The Act for the Temporary Government of Rupert's Land and the North Western Territory, which was passed by the Dominion parliament in 1869, plainly forecasts the organization of a part of the territory as a province, but it does not in any way define its boundaries. The Manitoba Act, as introduced into the house of commons by Sir John A. Macdonald a year later, provided for the establishment of a little rectangular province, whose western boundary would have been drawn east of Portage la Prairie; but the clause defining its boundaries was amended to read as follows:

"On, from, and after the day upon which the Queen, by and with the advice and consent of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, under the authority of the 146th section of the British North America Act. 1867, shall, by Order in Council in that behalf, admit Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory into the Union or Dominion of Canada, there shall be formed out of the same a Province, which shall be one of the Provinces of Canada, and which shall be called the Province of Manitoba, and be bounded as follows: that is to say, commencing at the point where the meridian of ninety-six degrees west longitude from Greenwich intersects parallel of forty-nine degrees north latitude, thence due west along the said parallel of forty-nine degrees north latitude (which forms a portion of the boundary line between the United States of America and the said North-Western Territory) to the meridian of ninety-nine degrees of west longitude, thence due north along the said meridian of ninety-nine degrees of west longitude to the intersection of the same with the parallel of fifty degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, thence due east along the said parallel of fifty degrees and thirty minutes north latitude to its intersection with the before-mentioned meridian of ninety-six degrees west longitude, thence due south along the said meridian of ninety-six degrees west longitude to the place of beginning."

Thus the meridian which formed its eastern boundary passed near White-mouth, while that forming its western boundary lay near Austin. The northern boundary was not far from Oak Point. The estimated area of the small province was about 9,500,000 acres. Although its area was so restricted, its boundaries lay well outside the limits of the districts settled at the time, and this may be the reason that the province was not made much greater when it was formed.

Possibly early additions to the area of the new province were contemplated in drafting the acts of 1869 and 1870, for they made the remaining parts of the North-West Territory appendant to Manitoba, inasmuch as its lieutenant-governor was to be lieutenant-governor of the territories as well. When settlement began in them, some less simple form of government became necessary; and iu 1872 the Canadian parliament passed an act which committed their government to the lieutenant-governor and a council. When the tirst meeting of this council took place in March, 1873, its members were Hon. Marc A. Girard, Hon. Donald A. Smith, Hon. Henry J. Clarke, Hon. Alfred Boyd, Pascal Breland, Dr. John Schultz, Joseph Dubuc, A. G. B. Bannatyne, William Fraser, Robert Hamilton, and William J. Christie. The lieutenant-governor was, of course, Governor Morris of Manitoba, and all his council were citizens of that province. Sessions of the council were held in Winnipeg. Parliament amended the Northwest Territories Act in 1873, increasing the council and giving it wider powers; but this made little difference in the manner in which its government was carried on. It was not until 1875 that the Canadian parliament passed an act which gave the North-West Territories a government entirely distinct from that of Manitoba, and up to that time it would have been easy to add very extensive districts to the province without disturbing the machinery of their government.

The act of 1875 came into force by proclamation on October 7, 1876, and the lieutenant-governor of the territories, Hon. David Laird, and his council at once set at work upon the task committed to them. But the territory, which they were to rule, did not include all the territory left after the province of Manitoba was formed. Lying north and east of it, was a great area which had formed a part of Rupert's Land, but which was not included in the country affected by the act of 1875. By an act passed in 1876 this territory was organized as the District of Keewatin and was placed under the jurisdiction of the lieutenant-governor of Manitoba, who was to be assisted in the management of its affairs by a council. The act defines its boundaries thus: "Beginning at the westerly boundary of the Province of Ontario, on the International boundary line dividing Canada from the United States of America; thence westerly, following the said International boundary line to the eastern boundary of the Province of Manitoba; thence due north along the said easterly boundary of Manitoba to the northeast angle of the said Province; thence due west on the north boundary of said Province to the intersection of the said boundary with the westerly shore of Lake Manitoba f thence northerly, following the said westerly shore of the said lake to the eastern terminus thereon of the portage connecting the southerly end of Lake Winnipegosis with the said Lake Manitoba, known as 'Meadow Portage;' thence westerly, following upon the trail of the said portage to the westerly terminus of the same, being on the easterly shore of the said Lake Winnipegosis; thence northerly, following the line of the said easterly shore of the said lake, to the southerly end of the portage leading from the head of the said lake into Cedar Lake, known as 'Cedar' or 'Mossy Portage;' thence northerly, following the trail of the said portage to the north end of the same on the shore of Cedar Lake; thence due north to the northerly limits of Canada thence easterly, following upon the said northerly limits of Canada, to the northern extremity of Hudson's Bay; thence southerly, following upon the westerly shore of the said Hudson's Bay, to a point where it would be intersected by a line drawn due north from the place of beginning; and thence due south on the said line last mentioned to the place of beginning."

