘Yes,’
said I, ‘these are the Scotch settlers, the emigrants sent hither by
Lord Selkirk; the people who have suffered so much, and to whose
fortitude and perseverance the colony owes that it is what you see it
this day.’ ‘This spot,’ he rejoined ‘is really full of
interest.’" (p. 201).
The predominance of the
Scot during the early years of the settlement did not, of course
continue, as new elements were introduced by immigration from other
branches of the English-speaking people. [The writer, already quoted so
often, remarks this fact with a touch of patriotic regret: The first ten
years of their sojourn in the colony, the Scots were almost the only
settlers; the next ten years they were the majority (of course the
French and half-breeds are taken into account here); but the last ten,
they have been the minority; and, by a combination of untoward
circumstances, they can hardly now be said to retain their nationality,
being a mere fraction in the mass of the community. It is as if they had
come to Red River merely to endure its hardships, and as trusty pioneers
to bear the burden and heat of the day, where a people of less hardihood
and perseverance must necessarily have succumbed." – Red River
Settlement, p. 343.] They broke up the soil and planted it; others
reap the fruit of their honest toil and patient endurance. The glory of
having first raised the standard of religion and civilization, in these
western solitudes, is theirs. The Scots were the advance guard of that
peaceful British army of colonization, which has followed them to see
the fertile land, and to possess it. The assumption of the North-West by
the Crown and its incorporation into the Dominion, have made new work
for Scotsmen, not quite so heavy and disheartening, but still hard
enough to try the sterling Caledonian mettle. Up the valleys of the
Assiniboine, along the branches of the Saskatchewan, on Peace and the Qu’Appelle,
the avant çouriers of North Britain, are making their way,
making the crooked straight and the rough places smooth for the settlers
of years and centuries yet to come. If the Scot has lost ground at Red
River, there is still a greater Scotland ready to his hand in the
boundless prairies far beyond.
This is not the place to
enter into the events which led to the purchase of the Hudson Bay
Company’s proprietary rights. The causes of discontent amongst the
settlers were manifold. They were hampered by the paternal restraints of
the monopoly, which without being absolutely unfriend1y, was deeply
impressed with the truth of the North-Wester’s maxim that
"colonization is at all times unfavourab1e to the fur trade."
The Hudson Bay people did not, like the Montreal traders plot "the
downfall of the colony, by fair means or foul," but, however kindly
disposed such Governors as Sir George Simpson might be, their interests
were distinctly opposed to any expansion of the area of settlement. In
addition to the natural discontent of the Colonists at being governed by
a trading Company, through an irresponsible Council, the regions to the
west were becoming better known in Canada, in the United States and in
Europe. Moreover, the period during which the Hudson Bay Company were
licensed to hold the territory was to terminate in 1859, and a vigorous
agitation was commenced to oppose its renewal. This license had been
granted by Act of Parliament in 1821; it expired and was renewed in 1838
for twenty-one years; and strong efforts were early put forward to
prevent any extension of the term. The people of the colony, and above
all the Canadian Parliament set about collecting information, procuring
legal opinions, and urging the assumption of the whole territory by the
Crown, and its annexation to Canada. A voluminous literature was
accumulated upon the subject, but so far as its object was to impeach
the validity of the old charter, the result was a failure. It is true
that the Act confirming the grant by Charles II. had long since expired
by effluxion of time, but as the law-officers of the Crown showed
conclusively, it had been cited in a number of statutes passed at
different times and thus confirmed by the Imperial Parliament over and
over again. Canada despatched Chief Justice Draper to England to present
her case against the Company, and, in 1857-58, an exploring expedition
was sent out under Messrs. Dawson and Hind, to make a careful survey of
the territory. Meanwhile a Committee of the House of Commons had
investigated the subject minutely in all its bearings. Its report was,
on the whole, favourable to the company, but although it did not
recommend a renewal of the exclusive license to trade, no conclusion was
come to as to the future government of the North-West, and matters
remained as they were. [The whole spirit of the report returned to the
House of Commons was such as to justify the Company and its friends in
believing that no serious fault had been found with its management. The
inquiry, however, produced no immediate effect. The Committee
recommended that a bill should be introduced by the Government embodying
their views with reference to a change in the management of the country,
and expressed a hope that such grave interests being at stake, all
parties would approach the subject in a spirit of conciliation and
justice, but the recommendation has never been acted on." –
Hargrave’s Red River, p. 141.] In 1868, however, the subject
was finally set at rest. In that year, the Hon. (afterwards Sir)
George E. Cartier and the Hon. William Macdougall, were despatched to
England by the Canadian Cabinet in order to negotiate with the Home
Government for the transfer of the territory to the Dominion. The
validity of the charter had perforce to be admitted, and all that
remained was to come to terms with the Hudson Bay Company. By the terms
of the agreement thus concluded the sum of £300,000 sterling was to be
paid to the Company, as well as grants of land around its trading-posts,
amounting in all to fifty thousand acres. In addition to this, it is to
have, so soon as the territory is surveyed and laid out in townships,
one-twentieth of all the land in the great fertile belt south of the
north branch of the Saskatchewan. The privilege of trade is, of course,
retained, but the monopoly exists no longer. [See A Popular History
of Canada: By the Rev. W.H. Withrow, M.A., p. 537.]
