DOMINION oi CANADA. 



243 



to third article of the treaty it WM provided 



that 

 The commissioners shall Issue certificates of the turn* 



tobo |>:ii'l i" Hi' 1 rliilnmnti respectively, by virtue of their 



decisions or those of the umpire; and the aggregate 

 i of all sura* awarded by the cointnWlnnen, u<I 

 -urn* at-iTuing from awards made by the ampin?, 



..'nil !>< pHiit to tliu Uovernmcnt of the United 



its of said sums ahull bu made In equal aunual 

 its, to be completed in ten years from the duto of 

 uiii.-itloii of tli.- labors of the commission ; the flrxt 



payment to be made six months from the same date. 



Hemi-uuuiiiil interest shall be paid on the several sums 

 I, at a rate of five per cent, per annum from the 



date of the termination of the labors of the commission. 



Pursuant to this article the commission issued cor- 



s to the successful claimants, covering the 



itiiiounta awarded, and the records of the commission, 



:-h >\\ iug all its work and the testimony on which the 



- were founded, were reported to the State 



Departments of the respective governments. 



Two instalments of principal and three of interest 



upon the awards have matured, but the Venezuelan 



nicnt has not only neglected to make payment, 



but m:mi tests its intention to evade payment entirely 



liy repudiating the work of the commission. 



When the nrst instalment fell due in February, 

 1869, in lieu of forwarding the required money, an 

 agent was sent to interpose exceptions and objections 

 to the conduct of the commissioners and to urge an 

 annulment of their awards. In executing his mission 

 his entire case became the subject of elaborate diplo- 

 matic correspondence between nimself and Secretaries 

 Seward and Woshburne, and each of those secretaries 

 emphatically pronounced the pretexts, set up by Ve- 

 nezuela in excuse of payment, as inconclusive and 

 invalid. The Venezuelan Government, however, per- 

 sisted in its default, and, in the course of a few 

 months after the last letter from Secretary Wash- 

 burne, permitted another instalment of interest to 

 mature and rest unpaid and unnoticed. 



The objections against the commission -were not 

 again revived until in the fall of last year, and then 

 only conversationally to the United States Minister 

 Partridge, who notified our Government, and, in re- 

 turn, was instructed to ask from the Venezuelan 

 Government specific charges accompanied by proofs, 

 by a limited time, or an abandonment of all further 

 complaint against the commission. Thus invited, 

 the Venezuelan Government had a large mass of tes- 

 timony token in that country which it sent hither 

 l:i>t February in charge of an accredited party and 

 filed in the State Department, and which has since 

 been laid before the House of Representatives by the 

 Secretary of State. 



DOMINION OF CANADA. This country 

 seems to be gradually acquiring strength and 

 expansion. The difficulties arising from the 

 acquisition of the Hudson's Bay Territory, 

 causing trouble and alarm toward the close of 

 18C9, which continued for some months of the 

 present year, were effectually removed by pru- 

 dent measures on the part of the Dominion 

 Government. Delegates from the population 

 of the Territory were received at Ottawa, and 

 on the 3d of May the Governor-General, Sir 

 John Young, was enabled to telegraph the im- 

 perial authorities that negotiations with them 

 closed satisfactorily. On the 12th of the same 

 month (May, 1870) permanent effect was given 

 to the arrangements thus arrived at, by an act 

 of the Dominion Parliament, which created 

 out of " Rupert's Land, and the Northwestern 

 Territory," a new province containing 11,000 

 square miles, named Manitoba, to be repre- 

 sented in the Senate of Canada, for the pres- 



ent, and until it shall have acquired a larger 



population, by two iiic-inbers, and in the House 

 of i 'ominous by four members. It U alao pro- 

 \ i.l-l that there ."hull be a local Legislature, 

 to consist of a Lieutenant-Governor, and two 

 Hoii-t-s M\1<1, respectively, the Legislative 

 Council and the Legislative Assembly the 

 former to roii-ist of .-.I-M-II in.-iaberg, to be ap- 

 pointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in the 

 Queen's name, the latter of twenty-four, elected 

 every four years, each male person in the prov- 

 ince being entitled to vote, subject only to the 

 simple conditions of being of the full age of 

 twenty-one years, u subject of her Majesty, 

 by birth or naturalizaton, and a lonarfide 

 householder. 



The financial conditions upon which the new 

 province is admitted into the Canadian Con- 

 federation are similar in principle to those 

 upon which the eastern provinces entered, 

 allowance being made for its becoming liable 

 for the general debt, and ample provision 

 guaranteed for the support of its government 

 and Legislature. The customs-duties charge- 

 able in Rupert's Land, previous to Manitoba 

 being erected, are to continue without in- 

 crease for three years, the proceeds to form 

 part of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of 

 Canada. It was understood that the chief 

 cause of the insurrectionary movement of 

 1869, referred to in the last notice of the 

 Dominion, was apprehension on the part of 

 the half-breeds of the Territory that not only 

 would future grants of land be made with a 

 view to their injury as a people, but that ex- 

 isting rights would not be sufficiently ro- 

 spected. Much care is, therefore, shown in 

 the Dominion law to remove all ground for 

 such alarm. It is expressly provided that one 

 hundred thousand acres of land shall be divided 

 among the children of the half-breeds residing 

 in the province at the time of the transfer to 

 Canada, on such conditions as to settlement 

 and otherwise as the Governor-General in 

 council may from time to time determine ; and 

 following this is a series of enacting clauses 

 for the quieting of titles, and assuring to the 

 settlers in the province the peaceable possession 

 of the lands now held by them. 



Soon after the transmission of this message 

 of peace, the newly-appointed Lieutenant- 

 Governor of Manitoba, the Hon. A. G. Archi- 

 bald, proceeded to Fort Garry, where he has 

 since been engaged, and, as it would appear, 

 with comparative success, in putting into oper- 

 ation the new and improved scheme of govern- 

 ment. According to the latest accounts, the 

 election of members to the Dominion and local 

 Parliaments was about to take place. There 

 is evidence that, in the approaching session of 

 the Parliament of British Columbia, a majority 

 will declare for confederating with Canada; 

 and it is alleged that recent manifestations in 

 Prince Edward's Island and Newfoundland 

 are also favorable to that policy. Thus, it 

 would appear that the design of Great Britain 



