Douglas to Cardwell

Absence from England has prevented me from acknowledging, at
an earlier date, the receipt of Sir Frederic Rodgers' Despatch of
the 9th August last, conveying to me your decision upon my
application of the 2d of July 1864, for the residue of salary,
which I considered was due to me, for the balance of the term short
served of my appointment as Governor of the Colony of British Columbia.

2. Nothing could be further from my desire, than to prefer any
claim that could be justly considered unreasonable, and did it appear
to me, after a most careful consideration of the reasons you advance
for declining to entertain this claim, that it could, in any way, be
so characterized, I would at once abandon it. I venture, however,
very respectfully to conceive, that the circumstances attending it
are of a peculiar and wholly unprecedented character, and that the
case is not parallel to that of other Governors, in which category
you apprehend it was Sir Edward Lyttons intention to place me when
I was appointed.

I have no knowledge of any case in which other Governors have been
required to surrender their most valuable interests in
order to hold their appointments.

I was informed that Her Majestys Government would appoint me
for "six years at least," and it was a condition of that appointment
not that any existing private interests, I might have elsewhere,
should remain in abeyance, but that I should absolutely
give up and surrender all my connexion with the Hudsons Bay and
Puget Sound Companies, together with my interests therein present and
prospective.

There was no ambiguity in these terms. I accepted them and on
my part, faithfully fulfilled them. I submit, therefore, that my
position was not that of other Governors, but rather that of an
officer, who gives a valuable consideration for a commission, which
he becomes entitled to hold, on the stipulated conditions, for its
entire term.

3. In reply to your remarks as to the unreasonableness of the
time, at which my claim is preferred, I would desire to explain, that
I was restrained by motives of delicacy from bringing it forward in
my private communication to the Duke of Newcastle, alluded to in Sir
Frederic Rodgers' Despatch.

I had no reason to suppose from His Grace's private letter to me
announcing the probability of my removal from Office, for reasons
solely of convenience and policy, that H.M. Government would be
unmindful of my just rights, in the contemplated arrangement. I
was not informed in the letter of the 16th of March when the
change would take place: on the contrary, I was kept for many
months afterwards, in a state of most tantalizing suspense. I
believe it to be obvious from the whole spirit and tenor of my
reply of the 31st July, that I relied on the fulfillment of
the original agreement. Indeed, anxious to meet the views of His
Grace in any project he might have for the different administration
of the Government of the two Colonies—and the first intimation
of which, I would here observe, was greatly to my pain and
mortification, given to me through the public prints—and naturally
desiring rest after a difficult and harassing term of office, I, in
mentioning it to have been my intention to apply to be relieved, at
the close of the year, wished to convey what I then suggested to His
Grace, that leave of absence should be given me, until the
expiry of the term of my appointment.

I could, I am sure, make this the more apparent, had I my papers
to consult, but not having brought them with me to England, I can
only state the impressions under which they were written.

I would observe also, that it was not until the middle or latter
end of February, that I heard definitely when I should be relieved.

My successor in Vancouver Island arrived in the following month,
and Governor Seymour relieved me in British Columbia in April. I
left shortly afterwards for England, and it seems to me that I could
not well, have preferred my claim, at an earlier period, without giving
rise to the impression that I was not anxious to fall in with the
arrangements of Her Majestys Government. I may be mistaken in this:
I should perhaps, not have allowed such feelings of delicacy to interfere
with the upholding of what appeared to me my just rights, but having
done so—whether mistakenly or not—does not, I apprehend, either
legally or morally, vitiate or diminish the force of these rights.

4. In reference to your allusions to the treatment I have
received, on the part of Her Majesty's Government, I beg most
distinctly to disavow either in this or in my former communications,
upon this subject, any expression that could be construed into a
complaint of their action. On the contrary, it has been my good
fortune to receive from Her Majesty's Government, much kindness and
consideration upon numerous occasions of trial and difficulty; and in
again advancing what I should be loth to think, could be classed
with the recognition of my humble services by Her Majestys Government,
but what I view to be simply a claim founded upon the strictest
equity. I feel sure that the fullest weight will be given to all the
peculiar circumstances connected with it, and that justice will be
done.