m
the reports published in the Toronto _Globe_ and _Mail_,
and the Montreal _Gazette_ And _Star_.]

The Riel trial was resumed at Regina, on the morning of
July 30th, by MR. GREEN SHIELDS' addressing the jury
for the defence. The Court-room was again filled to its
utmost capacity. After referring to the difficulty counsel
had met, in the prisoner's endeavour to obstruct their
conduct of the case, Mr. Greenshields dwelt upon the
history of the Indians and half-breeds in the North-West
Territories, pointing out their rights to the soil. In
this Court they had a different procedure from that in
other parts of the Dominion, and while not desiring to
be understood that the prisoner would not receive as fair
a trial as the machinery provided made possible, he
questioned whether a jury of six men, nominated by the
presiding magistrate, was sufficient to satisfy the
demands of Magna Charta,--the great bulwark of the rights
and liberties of all British subjects. He believed any
of the older Provinces would rebel against such an
encroachment on their rights, and he did not see why such
a condition of things should obtain here. For years the
half-breeds had been making futile efforts to obtain
their rights. All these efforts had been met by rebuffs,
or had received no attention whatever from the Federal
Government, and those very rights for which the half-breeds
were supplicating and petitioning were being handed over
to railway corporations, colonization companies, and like
concerns. He would not say that the action of the Government
justified armed rebellion--the shedding of blood--but it
left in these poor people those smouldering fires of
discontent that were so easily fanned into rebellion by
a madman such as Riel. The prisoner had been invited by
the half-breeds to come among them from a foreign country
to assist them in making a proper representation of their
grievances to the Government. They were unlettered and
required an active sympathizer, with education sufficient
to properly conduct the agitation. Riel was the man they
chose, and there was no evidence to show that when Riel
came to this country he came with any intention of inciting
the people to armed rebellion. His work was begun and
carried on up till January in a perfectly constitutional
manner. After that time, as the jury had seen in the
cross-examination of the witnesses for the prosecution,
no effort was made by the defence to deny that overt acts
of