THE OLIGARCHY.
The struggle has always been between the masses and the classes.
Privilege always strives to confine itself to a few. It could not be but
that the echoes of the great British Reform Bill of 1832 should reach
even the remote banks of Red River. The struggle for constitutional
freedom was also going on in Upper Canada, as well as in Lower Canada
where the French-Canadians were fighting bitterly for their rights.
Besides all this in the Red River Settlement the existence of a Company
store--a monopoly--could never prove satisfactory to a community of
British blood. Had the Colony shop been ever so justly and honestly
conducted it could not be popular, how much less so must it have been in
the hands of Alexander Macdonell, the peculator and deceiver.
It is true the Company store, of which we speak, was not that of the
Hudson's Bay Company proper, but rather the possession of Lord Selkirk's
heirs.
Gradually the rulership was coming under the direction of Governor
Simpson, though there was the local Governor who was nominally
independent.
Even when Governor Simpson was invoked, it is to be remembered that he
and his company were the embodiment of privilege. But the Governor was a
surprisingly shrewd man. He saw the aspiration after freedom, of both
Scottish and French Settlers. True, gaunt poverty did not stalk along
the banks of Red River as it had done in the first ten years of the
Colony, but just because the people were becoming better housed, better
clad, and better fed, were they becoming more independent. The
unwillingness to be controlled was showing itself very distinctly among
the French half-breeds as they grew in numbers and dashed over the
prairies on their fiery steeds. They were hunters, accustomed to the use
of firearms and were, therefore, difficult to restrain.
The Governor's policy clearly defined in his own mind became, for the
next ten years, the policy of the Company. We have seen that the
Governor built Lower Fort Garry, and he regarded this as his residence,
nearly twenty miles down the river from the Forks, which was the centre
of French influence. Even before doing this in 1831 he had, in the year
preceding this, as Ross tells us, built a small powder magazine at Upper
Fort Garry, and it goes without saying that rulers do not build powder
magazines for the purpose of ornament.
In 1834, as we learn from Hon. Donald Gunn, who was then a resident of
Red River Settlement, and who has left us his views in the manuscript
afterward published coming up to 1835, a most serious revolt took place
among the Metis. Gunn's account is vivid and interesting.
[Illustration: The Sisters, The Ferry, The Forks, Fort Garry, Site of
Fort Gibraltar, Pontoon Bridge, French Half-breeds with Ox-carts, Red and
Assiniboine Rivers. FORT GARRY (From Oil painting of Mr. W. Frank
Lynn made in 1872, now in possession of the Author.)]
The French half-breeds were entirely dependent upon hunting, trapping or
voyaging. One hundred or one hundred and fifty men were required to
transfer goods, furs, etc., from the boats during the time of open
water. Generally they received advances from the Fur Company at the
beginning of summer, for they were always in debt to the company. On the
close of the open season they were paid the balance due them. After a
few days of idleness and gossip the money would be spent and want would
begin to press them. A new engagement with an advance would follow. The
agreement was signed, and so like an endless chain, the natives were
always held to the Company's interest. At Christmas, these workmen
received a portion of their advance, and as is well known, the company
relaxed somewhat its rules as to liquor selling at this season. At this
Christmas time of 1834 payments were being made and indulgence was
supreme, when a French half-breed named Larocque entered the office of
the accountant, Thomas Simpson, a relative of Sir George, and demanded
his pay in a disrespectful way. Simpson replied somewhat roughly, which
led Larocque to insult the officer of the company. Simpson seized the
fire poker and striking Larocque's head made an ugly wound on his scalp.
Larocque's companions retired without violence, but on returning home,
gathered the violent spirits together, came back to Fort Garry and
demanded that Thomas Simpson should be given up to them for punishment,
with the threat that if this were not granted, they would destroy the
Fort, and take Simpson by violence. This being refused them, the Metis
returned to their homes to prepare themselves for action, and began the
war songs and war dances of their savage ancestors in true Indian style.
Governor Christie, the local authority, took with him Chief Factor
Cameron, Robert Logan and Alexander Ross, chief men of the Settlement,
and visited the gathering of the Metis. One of the deputation writes
that "they resembled a troop of furies more than human beings." For some
time the mob refused the approaches of the officers of the Company. At
length the quarrel was settled by the Company agreeing to pay the
voyageur's wages in full, and that he should be allowed to remain at
home. Probably, however, the most acceptable part of the concession, was
the gift by the Company of a "ten-gallon keg of rum and tobacco."
Next spring another demonstration was made by the Metis for other
demands, but these were refused.
[Illustration: EXTERIOR VIEW OF FORT GARRY]
Then, from every direction came the imperious suggestion that some more
effective form of government should be adopted. This was granted. True,
Governor Simpson did not succeed in satisfying all the Settlers, though
in this respect he found it easier to supply the volatile
French-Canadian hunters, than the hard-headed people of British origin.
The method of Governor Simpson, along with the London Board of the
Hudson's Bay Company choosing the Council of Assiniboia, certainly did
smack of the age of Henry VIII. or Charles I. in English history.
The Council consisted of fifteen members, viz.: the Governor-in-Chief
Simpson, the Local Governor Christie, the Roman Catholic Bishop, two
Church of England clergymen, three retired Hudson's Bay Company
officers, the leading doctor of the Colony, Sheriff Ross, Coroner
McCallum, and three leading business men, viz.: Pritchard, Logan and
McDermott. It is noticeable that though the French element numbered
about one-half of the people, that only one Councillor besides the
Bishop was given them, and this was Cuthbert Grant, now settled down
from the period of his Bois-brulés impulsiveness to be the Warden of the
Plains, with an influence over the Metis, that can only be described as
magical.
Judged by the methods of representative government the Council was
rather a burlesque.
Sheriff Alexander Ross, though a member of the Council, says: "To guard
against foolish and oppressive acts, the sooner the people have a share
in their own affairs the better. It is only fair that those that have to
obey the laws should have a voice in making them."
Hon. Donald Gunn, who was not on the Council, says: "The majority of the
Council thus appointed were, no doubt, the wealthiest men in the Colony
and generally well-informed, and yet their appointment was far from
being acceptable to the people who knew that they were either
sinecurists or salaried servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, and
consequently were not the fittest men to legislate for people who
retained some faint recollection of the manner in which the popular
branch of the legislature in their native land was appointed, and who
never ceased to inveigh against the arbitrary manner in which the
Governor-in-chief chose the legislators."
Notwithstanding the writer's perfect sympathy with both of these
opinions, it is but fair to state that the Council of Assiniboia did in
ordinary times do many things which were most beneficial and helpful to
the Red River Community.
Its most distressing failures were in those things which are very
essential. (1) Being a compromise body it had no power of progressive
development, and in the whole generation of its existence it did
practically nothing to advance the public, intellectual, or moral
interests of the people. (2) Perhaps its most serious breakdown took
place, as we shall see, in the failure of its judicial system. Executive
power it had none, as seen in the cases where jail-delivery took place
again and again by the friends of the prisoners boldly extricating whom
they would. (3) But most alarming and miserable was its failure to act
in its moribund days, when it allowed, as we shall see, a mob to seize
Fort Garry and bring in an era of disorder which made every
self-respecting British subject blush with shame.
[Illustration: FORT GARRY WINTER SCENES
SOUTH AND EAST FACES, 1840
From sketch by wife of Governor Finlayson.
EAST FACE IN 1882, WHEN FORT WAS DISMANTLED (From
painting in author's possession.) x Spot where Scott was Executed.]