Watson to Rogers (Permanent Under-Secretary)

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your despatch
dated the 18th instant acknowledging the receipt of my letter of the
13th instant and acquainting me that you had laid before His Grace
the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos my letter of the 24th of August
last referring to the subject of the abolition of my office of
Colonial Treasurer and Member of the Councils of Government of
Vancouver Island.

As the extract from Governor Seymours report communicated in
Your despatch is not in accordance with what I understand to be the
facts of the case I have to request that You will submit to His Grace,
that,

A
temporary and subordinate appointment was offered to me by
Governor Seymour, on the 17th of January last, which I accepted
conditionally, for the convenience of the Public Service, at a Salary
of £400 in lieu of my former appointment the salary appertaining to
which was £600 borne on the
Fixed Establishment of the Colony at the time of Union.

*

I continued to perform the duties of the office until the 6th of
March when I received a letter from the Govenor proposing that I
should continue to act as Sub-Accountant at Victoria on my
"present Salary" which had been officially stated in the
Council, by the Hon A.N. Birch, to be £400.

My reasons for declining to accept this appointment, as set
forth in my letter to the Governor of the 13th March 1867, are
already before His Grace. But I may here add, that from a
retrospective view of those reasons I have no moral cause to regret
having endeavoured, by asserting my rank in the Colony, to maintain
the honor and dignity of The Queen's Commission which I held.

So far from the Six months' leave of absence and the passage
money of myself and family being accepted as compensation for the
loss of a Crown Appointment of the value of £600 per annum, I merely
fell in with the Governor's proposition believing it to be a part of
the Scheme which His Excellency laid before the Council, namely, that
he intended to recommend to the Secretary of State, the removal of
Officers, whose services were not required under Union, to other
Colonies. A Scheme which several subordinate officers were enabled
to avail themselves of whilst I was detained in the Colony at great
disadvantage to myself for the convenience of the Government.

My acceptance of the Governor's offer of Six months leave was
obtained through his promise to recommend me for employment elsewhere.

Having thus, at the suggestion of the Governor, surrendered my
position in the Colony and removed my family to this Country at the
cost of great personal sacrifice and pecuniary loss, I am now—in
consequence of the announcement "that His Grace is unable to hold out
any prospect of re-employment"—thrown on the world in search of
another position, at a period of life and under circumstances which
render my prospects of success very problematical.

As it is evident that there has been some misapprehension on the
part of the Colonial Government, in my case, and as I am desirous to
do what is in my power to relieve Her Majesty's Government from any
responsibility which may have arisen therefrom, I am willing to
return to the Colony,
at my own Expense, and assume a position not inferior, in rank
and emolument, to that which I held under the Government of Van Couver
Island.