Year: 1870

We may perhaps be permitted to doubt
whether the Red River difficulty has been so
happily and entirely settled as the British
Ministry seems to assume. though the expedi-
ton which has just been brought to halt at
the Sault Ste. Marie Canal is likely to encounter
no more dangerous enemies than the bOgs and
pathless forests of the unbroken wilderness.
The insurrectiOn has been quieted by COM
promise which may almost be described as an
unconditional surrender of the stronger party.
The colonists rebelled because the Hudsons
Bay Company sold the settlement to the Do
minion of Canada without their consent, just
as q Russian noble, before the liberation of
the serfs, might have sold his estates with all
the people on them. The difficulty is arranged by
practically recognizing the independence which
the insurgents demand, and bringing them into
the Confederation as a distinct province, on
equal terms with the other provinces, with an
assembly elected by the people, and represen-
tatives in the Central Parliament There are
some points, however on which our information
is vet meager, and on these there may be
trouble. The fate of Riel, the case of Scott,
whose execution was downright murder, and
the terms on which the claims of the half
breeds are to be extinguished-here are diff
culties which may be embarrassing if not dam
gerous. So serious at any rate do they appear
in Canada that the Dominion Government re-
fused to pay the Hudson's Bay Company for
the territory unless a military force was sent
there to preserve order. This is the meaning
of the expedition of peace" which is now on
its way to the new province of Manitoba.


Moreover, the dread of Fenian invasion,
.-l;ob -, N cont of obronio dicor1ar in Canada
has of late been very lively, and not altogether
without reason. Riel has certainly been coquet-
ting with the brotherhood in the United States,
and there are loud whispers of mysterious
gatherings on our side of the line, and sud-
den emigration of Irishmen to the West. That
a movement Of this kind would be the hight of
folly is no reason for assuming that it has not
been planned-On the contrary, is rather an ar
gument for its credibility. Here then is an
other use for the expedition of peace.


Under these circumstances the Presidents re-
fusal to allow the expedition to pass through
our territory is justifable, even though to a
superficial observer it seems to place us in the
ridiculous situation of recognizing Riefs ragged
reality the refusal implies nothing of the kind.
he passing vi IOItlSH dTIlleu lOICo hCiOSo
our territory is a privilege which we are at
liberty at all times to grant or withhold
at our pleasure. We should have been
pleased to see it granted in the present
case, for the use of the canal would have saved
the British expedition tedious and expensive
march, and spared the soldiers probably much
fatigue. We console ourselves, however, for
the disappointment by the conviction that the
refusal springs from Secretary Fish's recent
studies of the Neutrality laws. These laws do
not, strictly speaking, apply to case like the
present, but the principle which underlies them
is the same which ought to govern the Sault
Ste. Marie question. Mr.. Fish has probably
discovered that the obligations of Neutrality
are not exclusively for the benefit of recOg-
nized belligerents, but we are bound to treat
impartially established governments and re-
volted "peoples" and "dstricts," as the act of
1918 expressly declares. If he had made this
discovery before he released the Spanish gum


boats, we should have been still better satisfied.