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,.. RICHMOND HILL. Thursday, Aug. 6, ’80 ‘ Guilty, with a recommendation to mercy.’ Such is the verdict ren- dered by the jury empanelled to try Riel. That the Metis chief should be found guilty is perfectly natural, for his crime was open and notori- ous. The grounds on which the clemency of the Crown has been in- voked are not so clear. The jurors must have been moved by one of three things. (i.) Riel’s ofl‘ence was due to the gross and flagrant injustice of the Government of the day. {e was held to be not responsible for his actions, either because insane, or at ieast a ‘crank.’ (3.) The jurors fell victims to a gust of that vapid, silly sentimental- ism which has saved the necks of so many scoundrels. The last consideration may sately be dismissed, because it is unsup- ported by any evidence. The rea- son for this startling appendix to an inevitable decision must be sought in either the first or second of the motives above adduced. Frankly, it the second contains the needed explanation, the safeguards of hu- man life will have received a tre- mendous shock. Not a word which Riel has written or spoken, not an action of his, can entitle him to the mercy which is justly extended to one whose deeds proceed lrom that terrible calamity, the overthrow of the mind’s sovereignty. So far as may be judged from the contessedly imperfect knowledge of the North West rebellion, it was sagacionsly planned, thoroughly worked up, and failed only because every struggle against the barriers of fate of neces- sity tails. Had the Hallbreeds and Indians been well“ supplied With tood, arms and amunition, although the result would undoubtedly have been the same, the sum of our losses would have reached a figure appall- ing even to the most callous. Every- thing, in fine, proves that, if Riel be mad, his madness does .not...1ack method. And-even it considerable mental aberration can be establish: ed, the history of the past five months shows that, at most, such aberration falls under the head of marked eccentricity, a characteristic almost always found in those who dare to leave the beaten paths of then. [this insanity 0r crankism is vain as a plea for commutation of sentence. ' But if the recommendation to mercy was based on the assump- tion that the Ottawa Government was primarily and radically respon- sible for the rebellion, if it is intend~ ed as a deliberate expression of. be- lief that the mismanagement of at- fairs in the North-\Vest was so great that an ignorant and excitable pop- ulation could not be expected to re- sist the incentive to take up arms; if, finally, it is to be taken as faith in the doctrine that when constitu- tional means to obtain a redress of grievances have failed. armed resist- ance is not only justifiable, but even natural, then,we say,we must pause before we scout this recommenda- tion, ior it will be irresistibly borne on our minds that Riel is only the victim ot/tyrannical circumstances, created by one who took an oath to ailord to all men the protection of the law, but who has been found to have been smiting contrary to‘the \Ve may accept as settled that Mr. Thomas \Vhite, the member for Cardwclhis now of the Cabinet. His portfolio, pending further shuffling, is the department of the Interior. ln this allotment, he is fortunate, lonhowcver insignificant he may be in ability and moral tone, he can scarcely fail to be an iiiiiuiOV‘eiiient on his predecessor, that torpid Col- ossus of ignorance, stupidity and llunkyism, Sir Davxd Macpherson. 'l he political epitaph of the latter, ii honestly written, should prove. a warning to those simple people who think that a man’s mind is in direct Ifiatio to his bulk, wealth and asinine pretensions. @1112 fl‘iheml, \Ve cannot congratulate the coun- try on this latest addition to the Cabinet. It is true that Mr. \Vhite willnot be‘any disturbing element among his colleagues. He will cer- tainly be tound to be. anothey 'ex- ample of the {ondness bfliké fcflike. But Mr. \‘Jhite is not the man to W . Changeâ€"I. Crosbv. C UlLl»‘«A.