CHAPTER XLV. * 



Federal Relations of the North-West. 



acquisition of the north-west territories — services of sir 

 george cartier and honourable william mcdougall — the 

 red river rebellion — restoration of peace — formation 

 of the province of manitoba. 



HERE has been considerable friction between Provincial and 

 Federal authority in Manitoba, so much, indeed, as to 

 make it an object to glance at the history of the Federal 

 relations of Manitoba. Not long after the union of 1876, 

 the Dominion Government sought to acquire the North-West 

 territories. In the Parliament of 1868 the question was over- 

 shadowed only by the Nova Scotia " Better Terms " agitation, and 

 before the close of that year Sir George E. Cartier and Honourable 

 William McDougall were appointed a deputation to proceed to 

 England to make definite terms for the transfer of the territory by 

 the Hudson's Bay Company. They departed and were absent 

 several months, and succeeded well in their mission. At the ensuing 

 session of the Dominion Parliament the terms of transfer agreed 

 upon came up for ratification. The conditions upon which the 

 territory was surrendered were that the Hudson's Bay Company 

 should receive from the Dominion Government the sum of £300,000 

 sterling, and that all rights of the Company to the territory with 

 certain reservations should enure to the Imperial Government by 

 whom the same were to be transferred to the Dominion within 

 one month thereafter. " The reservations included certain lands , 

 amounting in all to about 50,000 acres, contiguous to the trading 

 posts of the Company, in addition to one-twentieth of all the land 

 in the great fertile belt south of the north branch of the Saskatche- 



