only half a jury, only a shred of that proud old British constitution, I respect you. I can only trust, Judge and gentlemen, that good and practical results will arise from your judgment conscientiously rendered. I would call your attention to one or two points. The first is that the House of Commons, Senate and Ministry, which make the laws, do not respect the interests of the North-West. My second point is that the North-West Council has the defect of its parent. There are practically no elections, and it is a sham legislature."

Then, as if wandering from his subject, Riel broke forth and said:

"I was ready at Batoche; I fired and wounded your soldiers. Bear in mind, is my crime, committed in self-defence, so enormous? Oh, Jesus Christ! help me, for they are trying to tear me into pieces. Jurors, if you support the plea of insanity, otherwise acquit me all the same. Console yourselves with the reflection that you will be doing justice to one who has suffered for fifteen years, to my family, and to the North-West.'

Riel concluded as follows, his language containing a strange admixture of the words applied to him by the medical experts, which he ingeniously turned against the Government :

"Your honours and gentlemen of the jury:-I am taking the circumstances of my trial as they are. The only thing to which I would respectfully call your attention before you retire to deliberate is the irresponsibility of the Government. It is a fact that the Government possesses an absolute lack of responsibility, an insanity complicated with analysis. A monster of irresponsible, insane government, and its little North-West council, had made up their minds to answer my petitions by surrounding me, and by suddenly attempting to jump at me and my people in the fertile valley of the Saskatchewan. You are perfectly justified in declaring that having my reason and sound mind, I acted reasonably and in self-defence, while the Government, my aggressor, being irresponsible, and consequently insane, cannot but have acted madly and wrong; and if high treason there is, it must be on its side, not on my part.

At the conclusion of Riel's lengthy address,

MR. CHRISTOPHER ROBINSON, Q.C., closed the case for the Crown in a powerful speech, which went far to counteract the sympathetic effect produced by Riel's disconnected but eloquent oration. Mr. Robinson pointed out that no evidence was produced to show that the prisoner had not committed the acts he was charged with. From the evidence it was quite clear the prisoner was neither a patriot nor a lunatic. If prisoner was not responsible for the rebellion, who was? The speaker went over the evidence and showed that Riel's acts were not those of a lunatic, but well considered in all their bearings, and the deliberate acts of a particularly sound mind. The evidence as to Riel's confinement in an asylum nine years ago was not satisfactory. Why was he sent there under an assumed name? Why was the record of his case not produced along with the other papers, and a statement of his condition when leaving the asylum? Medical men were not always the best judges of insanity. Taking up the evidence against the prisoner, Mr. Robinson went over it in detail, and said no mercy should be shown one who had committed such acts. He pictured the terrible results if Riel had succeeded in his effort to rouse the Indians. The reason the prisoners Poundmaker and Big Bear had not been put in the witness box, was that they could not be asked to give evidence that would incriminate themselves.

MR. JUSTICE RICHARDSON then read over the evidence to the jury, after which the court adjourned.

THIRD DAY'S PROCEEDINGS.*

The court resumed its sittings on the morning of the 1st of August, at the usual hour, and Col. Richardson continued his charge to the jury He read all the principal evidence, commenting thereon, and finally charged the jury to do their duty without fear or favour.

* This abstract of the final day's proceedings we take from the Toronto Mail.

THE VERDICT.

When the jury returned with the verdict at 3.15 p.m, after exactly one hour's deliberation, the prisoner, who had been on his knees in the dock praying incessantly, rose and stood facing the six men who came in bearing for him the message of life or death.

The CLERK of the Court, amid a silence so intense that, like the darkness of Egypt, it could be felt, asked if the gentlemen of the jury had agreed upon their verdict?

MR. COSGROVE, the foreman, answered in a low tone, but heard distinctly in the general hush, "We have!"

The CLERK then asked: "Is the prisoner guilty or not guilty?"

Everyone but the prisoner seemed anxious. He alone of all those present, eager to hear the message of fate, was calm.

