Colonial Despatches

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Mr Under-Secretary Elliot's letter of the 15th ultimo relative to the suggestion of Governor Douglas that the Government under the arrangement made with this Company in February last did not take the benefit of a single acre under the reservation to them of the unsold portion of the lands in question and suggesting that, from the absence of any plans or maps being attached to the Agreement and from itsvery very skilful wording the Hudsons Bay Company so far from making any Concessions to the Government had obtained from the Crown almost the whole of the very small portion of ground not covered by buildings actually and for years past in the possession of the Government and to which the Company in the Governors Opinion had no sound claim.

In my communication to Your Grace of the 3rd ultimo I purposely avoided noticing the insinuation conveyed by this communication on the part of the Governor against Mr Dallas because I attributed it to the illfeelingwhich which appears to subsist between those parties and because I was aware that the Governor himself was in possession of land which under the Agreement between this Company and the Government Mr Dallas considered should pass to them: and I was therefore unwilling to give rise to a discussion which was likely to lead to unpleasantness without the prospect of any useful result.

At the time the agreement in question was entered into there were no means, that I am aware of in this Country of ascertaining precisely what then constituted the extent of the unsold lands, and I have no reasonto to believe that Mr Dallas possessed any more information upon the subject than was possessed by the Representatives of the Government.

I think it better however to send your Grace herewith the particulars of the Lots which the Company's Agent proposed should be conveyed to the Government and as observed in my letter to Your Grace of the 3rd ultimo the only doubt which appeared to exist on the part of the Colonial Secretary in the Island as to the accuracy of these plans was in reference to the Harbour Masters Lot.

I really am not awarethat that I can add anything more on the subject further than that this Company are desirous to carry out in its integrity the arrangement come to in February last.