Peel to Rogers (Permanent Under-Secretary)

The Lords Commissoners of Her Majesty's Treasury
have had under Their consideration Mr Elliot's letter of
the 2nd of April last enclosing copy of a despatch from
the Governor of British Columbia—dated the 10th of
January last—on the subject of the financial condition of that Colony;

Their Lordships desire me to observe that it will be
in the recollection of the Secretary of State that the
Drafts of the Colonial Government on account of the Royal
Engineers for 1859 and 1860 exceeded the grants made by
Parliament by no less a sum than £22,026, and that My Lords,
at first, considered that the Colonial Government ought to
reimburse the entire sum, but that afterwards, at the request
of the Duke of Newcastle, They consented to propose to
Parliament to Vote £11,322—part of the excess—on the
understanding that £10,704—making the other part—should
be paid by the Colony in the course of the present year;

My Lords regret to find that the Governor has failed
to keep his part of this arrangement, * and They can hardly
admit the force of the consideration which he has pleaded in excuse;

The Colony has had the benefit of the presence of the
Royal Engineers, and when Parliament had granted for their
Service £38,000 for the two years, if the Governor thought
proper to order an expenditure of £60,000, it became Their
Lordship's duty to hold the Local Revenue liable for the
excess; From an unwillingness to press too heavily upon that
source They have, at His Grace's suggestion, reduced the claim
more than one half—so as to charge the Colony only with the
expense of Buildings—but They do not think it inconsistent,
with the desire which They feel to deal considerately and
liberally with the Colony, to abide by the claim so reduced,
and on the whole They consider it more just that that claim
should be settled by the Colony than by a further application
to Parliament;

As regards the expenses of the Bishop's passages in HMS
"Forward" and "Grappler" My Lords consent, under the
circumstances, to such expenses remaining a charge upon
Imperial Funds, but they request that the Governor and the
Bishop may be informed that expenses of this nature must in
future be borne, either by the Bishop himself or, by the
Local Government.