Trevelyan to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)
Treasury Chambers
21 September 1858
Sir,
With reference to your letter of the 17th Instant, 1 I am commanded by the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury to acquaint you, for the information of Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, that they have instructed the Paymaster General to issue to Messrs Cox & Co. the sum of £800 being for advance of pay to the Royal Engineers proceeding to British Columbia, and to charge the same, for the present, to the Treasury Chest account, as well as the sums previously directed to be issued forManuscript image the Engineer Officers proceeding to British Columbia.
As soon as the remainder of the force has been despatched, and the amount of the requisite advances can be ascertained, Their Lordships will be glad to receive Sir E. Bulwer Lytton's opinion upon the proportion that should be charged to Army Funds
See last Par: of 8864. [ABd.]
 
, 2 and the amount for which it may be necessary to submit to Parliament an Estimate
 
, for those charges which may properly be considered as Civil Expences of the Colony, to be defrayed, in the first instance, from Imperial Funds.
In the mean timeManuscript image it appears to Their Lordships to be desirable that these advances should be made to, and accounted for by, Colonel Moody, in preference to making separate issues to the Officers employed under his orders
 
.
I am etc.
C.E. Trevelyan
Minutes by CO staff
Manuscript image
No 1. The proportion of the Pay of the Royal Engineers proceeding to B. Columbia, which should be charged to Army funds is a question which will soon demand Sir E. Lytton's consideration.
No 2. With respect to the amount for which a Parly Estimate may have to be prepared it is impossible at present to state anything. The first grand object is to get the Engineers on the spot in order that they may survey—mark out and sell land. The money will then come in it is to be hoped. Funds are doubtless coming in even now from the issuing of licenses, & other sources, but we are at present totally in the dark as to the extent. The Govr has, howr, been several times warned of the necessity of reporting as early as possible, & indeed immy on this subject.
No 3. As two parties of Engineers, under separate Officers, have been sent viâ Panama, it has been unavoidable to give these Officers funds for the journey: but now nothing is issued except to & on the requisition of Colonel Moody.
ABd 23 Sepr
HM S 25
C S 25
Put by—there appearing nothing to be done upon this letter.
ABd 27 S
Footnotes
  1. The reference should probably be to Merivale's letter of 15 September, a draft of which appears in Moody to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary), 1858, 9465, CO 60/3, p. 266. Cf. the draft of Merivale's letter of 17 September in Moody to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary), 1858, 9486, CO 60/3, p. 275.
  2. I.e., Treasury to Colonial Office, 2 September 1858, CO 6/26, NEED. The numbers appearing in the margin in brackets relate to Blackwood's minute below.
People in this document

Blackwood, Arthur Johnstone

Carnarvon, Earl

Lytton, Edward George Earle Bulwer

Merivale, Herman

Moody, Richard Clement

Trevelyan, Charles Edward

Organizations in this document

Colonial Office

Cox & Co.

Places in this document

British Columbia

Panama