No. 9, Miscellaneous
2 February 1863
I have much pleasure in forwarding herewith copy of a Report lately received from Mr Begbie the Judge of British Columbia, embodying many valuable observations on the Roads and Mines of the Colony.EspeciallyManuscript image Especially would I call attention to his remarks on the character and yield of the Mines at Williams Creek, as containing views both original and entertaining.
I have the honor to be
My Lord Duke,
Your Grace's most obedient
humble Servant
James Douglas
Minutes by CO staff
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Sir F. Rogers
I send you this despatch at once, thinking that Mr Begbie's recital of his peregrinations up the Country will be useful to you in the consideration of the means by which the Duke of Newcastle's "outline" for a Constitution for B. Columbia can be worked out.
B. Columbia—or rather a knot of persons at New Westminster—has been calling out loudly for the establishment of a separate Govt. In order toaccomplishManuscript image accomplish this design it is proposed to give the Colony a Governor to itself, and a partly nominated, and partly elective Leg: Council. But this Council must, of necessity, be in the first instance, and probably for some few years to come limited in its numbers, and drawn from a circumscribed radius. For the Magistrates have enough to do in keeping order among the miners without having to repair once or twice a year to New Westminster to attend the deliberations of the Council—omitting all mention of the difficulty, and expense of such journies—and as for the miners they are only fit for digging and washing for gold. It will be impossible to make Leg. Councillors out of the mining class. The result is that the members of the Council must be drawn, as before observed, from such materials as can be found in and near New Westminster, Douglas, Hope, Lytton, and such other places as contain persons of respectability. I should suggest that this office content itself with an announcement of the change contemplated with respect to this Govt, with the selection of a suitable Governor who should be instructed to report to the Duke of Newcastle, as soon as he couldManuscript image after his arrival, how large this L.C. ought to be, and who are the persons, and whence they can be drawn, who shd compose it.
ABd 1 Apl
So far as regards the disposal of the despatch, I suppose that it should be acknowledged with some suggestions of interest and of acknowledgement to Mr Begbie for the value of the knowledge of the state of the Country afforded by his observations.
TFE 8 April
N 14
Documents enclosed with the main document (not transcribed)
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M.B. Begbie to Colonial Secretary, 19 January 1863, reporting as per despatch (32 pages).
Other documents included in the file
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Draft reply, Newcastle to Douglas, No. 20, 18 April 1863.
Douglas, Sir James to Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle Henry Pelham Fiennes 2 February 1863, CO 60:15, no. 3136, 66. 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/B63009.html.

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