Colonial Despatches

Having laid before my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty your letter of 1st instant, transmitting copy of a letter from the Judge of the Vice Admiralty Court of British Columbia, in which he suggests the expediency of simplifying the Rules of Practice now in use in that Court; I am commanded by Their Lordships to acquaint you, for the information of Mr Secretary Cardwell, that it is in contemplation to assimilate the practice of the Vice Admiralty Courtsto to the existing practice of the High Court of Admiralty of England, which came into operation on the 1st of January 1860, and which has now been sufficiently tested, and been found to work well generally.

I am further directed to acquaint you, in reply to the Judge's enquiry, that no Regulations have as yet been issued under the Vice Admiralty Courts Act, 1863, affecting the Court of British Columbia; and the Judge was unquestionably right in declining to make any alterations in the practice of the Court, the power to do so being reserved toHer Her Majesty in Council.