An era of great expansion followed the adoption of a protective tariff in 1879. A great many factories were established, and the build ing of the Canadian Pacific Railway was pushed on with unparalleled energy; in 1885, five years before the time named in the contract, the last spike was driven in the line connecting Western and Eastern Canada and British Columbia's grounds for discontent were finally removed. Once completed the road's value not only to Canada but to Great Britain was soon apparertt. Not only did it unite the Canadian provinces; it furnished a ready all-British land route to the East. The Canadian Pacific Railway Com pany in time established lines of steamers cross ing both the Pacific and the Atlantic, and the highway, looked upon as a doubtful possibility in 1878, has now become one of the chief ar teries of world commerce.
The completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway was almost coincident with a second rebellion of half-breeds in the Canadian West. On the banks of the Saskatchewan, not far from a village called Prince Albert, there was a colony of these people. They had long lived remote from the larger world, and when their country was invaded by the pioneers of modern movement, they began to doubt whether they should be left in permanent possession of the lands they had long occupied. Upon these lands they were technically °squatters' for they had no patents and no surveys had been made. When at length Canadian surveyors came to lay out their fields on a uniform plan, disre garding the divisions which they had estab lished, the half breeds protested and demanded that they should be granted patents for their lands as they stood. At Ottawa their protests were filed but remained unheeded. The official mind was aghast at the prospect of land grants not based upon the usual survey; the half breeds could get nothing done and they grew ever more restless at the supposed menace to their rights. Disinterested observers sent to Ottawa warnings of a probable rising but official supineness was invincible, and the result of neg lect and delay was that in March 1885 the de spairing half breeds attacked a body of police, killed 12 out of 40 engaged, and defied the au thority of Canada. Since it was not unlikely that they would be joined by the Indian tribes the outbreak was serious.
The half breed leader was the same Louis Riel (q.v.) who had caused trouble in 1870. On its hands the Government now had a diffi cult task. As in 1870 it might not send troops through the United States, and the railway on the north shore of Lake Superior connecting Eastern and Western Canada was not yet com pleted. In bitter March weather, with the ther
mometer often below zero, the regiments of militia summoned from Eastern Canada, all un prepared by previous hardship to endure the cold, traversed the desolate shores of that frozen region. Sometimes in open flat cars, for more than a hundred miles on foot, they pro ceeded over the snow. An experienced officer of the expedition declares that the task was more severe than Napoleon's passage of the Alps, for Napoleon had a beaten road and an abundant commissariat, while both were want ing in the Canadian wilderness. The regi meats soon poured into the West in over whelming force and though the few half breeds made a brave stand against great odds, they were quickly crushed. Their Indian allies the Canadian troops wearily followed to their al most trackless haunts, and so the rebellion was put down. A few of the rebels were hanged; a good many of the Indians were imprisoned; Riel, the leader was taken, and then his fate became a question of national concern in Canada.
With Riel the French Canadians had ties of faith and of blood. French Canadians had been pioneers in the Northwest and at times they had dreamed of holding that vast region for their language and faith. If fate was against them, if it was the Anglo-Saxon who was occupying the country and in influence was destined to dominate, none the less was chiv alrous support due to the few people who stood in the West for the ideals of France and of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1870 Riel had appealed not in vain to the French in Quebec for help in his time of trouble and it was prob ably the strength of their sympathy which then saved him from the scaffold. Since in 1885 the men who took up arms had more real griev ances the Church espoused their cause. In the Province of Quebec Liberals and Conservatives forgot their quarrels in the name of justice and French Canadian nationality against rigorous treatment of the rebel leader, Louis Riel. On the other hand the English demanded that the law should take its course. Riel had led a re volt in which law-abiding citizens were shot down. If he was a murderer the penalty of murder was his due. The demand was too urgent to be disregarded. Riel was tried; in the eye of the law the penalty of his crime was death, and in November 1885 he was hanged at Regina, the capital of the Northwest terri tories. See RIEL REBELLION; see also article JESUITS ESTATES Acr for another religious and racial question in Canada in 1888-89.