JUSTICE AT RED RIVER. 



183 



own condition might be remedied, for the majority can- 

 not discover in what way the reward of industry may be 

 won, or where a market for labour is to be found, except 

 that kind of wild labour in the distant prairie, or in the 

 woods, which they love instinctively, and which they have 

 always been taught to consider most profitable, and alone 

 capable of securing their comfort and happiness. Under 

 such circumstances it cannot cause surprise that discontent 

 prevails in the settlements. Much disappointment and 

 dissatisfaction is everywhere seen, and wrongs, real or 

 imaginary, for which they have no redress, form the 

 constant subject of complaint in daily conversation. In 

 these repinings, all who were not in the service of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, or in some way connected with 

 them, as far as my experience enabled me to judge, 

 uniformly agreed. 



Let the condition of the half-breed hunters, generally, 

 be contrasted with the present prosperity of the Gowlers, 

 Gladieux, Fletts, the McKays, and several others that 

 might be named, who farm with industry and economy, 

 and the capabilities of Eed Eiver and the Assinniboine 

 will not be overlooked in surveying the paralysed efforts 

 of those who are taught to rely chiefly upon the hunter's 

 precarious gains. 



ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 



The mode in which justice has been, and is adminis- 

 tered in the settlements, is of rather an undetermined 

 character. In 1839 the first Eecorder was appointed, 

 and in some instances the office of Governor of Assinni- 

 boia, a district comprised within a circle of fifty miles 

 radius round Fort Garry, has been associated with that of 

 Eecorder. The Governor has a council of twelve of the 

 principal inhabitants of the settlement to assist and advise 



H 4 



