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Louis Riel, the leader of the half-breed insurgents ia the Canadian North-West, was bom at St. Boniface, Manitoba, in 1847. His position and influence in connection with the present rising were obviously due to the part lie played in the rebellion of 1869-70, when, although only in his 22nd year, he was chosen head of the Provisional Government on account of his superior education. He left school at St. Boniface when 11 years of age, and continued his education at the Jesuits’ College, Montreal, until he was 19. The chief stigma attached to him in connection with the Red River rebellion was the murder of, his prisoner, Thomas Scott, at Fort Garry, on March 4, 1870. On April 24, 1875, the Dominion Government published a proclamation of amnesty “ to all persons for all offences ” committed during the rebellion, with the exception of one named O’Donoghue. To the amnesty of Louis Riel and Ambrose Lepine was attached the condition of five years’ exile from Canada. The exclusion of O’Donoghue from participation in the amnesty was due to the share he had in the incipient Fenian invasion which threatened Manitoba subsequent to the Red River trouble. The act of Royal clemency in question was due to resolutions passed in the Canadian House of Commons the previous February by a majority of 126 to 50. While an exile Riel wandered about in the United States, making occasional furtive visits to Canada, and it will be remembered that a Manitoba constituency returned him to the Dominion Parliament, although, of course, he could not take his seat. In 1879 he was a teacher in an industrial school at Montana, and two years later he married the daughter of a French half-breed settled at Fort Ellice. It was only last year that he was induced by the half-breeds of Prince Albert Settlement to take up their grievances, when he, with his wife and two children, went to reside at St. Laurent. His father is said to be of Scandinavian origin, and he himself is about six feet high, square-shouldered, and well built.
Newspaper Details
Colonies and India
London, Middlesex, GB
Fri, May 22, 1885
Page 8
Full Page
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Anonymous
CA 28 Jul 2020
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