its innumerable and toilsome portages, to Fort Garry. There the first detachment arrived at 10 o'clock on the morning of the 24th of August, and at once entered the Fort. One hour before,-fitting end to the farce," the Little Napoleon" of the Red River revolt, in craven fear, fled. With like stealth, did the "Provisional Government" vanish, and the rebel army dissolve before the approach of the troops.'

* Literature has well preserved the history of this expedition of Colonel Wolseley, who, with his English and Canadian troops, made a gallant entry into Red River, over a most difficult route, from Port Arthur, via Lake of the Woods, to the Settlement. Its record in Capt. Huyshe's Narrative (London, 1871), is still interesting reading.

HE Mission of the Red River Expedition was one of
peace, and in peace it accomplished its
it accomplished its purpose. It

established, as Colonel Wolseley, its commanding officer, phrased it, "Her Majesty's Sovereign authority in the district," which lawlessness for a time had set at naught. Representing no party in religion or in politics, it afforded equal protection to all. Peace, happily, being restored, the troops were withdrawn, and the Hon. Mr. Archibald, the new Lieutenant-Governor, arrived on the scene. For a time partisan feeling ran high; one side clamouring for arrests and imprisonments, the other for conciliatory measures and an amnesty. But the new Governor was judicious, and took no hasty step. Time, he thought, would bring sobriety and returning reason, and with time tho breach between parties would heal.

The immediate care of the authorities was to re-establish peace and order; and, with security to life and property, to set up some civil authority which would impress the native mind with a distinct and tangible idea of government. In January, 1871, a general election was held in the new Province

for the return of members to the Legislative Assembly in the same month a Ministry was formed, the members of which, after re-election in the usual way, took charge of their respective portfolios. Members were also elected to represent the Province in the Federal Parliament; and gentlemen were nominated to serve on the Executive Council of the North-West. The function of the latter was to assist the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba, who in the meantime was to be ex officio Lieutenant-Governor of the region without the area of the Province, in passing laws and ordinances for the Government of the territory. Thus the first steps were taken to raise the new territorial acquisition of Canada in the political and social scale, and to supplant the Hudson Bay Company as a governing body.

In the Dominion Act calling the Province into existence, provision was made to meet the cost of Government, by an annual subsidy, and a grant of so much money per head of the population, as determined by the decennial census. To do justice to the half-breeds, and to remove their grievances, in Canada's assuming the Government of the territory, nearly a million and a-half of acres of land were reserved by the Dominion Government for allotment among those who at the time of the transfer were resident within the limits defined as the boundaries of Manitoba. By a subsequent Act, scrip, representing in land the equivalent of $160, was given to each head of a half-breed family; and, similarly, scrip was issued to the Selkirk colonists who had been in the country between the years 1813 and 1835. The claims of actual settlers to consideration were also duly acknowledged, and provision made that they should receive patents from the Crown for all lands of which they were in bona fide possession at the date of the transfer.*

A system of survey was also proceeded with; townships, thirty-six miles square, were blocked out; roads and bridges were built; and public buildings erected. As the surveys advanced, the allotment of lands was made to the Hudson Bay Company, to the half-breeds, and to the early white settlers; while land was appropriated for school purposes. Arrangements were now made by Treaty for extinguishing the Indian title throughout the territory. From 1871 to 1876 seven treaties were concluded with various Indian tribes inhabiting the region, extending from Lake Superior to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. The area embraced in the surrendered territory is estimated at 450,000 square miles, and covers the whole Fertile Belt as described in the Hudson Bay Company's Deed of Surrender. Of this area, reserves, of the tribes own choosing, were set apart for the support of the Indians, each family receiving a tract equal to about 160 acres. The conditions of the relinquishment were the payment of an annuity of $5 to each member of the tribe, $25 to each chief, with a suit of clothes every third year, together with an appropriation for schools, and supplies of cattle and implements when the Indians settled down on their respective reserves to agricultural pursuits. It was furthermore stipulated, that the sale of all intoxicating liquors should be absolutely prohibited, either on or out of the reserves.

Such, in brief, were the steps taken by the Canadian authorities to organise the once Hudson Bay Territory, and to carve a section out of it that would worthily rank among the older Provinces of the Dominion. In time the boundaries of the new Province were enlarged, and a more extended area was embraced in its limits. At a later date, the North West Territory was further parcelled out and given a separate government. Manitoba now extends from the western boundary of

Ontario, long in dispute, to 101° 30′ west longitude, and from the international boundary to nearly 53° north latitude. The desolate territory of Keewatin, lies to the north of this Province, sweeping past the western shores of Hudson Bay, to the Frozen Ocean. On the west, lie the rich districts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Athabasca, and Assiniboia, bounded by the towering Rockies and British Columbia, the Dominion Province on the Pacific. Through these districts run twenty meridian lines of longitude, and, at least, ten of latitude, that are adapted for settlement. This vast basin is channelled by great fertilising streams, and gemmed by the most beautiful prairie flowers, fringed on the north by a sheltering line of forest. For farming and grazing purposes, no land on this planet is more suitable; the soil is a black alluvium of great depth and almost inexhaustible fertility, broken by occasional groups of low hills, composed chiefly of sand and gravel. The soil of Manitoba, having originally been the bed of a lake, is mainly formed of a rich silt deposited during the eons of the past. No account of its amazing productiveness can possibly be exaggerated; and being comparatively free of timber, it is at once ready for the settler's plough. Of the beauty of the Red River prairie, under different aspects and lights, we get a charming description from the pen of an eminent native geologist, the son of an equally eminent Canadian savant.*

"But the country must be seen in its extraordinary aspects before it can be rightly valued and understood, in reference to its future occupation by an energetic and civilised race, able to improve its vast capabilities and appreciate its boundless beauties. It must be seen at sunrise, when the vast plain suddenly flashes with rose-coloured light, as the rays of the sun sparkle

* From the Report of Dr. George M. Dawson, Geologist and Naturalist to the British North America Boundary Commission, quoted by Prof. Macoun, in his interesting work on "Manitoba and the North West."-Guelph, 1882.