Colonial Despatches

I have the honor to transmit to you for your Report a copy of a letter addressed to me by Mr. Charles Walkem dated Montreal 12th January, respecting his son's claim to be admitted to the Bar of British Columbia.

With reference toyour your despatch No. 65 of the 6th of January 1859 I have to observe to you that if it is requisite to admit Barristers of the United States to practice in British Columbia it appears much more requisite to admit Canadian Barristers.

Mr. Justice Begbie in his letter of the 29th December 1859 enclosed in your despatch to which I have referred, seems to treat the questionas as one of reciprocity and argues that because British Columbia Barristers are not admitted to practice in Canada, Canadian Barristers, ought not to be admitted to practice in British Columbia.

But I have to observe that it is clear that this question ought not to be treated with reference to the personal interests of barristers, but tothe the benefit of the public, and that it is clearly for the benefit of the British Columbian public in the present state of society, that men of legal knowledge and respectable character should be encouraged by all means to practice law before the Supreme Court, whether that knowledge has been acquired in Great Britain, in British Columbia itself, or in Canada.