The act creating this district also came into force by proclamation on October 7, 1876. Lieutenant-Governor Morris became its lieutenant-governor, and on November 24th the members of its council were gazetted. They were Lieut-Colonel W. Osborne Smith, Dr. Jaekes, Dr. Codd, Gilbert McMicken, J. A. N. Proveneher, and William Hespeler. About two years later parliament passed an act, which provided for the establishment of municipal government in portions of the District of Keewatin. Parts or all of this district could have been annexed to Manitoba without difficulty.

There were many reasons why the government of Manitoba, backed by its people, should ask for the enlargement of the province. There was the natural desire to secure for it an area somewhat proportionate to the areas of the older provinces of the Dominion. It was necessary to find more room for the army of settlers which was coming into the province. This had been so much greater than was anticipated that in the decade which followed the establishment of the province its population was multiplied by six. There was the pressing need of the province for a larger income and the hope that sooner or later it would secure control of the crown lands and other natural resources within its borders and be able to obtain a very considerable revenue from them. Nearly all the additional territory asked for would be crown land, and much of it would prove rich in timber, minerals, or tish. There was also the desire to secure, if possible, a port for the province on Lake Superior and one or more ports on Hudson Bay. After a time the extension of the provincial boundaries was desired for another reason. "When the need of additional railway facilities became intolerable and the people determined that the province should secure and exercise the right to charter new lines within its boundaries, it was very evident that the larger the province the more ample would be the relief afforded settlers by its local railways.

It has been stated in an earlier chapter that the government of Manitoba sent Messrs. Clarke, Royal, Howard, and Bird to Ottawa early in 1873 to press the claims of the province for more liberal grants from the Dominion treasury and that the memorandum which these gentlemen submitted to the Canadian government on March 31st was supplemented by another on April 24th, which asked for a large addition to the area of the province. If the request had been granted, Manitoba would have been bounded as follows: "Commencing at a point where the western boundary of the Province of Ontario intersects the boundary line between the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada, thence due north along the said westerly boundary of the Province of Ontario to Hudson's Bay, thence northwesterly along the shore of the said bay to the parallel of sixty degrees north latitude, thence due west along the said parallel of sixty degrees north latitude to the meridian of one hundred degrees west of Greenwich, thence due south along the said meridian of one hundred degrees of west longitude to the boundary line between the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada, and thence easterly along the said boundary line between the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada to the place of beginning." This would have made the total area of the province nearly 300,000 sq. miles, would have added a very desirable strip of country on the west, would have brought her in touch with the provinces on the east, and would have given her ports both on Hudson Bay and on Lake Superior. Negotiations upon this matter were interrupted, however, by the troubles in which the Macdoriald government became involved soon after the demand was made; and when the Mackenzie government came into power, it declined to grant Manitoba's request.

The speech from the throne, with which Lieutenant-Governor Morris opened the first session of the second ^Manitoba legislature on March 31, 1875, contained this sentence: "In order, therefore, to bring about a fair adjustment of this very important question, you will be asked to concur in an address to His Excellency the Governor-General and the Privy Council of Canada, asking for a revision of the financial relations existing between the Dominion and the Province, and also for a substantial enlargement of the boundaries of Manitoba. both westwardly, easterly and northerly"' Soon afterward Messrs. Davis and Royal went to Ottawa to submit the requests of the province but while they secured a small increase in the subsidy paid by the Dominion, the boundaries of the province were not changed * When Mr. Norquay became premier of Manitoba in October, 1878, the extension of its boundaries was one plank of the platform on which he appealed to the people in a general election. They showed their approval by giving him a large majority in the new legislature; and yet, when Messrs. Norquay and Royal went to Ottawa early in 1879 to present the demands of the province, the request for an extension of the boundaries does not appear to have been submitted. When, on their return to Winnipeg, the friction between these two members of the cabinet broke out into open opposition, the English-speaking members of the legislature rallied around the premier in caucus and signed a memorandum of the policy on which they would support bim, one of its clauses being an expression of their determination to secure additional territory for the province. After the ministerial squabble had ended in the resignation of Messrs. Royal and Delorme and the appointment of Messrs. Biggs and Taylor as their successors, the legislature proceeded with the business of the session. Before it closed, an address to the governor-general was adopted, praying for an extension of the boundaries eastward to 1lie boundary of Ontario at a point on or near Thunder Pay, northward to Hudson Bay, and westward to the 10,']rd meridian of longitude,

