Nias to Stanley

I take the liberty of forwarding to you the enclosed Petition,
and respectfully request you to present it to Her Majesty, for whom I
entertain feelings of profound respect.

I should like briefly to state to your Lordship my reasons for
presenting the enclosed petition, as I should wish to enlist your
advocacy of a course, which founded on justice and right, would
materially advance the best interests of a most important new
settlement,—if neglected, will seriously retard its prosperity and early
development.

My eight years residence in California has given me ample
opportunity of judging of the bad effects provided by the absence of such
a regulation, and in San Francisco it was for 5 or 6 years and is still
to some extent, one of the greatest evidences of American mis-rule; I
allude to the selling "Town lots," in new settlements, without
requiring the purchasers to substantially improve the same within
a limited period, or forfeit their purchase money.

I believe the bad effects of the absence of this regulation have
been felt in other colonies, and I am under the impression that there is
some general law requiring town lots, on government land, to be improved.
I will not occupy your Lordships time with arguments to prove the good
policy and justice of such a law, you are doubtless fully acquainted with
them. In the present instance its absence will be particularly
injurious, as from its proximity to American settlements, numbers of
American "Land Speculators" have gone down, with the sole purpose of
buying all the land in and about the town of Victoria, they can lay their
hands on, merely for the purpose of holding & reselling, at an enormous
advance. The American "Land Grabber," seldom improves land in his own
country, and only folly would suppose he would do so on British
soil, for indeed only those who have lived some years among them can tell
the jealousy and hatred the great bulk of Americans bear towards Britain
and all pertaining to her.

(Do not let the foregoing lead you to suppose that I am
prejudiced against Americans;—it is only the result of experience.
I have made it a point to cultivate the acquaintance of and associate
mostly with Americans, and as to outward appearance and speech am an
American. And could if your Lordship desired furnish you some very strong
arguments against the Bal[l]ot and universal sufferage. I was a strong
Radical when I left England. I am anything but a radical now, and shall
return to see Victoria under the British flag at the earliest
opportunity, with great pleasure.)

I see by the papers that His Excellency Governor Douglas has some
doubts of the policy of allowing the law to be monopolized as it was—for
he had closed the "Land Office" & given notice that no person could
purchase more than six lots. But this is absurd as the lots might appear
in the names of twenty persons, and yet belong wholly to
one. "Substantial Improvements" in a limited time, is the only remedy.

I enclose some cuttings, in preference to sending you a whole paper
to wade through and remain your Lordships