as though he could read their inmost thoughts
as they took the oath."

After reading the indictment to the jury, Mr. B. B. Osler,
Q.C., opened the case for the Crown, in which he explained
the nature of the charge against the prisoner, whose
career he traced through the successive steps of the
rebellion, and indicated the weight and character of the
evidence to be brought against its wicked instigator and
chief leader. The plea of the defence of the incompetence
of the Court to try the case, was first answered by the
learned counsel, who remarked, that the character, and
composition of the Court, as well as the provision for
the trial of capital offences by a jury of six men instead
of twelve, were in harmony with the Dominion Law enacted
for the Government of the Territories, and that the
Dominion Parliament had the right, under the British
North America Act, to make that law. "The absence of
the Grand Jury was explained, on the ground that such
juries were essentially county organizations, and were
impossible in large districts with small and scattered
populations." The same reason explained the limiting of
the jury to half the usual number. It was also stated
that the Crown deemed it unwise, if indeed it were not
impossible, to issue a Special Commission for the trial
of the prisoner.

Mr. Osler proceeding said, that Riel not only aided and
abetted the illegal acts of the rebels, but directed
these acts.

"The testimony he claimed," says a writer in _The
Illustrated War News_, "was abundantly sufficient to
bring home to the prisoner his guilt in the charges
against him. He (Mr. Osler) read the document in Riel's
handwriting to Crozier, in which Riel threatened a war
of extermination against the whites, and traced the
prisoner's conduct afterwards to show that he had tried
to carry out that threat. It was no constructive treason
that was sought to be proved, but treason involving the
shedding of brave men's blood. The accused had been led
on, not by the desire to aid his friends in a lawful
agitation for redress of a grievance, but by his inordinate
vanity and desire for power and wealth."

"The first overt act of treason was committed," continued
Mr. Osler, "when the French half-breeds were requested
by Riel to bring their arms with them to a meeting to be
held at Batoche on March 3rd. This indicated that the
prisoner intended to resort to violence. On the 18th
instant they find him (Riel) sending out ar