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

'*'53impracticable to convoy troops to tliat country.-*' If these are the objections which still weigh with*'your Excellency, 1 can have no doubt that they** may be removed." With respect to the Indians, I have, from" unquestionable authority, such positive infor-*'mation of their favourable dispositions, that" I cannot enteriaiu a doubt of his Majesty's" troops being received as friends, and protectors," by the Indians, as well as the settlers ; so that*'nothing but ordinary discretion, on the part of\ V" the officers, can be requisite for maintaining*'harmony. So confident am I on this point,*'that if your Excellency will allow a company of*' soldiers to be sent up, and will entrust the*' selection of the officers and men to Colonel*'Darling, I will take upon myself the entire" responsibility, if any such bad consequences (as" I conceive your Excellency to apprehend) should" arise on the part of the Indians *.* The Earl of Selkirk was wrong in .sui)|)osing that theGovernor of Canada could properly have adopted any measurewithin his government upon the responsibility of his Lordship,or of any other individual whatever. The responsibilitymust of course have rested with the person administering' thegovernment. The circumstance, however, tends to show howanxious Lord Selkirk must have been to protect the colonistsfrom the sanguinary attack which he was so well assuredwould take place ; and that, if any blame should eventually