No. 30

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your [Vancouver Island]
Despatch No 34, dated the 19th of
August

containing further reports of the progress of affairs in
British Columbia, and urging the importance of your being provided with
a Military force. The information which this Despatch affords me as to
the amount of Military aid which you consider would be sufficient to
enable you to provide for the maintenance of order amongst the large
population which is being so rapidly attracted to the Country by the
reports of its auriferous wealth, induces me to recapitulate to you the
steps which I have taken to support your authority and to explain to you
the considerations by which I have been influenced in the various
measures I have adopted to aid you in the arduous task of organizing the
Government of the Colony.

2. I trust that long ere this date your anxiety with respect to
the presence on your Coasts of an adequate Naval force will have been
allayed. Even before the act which constituted British Columbia into a
Colony had received Her Majesty's assent, I had urged upon the First
Lord of the Admiralty the necessity of sending a Frigate or Man of War
for the preservation of order in that
district.

In consequence of my representations, the Lords of the Admiralty directed
that Her Majesty's Ships on the Pacific Station should be reinforced, and
instructed Admiral Baynes (since the time at which he addressed to you
the letter that you have forwarded to me with your present Despatch) that
the presence of a force in your waters was to be considered by him as a
more pressing and important Service than any other on his station. By
the last
advices

I was informed that Admiral Baynes would himself leave
Callao for Vancouver's Island on the 28th of August in his Flag Ship
the "Ganges." He will therefore have arrived at the Island long since;
and I confidently rely upon the Admiral, according to his Instructions,
providing for all adequate Naval support to this important part of Her
Majesty's Dominions. Indeed the First Lord of the Admiralty assures me
in reply to a letter I addressed to him, that Admiral Baynes "will be
followed as quickly as possible by two Frigates from China," adding,
"this was the quickest mode of reinforcement we could possible adopt,
and in one case I sent a new Captain overland to take the command of a
Ship in China which had become vacant, and proceed at once to the
Pacific." I request that you will report to me what Vessels at the time
this Despatch is received may be actually in your Harbour, designed
for the special support of the Civil Government. And should you deem a
still larger force to be requisite for the purpose, your representation
to that effect shall have my immediate attention.

3. With regard to your demand for a Military force, it is
gratifying to me to learn, from your Statement that "the affairs of the
Government might be carried on smoothly with even a single Company of
Infantry," that I had anticipated and indeed exceeded your requirements
by directions given at the earliest moment for sending to the Colony a
party of 150 Royal Engineers. The superior discipline and intelligence
of this force, which afford ground for expecting that they will be far
less likely than ordinary Soldiers of the line to yield to the temptation
to desertion offered by the Gold fields, and their capacity at once to
provide for themselves in a Country without habitation, appear to me to
render them especially suited for this duty, whilst by their Services as
pioneers in the work of civilization, in opening up the resources of
the Country by the construction of Roads and Bridges, in laying the
foundations of a future City or Sea Port, and in carrying out the
numerous Engineering Works, which in the earlier Stages of Colonization
are so essential to the progress and welfare of a Community, they will
probably not only be preserved from the idleness which might corrupt the
discipline of ordinary Soldiers, but establish themselves in the popular
good will of the Emigrants, by the Civil benefits it will be in the
regular nature of their occupation to confer.

4. I regret that this force has been delayed in its departure
notwithstanding the unceasing care and pains I have devoted to the
hastening of the necessary preparations, but owing to arrangements with
the different departments of Government, the necessity for due care in
the selection of the Officers and men for the expedition, and the time
required for preparing the Vessels for Sea, a delay unavoidably occurred
that must have caused you an anxiety in which I fully sympathize.
Instalments however of the force consisting of Twenty and twelve men
respectively under Captain Parsons and Captain Grant were despatched to
the Colony
viâ Panama on the 2nd and 17th September. With the first of
these Detachments I forwarded your Commission as Governor having
immediately on the return of the Queen from the Continent obtained Her
Majesty's Signature, and taken your Commission myself on board the
Vessel in which the instalment of Engineers under Captain Parsons sailed
from Southampton. I am glad to be able now to inform you that the
"Thames City" has recently left England having on board 119 men of the
Expedition. This Vessel will be followed in a few days by the "Briseis"
laden with Stores &c belonging to the party; and a small number of men
and some additional stores will be sent in the "Euphrates" which is
expected to sail in about a month's time. Colonel Moody who commands
the expedition will proceed to British Columbia
viâ Panama on the 30th
Instant, to be in readiness to receive the main body of Engineers on
their arrival.

5. Having thus received the Military Assistance which I have
afforded to you it only remains for me to indicate the policy to be
observed in the employment; and particularly to explain to you more
fully the objections which I pointed out in my recent [Vancouver
Island] Despatch No 20 of the 16th
Ultimo

to the use of this force in the collection of Revenue.

6. The employment of a Royal Military force for the purpose of
compelling the payment of taxation would in itself be undesirable and
fraught with danger even in ordinary cases, and amidst the most docile
population. And it seems to me that objections to such an employment
are still stronger in the case of an impost like a license for Gold
digging which would become so odious as to necessitate abandonment, if
it led to disputes between the adventurers and the Military which might
terminate in bloodshed and loss of life.

