uld be absolutely necessary. The
sequel has proven how well Butler forecasted events because settlers by
the thousand soon desired to come and it was the presence of the Mounted
Police that gave to these settlers the sense of security that made it
possible for them to turn the vast plains into waving fields of grain
and cause the wide areas of pasture land to shake under the tread of
domestic herds.

And the other special point in which Butler's wisdom in recommendation
comes out in regard to the force to be established is where he states
that such a force should be independent of any faction or party either
in church or state. His wise hint in this regard was taken and
followed, and hence all through their history the Mounted Police have
gone their way, caring for nothing and for nobody in their intentness on
doing their duty. It is quite well known to some of us that in many
places on the plains, in the mountains and away in the land of the
golden Yukon, the Police were often strongly urged to relax their
vigilance in the interests of some political party or some business that
was financially concerned. But all such temptations fell on deaf ears,
and the scarlet-coated riders, looking on intimidation and efforts at
bribery with contempt, pursued the even tenor of their way and gave
every man a square deal according to his deserts no matter who he was or
to what colour the sun and the wind had burned his skin. Such was the
force which this wise recommendation of Butler called into existence.

That such a force would have no sinecure and would have no room for
"misfits or failures," Butler tells us in 1870 in that clause of his
report in which he says, "As matters at present rest, the region of the
Saskatchewan is without law, order or security for life or property;
robbery and murder for years have gone unpunished; Indian massacres are
unchecked even in the close vicinity of the Hudson's Bay Company posts
and all civil and legal institutions are entirely unknown." It was high
time for government control with an adequate material force to give it
power.

And because I have referred to Butler's foresightedness it would be
unfair to his memory to close this section without quoting the
magnificent paragraph with which he ended his report in March of 1871.
It reads as follows:

"Such, sir, are the views which I have formed upon the whole
question of the existing state of affairs in the Saskatchewan
count