With reference to my Despatch N 26 of the
4 April last upon the
subject of the unsatisfactory and uncertain state of the Mail Service
to this part of Her Majesty's Dominions, I have now the honor to
report to your Grace that one of the Steam Vessels which usually
arrive twice a month at this
place![Manuscript image Manuscript image](https://hcmc.uvic.ca/~coldesp/jpg_scans/jpg_thumbnail/co_305_17/co_305_17_00264v.jpg)
place from
San Francisco has come in
this morning without any Mail, the Owners having positively refused
to receive it from Her Majesty's Consul at
San Francisco and to carry
it, without being guaranteed a payment of Two Hundred and Fifty
Dollars for the Service.
2. This circumstance will prove to your Grace how completely we are
at the mercy of the United States Vessels, and even if our small
Revenue would admit of the demand being complied with—about Two
Thousand![Manuscript image Manuscript image](https://hcmc.uvic.ca/~coldesp/jpg_scans/jpg_thumbnail/co_305_17/co_305_17_00265r.jpg)
Thousand five Hundred pounds per Annum—we have no security for the
continuance of the Service, or for the performance of it in any other
manner than would suit the Owners of the Vessels.
3. In the present troubled condition of the United States and in the
not improbable contingency of their Mail Service being cut off or
temporarily suspended, I need not dilate upon the evils resulting to
these Colonies from the stoppage of communication with the Mother
Country.
4. Independently, however,
of![Manuscript image Manuscript image](https://hcmc.uvic.ca/~coldesp/jpg_scans/jpg_thumbnail/co_305_17/co_305_17_00265v.jpg)
of these considerations, the injury
inflicted on the mercantile interests of these Colonies, from the
want of direct Steam communication in
English Vessels is very serious. The Vessels leaving
San Francisco call at different American Ports en route to this
place—and there are Emigrants for this Colony and
British Columbia
enticed away by every description of fraudulent representation; and
the additional risk to the Vessels and freight caused by these
stoppages naturally Entails increased charges for insurance.
5. I write this Despatch hurriedly to save the Steamer just leaving,
but I trust I have said sufficient to induce your Grace to give the
matter Your serious Consideration, and to afford us that aid and
support that we so vitally require.
P.S. At the moment of closing
this![Manuscript image Manuscript image](https://hcmc.uvic.ca/~coldesp/jpg_scans/jpg_thumbnail/co_305_17/co_305_17_00266v.jpg)
this Despatch, I have had placed in my
hands a Memorial to Your Grace upon the subject of direct Steam
communication which very forcibly and clearly represents the
disadvantages and evils under which we are struggling through our
connection with the rest of the world being so entirely by means of
American Channels. I commend the Memorial and subject to your
Grace's good offices, merely adding that the Signatures Attached to
it, are those of the most substantial Business
Houses![Manuscript image Manuscript image](https://hcmc.uvic.ca/~coldesp/jpg_scans/jpg_thumbnail/co_305_17/co_305_17_00267r.jpg)
Houses in the place,
and of some of the most respectable of the Inhabitants, and the
statements made are but a clear recital of actual facts.
James Douglas