These terms were absurdly
liberal to the Company; it was certainly not entitled to anything
approaching so extravagant a land-grant as was thus conceded to it.
Already the grant at Red River is an obstruction quite as injurious to
the progress of the district as if the lands were locked up in mortmain.
The impropriety of the grant will appear more evidently year by year, as
the Saskatchewan valley filled up, but expostulation with the Imperial
Government, or the Company, was vain. Canada was determined to have the
region as part of the new Dominion at all hazards, and was compelled to
pay for it at an exorbitant rate. In April, 1869, the Dominion
Parliament fulfilled that part of the compact which related to the
indemnity, and constituted a provisional government for the entire
country, under the name of the North-West Territory. On the first of the
following December, a formal surrender of the region was to take place,
and affairs were put in train for taking possession. Suddenly an
unforeseen trouble supervened, which, for the time, caused great
excitement and alarm, and, also temporarily kept the Dominion out of its
newly acquired possessions. The history of these events will be found
fully detailed in works specially devoted to Canadian history in general
or of this region in particular. Still a brief account of the so-called
Rebellion seems necessary in order to complete the sketch attempted here
of the colony. [See Begg’s History of the Red River Rebellion,
and also Withrow’s History, chap. xivii. where an admirable
concise account of the episode is given.]
In the month of
September, the Hon. William Macdougall who had been appointed first
Governor, approached the territory by way of the United States in order
to enter upon the duties of his office.
The events which followed
have been variously interpreted by those who have undertaken to relate
them, and perhaps it is even now impossible to apportion the blame
justly to the different parties concerned. Much of the excitement at
Fort Garry was unquestionably due to a misunderstanding largely the
fruit of ignorant fears on the part of the Métis or French
half-breeds. Some time before the arrival of Mr. Macdougall the storm
had been brewing, and it, at first, took the form of sullen
apprehensions and visible uneasiness. A party of surveyors, under Col.
Dennis, had been sent from Canada to run lines for roads, and lay out
townships. Mr. Begg states that the half-breeds at once took the alarm,
and, although they made no overt attack upon the surveyors, had very
grave suspicions of Canada’s purpose. Their alarm was caused by a
suggestion that it was the intention of the new Governor and Council to
dispossess them of their lands, and a causeless panic ensued, such as
has been witnessed in more civilized countries in connection with
railway enterprise. The Company’s friends deny that its officers had
anything to do with the feverish state of public feeling. It is their
contention that all the trouble which ensued was the fruit of
mischievous agitation got up by the Nor’-Wester, a rather
lively little paper published in the settlement, and by a few turbulent
spirits recently imported into the colony. These men, it is alleged,
went about exciting discontent with the Company, and, by their
overbearing conduct, causing profound distrust amongst the half-breeds.
Hitherto the settlement had been at peace, happy in its ignorance of
politics and party spirit, and contented under the benign rule of its
Hudson Bay guardians. Moreover, the surveyors and others are charged
with "squatting upon," or rather claiming without any attempt
at occupation, all the vacant lands they can get at. [Begg: The
Creation of Manitoba, or A History of the Red River Troubles, chap.
1. It may be remarked that this work exhibits a strong bias in favour of
the Company, and lays the entire responsibility upon the malcontents at
the Settlement, Mr. Macdougall and the Canadian Government. The
statements in it, therefore, must be taken with considerable reserve.]
