[Illustration: EXTERIOR VIEW OF FORT GARRY]
Then, from every direction came the imperious suggestion that some more
effective form of government should be adopted. This was granted. True,
Governor Simpson did not succeed in satisfying all the Settlers, though
in this respect he found it easier to supply the volatile
French-Canadian hunters, than the hard-headed people of British origin.
The method of Governor Simpson, along with the London Board of the
Hudson's Bay Company choosing the Council of Assiniboia, certainly did
smack of the age of Henry VIII. or Charles I. in English history.
The Council consisted of fifteen members, viz.: the Governor-in-Chief
Simpson, the Local Governor Christie, the Roman Catholic Bishop, two
Church of England clergymen, three retired Hudson's Bay Company
officers, the leading doctor of the Colony, Sheriff Ross, Coroner
McCallum, and three leading business men, viz.: Pritchard, Logan and
McDermott. It is noticeable that though the French element numbered
about one-half of the people, that only one Councillor besides the
Bishop was given them, and this was Cuthbert Grant, now settled down
from the period of his Bois-brules impulsiveness to be the Warden of the
Plains, with an influence over the Metis, that can only be described as
magical.
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