many American politicians saying this was the opportune moment for the United States to realize its "manifest destiny" by annexing British North America, the government of the United Canadas, consisting of Canada West (modern Ontario) and Canada East (modern Quebec) passed the Militia Act of 1855 to create an active militia that was essentially a professional army, through not labelled as such. The "active militia" consisted of 5,000 men. The Canadian Army is a direct descendant of the "active duty militia" force created in 1855. Upon Canadian Confederation in 1867, the ground forces in Canada continued to be referred to as the Militia. Using the "active duty militia" of the United Canadas as its core, Parliament passed the Militia Act of 1868 merging the militias of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia into the militia of the United Canadas. In February 1869, the Defence minister, Sir George-Étienne Cartier, told the House of Commons that the Militia had 37,170 men under arms and 618,896 in reserve. The primary action that the newly formed militia saw was from the Fenians, a group of Irish radicals who made several attempts in the late 19th century to invade some parts of southern Canada from the United States. The period of the Fenian raids in the 1860s and early 1870s was the peak of the efficiency of the Canadian militia. In 1866, at the Battle of Ridgeway the Fenians defeated the Canada West militia owing to the inexperience of the militiamen, but in 1870 the Quebec militia drove back the Fenians at Trout River and Eccles Hill with little trouble. In 1869, Canada purchased for $1.5 million the vast proprietary colony of Rupert's Land run by the Hudson's Bay Company that comprised all of northern Quebec, northern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. The 10,000 people, many of them Métis in the Red River Colony in what is now southern Manitoba, were not consulted about the sale, and under the leadership of Louis Riel rebelled, setting up a provisional government to negotiate their admission to Confederation. Donald Smith of the Hudson's Bay Company had been appointed to negotiate with Riel by Ottawa and arranged a settlement under which Canada would create a new province called Manitoba in exchange for the Métis laying down their arms. However, the execution of Thomas Scott, an Orangeman from Ontario, by the Métis, created much fury