A general election was held late in 1879, and Manitoba's third legislature commenced its first session in January, 1880. Once more memorials, praying for better terms and an extension of the provincial boundaries, were adopted, and once more a delegation from the government wended its way to Ottawa. Messrs. Norquay, Brown, and McMicken presented the demands of Manitoba to the Dominion ministers in March, and while some consideration was paid to their requests for more generous grants from the Dominion, the delegates were told that the boundary question could not be dealt with until the western boundary of Ontario had been definitely settled.

In 1871 the imperial parliament had passed an act which gave the Dominion of Canada power to alter the boundaries of any province, provided the legislature of that province agreed to the changes. A fortnight after this act was passed, the Ontario government asked the Dominion government to join with it in appointing a commission to settle the western and northern boundaries of that province. This was done, Mr. E. Tache being appointed to represent the Dominion and Hon. Wm. McDougall to represent Ontario. In the instructions issued to the Dominion commissioner it was intimated that the extreme western boundary of Ontario should be a continuation of the meridian which passes through the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and that the northern boundary should be the height of land dividing the streams which flow into the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River from those which flow into Hudson Bay; but the Ontario government claimed that the western boundary should be the meridian passing through the source of the Mississippi and that the northern boundary should lie far beyond the St. Lawrence watershed. Thus a deadlock arose, and the commission did nothing. After a time the Dominion suggested that the boundary question be referred to the judicial committee of the imperial privy council as the most competent authority on the matter, but Ontario would not consent to the plan.

In December, 1873, the Dominion government reopened negotiations for a settlement of the question, and in the following March the Ontario legislature approved of a reference either to the privy council or to a commission as the lieutenant-governor might deem wise. In June, 1874, the two governments entered into a provisional arrangement for administering the lands in the disputed district, and in November of that year they agreed to submit the boundary question to arbitration. There were delays of various kinds, but on August 3, 1878, the commissioners submitted their report. It was signed by Sir Francis Hincks for the Dominion, by Chief Justice Harrison for Ontario, and by Sir Edward Thornton, British Ambassador to Washington, as the third member of the arbitration board. It recommended that the boundary be the meridian passing through the Northwest Angle of the Lake of the Woods as far as the English River and that it should then follow the English River, Lac Seul, Lake St. Joseph, and the Albany river to James Bay. The award gave Ontario more than she had any right to expect, and so her legislature promptly passed an act to ratify the award and adopted measures for the administration of justice in the new territory; but the Dominion government declined to endorse the award of the commission. It did, however, secure the passage of an act in regard to the administration of justice in the disputed territory, which allowed the magistrates and constables of Ontario .concurrent jurisdiction with those of the Dominion.

The act of the Dominion parliament, passed in 1880 with the well-meant purpose of preserving order in the disputed territory lying between Manitoba and Ontario, provided that every crime committed in any part of the disputed territory may be inquired into, tried, and punished, within any county or district iu Ontario, or Manitoba, or Keewatin, and such crime shall be within the jurisdiction of any court, judge, magistrate or magistrates, or justice or justices of the peace, or other functionaries having jurisdiction over crimes or offences of like nature, committed within the limits of the county or district in which such crime or offence is prosecuted. The committing judge or magistrate might send the prisoner to a jail in Ontario or to one in Manitoba at his discretion; a judge of the superior court of the province in which the prisoner was jailed might make an order that he be sent to another jail in either province to await trial and if conviction followed his trial, his sentence was to be determined by the laws of Ontario or Keewatin, according as the offence or crime was charged to have been committed in Ontario or Keewatin. This measure was intended to prevent offenders escaping the penalties for their offences through any uncertainty of jurisdiction in the districts where these offences were committed. As a matter of fact its effect was just the opposite of that intended.