On the 20th of October,
Mr. Macdougall was met near the boundary line by an armed force, and
compelled to withdraw again to Pembina in the State of Minnesota. The
discontent of the half-breeds had culminated in open revolt; a
provisional government was appointed under the guidance of Louis Riel,
who acted as Secretary with John Bruce as President. The Hudson Bay
Governor, at this time, was Mr. William Mactavish, a well-known name in
the annals of the North-West. Donald Mactavish, a native of Stratherick,
Scotland, was as already noted, one of the partners of the North-West
Company. For about a quarter of a century he was employed in trade and
exploration, visiting and conciliating the Indians, with whom he was in
great favor and in promoting generally the interests of his co-partnery.
He had projected an expedition with the object of striking a route
across the continent for trade with China, and after much hardship and
danger, had reached the mouth of the Columbia River when he and six
companions were lost near Cape Disappointment in the North Pacific, on
the 22nd of May, 1815. [Morgan: Celebrated Canadians, &c., p.
153.] Governor William Mactavish had been resident ruler of Assiniboia
for some years when the usurpation at once relieved him of further
trouble for a season. Fort Garry was seized, with all the stores,
rifles, cannon and ammunition; and, that having been done, the party met
Mr. Macdougall, as already stated, near the border, and forced him to
withdraw.
The Hon. William
Macdougall, though a Canadian, bears a name which clearly proclaims his
Scottish origin. According to Morgan’s Parliamentary Companion his
grandfather, John Macdougall, was a Scot by birth, and a U. E. Loyalist
attached to the British Commissariat service during the American
Revolution. After the termination of hostilities, he settled in Nova
Scotia, but subsequently removed to Upper Canada. William Macdougall was
born in Toronto, and has taken an active part in public affairs for many
years past. He was early connected with the press, both agricultural and
political, having conducted the Canada Farmer and the Canadian
Agriculturist in the interest of the tillers of the soil, and a
Reform journal, the North American, for a period of seven years,
until its absorption by the Globe with which he was connected
also for some years. In 1847 he had already been admitted as an
attorney; but only applied for and obtained a call to the Bar in 1862.
He has been a prominent member of several Canadian administrations, a
member of the Ontario Legislature for South Simcoe, and, once more, of
the Dominion Parliament, as M.P. for Halton. The check which the new
Governor and his party met on the frontier, although it had been
threatened, was hardly expected; but it completely overturned Mr.
Macdougall’s plans for the development of the country. It is much to
be regretted that this should have been the case. The hon. gentleman
possessed the requisite abilities for the onerous task he had
undertaken; he was active, intelligent, and well-fitted by his tact and
acquaintance with public affairs; and it must have been deeply
mortifying to him to have fallen a victim to the ignorant passions of an
unruly mob, before the opportunity had been given him to declare his
intentions and to unfold his policy at Fort Garry.
Col. Dennis was a
Canadian officer of volunteers, and so soon as Mr. Macdougall had met
the armed force of rebels and retreated, the gallant Colonel was
commissioned to organize a loyal force to suppress the revolt.
Forty-five of the men, however, were taken prisoners by the malcontents
at Fort Garry and committed to prison; and thenceforward Riel and his
associates were masters of the position. At a convention on Feb. 7th a
new government was formed with the noted French half-breed as President;
a bill of rights was drawn up, in which local self-government was
demanded, together with a general amnesty. An attempt to quell the
disturbances was made by Major Boulton, with some hundreds of men. Fort
Garry was to be attacked; but as Riel released the prisoners, the
movement was abandoned; but the Major, who was arrested with his
followers on their way home, was, after a mock trial, sentenced to
death. He was with difficulty saved from his fate; but afterwards, a
less fortunate prisoner, named Thomas Scott, was brutally murdered, in
spite of the exertions of the Rev. George Young, the Wesleyan minister,
and Mr. Donald A. Smith, of the Hudson Bay Company. The wide-spread
horror which prevailed throughout Ontario precipitated matters. In May
an Act was passed by the Dominion Parliament creating the Province of
Manitoba out of the Red River Settlement, and it was admitted as a
member of the Confederation on the 16th of July, 1870. The remaining,
and, of course, far the larger portion of the territory, was to be
governed by the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba, assisted by a Council
of eleven members.
