Canada under British Rule 1760-1900Bourinot, John George
History
Canada under British Rule 1760-1900
Bourinot, John George
Canada -- History
While these events were in progress, the Canadian government enlisted in
the interests of law and order the services of Mr. Donald Smith, now
Lord Strathcona, who had been long connected with the Hudson's Bay
Company, and also of Archbishop Taché, of St. Boniface--the principal
French settlement in the country--who returned from Rome to act as
mediator between the Canadian authorities and his deluded flock.
Unhappily, before the Archbishop could reach Fort Garry, Scott had been
murdered, and the Dominion government could not consider themselves
bound by the terms they were ready to offer to the insurgents under a
very different condition of things. The murder of Scott had clearly
brought Riel and his associates under the provisions of the criminal
law; and public opinion in Ontario would not tolerate an amnesty, as was
hastily promised by the Archbishop, in his zeal to bring the rebellion
to an end. A force of 1200 regulars and volunteers was sent to the Red
River towards the end of May, 1870, under the command of Colonel
Wolseley, now a field-marshal and a peer of the realm. Riel fled across
the frontier before the troops, after a tedious journey of three months
from the day they left Toronto, reached Fort Garry. Peace was restored
once more to the settlers of Assiniboia. The Canadian government had had
several interviews with delegates from the discontented people of Red
River, who had prepared what they called "a Bill of Rights," and it was
therefore able intelligently to decide on the best form of governing the
territories. The imperial government completed the formal transfer of
the country to Canada, and the Canadian parliament in 1870 passed an act
to provide for the government of a new province of Manitoba.
Representation was given to the people in both houses of the Canadian
parliament, and provision was made for a provincial government on the
same basis that existed in the old provinces of the Dominion. The
lieutenant-governor of the province was also, for the present, to govern
the unorganised portion of the North-west with the assistance of a
council of eleven persons. The first legislature of Manitoba was elected
in the early part of 1871, and a provincial government was formed, with
Mr. Albert Boyd as provincial secretary. The first lieutenant-governor
was Sir Adams Archibald, the eminent Nova Scotian, who had been defeated
in the elections of 1867. Mr. Macdougall had returned from the
North-west frontier a deeply disappointed man, who would never admit
that he had shown any undue haste in commencing the exercise of his
powers as governor. Some years later he disappeared from active public
life, after a career during which he had performed many useful services
for Canada.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account