Nias to Granville

I have to acknowledge the receipt on the 12th inst of a letter
written by your direction and signed Robert G.W. Herbert,
"acknowledging the receipt of my Petition to Her Majesty (a copy
of which is enclosed) praying that the Authorities of
British Columbia may be instructed to
issue a Title to certain land which I have Pre-empted
in that Colony"—in which reply you inform me "that my Petition
has been forwarded to Governor Musgrave."

I beg most respectfully to represent that I did not Petition Her
Majesty until I was wearied out in applying to the Local Authorities.

That Governor Seymour told me
"that he could not give me the Title because some of the
officials were opposed to it"
adding "that I should never be disturbed in my possession while he
was Governor."

Unless, therefore, instructions have been sent with the Petition
to the effect—that if my claim is in accordance with the Law, the
Title is to issue to me—my Petition is of no avail.

And I ask myself "Is Petition to the Queen a delusion, or a farce."

The officials of British Columbia have constantly refused to
issue the Title to me: and have tried to ensnare me by offering
me a Twenty-one years Lease at a nominal Rent.

To appeal to them is waste of time.

May I therefore, My Lord, beg your further interference, to
direct—

That— "if I have complied in all and every particular with
.usc the Pre-emption Law, that the Title be no longer withheld from me."