No. 22
6 November 1858
Sir,
I have duly received your (Despatch No 13) of the 2nd September last, 1 acquainting me that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel propose to send one or two Missionary Chaplains to British Columbia with as little delay as possible.
2. I am glad to learnthatManuscript image that such is the intention of this Society, and I shall be most happy to render every assistance in my power to the Clergymen when they arrive. They will find there is an extensive field open to Missionary enterprise, as well amongst the white population as amongst the native Indian Tribes.
3. The recent immigration into the British Possessions in these parts has consisted mainly of Foreigners, and bearing this in mind, with the local position of the Territory, and the influence that maybeManuscript image be exercised by the Ministers of Religion over a people, it appears to me very desirable that there should be but little opening for the introduction of any Foreign Clergy; and for these reasons alone, merely as a matter of policy and without entering into higher considerations, I esteem it of some importance that every encouragement should be given to promote the emigration to this Country of English Clergymen.
I have etc.
James Douglas
Governor of Vancouver's Island
and of British Columbia
Minutes by CO staff
Manuscript image
Mr Merivale
Communicate a Copy of this Despatch to the Society?
VJ 17 Jan
Annex draft communicating as an extract all this desp. except what I have crossed in pencil. 2
C Jany 18
Other documents included in the file
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Merivale to the Reverend Ernest Hawkins, 26 January 1859, forwarding extract of the despatch for information.
Footnotes
  1. = Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (see Lytton to Douglas CO 398/1, p. 66, No. 13, 2 September 1858). The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, with offices at 79 Pall Mall, arose out of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, formed by Dr. Thomas Bray, a clergyman active in England and the American colonies at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The stated purposes of the society were: (1) to provide a sufficient maintenance for an orthodox clergy to live among the colonists; (2) to make other provision for the propagation of the gospel in those parts; (3) to receive, manage, and dispose of, the charity of His Majesty's subjects for these purposes. Rev. E.L. Cutts, Dictionary of the Church of England (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1895), pp. 565-67. See also Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, Work in the Colonies: Some Account of the Missionary Operations of the Church of England (London: Griffith and Farran, 1865), pp. 84-90; and Report of the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts for the Year 1859 (London: Richard Clay, 1859). Refer to difference with CMI??
  2. The third paragraph of the despatch has been crossed out in pencil.
People in this document

Carnarvon, Earl

Douglas, Sir James

Hawkins, Reverand Ernest

Jadis, Vane

Lytton, Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer

Merivale, Herman

Places in this document

British Columbia

Vancouver Island

Victoria

Douglas, Sir James to Lytton, Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer 6 November 1858, CO 60:1, no. 541, 374. The Colonial Despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871, Edition 2.0, ed. James Hendrickson and the Colonial Despatches project. Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria. https://bcgenesis.uvic.ca/B58022.html.

Last modified: 2020-03-30 13:22:16 -0700 (Mon, 30 Mar 2020) (SVN revision: 4193)