No. 136

I have had the honor to receive Your Lordship's Despatches Nos
11 & 12 of the 22nd August, enclosing an Order of Her Majesty
in Council constituting a Legislative Council for British
Columbia, and conveying Your Lordship's observations on the
changes which that Instrument is intended to effect.

2. I am glad that Your Lordship has approved of the arrangments
which I undertook to suggest, and very grateful for the
confidence which you have expressed in my discretion as to the
exercise of the powers which have been confided to me on the
matters of detail; which Your Lordship has, I think rightly,
considered can more easily be adjusted by the aid of local
knowledge in the Colony.

3. The late period of the Year at which the Order in Council
was received rendered prompt action necessary to accomplish the
completion of the Elections in the more distant Districts, so as
to enable the first Session to be held at the usual season. I
have therefore lost no time in taking the requisite proceedings.
The writs have already been issued. And I enclose Copies of a
Gazette Extraordinary containing the Order in Council and a
Proclamation which I have issued under the powers given by the
9th Section of the Order in Council.

4. Upon general principles I have not regarded it as expedient
to appear to curtail the liberty of the franchise conferred by
the Order, by attempting to impose any more specific
qualifications for Electors or Elected Members. But, I have
thought it right that residence in the District for three months
before the Elections should be required of the Electors. Any
franchise which it would have been at all possible to establish
in the case of this Colony, would in fact and practice amount to
no franchise at all, and after excluding aliens whose votes have
been taken on previous occasions would reduce the number of
Electors to a very small body, probably excluding many persons
presumably quite as fit to exercise the privilege of Election as
any possessing the nominal qualification. I have seen the
effect of Household suffrage in Newfoundland.

5. It has been found necessary on this occasion to omit any
regulations in respect of Registration of Voters. Time is not
afforded to establish any effective system or to enable any
revision of the Lists. But it is my impression that the
omission is not likely to produce any perceptible effect upon
the probable result of the Elections. When the time arrives for
further proceedings towards the completion of Union with Canada,
it will be necessary for the new Council to pass an Election Law
settling this and other matters of detail for the future.

6. I trust that the Writs will all be returned before the end of
December, and that I may be able to convene the Council early in
January. I have little or no doubt that the issue as to Union
with Canada is already virtually settled. The matters which
will probably occupy attention are the proposed introduction of
Responsible Government on Union and questions arising out of the
alternative which has been offered by Canada, that this Colony
may either accept the Canadian Tariff or retain its own until
the completion of overland communication by the proposed
Railway.