Shepherd to Labouchere

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Mr Merivale's
letter of the 18th Instant, forwarding for the information of the
Directors of the Hudson's Bay Company copies of three Dispatches
respecting the calling together of a General Assembly in Vancouver's Island, which you propose to address to Governor Douglas by the Mail of
the 1st March, and I beg to convey to you the acknowledgements of the Directors for the consideration given in those instructions to the
interests and position of the Hudson's Bay Company.

When I had the honour of an interview with you on this subject, I
explained the grounds upon which after reconsideration, the Governor and
Committee were then inclined to recommend the more simple form of
governing the Island by order of Her Majesty in Council, but as you have
now decided that their objections on the grounds of the limited number
of the Settlers, and the circumstance of the majority of them being more
or less subject to the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company, do not
furnish sufficient cause for delaying the calling together of a General
Assembly, I beg, on the part of the Directors, to assure you that
confiding in the support and protection of Her Majestys Government in
the Event of unjust imputations being cast upon the Company, or upon the
proceedings of the Legislative Body on the grounds adverted to, they
will afford Governor Douglas their cordial co-operation and assistance
in furthering the views of Her Majesty's Government.

It is satisfactory to the Directors to observe that you have been
pleased to allow Governor Douglas discretionary power to act according
to the particular circumstances existing on the Island, and they would
beg leave to suggest that, as the proceedings of the Governments of some
of the smaller West India Islands have been pointed out as an example
that might be followed with advantage, it could not fail to be useful to
Governor Douglas if he were furnished with any existing code of laws or
regulations adopted at those Islands, and a Memorandum shewing their
forms of procedure.