of other British writers and
philanthropists, by the excesses of Robespierre and his French
compatriots. When the Napoleonic wars were at their height, like a true
patriot, Lord Selkirk wrote a small work on the "System of National
Defence," anticipating the Volunteer System of the present day. But his
keen mind sought lines of activity as well as of theory. Seeing his
fellow-countrymen, as well as their Irish neighbors, in distress and
also desiring to keep them under the British flag, he planned at his own
expense to carry out the Colonists to America. Even before this effort,
reading Alexander Mackenzie's great book of voyages detailing the
discoveries of the Mackenzie River in its course to the Arctic Sea, and
also the first crossing in northern latitudes of the mountains to the
Pacific Ocean--he had applied (1802), to the Imperial Government, for
permission to take a colony to the western extremity of Canada upon the
waters which fall into Lake Winnipeg. This spot, "fertile and having a
salubrious climate," he could reach by way of the Nelson River, running
into Hudson Bay. The British Government refused him the permission
necessary. Lord Selkirk's first visit to Canada was in the year 1803, in
which his colony was placed in Prince Edward Island. Canada was a
country very sparsely settled, but it was then turning its eyes toward
Britain, with the hope of receiving more settlers, for it had just seen
settled in Upper Canada a band of Glengarry Highlanders. Lord Selkirk
visited Canada by way of New York. To a man of his imaginative
disposition, the fur trade appealed irresistibly. The picturesque
brigades of the voyageurs hieing away for the summer up the Ottawa
toward the land of which Mackenzie had written, "the Nor'-Wester" garb
of capote and moccassin and snowshoe, and the influence plainly given by
this the only remunerative industry of Montreal, caught his fancy. Then
as a British peer and a Scottish Nobleman, the fun-loving but
hard-headed Scottish traders of Montreal took him to their hearts. He
met them at their convivial gatherings, he heard the chanson sung by
voyageurs, and the "habitant" caught his fancy. He was only a little
past thirty, and that Canadian picture could never be effaced from his
mind. In after days, these "Lords of the North" abused Lord Selkirk for
spying out their trade, for catching the secrets of their business which
were in the wind, and for making an undue use of what they had discl