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

—hitof some of the settlerswho were brought down tomCanada. But it is sufficiently obvious tluit thesedepositions^ whatever tlieymay contain, should bereceived with the greatest doubt, and suspicion.In the firstplace, those who were examined, werepersons who had been seduced to thecommissionof crime by partners of the ^torth-West Company,and were then atFort W illiam, under the control,and at tin* disposal, of those who had seduced them.In the s(M(md place the persons who specially superintendedthese examinations, were no other than Mr.Alexander M'Donell, the Company's partner whowas so iietivc in their seduction^ and Mr. NormanM'LeoJ, another partner, (and a Magistrate forthe Indian territory,) whose activity, of a similardescription, will appear suflicicntly obvious inthesequel — licsides, before these statements are to beattended to, we ought first to be satisfied that noneof the persons examined were of the number of thoseforty-eight settlers and servants whose names appearin theaccount book regularly made out at FortWilliam, and which specifies the sums respectivelypaid to them by the North-VVest Company, for theirservices as " true partisans," together with the creditsallowed them for articles which they had plunderedfrom their employer, and sold to that very Company,of wiiieh two of the most active partners werenow selected for the purpose of taking these examinations.—Thereceiver of stolen goods issurely nota fit person to take the examination of the thief !I:i111I