I am directed by 
Secretary Major General Peel to transmit
               to you, for the information of 
Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, the
               annexed extract from Lloyd's List, which has been communicated
               to this Department by the Admiralty, by which it appears that
               the "
Briseis," one of the vessels employed to convey some Men
               of the Royal Engineers and Military Stores to 
Vancouver's
                  Island was destroyed by fire at Sea on the 
8th December last.