Statement respecting the Earl of Selkirk's Settlement of Kildonan ...

§38fii^'*!fthe half-breeds, however, is too notorious to beconcealed, andupon what description of personsthey will next be driven to shift the blame, I knownot ; — but however remote Ihc scene of these crimesmay be ;however jjreat the difficulty of obtainingspeedy and effectual investigation ;and, above all,however bold and artful the attempts to misrepresentfacts, and conceal the truth,—the public cannotcontinue nuich longer to be misled by vagueassertions, or blinded by assumed concern at eventswhich persons connected with the North-WestCompany pretend to have foretold, and which (inall human probability), had they chosen, theycould have entirely prevented.It may be recollected that when the questionof establishing a regular agricultural settlementin the Hudson's Bay territories was first agitated,and when the grant to the Earl of Selkirk, forthat object, was under discussion, certain individuals,in this country,concerned for the North-West Companystepped forward to express, in theprotest I have formerly noticed, their humaneconcern at the distressing situation to which the('^emigrant settlers in Ossiniboia would be reduced ;and anticipated, with much apparent solicitude, thedifficulties in which the colonists would be plunged.—But however com[)assionate the language,which, at that time, was used by the persons concernedfor the Company at home, they seem to havebeen over-matched in fine feeling by the Company's