THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. 225 



moved, the money required for the Expedition was 

 voted in the House when the Manitoba Bill was 

 introduced. 



The only man of really statesmanlike ability in 

 the Canadian Ministry was the Premier, Sir John A. 

 Macdonald. Unfortunately for the country, he was 

 just at this critical moment struck down by severe 

 illness, and the general management of affairs de- 

 volved upon Sir George Cartier, the leader of the 

 French Conservatives. In early life he had played a 

 minor part in the Canadian rebellion of 1837, when 

 he had actually borne arms against the British Crown 

 a crime which, in the opinion of some of his po- 

 litical opponents, his subsequent loyalty had not 

 sufficed to wipe out. This tended to prejudice 

 many against him ; for it was considered natural 

 that, having been once himself a rebel, he should 

 sympathise with rebellion wherever he met it. 



Sir G. Cartier, although a poor debater and of no 

 very great ability, was a creditable specimen of 

 Canadian public men. His greatest enemy dare not 

 question his honesty, for he was still, comparatively 

 speaking, a poor man. He was a firm friend and 

 a good hater. His ordinary promise was more to 

 be relied upon than the oath of many of his contem- 

 poraries, and he was a hard-working public servant. 

 To accuse him of descending at times into jobbery 

 and political trickery, is merely to accuse him of 

 being a Canadian politician. Sir George Cartier 