A military force should be
considered primarily as intended for the purpose of resisting Foreign
aggression. Its employment in the internal control of the community
must be regarded as strictly subsidiary to the ordinary means of
enforcing obedience to the orders of the Civil power, and should be
resorted to only when those means have through unexpected circumstances
been found insufficient. The Governor of the Colony should on these
principles use every endeavour to render the authority of the Civil
Government independent of his Military force, and thus be in a position
to feel the full advantages of the moral support, which the Military
afford to legitimate authority in proportion to the rarity of their
interference. On the other hand, nothing is so important to the peace
and progress of the Colony, as a well organized and effective Police.
And I find that a Police is always feeble in Colonies that have been
accustomed, in every disturbance to rely upon Soldiers. It is by the
establishment of this Civil Constabulary with a sufficient staff of
Stipendiary Magistrates, that I would wish the Colonists to cooperate
with the Government in the requisite protection to life and property.

Hence I have sent to you the most experienced and trustworthy person I
could select amongst the Irish Constabulary, (a body of men peculiarly
distinguished for efficiency) to serve as Inspector of the Police,
and to carry out your instructions for the formation of a Civil force
of that character.

You will not however suppose from the above observations that armed
force, where required for its legitimate duties, will fail to the
defence and security of this new part of Her Majesty's Dominions. A
naval display of the protection that Great Britain affords to the
Settlers is no doubt, while I write already in your Harbour, and, in
sending to you a Military force, more than that which you state as
sufficient. I have to add that should the chance of collision with the
Indians or other elements of danger need in your judgment additional
reinforcements and you can discern the means by which mere Soldiers of
the line can be kept from desertion, and rendered securely serviceable,
your wishes will not fail to meet with earnest and ready consideration.

7. Colonel Moody however agrees with me in assuming that in a
population of Gold diggers there will be always enough disappointed
adventurers in the prime of life, who would enlist at need under the
British flag, and that, having secured able Officers, recruits could
thus be raised on the spot more rapidly and economically than Military
aid could be sent to you from England. With this view (on the
correctness of which I should be glad of your opinion) I have sent to
you under Colonel Moody a few practised and skilful men for Cavalry and
Artillery drill, who are intended to form a nucleus and framework in the
Colony itself for such additional Military force as may be required.

8. It is my object to provide for, or to suggest to you, how to
meet, all unforeseen exigencies in the Colony as they may arise, but my
views are based on the assumption that the common interest in life and
property will induce the Immigrants to combine amongst themselves for
ordinary purposes, and that when danger, needing Military force arises,
they will readily gather round and swell the force which will thus
expand in proportion as circumstances require. From England we send
skill and discipline, the raw material, (that is the mere men) a Colony
intended for free institutions, and on the borders of so powerful a
neighbour as the United States of America, should learn betimes, of
itself to supply.

9. With the scanty information which Her Majesty's Government
possess of the nature of the climate of British Columbia in the Winter,
in the absence of any experience as to the amount of population which
may remain during that Season at the diggings, they are unable to judge
what degree of activity in mining operations may then prevail; what
consequently may be the chance during the Winter months of armed frays
or collisions, and to what extent revenue and Colonization may be then
making progress. But they are led to anticipate that in the Winter
there must be that pause in Immigration and its concomitant difficulties
which may allow the preliminary settlement of questions of law and
police, and enable you to communicate to them the probable wants and
probable resources of the Colony; so that when, at the return of Spring,
Immigration and activity recommence, all suitable preparations may have
been made and the safety and developement of the Colony fully and
deliberately provided for. It will be very essential for this purpose
that you should instruct Her Majesty's Government by the best conjecture
that you may be able to arrive at of the probable revenue on which to
calculate; since in proportion to that revenue must be the rapidity with
which the Home Government can aid in the growth of the Colony.

10. Referring to the laudable co-operation in the construction of
the road which has been evoked by your energy from the good sense and
public spirit of the miners, I rejoice to see how fully that instance of
the zeal and intelligence to be expected from the voluntary efforts of
Immigrants uniting in the furtherance of interests common to them all,
bears out the principle of policy on which I desired to construct a
Colony intended for self government and trained to its exercise by self
reliance. The same characteristics which have made these settlers
combine so readily in the construction of a road, will I trust under the
same able and cheering influence which you prove that you so well
know how to exercise, cause them equally to unite in the formation of a
police, in the establishment of Law, in the collection of Revenue, in
short in all which may make individual life secure and the community
prosperous. I trust you will assure the hardy and spirited men who have
assisted in this preliminary undertaking how much their conduct is
appreciated by Her Majesty's Government.

11. I feel thankful for the valuable services so seasonably and
efficiently rendered by the "Satellite" and "Plumper."

12. I cannot conclude without a cordial expression of my sympathy
in the difficulties you have encountered, and of my sense of the
ability, the readiness of resource, the wise and manly temper of
conciliation which you have so signally displayed.

I doubt not that you will continue to shew the same vigour, and the
same discretion in its exercise, and you may rely with confidence on
whatever support and aid Her Majesty's Government can afford to you.