Canada, on payment of the just claims of the Company. Canada offered to give the Company three hundred thousand pounds sterling, one twentieth of the land, and the right to retain their trading privileges. The offer was accepted. Unfortunately, little thought was given to the small settlement of French and half-breeds on the Red River when taking possession of the country and making provision for its future government. Surveyors were set to work near Fort Garry at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, and the inhabitants became alarmed lest their lots and homes should be taken from them. The necessary steps were not taken to quiet their fears, and when Hon. Wm. McDougall endeavoured to enter the new Province of Manitoba, as its Governor, he found his way barred by an armed force. The chief leaders of the revolt were Louis Riel, a Frenchman, with some Indian blood in his veins, and M. Lepine. A Provisional Government was formed by these men, and they made prisoners of all who were supposed to be in sympathy with the Canadian Government. Among others thus seized was Thomas Scott, a brave, outspoken, loyal subject. For some reason or other Riel had taken a strong personal dislike to Scott, and, after giving him the form of a trial, had him sentenced to be shot. The sentence was carried out under circumstances of great brutality, in March, 1870. When the news reached Ontario there was great excitement, and when, a few months after, volunteers were called for, to go with General Wolseley to crush the rebellion, thousands of young men offered their services. Only the best fitted to endure hardship were chosen, and when, after a long and trying march over what was known as the Dawson Road, they reached Fort Garry, they found the rebels scattered and everything quiet.
Many of these volunteers received grants of land in the new province and became permanent settlers. Soon there began to rise at Fort Garry a prairie city which, to-day, is the fine flourishing capital-of the Province of Manitoba—the city of Winnipeg. In 1870 the “Manitoba Act” was passed. It defined the limits of the Province of Manitoba, and stated how it was to be governed. Its form of government is very much the same as that of Ontario; and, like Ontario, it decided to do without a “Second Chamber” or Legislative Council. It was given the right to send four members to the House of Commons, and was allotted two senators. The
