Colonial Despatches

I have had the honor to receive Your Lordship's Despatches Nos 11 & 12 of the 22nd August, enclosing an Order of Her Majesty in Council constituting a Legislative Council for British Columbia, and conveying Your Lordship's observations on the changes which that Instrument is intended to effect.

2. I am glad that Your Lordship has approved of the arrangments which I undertook to suggest, and very grateful for the confidence which you have expressed in my discretion as to the exercise of the powers which have been confided to me on the matters of detail; which Your Lordship has, I think rightly, considered can more easily be adjusted by the aid of local knowledge in the Colony.

3. The late period of the Year at which the Order inCouncil Council was received rendered prompt action necessary to accomplish the completion of the Elections in the more distant Districts, so as to enable the first Session to be held at the usual season. I have therefore lost no time in taking the requisite proceedings. The writs have already been issued. And I enclose Copies of a Gazette Extraordinary containing the Order in Council and a Proclamation which I have issued under the powers given by the 9th Sectionof of the Order in Council.

4. Upon general principles I have not regarded it as expedient to appear to curtail the liberty of the franchise conferred by the Order, by attempting to impose any more specific qualifications for Electors or Elected Members. But, I have thought it right that residence in the District for three months before the Elections should be required of the Electors. Any franchise which it would have been at all possible to establisinh in the case of this Colony, would in fact and practice amount to no franchise at all, and after excluding aliens whose votes have been taken on previous occasions would reduce the number of Electors to a very small body, probably excluding many persons presumably quite as fit to exercise the privilege of Election as any possessing the nominal qualification. I have seen the effect of Household suffrage in Newfoundland.

5. It has been found necessary on this occasion to omit any regulations in respect of Registration of Voters. Time is not afforded to establish any effective system or to enable any revision of the Lists. But it is my impression that the omission is not likely to produce any perceptible effect upon the probable result of the Elections. When the time arrives for further proceedings towards the completion of Union with Canada, it will be necessaryfor for the new Council to pass an Election Law settling this and other matters of detail for the future.

6. I trust that the Writs will all be returned before the end of December, and that I may be able to convene the Council early in January. I have little or no doubt that the issue as to Union with Canada is already virtually settled. The matters which will probably occupy attention are the proposed introduction ofResponsible Responsible Government on Union and questions arising out of the alternative which has been offered by Canada, that this Colony may either accept the Canadian Tariff or retain its own until the completion of overland communication by the proposed Railway.