THE RED RIVER.
Detailed accounts of the doings at the Red River Settlement justify doubts about the importance of the rising. The pitched battles between the insurgents and the loyalists ; the arming of wild Indians by Gavomor ]V+cDougall j the, acts of Retaliation 1 'bV the sefi-iupbed<seiieral- : l^.e\l ; "tW consternation on 'the one side of the boundary line and the feiciteulent on the other; ' assume a very different aspect in the" newspapers just re. ceiVe^ t^an they did 1 in the' nor tennis tele^nrarift' whiqn pr§pe.d.ert $*erti. TKqae who greaftetl l?has ocejins, of blood would he shed, cities, aaoiiad and razed to the ground, wives converted into widows by the score, hundreds of children bereft of their fathers, and all the horrors of bloody war exemplified on a large scale in British territory, may calm their apprehensions, dismiss their forebodings, and rejoice that their fearo were groundless. The Pcclaration of Independence £n fte. p«t is' ! se 'insurgents, hlCs. bteen xjade the snbjept of mu«n Comment, and- has probably been the cause of some misapprehension, diminishes in importance, the mote, it is considered and the Letter the circumstances under Vhioh it was issued toe -understood. The Canadian news* paper* .remind. thflMftftfon that tioprocl*.
mation and foundation of a Republic cannot be classed among the new experiences of the dwellers in the locality which the Red River settlers have chosen for their homes. In 1868 a small colony at Manitobah, sixty' miles to the west of Fort Garry, awoke one I morning to find that it had been converted into a Republic by Mr. Thomas Spence, a gentleman from Canada. The 2,000 persons comprehended within the limits of this settlement were called upon to take an oath of allegiance to the self-styled and selfconstituted President, whereupon Mr. Macpherson, a settler and a shoemaker, refused to pay the taxes which President Spence imposed, and became the Hampden of Manitobah. Net only did he resist illegal taxation, but he also brought a charge of malversation against the President, the accusation being that the latter had spent in whiskey for his own consumption half-a-crown which he had received for public uses. " Macpherson, I'll hang you," said the President. Happily, the friends of the patriot shoemaker were able to rescue him when brought on a charge of treason before the Governor and Council. President Spence appealed to the Home Government, and petitioned the Secretary of State for the Colonies to support him in his position by recognising the legal ty of his pretensions. The reply wag a warning of the risk he ran by his conduct, and a recommendation to abandon his office. The advice was taken in good part, and President Spence retired into private life, where he has gained profit if not fame by manufacturing salt, while Mr. Macpherson has till recently continued to puisue his vocation as a shoemaker, unmolested by ambitious and amateur founders of Republics. This story was told by him at a meeting held a few weeks ago at the village of Winnipeg with a view to form the Provisional Government, of which the telegraph brought tidings, Louis Riell, who has since come before the world as General of the Forces of tho New Republic and Secretary to President Bruce, was present at j that meeting, and made a long speech in sup- i port of his project. When closely questioned as to the source whence he had derived the authority to act as he had done, he replied that he derived it from the people, as did all other constitutional rulers, One Gf the audienoe, Mr. Miohael Power, who ' had been sergeant in a regiment of dragoons, I and who is now a Chelsea out-pensioner, did i not consider this explanation satisfactory, and gave way to an outbuist of patriotic j feeling, in which the meteor flag was apostrophised and the usurpers denounced. The speeches of Mr. Macpherson and Sergeant Power made such an impression on \h.<\ meeting tha^ no ssep wa g taken,' as had' been expected, in approval of the course pursued by the French insurgents. When the Queen's proclamation arrived a few clays afterwards, another meeting was held, %nd then the English party chsunptly 'afrjrnied fheir determination to have nothing tq do with "the' MEroyiqioua) Gqvern. meat" established by ft Q 
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