f the conflict long in doubt. The beginning of the new century saw
its force increase--a civil war carried on beyond the vision of the
nations in the vast forests of the north. The story of this Homeric
struggle, however, with its romantic episodes and opposing
heroes--Cuthbert Grant, Colin Robertson, Duncan Cameron, and the
rest--the battle of Greys against Blues, in which the chiefs of the
north, issuing with their wild _bois brules_ from the stronghold of
Fort William,[43] raided and harried the despised "old countrymen,"
the "Pork-eaters," the "Workers in gardens," or suffered reprisals
from these underestimated rivals; the history of Lord Selkirk's
settlement in the Red River, around which the final battle wound in
the year when Europe was witnessing the last great effort of
Napoleon--all this does not fall within the scope of the present work.

[Footnote 43: Founded in honour of William M'Gillivray in 1805.]

[Illustration: SIMON M'TAVISH
(Founder of the North-West Company in 1783)]

In 1821, under pressure from the Duke of Richmond, the Greys and Blues
agreed to merge their forces in an equal partnership, which,
retaining the name of the older Company, was framed on the
co-operative principle so effective in the success of the
North-Western concern. Having received a fresh charter from the
Government, the new Company began a peaceful and not less profitable
career, until in exchange for an indemnity of three hundred thousand
pounds, and a grant of seven million acres in the best districts of
the North-West Territories, the feudal rights of the Hudson's Bay
Company were at last taken over by the Dominion of Canada. The
Company, however, still pursues its prosperous way. Its forts and
posts are sources of influence, centres of safety; its officers and
men a devoted and upright band who have proved their right to the
gratitude of the empire--unliveried policemen of good government and
national integrity.

[Illustration: EARL OF SELKIRK
(Founder of Selkirk Settlement, 1820)]

CHAPTER XX

THE NEW CENTURY

Quebec entered upon the nineteenth century equipped with the machinery
of constitutional government, which was, however, clogged in action by
unhappy divisions within the city. The four years of Sir James Craig's
rule were disturbed by a truceless war between the Legislative
Assembly and the Governor, whose arbitrary temper ill qualified him to
lead a people still groping for standing-ground within