Manitoba's oft-repeated request for additional territory was granted in 1881, although the addition Was much smaller than that demanded. In March of that year the Canadian parliament passed an act extending the boundaries of the province 011 the three sides where extension was possible. Pending the settlement of the dispute between the Dominion and Ontario regarding the western boundary of the latter, the eastern boundary of Manitoba was not fixed very definitely. It was to be a line drawn due north from the intersection of the western boundary of Ontario with the forty-ninth parallel of latitude, the northern boundary was to be the centre of the road allowance along the twelfth base line in the Dominion system of survey, or about the parallel of 52° 51' north latitude, and the western boundary was to be the centre of the road allowance between the twenty-ninth and thirtieth ranges of townships west of the first principal meridian. The act came into force on July 1, 1881, and it made the total area of the province, after its eastern boundary had been fixed, about 73,956 sq. miles.

Manitoba accepted this addition to her area, subject to a final delimitation of the eastern boundary; and in May, 1881, an act was passed by the provincial legislature to provide for the government of the new territory. It was divided into six electoral districts, but no member of the legislature was to be elected for the new constituency on the east (Rat Portage) until the boundary in that direction had been fixed. In extending the laws of the original province to the added districts, power was given to the lieutenant-governor in council to proclaim such laws in force in these districts as might be deemed wise. This step was intended to allay possible dissatisfaction among settlers living in the new districts. Among other differences between the laws which had prevailed in them and the laws of Manitoba was that in the regulations which governed the sale of liquor. In the North-West Territories a prohibitory law, enacted by the Dominion parliament, was in force, while Manitoba had a licence system.

In administering the eastern addition to the area of the province there was need of the utmost caution to prevent conflict of jurisdiction between Manitoba and the Dominion on one hand and between Manitoba and Ontario on the other. Overlapping legislation and overlapping administration of the law were as likely to cause trouble there in the early eighties as in the years of the conflict between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North-West Company. It was to obviate such troubles that one clause in the act adopted by the provincial legislature in 1881 provided that: "All laws and ordinances in force in the territory hereby added to the Province of Manitoba at the time of the coming into force of this act, and all courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction, and all legal commissions, powers, and authorities, and all officers, judicial, administrative, and ministerial, existing therein at the time of coming into force of this act, shall continue therein, as if such territory had not been added to the said province; subject, nevertheless, with respect to matters within the legislative authority of the Legislature of the Province of Manitoba to be repealed, abolished. or altered by the said legislature.'-'. Had the government of Manitoba adhered to the spirit of this clause, it might have prevented much of the trouble which soon arose.

The Dominion act of 1881, which made Manitoba's eastern boundary coincide with the western boundary of Ontario, roused a determination on the part of the Ontario government to secure all the territory which would have been hers, had the award of 1878 gone into effect. This determination was strengthened by the action of the government of Manitoba, which, in August of 1881, abandoned the moderate policy adopted in May and attempted to assert its authority in the disputed district. On the 15th of the month the lieutenant-governor proclaimed the laws of Manitoba in force there; and soon after the county of Varennes was declared a judicial district, and a county court was established in it, the sittings to be held in Rat Portage. In January of 1882 the Dominion government proposed that the boundary question be submitted to the supreme court of Canada, but Ontario declined to do so unless she were practically guaranteed the territory which the commission would have given her four years earlier, and in March her legislature passed a resolution authorizing the government to take possession of the territory m dispute. A few months later this was done. Land commissioners for the district were appointed, commissions were issued to magistrates and constables in Rat Portage, and a court-house and jail were built there. In the meantime the town had been incorporated by the Manitoba government, which had also built a court-house and a jail and appointed a magistrate and constables.

The little frontier town at the foot of the Lake of the Woods was well supplied with all the machinery for the maintenance of law and order. The Dominion had appointed a magistrate and constables; Manitoba's magistrate and constables were there? and Ontario was represented by a corresponding staff of peace officers. Ontario had a court-house in the town, Manitoba had another. Each province had a jail there. Neither was very strong, and one was a mere cabin built of poles. It was so low that on one occasion a prisoner moved the rafters and made his way to liberty through the roof. The Dominion authorities wisely refrained from doing more than look after criminal cases, leaving other matters to the rival provinces.

