20 INTEODUCTIOK 



inserted at the instance of Mr. Macdougall, providing for the 

 inclusion of Kupert's Land and the ISTorth-West Territories 

 upon terms to be defined in an address to the Queen, and sub- 

 ject to her approval. In pursuance of this clause, Mr. Mac- 

 dougall in 1867 introduced into the first Parliament of the 

 Dominion a series of eight resolutions, which, after much 

 opposition, were at length passed, and were followed by the 

 embodying address, drafted by a Special Committee of the 

 House, and which was duly transmitted to the Imperial Gov- 

 ernment. This was followed by the mission of Messrs. 

 Cartier and Macdougall to London, to treat for the transfer 

 of the Territories, which, through the mediation of Lord 

 Granville, was finally effected. The date fixed upon for the 

 transfer was the first of December, 1869. Unfortunately for 

 Lieutenant-Governor Macdougall, owing to the outbreak of 

 armed rebellion at Eed Eiver, it was postponed without his 

 knowledge, and it was not until the 15th of July, 18Y0, that 

 the whole country finally became a part of the Dominion of 

 Canada. With the latter date the annals of Prince Kupert's 

 Land and the North- West Territory end, and the history of 

 Western Canada begins. 



But whilst the Hudson's Bay Company's territorial rights 

 and those of Great Britain had been at last transferred to the 

 Dominion, there remained inextinguished the most intrinsic 

 of all, viz., the rights of the Indians and their collaterals to 

 their native and traditional soil. The adjustment of these 

 rights was assumed by the Canadian Parliament in the last 

 but one of the resolutions introduced by Mr. Macdougall, and 

 no time was lost after the transfer in carrying out its terms, 

 " in conformity with the equitable principles which have 

 uniformly governed the Crown in its dealings with the 

 aborigines."* 



*In the foregoing brief sketch, the author, for laclt of space, omits 

 all reference to the Red River troubles, which preceded the actual 

 transfer, as also to the military expedition under Col. Wolseley, the 

 threatened recall of which from Prince Arthur's Landing, in July, 

 1870, was blocked by the bold and vigorous action of the Canada 

 First Party in Toronto. 



