222 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



country, the Ministry felt themselves in a most diffi- 

 cult position. All were agreed that the despatch of 

 an armed force to the Eed Eiver was a political 

 necessity if they wished to preserve their newly- 

 bargained-for territory ; but a special vote of money 

 would be required for that purpose, and the French- 

 speaking members of Parliament had announced their 

 intention of opposing any such appropriation, if co- 

 ercive measures were to be resorted to. It would 

 have been next to impossible to have carried the 

 measure in the face of their opposition, so it became 

 necessary to soothe their alarm by fair promises : no 

 coercion was to be attempted, and the troops, when 

 in Manitoba, were only to be used for the protec- 

 tion of property and the maintenance of law and 

 order; in fact, they were going there more in the 

 capacity of police than of soldiers. 



Mr Kiel had previously been invited to send dele- 

 gates to Ottawa to explain to the Government what 

 the rebel demands really were. Two of the three he 

 sent were obnoxious to the loyal Canadians. One, 

 a French Canadian priest, was said to have taken a 

 most active part on the rebel side throughout the 

 disturbances, and to have been amongst the first to 

 preach resistance. He was known to be a most 

 intimate friend of Kiel's, and was generally believed 

 to be one of the chief pillars of the rebellion. The 

 other was a young man of drunken habits and of no 

 education. He was a shopboy by trade, and was what 