Riel’s early success
had evidently turned his head, and his conduct throughout was arbitrary,
unjust and vindictive. Even after Mr. Macdougal’s departure from
Pembina eastward (18th December), the half-breed President was never at
ease. He managed to raise supplies by forced levies upon the Company and
the settlers; arrested Governor Mactavish, and abused him in violent
language, whilst confined to bed by illness; put Mr. Halkett in irons;
imprisoned Dr. Cowan; and threatened Mr. Bannatyne who endeavoured to
act as peacemaker; strove to deprive Mr. Donald A. Smith of his
credentials as Commissioner; and was guilty of other acts suggested by a
violent and impulsive nature. One of his officers, in fact, his
judiciary, was James Ross, a Scottish half-breed, the son of Alexander
Ross from whose works extracts have been made in former pages. He was a
young man of considerable ability, and his early promise attracted the
special attention of the Bishop of Rupert’s Land when studying at St
John’s College, Red River. In 1853 he entered the University of
Toronto, and graduated with honours in 1857. In 1860, on the
retirement of Mr. Buckingham (late Deputy-Minister of the Interior) from
the proprietary of the Nor’-Wester, Mr. Ross entered into
partnership with Mr. William Coldwell, the remaining member of the firm.
In 1864 Dr. Schultz, M. P., purchased Ross’s share, and the latter
left for Canada, where he was engaged at Toronto for a
considerable time upon the staff of the Globe. Mr. Ross had
always taken strong ground against the Company, and he was not more
favourable to the scheme of government proposed to be set up by
Canada. His sympathies were, therefore, to a constitutional extent with
Riel and his followers; but he had no share in the violent and arbitrary
acts of the so-called President. The provisional government appointed
him Chief Justice, and he is said to have drawn up the petition of
right. When at the University, he appeared to his fellow-students to combine
the steady, plodding and cautious character of the Scot with the
fertility of resource and the quiet reserve of the Indian, and the pride
of both races. He was cut off in his prime, and perhaps it may not seem
unkind, especially for a fellow-graduate of their common Alma Mater, to
say that a life, which might have been of essential service in his
native settlement was marred by being involved in its turbulent, yet
altogether insignificant party strifes.
In the month of June Col.
Garnet Wolseley, who afterwards succeeded in a tougher task under the
Equator, started with a force of twelve hundred men to oust Louis Riel
from the government of the country. With the exception of a company or
two of the 60th Rifles, this body was composed of Canadian volunteers.
On the 24th of August, after considerable difficulties had been
surmounted, the expedition arrived at Fort Garry, only to find that Riel
had abdicated and left his staff of office to anyone who might choose to
assume it. Early in September, the Hon. Adams George Archibald arrived,
and assumed the duties of the Lieutenant Governorship. [See Withrow’s
"Popular History," pp. 541, 542.] Mr. Archibald, however,
speedily resigned, preferring the Lieutenant-Governorship of Nova
Scotia, his native Province, to the vice-royalty at Red River. He was
succeeded by the Hon. Alexander Morris, the son of a Scot, who fills a
considerable figure in the history of Ontario, and, especially of the
eastern portion of it. He was born at Perth, a little more than
half a century since, and was educated partly at the Scottish
University of Glasgow, and partly at our Canadian University of
Montreal, which was founded by a Scot, the Hon. Peter McGill. He has
served as President of the St. Andrew’s Society at Montreal, and as
Trustee of the Presbyterian University of Queen’s College. Mr. Morris
attracted notice, as a young man by his pen, and amongst the subjects
which attracted his attention, nearly twenty years before, was the
future of the Great North-West, over which he was now called upon to
rule. Mr. Morris did not leave Canada and arrive a perfect stranger at
Winnipeg as Lieutenant-Governor, since he had already been Chief Justice
of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba,—its first Chief Justice
in fact,—for some months previously.
No survey of Scottish work in the
North-West, however cursory, can be complete, which fails to give
special prominence to the interests of religion, and its foster-sister,
education. In the introduction an attempt was made to outline those
broad and salient features of the national character as it has been
moulded by nature and by man. That sketch will have been drawn in vain,
if it has not proved conclusively that the Scot is by virtue of his
descent, and must always of necessity be, a religious man in bent and
bias, if not in practice. An old legal maxim, the cause of much
international strife, affirms that no man can put off his country, as if
it were a discarded suit of clothes. In the jurists’ sense this dictum
has been happily abandoned, but it remains irrefragably true, as applied
to individual characteristics, be they physical or intellectual, moral
or spiritual. If, as we know, both from science and Scripture, the
transgressions of an ancestor are visited upon posterity, with the
unfailing sequence of cause and effect, so also are his endowments,
whatever they may be, and his qualities and tendencies for good or evil,
transmitted to the latest generation. The newest born infant is no
isolated atom of humanity, but the last link formed in a living chain
whose other extremity is lost in the impenetrable mists and darkness of
the past. What he is, historical and congenital tendencies have made
man; it is in what he shall become that his responsibility lies. |
