uring those periods.

RECOGNITION BY THE DOMINION OF CANADA.

Up to the present date the Dominion Government has not moved in the
matter of recognizing the services of the Veterans of the Fenian
Raids. Deputations have waited upon the Premier and the Government,
and petitions have been presented asking for grants of land, but beyond
specious promises of "consideration of their requests" no progress has
been made in this respect. This is hardly fair or just to the men who
stood on the ramparts of the country with their rifles in hand in times
of peril and danger, and made it possible that the Dominion Government
should now have any land to bestow. Had it not been for the patriotism
of the "Men of '66" it is just a question whether the Dominion of
Canada as now constituted would be in existence to-day. Therefore these
surviving veterans deserve all the recognition that a grateful country
can give. We have millions of acres of vacant lands in our Northwest
which need development, and who is better fitted for settlers than the
resourceful Canadians themselves? We have sons and grandsons who have
the will, the knowledge, the mettle and the courage to break the prairie
sod and bring the virgin soil to successful fruition, and assist in
developing our country's resources. They will lie glad to do this, and
take particular pride in the patrimony of their military ancestors. Then
why not do justice to the Veterans of 1866 and 1870 by putting them on
the same footing as the Dominion Government accorded to the soldiers of
other campaigns? The volunteers who went to Manitoba on the Red River
expedition in 1870 received land grants of 160 acres each. Those who
served in the Northwest Rebellion in 1885 were given scrip to the same
value, while those who went out of Canada to serve in the South African
War were granted 320 acres of Crown lands each. That was quite proper,
but why should our paternal Government make any invidious distinctions?
Surely those who helped to make the Dominion, and bravely guarded her
shores in times of danger, are at least entitled to justice in the
matter of receiving due recognition for their services. Emigrants have
been assisted into Canada from all parts of Europe and given slices of
our public domain, while the bone and sinew of our own people have been
"passed by on the other side." This is not right--it is not patriotic,
neither is it good public policy. Let justice prevail in all things, and
our