THE EED EIVER EXPEDITION. 205 



lished under its auspices at the village of "Winnipeg, 

 in the neighbourhood of Fort Garry. 



As may easily be understood, this party of progress 

 soon came into collision with those already described 

 as bent upon keeping back the country. The result 

 was a very angry feeling between the two sections 

 into which public opinion thus became divided. All 

 the Canadians who had settled there, backed up by 

 the press of Ontario, were on one side, and the great 

 mass of the French-speaking people were on the other. 

 This difference of opinion coincided with difference of 

 origin, the parties quickly assumed a national aspect, 

 and the priests endeavoured to give it a religious one 

 also. 



The Hudson Bay Company, governed by a Board 

 of Directors in London who were aloof from the 

 direct influence of local feeling, was first of the two 

 divisions comprising the reactionary party to per- 

 ceive that the time had arrived when they must 

 either endeavour to withdraw, with profit to them- 

 selves, from their hitherto obstructive policy, or else 

 submit to see their power to obstruct taken forcibly 

 from them. A disposition on their part to treat for 

 the voluntary surrender of their undefined and dis- 

 puted rights soon resulted in the bargain of 1869, by 

 which they were to receive the sum already stated, 

 and retain possession of all their forts and posts, to- 

 gether with a large acreage of land in their vicinity. 



