448 Our North Land. 



under the erroneous impression that the cession was duly accom- 

 plished on that date, issued a proclamation on the same day, 

 commanding the insurgents to peaceably disperse, and threatening 

 the penalties of the law in case of disobedience. He also issued a 

 commission authorizing Colonel Dennis to raise a force and put 

 down the insurrection. This proclamation was treated with 

 contempt, and Kiel's Government committed more flagrant excesses 

 than before. Colonel Dennis could do nothing, and was forced to 

 leave the territory. 



But I can only touch upon a few of the leading features of this 

 rebellion. Mr. McDougall became disgusted and returned to Ontario. 

 Feeling that he had been badly used by the Government, he was not 

 slow to give vent to his convictions. 



" He believed the rebellion to have been connived at, and to 

 some extent fomented, by the Hudson's Bay Company and the 

 Roman Catholic priesthood of Red River, as well as by his late 

 colleague, Mr. Howe, who had visited the territory a short time 

 before. He published a series of letters giving currency to his 

 views, and disclosing many facts which seemed to afford no incon- 

 siderable foundation for them. The truth appears to be that some 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company's officials at Fort Garry had from 

 the first looked with disfavour upon the project of transferring to 

 the Dominion a territory whereof they had become to regard them- 

 selves as lords paramount. They were powerless to prevent the 

 transfer, but did not feel called upon to promote it, and were not 

 sorry that it should be attended with more or less embarrassment 

 to the new proprietors. This, so far as can now be judged, is the 

 extent to which the resident officers of the Company were tainted 

 with complicity in the Red River Rebellion. They paid the penalty 

 of their unwise conduct by seeing a ' despotic ruler established for 

 nine months in their own fort, feeding his men on the Company's 

 provisions and paying them with the Company's money.' As regards 

 the complicity of some of the Roman Catholic clergy of Red River 

 there is unfortunately no room for doubt. It must also be admitted 

 that a very strong sentiment of sympathy with the insurgents pre- 

 ailed among the French population of the Province of Quebec, and 