-, Muldoou. MR. THOMAS I'VHITE, I'vI. P. NEW AflVEflâ€"HSEMENTS I; RIEL. attract admiration and esteem. He IS, in factgone oi the worst speci- mensof those toad-eating, brazen- taced harpies who are feeding on the Vitals of Canada. Five times, if we mistake not, he was a candidate at the polls, before he'obtained a seat in Parliament. Yet this did not re- strain him from the impudent effron- tery of sneering at a Liberal whose election had been preceded by two defeats. His advent in the House of Commons clashed with his most particular hobby, the making of money, for all the world knows that Mr. White is the editor and pro- prietor ot the Montreal Gazette. But Mr. White is not a man to be daunted by trifles. \Vith an exquis- ite sense of honor and propriety, theretore,he turned the Gmei‘te busi- ness into ajoint-stock company, in which he and his brother Richard held nearly all the shares, and then his inaw could ,within the law, take in all the government pap (in this case, printing) which truckling or threatening could. extort. \Ve need not remind our readers that last year the Gazette received from Ottawa between ten and twenty thousand dollars for printing, real or suppo-’ sititious. Indeed, Mr. White, is a Sir Charles Tupper in miniature. On a small seaie, he recalls the ‘stretcher’s’ flLiency,loudness,coarse- ness and recklessness. In ignoble greed,he is rather above than below Sir Charles. The latter, it is but just to say, is incapable of Mr. White’s fawning and cringing ; the ‘Chiettam’ himselfhas no terrors for him. y. The celebrated French philoso- pher, Rousseau, wrote an essay 'in “which he attempted to ,’ prove that modern civilization, far lrom ad- vancing man socially and morally, has retarded him. In this writing, he exhibited an ingenuity, an elo- quence and Wit of which only a man of genius is capable. it is one hundo red years agosince the, essay ap- peared,and the nineteenth century is the very embodiment of" those forces whose action he deplored. Never, in the annals of‘the world, was so: ciety m’oTe complex, never was it more intellectual, never so imbued with the spirit and ability 0t discovâ€" ery. All men are known to all men. The most remote parts oi the world are within easy nailing distance. The deeds 01 one quarter of the globe are known an hour or two after they happen in the opposite quarter. Did we not know the in- ventive skill of man, we might eX- claim that we had found all. But the probability is that the twentieth century Wili‘be as far in advance of ours as ours is in advance of the eighteenth. Yet to him who mews the matter closely, 'Rcmsseau's conclusions will appear not without a modicum ol truth. However much the eloquent author of the Social Contract may have confounded cause and effect, he was rrght in so far as he asserted that the spiritual progress of man was at a standstill. while his materâ€" was at a standstill, while his mater-r 1a] progress was making gigantic strides. How far the doctrine of compensation affords an explanation of thisqremains a mystery. ’Tis true that What \‘C gain in one direction we lose in another. Are we then to believe that it is impossible for the material and spiritual to advance With equal steps 2‘ Is devotion to the one meninputible with due at~ ten‘ion to the other? The benev- olent christian cries‘ out Not But experience is far from being on his side. Let us take a single example :A The sacredness of truth has alâ€" most ceased to be a factor in the trading world. Our food is grossly. adulterated, our manufactures are hardly kept pure by the most lynx- eycd scrutiny. The maxim ot pro- ducing at the smallest cost and salt- ing at the highest price has been pushed until there has arisen a new word to describe a bad state of things, and that word 13,3h0ddg. He who runs may see that nothing is so pure, so good, so holy that m an do not try to turn a penny from it. Even the poor and ignorant sick, who stand most in need of fair plav, are made the Victims of the quack and ii‘npostor. And only the otner day we observed a Haunting adver- tisement in which a man proclaimed that,out of consideration to tlierolâ€" unteers,'he had resolved to reduce his prices twenty-five per cent. Kind,4very.,- We are borne to the conclusion that Rousseau's essay is not altogether wide of the mark, Such is the new Minister of the Interior. We boldiy ask'whether 6r not the Hallbreeds and Indians have cause for rejoicing at thls ans-- plcious. change.” HO WIS IT ? WNQRETEE: LOWEST PRICES REA? ' “ AGM A. WMGHT 6E SON, Repairing done with taste «is despatch Satisfaction Guaranteed. SETS-ABS, RMEIES, GfiRRANHFS, THE NEE PRQOF, RICE. AND GENERAL GRDQERE‘S Highest price paid. for Butter Eggs... Y; NEW S‘HIRNNGS E WELL SUPPLIED WITH A LARGE STOCK OF SPRENG 18% I CARRIAGE, IEUILDEBS, An immense Stock at the‘ GREAT BARGAINS IN Are prepared to fill orders in all styles of A. WWGHT @fl. SON. Send in your orders at once. For tha Month of August. QERAL GF At the lowest prices. SAAG GRQgBV. AT