The Foreman replied: " Guilty, with a recommendation to mercy!"

Riel smiled as if the sentence in no way affected him, and bowed gracefully to the jury.

THE PRISONER'S SPEECH.

COL. RICHARDSON asked the prisoner if he had anything to say why the sentence of the Court should not be passed upon him?

RIEL replied: Yes, your honour. Then he began, in a low, calm voice to detail the story of the half-breeds in Manitoba, and spoke at length of the rebellion of '69. He said that if he had to die for what had taken place, it would be a consolation to his wife and to his friends to know that he had not died in vain. In years to come people will look at Manitoba and say that Riel helped the dwellers of those fertile plains to obtain the benefits they now enjoy. He said it would be an easy thing for him to make an incendiary speech, but he would refrain. He said that God had given him a mission to perforin, and if suffering was part of that mission, he bowed respectfully to the Divine will, and he was ready to accept the task, even if the end should be death. Like David, he had suffered, but he lacked two years of the time that David suffered. The prisoner then went into the history of the Red River rebellion at great length. He claimed that he had ruled the country for two months for the Government, and his only reward was a sentence of exile. The troubles in the Saskatchewan, he said, were but a continuation of the troubles of the Red River, and the breeds feel that they are being robbed by the Government, which has failed to carry out the treaty promises that had been made to them. The breeds sustained their rights in '69 by arms, and the people of Manitoba are enjoying the results to-day. The people of Saskatchewan only followed the same precedent, and he trusted that the same results would follow. He then spoke at great length of the part played by Sir John Macdonald, Sir George Cartier, and Bishop Taché in the Red River rebellion. The money that had been given to him and to Lépine on leaving the country had been accepted, he said, as part of what was justly their due. The whites were gradually crowding out the Indians and the Metis, and what was more natural and just than for them to take up arms in defence of their rights? He justified his claims to $35,000 by saying that it was offered to him to keep out of the country for three years. The English constitution, he said, had been perfected for the happiness of the world, and his wish to have the representatives of the different nations here was to give people from the countries of the Old World an opportunity of enjoying the blessings God had given England. God had given England great glory, but she must work for that glory or it would surely pass away. The Roman Empire was four hundred years in declining from its proud pre-eminence, and England would be in the same position; but before England faded away a grander England would be built up in this immense country. His heart, while it beat, would not abandon the idea of having a new Ireland, a new Germany, a new France here; and the people of those countries would enjoy liberties under the British constitution which they did not obtain at home. If he must die for his principles, if the brave men

who were with him must die, he hoped the French-Canadians would come and help the people to get back what was being unjustly wrenched from them. Peace had always been uppermost in his thoughts, and it was to save the country from being deluged with blood later on that they strove for their rights now. He concluded by objecting to the jury and the decision of the Court, and asked that he be not tried for the alleged offences of this season, but that his whole career be put on trial, and the jury asked to give a decision as to whether his life and acts have in any way benefited the country or not.

THE SENTENCE.

Mr. CHRISTOPHER ROBINSON moved for the sentence of the Court.

Judge RICHARDSON then said: "Louis Riel, you are charged with treason. You let loose the flood gates of rapine and bloodshed, and brought ruin and death to many families, who, if let alone, were in comfort and a fair way of affluence. For what you did you have been given a fair and impartial trial. Your remarks are no excuse for your acts. You committed acts that the law demands an account for at your hands. The jury coupled with their verdict a recommendation to mercy. I can hold out no prospect for you, and I would recommend you to make your peace with God. For me, only one duty and a painful one to perform remains. It is to pass sentence upon you. If your life is spared, no one will feel more gratified than myself, but I can hold out no hope. The sentence of this Court upon you, Louis Riel, is that you be taken to the guard-room of the Mounted Police of Regina, whence you came, and kept there until September the eighteenth, and from thence to the place of execution, there to be hanged by the neck until dead, and may the Lord have mercy upon your soul !"

