Berens to Newcastle

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Mr Under-Secretary
Elliot's letter of the 15th ultimo relative to the suggestion of Governor Douglas that the Government under the arrangement made with
this Company in February last did not take the benefit of a single
acre under the reservation to them of the unsold portion of the lands
in question and suggesting that, from the absence of any plans or
maps being attached to the Agreement and from its very skilful
wording the Hudsons Bay Company so far from making any Concessions to
the Government had obtained from the Crown almost the whole of the
very small portion of ground not covered by buildings actually and
for years past in the possession of the Government and to which the
Company in the Governors Opinion had no sound claim.

In my communication to Your Grace of the 3rd ultimo I purposely avoided noticing the insinuation conveyed by this communication on
the part of the Governor against Mr Dallas because I attributed it to the illfeeling which appears to subsist between those parties and
because I was aware that the Governor himself was in possession of
land which under the Agreement between this Company and the
Government Mr Dallas considered should pass to them: and I was
therefore unwilling to give rise to a discussion which was likely to
lead to unpleasantness without the prospect of any useful result.

At the time the agreement in question was entered into there were no
means, that I am aware of in this Country of ascertaining precisely
what then constituted the extent of the unsold lands, and I have no
reason to believe that Mr Dallas possessed any more information upon the subject than was possessed by the Representatives of the
Government.

I think it better however to send your Grace herewith the particulars
of the Lots which the Company's Agent proposed should be conveyed to
the Government and as observed in my letter to Your Grace of the 3rd
ultimo the only doubt which appeared to exist on the part of the
Colonial Secretary in the Island as to the accuracy of these plans
was in reference to the Harbour Masters Lot.

I really am not aware that I can add anything more on the subject
further than that this Company are desirous to carry out in its
integrity the arrangement come to in February last.