The task of maintaining a moderate degree of order in that part of the disputed territory might have kept the three sets of peace officers fully occupied, even if they had worked in harmony. The main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway was being constructed through the district at that time, and several thousand men were employed on sections of the line lying east and west of Rat Portage. In and around the small town were many men engaged in lumbering and nailing. The wilderness stretched around for many miles on all sides. Thus the conditions offered opportunities to whiskey-smugglers, which were too tempting to be neglected. There was an enormous profit to be made on the vile liquor peddled through the district, for many of the men would pay any price to obtain it. It was smuggled in by the most ingenious and varied methods, cached in the most unlikely places, and transferred from point to point with rare cunning.

Instead of uniting for the suppression of illicit whiskey-peddling and the resulting disorder, the peace officers of each province spent their energies in attempts to assert the authority of that province over the officials of the other.

The inevitable clash came over the liquor traffic. The Dominion government had withdrawn the district about Rat Portage from the operation of the Public Works Act so far as it related to the sale of liquor in the vicinity of public works. The Manitoba government then extended its license system to the district, and issued hotel and wholesale licenses to men in Rat Portage; but the Ontario officials refused to recognize these licenses, claiming that their province only had the right to regulate the traffic in liquors. The situation became acute in the summer of 1883. Prisoners arrested on the order of one magistrate were liberated by the order of another. Prisoners committed to 'jail by the authorities of one government were taken out by parties of men who claimed that they were merely upholding the rights of the other. Finally constables, who had made arrests on the orders of one magistrate, found themselves arrested for so doing by constables acting on the orders of another justice of the peace. A newspaper correspondent^ describing the events of one; July day, said, "Dominion Commissioner McCabe with two policemen, Ontario Magistrate Bur don with twenty-five policemen, and Stipendiary Magistrate Brereton, with fifteen policemen, acting on behalf of Manitoba, have been arresting each other all day; and the people have been siding, some with one party and some with another, to the imminent danger of the peace and of loss of life."

On July 28th the Manitoba jail was burned, and the government decided that sterner measures were necessary. Premier Norquay, Attorney-General Millar, Captain Constantine, chief of the provincial police, and twenty-five constables took a special train and hurried to the seat of war. They arrested a number of men on charges of breaking open the jail and releasing prisoners. These captives were brought to Winnipeg and committed to prison. On the 8tli of August the Manitoba government passed an order in council which expressed its unalterable determination to keep up the fight until the rights of the province were recognized and her laws established in the disputed territory. The arrests, counter-arrests, and jail-breaking, which resembled the action of a low comedy so closely, continued for some month longer. In the meantime whiskey-peddling flourished, and lawlessness grew apace.

The district claimed by both provinces was in Manitoba's constituency of Rat Portage, subsequently called Yarennes, and in the Ontario constituency of Algoma. In July, 1883, the Manitoba legislature amended the act of 18S1 so that an election could be held in this constituency at any time. To make the resemblance to low comedy more exact, an election for each riding was held on September 21st, Mr. R. A. Lyon being elected to the Ontario house for Algoma and Attorney-General James Millar to the Manitoba legislature for Yarennes. A month earlier some of the residents of Rat Portage had decided at a public meeting to form a municipality there under the jurisdiction of Ontario and had subsequently elected a reeve and councillors. Thus, in addition to three sets of peace officers, the town had two organizations for municipal government, and was represented in two provincial legislatures. Nevertheless the district had less of good government and more of lawlessness than any other place in Canada.

Late 'n the year 1883 Attorney-General Mowat of Ontario and Attorney-General Millar of Manitoba met at Toronto and agreed upon an armistice, which both governments would observe until the'-boundary line between the provinces had been settled by the imperial privy council. Neither government abandoned any of its claims; but it was agreed that, pending the decision sought, all of the disputed territory lying east and south of the watershed which divides the streams flowing into Lake Superior from those which find their way to Hudson Bay should be administered exclusively by Ontario, while the remainder of the territory should be administered by a commission of two members, one from each province, who would have co-ordinate authority as magistrates, control the police, collect fines, etc. No other magistrates would hold commissions at Rat Portage, and the authority of both councils of that town would be suspended and its municipal affairs placed in the hands of a board of five men to be elected after the proposed agreement had been ratified by the legislatures of the two provinces concerned. The courts, judges, and sheriffs of each province were to have jurisdiction in suits brought before them. The boundary question was to be submitted to the privy council, and its decision was to be carried into effect by such provincial legislation as might be necessary.