Riel never moved a muscle, but, bowing to the Court, said :--" Is that on Friday, your Honour?"

He was then taken from the Court-room, and a few minutes after was driven back, under strong escort, to the guard-room.

AN APPEAL.

After sentence had been passed upon Riel, Mr. Fitzgerald, one of prisoner's counsel, gave notice of appeal for a new trial to the Court of Queen's Bench, Manitoba. The appeal case was heard at Winnipeg on the 3rd and 4th days of September before Chief Justice Wallbridge and Mr. Justice T. W. Taylor.

M. LEMIEUX, chief counsel for Riel, raised the old issue as to informality of the trial before the Stipendiary Magistrate at Regina, and contended that the magistrate was incompetent to try the case.

Mr. FITZPATRICK followed. He held that the Treason-Felony Act was one of Imperial jurisdiction, and he questioned if it had delegated any power to the colonial authorities to legislate away any rights enjoyed by the subjects of the British Empire. He dwelt strongly upon the insanity question, and said the jury were convinced of the prisoner's lunacy, hence their recommendation to mercy.

Mr. EWART also strongly questioned the jurisdiction of the Court at Regina and cited several authorities in support of his argument.

Mr. ROBINSON, on behalf of the Crown, in an able address, strongly combatted the idea that the Court at Regina was not legally constituted, and cited cases in support of his contention. He also dwelt at length on the insanity plea, showing the absurdity of the contention that Riel was insane.

Mr. Osler and Mr. Aikens followed on the same side, supplementing the arguments of the previous speaker as to the constitutionality of the Court, and cited a number of authorities adverse to the insanity plea.

NEW TRIAL REFUSED.

At Winnipeg, on the 9th September, at a sitting of the full Court of the Queen's Bench of the Province of Manitoba, judgment was delivered in the appeal for a new trial for the prisoner Riel.

His Lordship Chief Justice Wallbridge first delivered judgment. He referred briefly to the facts brought before the Court and the statutes by which the stipendiary magistrates are appointed in the North-West and to the powers given them for the trial of the cases before them alone, and to the cases, including treason, which have to be tried before a magistrate with a justice of the peace and a jury of six. His Lordship held that the constitutionality of the Court is established by the statutes passed, which he cited. If the Act passed by the Dominion Parliament was, as claimed by the defence, ultra vires, it was clearly confirmed by the Imperial Act subsequently passed, which made the Dominion Act equal to an Imperial Act. The objections were to his mind purely technical and therefore not valid. opinion therefore was that a new trial should be refused, and the conviction of the Superior Court was therefore confirmed.

His

Mr. Justice Taylor followed, dealing fully with the arguments brought forward by the prisoner's counsel. On the question of the delegation of the power to legislate given to the Dominion Parliament, he held that the Dominion Parliament has penary powers on all subjects committed to it. He reviewed fully all the facts relating to the admission of Rupert's Land to the Dominion, and to the statutes passed for the governi e it of Rupert's Land and Manitoba when formed as a province. After a critical examination of the evidence in the case, he was unable to come to any other conclusion than that to which the jury had come. The evidence entirely fails to relieve the prisoner from responsibility for his acts. A new trial must be refused and the conviction must be confirmed.

Mr. Justice Killam next followed at some length, concurring in the views of his brother judges.

With these proceedings the trial of the rebel chief was concluded, though counsel for Riel has notified the Executive that they will appeal the case to the Privy Council in England. Riel will, meantime, be respited.

THE INDIAN AND HALF-BREED TRIALS.

During the month of August the participators in the rebellion among the halfbreeds and Indians were brought up for trial before the Stipendiary Magistrate at Regina.

ONE ARROW'S TRIAL.

Court was held on the afternoon of the 13th of August for the trial of One Arrow, Judge Richardson presiding.

Mr. Casgrain opened the case on behalf of the Crown.

Only three witnesses were examined, viz., Ashley, Ross, and the Indian agent, Lash. Their evidence was similar to that given in the Riel trial. They proved that the prisoner was present at Batoche, although it could not be proved he actually was engaged.

