annexation to Canada had been carried into effect stragglers from the
east had occasionally reached Red River. It is true that these new-comers
found much to foster the worst passions of the Anglo-Saxon settler. They
found a few thousand occupants, half-farmers, half-hunters, living under
a vast commercial monopoly, which, though it practically rested upon a
basis of the most paternal kindness towards its subjects, was
theoretically hostile to all opposition. Had these men settled quietly to
the usual avocations of farming, clearing the wooded ridges, fencing the
rich expanses of prairie, covering the great swamps and plains with
herds and flocks, it is probable that all would have gone well between
the new-comers and the old proprietors. Over that great western thousand
miles of prairie there was room for all. But, no; they came to trade and
not to till, and trade on the Red River of the North was conducted upon
the most peculiar principles. There was, in fact, but one trade, and that
was the fur trade. Now, the fur trade is, for some reason or other, a
very curious description of barter. Like some mysterious chemical agency,
it pervades and permeates every thing it touches. If a man cuts off legs,
cures diseases, draws teeth, sells whiskey, cotton, wool, or any other
commodity of civilized or uncivilized life, he will be as sure to do it
with a view to furs as any doctor, dentist, or general merchant will be
sure to practise his particular calling with a view to the acquisition of
gold and silver. Thus, then, in the first instance were the new-comers
set in antagonism to the Company, and finally to the inhabitants
themselves. Let us try and be just to all parties in this little oasis of
the Western wilderness.

The early settlers in a Western country are not by any means persons much
given to the study of abstract justice, still less to its practice; and
it is as well, perhaps, that they should not be. They have rough work to
do, and they generally do it roughly. The very fact of their coming out