The inter-provincial boundary case came before the privy council on July 16, 1884, Hon. Oliver Mowat appearing for Ontario and Mr. D'Alton McCarthy, Q. C., for Manitoba. The argument occupied several days, and it was not until August lltli that the highest judicial court in the realm gave its decision upon the long-disputed question under consideration The most important clause in the decision is as follows:

"That upon the evidence their Lordships find the true boundary between the western part of the Province of Ontario and the northeastern part of the Province of Manitoba to be so much of a line drawn to the Lake of the Woods, through the waters eastward of that, and west of Long Lake, which divides British North America from the territory of the United States, and thence to the Lake of the "Woods to the most northwestern point of that lake as runs northward from the United States boundary, and from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the "Woods a line drawn due north until it strikes the middle line of the course of the river discharging the waters of the lake called Lac Seul or the Lonely Lake, whether above or below its confluence with the stream flowing from the Lake of the Woods towards Lake Winnipeg. And their Lordships find the true boundary between the same two provinces to the north of Ontario and to the south of Manitoba, proceeding eastward from the point at which the beforementioned line strikes the middle line of the course of the river last aforesaid to lie along the middle line of the course of the same river (whether called by the name of the English River or, as to the part below the confluence, by the name of the River Winnipeg), up to Lac Seul or the Lonely Lake and thence along the middle line of Lac Seul or the Lonely Lake to the head of that lake, and thence by a straight line to the nearest point of the middle line of the waters of Lake Saint Joseph, and thence along the middle line until it reaches the foot, or outlet of that lake, and thence along the middle line of the river by which the waters of Lake Saint Joseph discharge themselves until it reaches a line due north from a line drawn due north from the confluence of the Rivers Mississippi and Ohio, which forms the boundary eastward of Manitoba."

While this decision gave most of the disputed territory to Ontario, it was assumed by many people that it gave Manitoba that quadrilateral of country lying between meridian of the mouth of the Ohio and the meridian of the Northwest Angle and bounded on the north by the parallel of 52^c 51 north latitude and on the south by the English River, Lac Seul, Lake St. Joseph, and the Albanv Kiver. Maps were drawn on this assumption, and much confusion resulted. Indeed the matter was a disputed question until it was settled that, in view of the privy council's decision, the act passed by the Dominion parliament in 1881 could not give Manitoba any territory east of the meridian of 95° 9'. This line, therefore, became the eastern boundary of the province. -

lion. Mr. Norquay seems to have anticipated the adverse decision of the privy council, for during the session of 1882 the provincial legislature was asked by the government to endorse the following resolutions:

"1. That it is the opinion of this House that it is in the interests of this Province that the boundaries thereof should be further extended:—To the west to the 102nd meridian, to the north to the 60th parallel of north latitude, so as to contain the outlets on Hudson Bay, and to the east on Lake Superior.

"2, That 1he public lands within the bounds of the Province as above defined, should be handed over to the trusteeship of the Provincial authorities, including forests, mines, minerals, etc., for administration for the public uses of the Province.

"3. That in the settlement of our eastern boundary, should it be found that such eastern boundary (when properly and legally defined) shall be at a point west of Thunder Bay, that the Executive be requested to commence negotiations with the rightful owners thereof, with a view of acquiring such a strip of land as may lie between such boundary and the meridian passing immediately east of Prince Arthur's Landing."

Mr. Norquay renewed this request for more territory when he made his annual visit to Ottawa in 1884. The request was not unlike that preferred by Mr. Clarke eleven years earlier. Both premiers wished to secure a port on Hudson Bay, and Mr. Norquay had a special reason for seeking it, as he hoped by chartering a railway to the bay to secure relief from the monopoly which bore so heavily on the people of the province. If the request had been granted it would have added about 180,000 sq. miles to the area of Manitoba. The reply of the Dominion ministers to the demands of the province was presented to the house on April 15, 1884. The request for additional territory was refused on the ground that the cost of administering it would probably exceed the revenue which the province could derive from it.

From this time forward the agitation for an extension of the provincial boundaries was merged into and largely overshadowed by the agitation to secure the right of the province to charter and build railways in its own territory, and the two matters can hardly be discussed separately.