Robinson to Rogers (Permanent Under-Secretary)
Cambridge
18 Oct 1870
Dear Sir
The Packet of papers you kindly forwarded on the 12th Inst—including Blue Book on British Columbia, Mr Begbie's answers to my questions, & various photographs, & your letter—I have duly received, & now thank you for forwarding them.
Will you have the goodness to present my hearty thanks to the Earl of Granville or the Earl of Kimberley, or to both, for sending out my inquiries & communicating the answers thereto.
Mr Begbie's elaborate & highly prized letter leaves the wonderful terraces it refers to, unexplained. I should like therefore to insert the information it contains in the AthenaeumManuscript image or some similar periodical for the purpose of stimulating further investigation. If however Mr Begbie gives no authority for publishing his name, I presume it will be my duty to abstain from giving any clue to it. With that limitation, I wish to publish my letter & [his?] reply to it, saying that for the latter I am indebted to the courtesy of the Colonial Office.
It may be right to add that I am not going to sell this information, but to give it to the public as freely as it has been given to me.
To this I presume there will be no objection.
In the next communication to Mr Justice Begbie may I ask that my great gratitude be expressed for the very great pains he has taken to explain the intensely interesting phenomena around him.
I am
Sir
Yours respectfully
William Robinson

Minutes by CO staff
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Mr Herbert
Mr Robinson, to whom we sent Chief Justice Begbie's interesting report on the British Columbia Drift Terraces, wishes to publish it without Mr Begbie's name, in the Athenaeum, or some similar paper. We have already sent the report, without any reservation to the Geographical Society. It is simply a question of personal feeling, but if I were Mr Begbie, I should like to be consulted before the publication of the report, either by Mr Robinson, or the Society.
RSM 20/10/70
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Reply that Lord Kimberley cannot undertake to say how far such a mode of publishing his commn would be satisfactory to C. Justice Begbie, who was not led to understand that his paper would be made public in any shape. It has also been communicated to the Geographical Society, and Ld K is disposed to think that Mr Begbie would prefer that his remarks should be introduced to public notice through the medium of the Society's proceedings, if at all. And send copy to Govr.
RGWH Oct 21/70
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I agree.
K Oct 23/70
Other documents included in the file
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Herbert to Robinson, 27 October 1870, suggesting that Begbie would probably prefer "that his remarks should be introduced to public notice through the medium of the [Geographical] Society's proceedings, if at all."
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Draft reply, Kimberley to Musgrave, No. 31, 29 October 1870.