Mr. Robertson addressed the jury for the defence, and was followed by Mr. Osler for the Crown.

Judge Richardson's charge only lasted a few minutes.

The jury was out only ten minutes, and returned with a verdict of "Guilty." The prisoner was remanded for sentence.

HALF-BREEDS SENTENCED.

On the afternoon of the 14th inst., Judge Richardson held Court for the purpose of sentencing the half-breed prisoners who recently pleaded guilty and were arraigned. Mr. H. J. Clarke, of Winnipeg, addressed the Court on behalf of the poor deluded wretches who awaited sentence. It spoke volumes, he said, for the manhood of the men awaiting sentence that not a single woman was molested during the whole of the outbreak. The breeds believed they had wrongs, and like men undertook in their way to redress them by force of arms. The Court addressed the prisoners through an interpreter, expatiating on the enormity of the offence, the leniency of the Court, etc., and sentenced them as follows:

SEVEN YEARS EACH.-Alexander Cayen, Maxime Dubois, Pierre Henry, Maxime Lepine, Albert Monkman, Pierre Paranteau, Pierre Vandelle, Philip Guardupuy, Philip Garnot, James Short, Bapti Vandalle, to seven years in the penitentiary. THREE YEARS. - Alexander Fisher, Pierre Guardupuy, Moise Ouellette, to three

years.

ONE YEAR.-Joseph Arcand, Ignace Poitras, junior, Ignace Poitras, senior, Moise Paranteau, to one year in Regina jail.

DISCHARGED.-Joseph Delorme, Alexander Labombarde, Joseph Pilon, Bapti Rocheleau, Potrie Tourand, Francis Tourand, dismissed from custody, to appear for sentence when called upon.

THREE YEARS.-The Court then adjourned formally, but re-assembled immediately to pass sentence on "One Arrow," who was convicted of treason-felony. The old Indian made an eloquent attempt to prove himself a good Indian, but was sentenced to three years in the penitentiary.

TRIAL OF POUNDMAKER.

At Regina, on the 15th inst., there was a flutter of excitement round the Court when it was learned that Pe-to-cah-hau-a-we-win (Poundmaker) would be arraigned at three o'clock in the afternoon. By half-past two, a correspondent of the Toronto Mail tells us, a crowd had collected outside the Court-house to catch a glimpse of the noted warrior and councillor. He is a noble looking Indian, and reminds one more of Fenimore Cooper's heroes than do the great majority of North-West Indians, His eyes are black and piercing. One moment they twinkle merrily at some humorous remark, and the next they flash with fire as something is said that is not agreeable to him. His nose is long and aquiline, while his lips are thin and his mouth devoid of that sensual character so peculiar to many Indians. The scalp lock was decorated with a mink skin, while from each temple there hung one long lock of hair twisted round and round with brass wire. He wore no coat, but his vest was richly decorated with brass-headed nails in true barbaric fashion.

Mr. Scott, of Regina, opened the case for the Crown in a short speech, in which he said they would not only prove that the prisoner was associated with the rebels, but actually commanded them at Cut Knife Creek.

The proceedings were brief, the Crown relying on the evidence of Robert Jefferson, Poundmaker's son in-law, Colonel Herchmer, of the Mounted Police, Charles and H. D. Ross, half-breed scouts, Wm. McKay, Peter Ballantine, and other residents of pillaged Battleford.

For the defence Joseph McKay, of Prince Albert; John Craig, farm instructor on Little Pine's reserve, and Grey Eyes, an Indian, were called. These testified to Poundmaker's pacific acts and intents, and his efforts to restrain his band from bloodshed and Indian excesses.

Mr. B. B. Osler, Q.C., acted for the Crown, and Mr. Beverley Robinson, of Winnipeg, represented the prisoner.

On the 18th inst, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, when Judge Richardson asked Poundmaker if he had anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon him.