No. 57

I have the honor to forward an Address to Her Majesty the Queen
signed on behalf of the Municipal Council and people of New
Westminster by the Chairman of the Committee appointed to
celebrate Her Majesty's last birthday.

2. There was not a more loyal little community in any part of
the world than that which is now addressing Her Majesty, and I
know that the congratulations on the failure of certain
treasonable attempts are sincere. I am aware also that a
thrill of horror passed through the Colony when intelligence
was received of the murderous attack made on His Royal Highness
the Duke of Edinburgh.

3. The address proceeds to comment upon the change made in the
Seat of Government from New Westminster to Victoria. Your Grace
is aware that I likewise was of opinion that the people of the
former town had a grievance in this matter, but Your despatch
No. 67, of 1st October 1867, states that Her Majesty's
Government are of opinion that the question of the selection of
a Capital for a Colony must depend a good deal upon the public
convenience. There could not be two Capitals for British
Columbia. New Westminster has every advantage for becoming a
large town. I throw aside as utterly without foundation the
statements made by persons interested in Victoria as to the
difficulty of the Navigation of the Fraser. But the great
embarrassment was that population would not come to New
Westminster and that the greater portion of the political power
of the Colony was centred in a rival town only seventy miles
distant. Then, the Governor at New Westminster was separated
from the Head Quarters of the Fleet, from the Head of the Local
Church, from Banks and from the Hudson's Bay Company. The last
being no mean power in this Colony. The people would not come
to the Government. Were they to live apart or was the
Government, without any sacrifice of its own convenience being
required, to meet the people? However as the people of the
Mainland never desired Union with Vancouver Island, I think the
inhabitants of New Westminster have a fair right to consider
themselves aggrieved in this matter.