Thus It Was That The New Board Was Constituted, And The Arrangements For Taking Over Were Made In England Without My Taking Any, Further, Part.

Sir Edmund Head was appointed Governor at the suggestion - almost the personal request - of the Duke of Newcastle:

Some members of the old Board were retained for the, expected, value of their experience, and amongst the new members were Mr. Richard Potter and Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson, a rival fur trader of eminence and knowledge, and an American. A seat at the Board was left vacant for me.

It may be interesting here to quote what the Duke of Newcastle said, in explaining, in the House of Lords, the recent transactions with the Hudson's Bay Company.

TIMES, July 3, 1863. [HOUSE OF LORDS.]

"The DUKE OF NEWCASTLE, in moving the second reading of the British Columbia Boundaries Bill, said that he should give some further information as to an extension of the means of communication across that great interval of country between British Columbia and Canada. After referring to the system of government which then existed both in Vancouver's Island and British Columbia, and to the revenues of both colonies for the previous few years - that of British Columbia being most remarkable, having nearly doubled itself in two years (the imports in 1861 being $1,400,000, and in 1862 $2,200,000) - the noble Duke proceeded to say, that the greatest impediment to the future prosperity of the Colony was a want of communication with the outer world. He had stated on a previous occasion that he hoped to be able to state this year to the House that arrangements had been made to complete the communications between the Colony and the east of British North America, and he thought he could now inform their Lordships that such arrangements would be carried out. He had desired a gentleman of great experience, knowledge, and energy, who was constantly travelling between Canada and this country, to inquire whether it would be possible to effect a communication across the Continent. This gentleman - Mr. Watkin - had returned with considerable information, and he had suggested to him to place himself in communication with persons in the commercial world who might be willing to undertake the carrying out of such a communication. He had put himself in communication with Mr. Baring and others, and he believed they had arrived at the conclusion that if arrangements could be made with the Hudson Bay Company the undertaking should have their best attention. In order that these important communications might be made certain, guarantees were to be given by Canada on the one hand, and British Columbia and Vancouver Island on the other. A complete Intercolonial railway system had long been looked forward to by those interested in our North American Provinces, and it would be impossible to overrate the importance to this country of an inter-oceanic railway between the Atlantic and Pacific. By such a communication, and the electric telegraph, so great a revolution would be effected in the commerce of the world as had been brought about by the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope.

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