Berens to Newcastle

On the 18th ultimo, Mr Colvile, one of the Directors of
this Company,
addressed a letter to Your Grace, in which he accepted, on behalf of
this Company, Your Grace's suggestion that the question as to the
claims of the Hudson's Bay Company to certain lands in Vancouver's
Island should be referred to Mr Dallas and the Company's Solicitor,
Mr Maynard, on the part of the Company, and to Mr Walcott and any
other Gentleman Your Grace might think fit to appoint on the part of
Her Majesty's Government, and some days afterwards MrColvile received a letter from Mr Chichester Fortescue informing him that
Your Grace had appointed Mr Murdoch and Mr Walcott to act on behalf
of Her Majesty's Government.

Since that period these Gentlemen have had several interviews upon
the subject and have virtually agreed to a Memorandum of Arrangement,
which we understand has been submitted to Your Grace with a
recommendation that the arrangement therein proposed should be
accepted by Her Majesty's Government, and which Mr Dallas and Mr
Maynard, at the request of the Government referees, have submitted
for the consideration of the Governor and Committee of this Company.

I have now the honour of acquainting Your Grace that having consulted
my Colleagues upon this question we have determined (in the
expectation that the arrangement will be ratified by Her Majesty's
Government) to accept the terms proposed, and I hereby do so on
behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Board, though feeling that
they have been called upon to make a sacrifice of what they believed
to be the just rights of the Company, have been induced to do so from
a wish to avoid litigation and in the hope that as all other
questions have been amicably arranged, Her Majesty's Government will
be induced to come to a Settlement of the still outstanding Colonial
accounts without further delay—a measure the more necessary—as our
arrangement must be arrived at before the final revocation of the
Grant to the Company.

I, herewith, transmit a Copy of the Memorandum of Arrangement handed
to us and initialed by Mr Walcott—Your Grace will observe that
there are a few words added in red ink. They were mutually agreed to
by the referees, on both sides, after the Copy transmitted to Your
Grace was sent in, and they do not in any degree alter the original
terms of the Agreement—their only object being to clear up one or
two points which, if left unexplained, might have been liable to
misinterpretation.

I would further venture to suggest to Your Grace that if this
arrangement is to be adopted on the part of Her Majesty's Government,
it would be of great advantage to the Colony that directions should
be given, without delay, for its being carried into execution. The
doubts as to the Company's titles to the lands sold have been a
source of annoyance and loss to the purchasers, and it would be a
satisfaction to this Company to be able to relieve their minds on
that point as soon as possible.

In conclusion I beg to request that Your Grace will have the goodness
to direct the decision of Her Majesty's Government on this subject to
be communicated to me at as early a date as may suit your Grace's
convenience, in order that the necessary directions may be sent to the
Company's Officers in Vancouver's Island to carry the arrangement
into effect.