Mr Elliot
I think that this Dispatch may be answered by referring
Mr Seymour to the 3
rd Sec of the Vice Admiralty Courts
Act which was sent to him in the Circular Dispatch now
acknowledged which provides that in a vacancy occurring in
the Office of Vice Admiral the Governor of the Colony for
the time being ex Officio assumes the Office of V. Admiral
and observe that that provision of the Act supersedes the
necessity of granting Commission in any specific case: Add
that in order that there should be no doubt as to the Office
of V. Admiral having duly become vacant,
Sir J. Douglas was
requested on his retirement from the
Govt of
Bh Columbia
to resign the Appointment; which he formally did and that
he was requested to take measures for recovering the Commission
of V. Admiral which had been granted to him and which he
represented that he had left in the Colony. If it should
be still in
Mr Seymour's hands it will be desirable that
he should return it to this Office in order to prevent the
existence of two distinct authorities bearing on the same point.