A STUDY IN LEGAL ADMINISTRATION AND RECORDS SHARON ...

the case of the numbered treaties he was unable to achieve the same success
with Métis lands. Part of the difficulty appears to have been the delaying tactics
of John A. Macdonald and the federal g~vernrnent.~~ In a letter to Minister of
Justice, David Mills, Morris miticized the Dominion Govemment's mishandling of
the land daims issue. However, it has also been argued that the Lieutenant-
Govemor stood to gain from the uncertainty surrounding Métis titles, and that he
did, in fact, acquire a considerable amount of land in and around ~innipeg.~
There was much portent in Morris' 1879 statement "... my sympathies are with
the North-West; it is a shame half-breeds have been ignored; it will result in
trouble.n54 That trouble flared in 1885 in the North-West. The long-term
consequences of the botched Métis lands issue were to be reflected for many
years through proceedings of Manitoba Queen's Bench in Equity.
Morris resigned from the chief justiceship at the end of 1872 in order to
take the post of Lieutenant-Govemor. The position remained vacant until 1874
when E.B. Wood was appointed. Wood arrived in June to begin an eight-year
tenure marked by his ability, energy, and hard work, as well as by his
intemperate and extravagant habits? In his charge to the jury in the Ambrose
Lepine case Wood spoke for five hours and "rnarshalled legal fact after fact, in
one of the ablest charges, if not the ablest, ever given to a jury in Canada,
expounded the law clearly, powerfully, and exhaustively .. .."% On the other
hand, Wood's drinking and lack of thrift were troublesome. In reference to a
debt that he owed, Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie wrote to Morris, "1 fear