Harding to Lytton

I am honored with your commands signified in Mr Elliot's letter of the 27th November
Ultimo,

stating that he was directed to request that I would, at my early
convenience, prepare for your consideration a draft of an instrument for
erecting the New Colony of British Columbia into a Bishop's See, and for
appointing the Reverend George Hills to be the first Bishop of the said
See.

Mr Elliot was also pleased to state that the limits of this See
may be defined in accordance with the delimitation of British Columbia as
enacted by the 21st and 22nd of the Queen cap 99; and as by that
Act it has been made lawful for Her Majesty on receiving at any time
during its continuance a joint address from the two houses of the
Legislature of Van Couvers Island praying for the incorporation of the
same with British Columbia to annex the said Island to British Columbia,
I would consult His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury upon the question
whether it may not be expedient under present circumstances or until that
annexation is effected to give to the Bishop of British Columbia
ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Van Couver's Island, similar to that
with which the Bishop of Cape Town is invested over the Island of Saint
Helena. Mr Elliott also stated that it will be proper to give to the
New Bishop all the powers which are now usually given to Colonial
Bishops, and especially power to appoint his Cathedral Church.

In obedience to Your commands, I have prepared and herewith
transmit a Draft of an Instrument for this purpose.

I have not thought it necessary to set forth in express terms "by
Metes and bounds" the limits of the new See, inasmuch as the description
of "the Colony or Territory of Vancouver's Island as at present
established" will I apprehend, be legally sufficient and certain; the
latter words, applied to Vancouvers Island, are used in the sixth Section
of Stat: 21st and 22nd Victoria cap
99,

which defines the limits of British Columbia.

If however this description should be considered insufficient, then
I would suggest the necessity of a correct description by "metes and
bounds" of the Colony of Van Couver's Island being supplied.

I have (as instructed) consulted His Grace the Archbishop of
Canterbury upon the point suggested in Mr Elliot's letter,
and His Grace has been pleased to approve of the proposed
arrangement with relation to Vancouver's Island.

I have in other points attended to the instructions
contained in Mr Elliot's letter and have followed the precedent
of the Patent by which the Diocese of Ruperts Land was founded in
1849.