It appears from a Toronto telegram that the " Winnipeggers
" liave avowed that their policy is independence, to be followed by annexation to the United States, but there is one puzzling circum- stance in the movement. The French half-breeds who control the insurrection are, like the Lower Canadians, ardent Catholics, and the best explanation of the uprising we have yet seen is that the priests of the district wish to force the Dominion to grant to their flocks the terms granted to Lower Canada, an Established or rather an Endowed Catholic Church, and a law of entail. Neither of those institutions would, however, be respected by Americans, and the Lower Canadians are of all men in America the most opposed to absorption in the Union. It is still more puzzling that the English and Scotch settlers, who are by no means inclined to Catholicism, should be so quiescent,—though such a project may explain in some degree the want of energy said to be apparent in Ottawa. Sir G. Cartier, the War Minister, is not likely to be very earnest against the Church.
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