CHAPTER XVII.
THE OLIGARCHY.
The struggle has always been between the masses and the classes.
Privilege always strives to confine itself to a few.

It could not be but that the echoes of the great British Reform Bill of 1832 should reach even the remote banks of Red River.

The struggle for constitutional freedom was also going on in Upper Canada, as well as in Lower Canada where the French-Canadians were fighting bitterly for their rights.
Besides all this in the Red River Settlement the existence of a Company store--a monopoly--could never prove satisfactory to a community of British blood.

Had the Colony shop been ever so justly and honestly conducted it could not be popular, how much less so must it have been in the hands of Alexander Macdonell, the peculator and deceiver.
It is true the Company store, of which we speak, was not that of the Hudson's Bay Company proper, but rather the possession of Lord Selkirk's heirs.
Gradually the rulership was coming under the direction of Governor Simpson, though there was the local Governor who was nominally independent.
Even when Governor Simpson was invoked, it is to be remembered that he and his company were the embodiment of privilege.

But the Governor was a surprisingly shrewd man.