The extension of the Dominion to the Pacific ocean had been discussed at the Quebec Conference. Some of the maritime delegates, however, thought they had no authority to discuss the acquisition of territory beyond the boundaries of the provinces; and George Brown, one of the strongest advocates of western extension, conceded that the inclusion of British Columbia and Vancouver Island in the scheme of union was 'rather an extreme proposition.' But the Canadian leaders never lost sight of the intervening regions of Rupert's Land and the North-West Territory. They foresaw the danger of the rich prairie lands falling under foreign control, and entertained no doubts as to the necessity of terminating in favour of Canada the hold of the Hudson's Bay Company over these regions. In 1857 the select committee of the Imperial House of Commons, mentioned in a preceding {159} chapter, had believed it 'essential to meet the just and reasonable wishes of Canada to be enabled to annex to her territory such portion of the land in her neighbourhood as may be available to her for the purposes of settlement.' The districts on the Red River and on the Saskatchewan were considered as likely to be desired; and, as a condition of occupation, Canada should open up and maintain communication and provide for local administration. The committee thought that if Canada were unwilling to take over the Red River country at an early date some temporary means of government might be devised. Nothing, however, had come of the suggestion. Had it been carried out, and a crown colony created, comprising the territory which is now the province of Manitoba, the Dominion would have been saved a disagreeable and humiliating episode, as well as political complications which shook the young state to its foundations. This was the trouble known to history as the Red River Rebellion. As an armed insurrection it was only a flash in the pan. But it awoke passions in Ontario and Quebec, and revived all those dissensions, racial and religious, which the union had lulled into a semblance of harmony. {160} One of the first steps taken by parliament in the autumn of 1867 was the adoption of an address to the Queen, moved by William McDougall, asking that Rupert's Land and the North-West Territory be united with Canada. Two members of the government, Cartier and McDougall, went to England to negotiate for the extinction of the rights of the Hudson's Bay Company. After months of delay, caused partly by the serious illness of McDougall, it was agreed that the company should receive £300,000, one-twentieth of the lands lying within the Fertile Belt, and 45,000 acres adjacent to its trading-posts. The Canadian parliament formally accepted the bargain, and the deed of surrender provided that the change of rule should come into force on December 1, 1869.