[how ay] governor SEYMOUR AND CONFEDERATION 35 



enable a deputation to wait upon the Governor with the request that 

 he telegraph to the Imperial Government asking that provision be 

 made for the admission of British Columbia upon equitable terms. ^ 

 The Governor consented and sent the following telegram — a mere 

 enquiry — "Can provision be made in Bill now before Parliament for 

 ultimate admission of British Columbia into Canadian Confederacy ?"^ 

 The wording is interesting, as giving an indication of Seymour's 

 supineness in the matter from the very outset. On the 18th March, 

 1867, the resolution passed the Legislative Council by unanimous 

 vote. It stated "That this Council is of opinion that at this juncture 

 of affairs in British North America, east of the Rocky Mountains, it is 

 very desirable that His Excellency be respectfully requested to take 

 such steps without delay as. may be deemed by him best adapted to 

 insure the admission of British Columbia into Confederation on 

 fair and equitable terms, this Council being confident that in advising 

 this step they are expressing the views of the colonists generally."^ 



Three days later, in a message acknowledging the receipt of the 

 resolution, the Governor stated that he would "place himself in com- 

 munication on the subject with the Secretary of State, with Viscount 

 Monck, Governor of Canada, and with Sir Edmund Head, Governor 

 of the Hudson (sic) Bay Company." 



The session closed early in April. In his prorogation speech he 

 said : "I am about to communicate with the Secretary of State and the 

 Governors of Canada and the Hudson (sic) Bay Company respecting 

 the wish you have expressed to enter into a confederation with the 

 Eastern Provinces of British North America. I will inform you as a 

 Council, if a Legislative Session is in progress, if not as individual 

 Honorable Gentlemen, of the result of my enquiries." 



Despite the terms of the resolution and of his promise Seymour 

 did not communicate with Lord Monck. It is surmised that he did 

 write to the Hudson's Bay Company, for not until the 24th September, 

 1867 — a sufficient time after the passage of the resolution to permit of 

 a reply being received from England — did he transmit the resolution 

 to the Secretary of State. His accompanying dispatch opens out his 

 mind upon the subject. He points out that though the resolution had 

 passed "without opposition" there was "but little warmth felt in its 

 favor." He gives no hint of the meaning of this enigmatic expression. 

 If it refers to the action of the Council it would have been thought 

 that unanimity indicated complete concurrence; if it refers to the 



' The Islander, March 17, 1867. 

 ^Confederation Papers, p. 11. 

 »Id. 



