The Fortnightly Review: No. CCCCLXIII, New Series [‎602v] (95/239)

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THE MARQUIS OB 1 LANSDOWNE.
one million dollars. One thousand seven hundred and fifty of
the 2,500 miles of the great Canadian Pacific Kailway had been
laid and were available for traffic. Before he left Canada Lord
Lansdowne was able to realise the hope he early expressed to
be the first Governor-General to cross the Kockies on Canadian
metals. The absence of any question of transcendent moment
left him free to devote all his energies to study Canada s wants.
He had been, however, little more than a year in office when
Louis Kiel’s rebellion broke out. The true cause of the rising
was the ever-increasing volume of immigration into the Noith-
West Provinces, which drove the half-breeds and Indians before
it. Even at that date the immigration exceeded 50,000 a year.
It has, indeed, been stated that the growth of Winnipeg, the
capital of Manitoba, had been more rapid than that of Chicago
in the corresponding period of its infancy. 1 Kiel had previously
induced a revolt in Manitoba, but the movement in 1870 was
crushed by the Ked River Expedition under Wolseley, whose
brilliant career as a soldier dates from that period. Lord Lans
downe, however, had to deal with a much more formidable affair.
Riel started with only a few hundred followers, but after the cap
ture of Battleford by the rebels towards the end of March 1885,
in addition to the half-breeds, almost all the Indian tribes in the
North-West had dug up the hatchet and were on the war-path.
Pour hundred regular troops sent from Ottawa to assist the Mani
toba Militia proved inadequate. General Middleton was then
despatched with 1,500 regulars, and his first duty was to relieve
Fort Carlton, whither a handful of British troops had retreated.
His force was severely handled at Fish Creek, where Kiel’s rifle-
pits were constructed on highly scientific principles. This check
delayed Middleton’s advance for some weeks. In the middle of
May, however, by the skilful handling of his forces numbering
over 5,000, he turned Kiel’s strong and well-defended position
at Batoche, and scattered the rebels. Kiel’s subsequent capture,
trial, appeal to the Privy Council, and execution, all are matters
of history.
By midsummer the political horizon, upon which Kiel s rebel
lion had for some time cast an ominous cloud, was again quite
clear. Lord Lansdowne started on a long-projected tour through
the North-West Provinces. Not, however, before he had ap
pointed a Commission to redress the grievances of the half-breeds
and Indians. They complained that many of the promises made
after the suppression of Kiel’s first revolt had never been fulfilled,
and Lord Lansdowne w r as satisfied, after making a preliminary
inquiry, that some of the allegations were well-founded. The
(1) Times, December 5th, 1883.