Romaine to Rogers (Permanent Under-Secretary)

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 Courts 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 to Her Majesty in Council.