No. 21

By my Despatch No. 11 of the 11th June you will have learned that
Her Majesty had been pleased to allow and confirm the Ordinance passed
by the Legislature of British Columbia on the 10th of March 1864,
intituled No. 7 An Ordinance to authorize a Loan of One hundred thousand
pounds (£100,000).

I am aware of the necessity under which your Government labours of
endeavouring to borrow money in England speedily in order to be relieved
from the heavy interest at which in the meantime it has been obliged to
raise money in the Colony. I have therefore consulted on the subject
with the Crown Agents for the Colonies, but I regret to inform you that
the present state of the Money Market is so unfavorable that any
immediate attempt to raise the loan would be attended with extreme
difficulty, and could only succeed upon terms of unusual disadvantage.

Under these circumstances, I have been unable to do more at present
that to instruct the Crown Agents to raise the money at such times and
in such portions as they may find compatible with the state of the
Money Market and with the interests of the Colony.