u of all the lands held by them prior to the conquest and
subsequently confiscated by the crown. It was expressly set forth in the
preamble of the act--and it was this proposition which offended the
extreme Protestants--that the amount of compensation was to remain as a
special deposit until the Pope had made known his wishes respecting the
distribution. Some time later the Pope divided the money among the
Jesuits, the archbishops and bishops of the province, and Laval
University. The whole matter came before the Dominion house of commons
in 1888, when a resolution was proposed to the effect that the
government should have at once disallowed the act as beyond the power of
the legislature, because, among other reasons, "it recognizes the
usurpation of a right by a foreign authority, namely his Holiness the
Pope, to claim that his consent was necessary to dispose of and
appropriate the public funds of a province." The very large vote in
support of the action of the government-188 against 13-was chiefly
influenced by the conviction that, to quote the minute of council, "the
subject-matter of the act was one of provincial concern, only having
relation to a fiscal matter entirely within the control of the
legislature of Quebec." The best authorities agree in the wisdom of not
interfering with provincial legislation except in cases where there is
an indisputable invasion of Dominion jurisdiction or where the vital
interests of Canada as a whole may imperatively call for such
interference.

In March, 1885, Canada was startled by the news that the half-breeds of
the Saskatchewan district in the North-west had risen in rebellion
against the authority of the Dominion government. It is difficult to
explain clearly the actual causes of an uprising which, in all
probability, would never have occurred had it not been for the fact that
Riel had been brought back from Montana by his countrymen to assist them
in obtaining a redress of certain grievances. This little insurrection
originated in the Roman Catholic mission of St. Laurent, situated
between the north and south branches of the Saskatchewan River, and
contiguous to the British settlement of Prince Albert. Within the limits
of this mission there was a considerable number of half-breeds, who had
for the most part migrated from Manitoba after selling the "scrip[6]"
for lands generously granted to them after the restoration of order in
1870 to the Red River settlements. Government