[howay] governor SEYMOUR AND CONFEDERATION 45 



period, whether this colony can be admitted on such terms; and that 

 if it can not be admitted on such terms to make pubHc the reasons why 

 such terms can not be obtained, in order to quiet the public mind on 

 the subject."^ The Governor's reply was that the matters, or some of 

 them, would be communicated by him to the Legislative Council at 

 its approaching session, and that the resolutions would be forwarded 

 to the Secretary of State 'with perfectly respectful comments.' "^ 



In his dispatch accompanying the resolutions the Governor, in 

 spite of all the pressure which had been brought to bear upon him, 

 did not urge action towards consummating the union, or give any 

 support whatever to the movement ; nor did he emit one single word to 

 indicate how strong the feeling on the question had become. He 

 contented himself with generalities and platitudes, stating that "all 

 Englishmen desired to see one unbroken Dominion extending from 

 ocean to ocean"; but that the matter "does not rest with the so-called 

 Convention at Yale, but has already occupied your Grace's attention, 

 and that of the Government of Canada." In mentioning the desire 

 for representative institutions and responsible government, he makes 

 the naive admission: "I have not been able to see a clear path before 

 me." That required vision, decision, action; three factors in which 

 his character was sadly lacking. Others could see that path and point 

 it out, but Seymour either could not, or would not, see it. Construc- 

 tive ability he had not. It was so very easy to accept conditions as he 

 found them and drift along; and he did. This summarises his record 

 of six years government. 



Certain persons in Victoria, where as has been said the Hudson's 

 Bay Company's influence and the annexation movement were strongest, 

 had advertised in the Colonist that the delegates to the Yale Conven- 

 tion did not represent their views. The Governor took the trouble 

 to enclose with his dispatch copies of these advertisements. This 

 is noteworthy as the only occasion on which he ever sent any clippings 

 from the press of the colony to the Colonial Office. "It is but right," 

 he says, "that I should state that the proceedings of the Yale meeting 

 did not meet with universal approval. I enclose two notices very 

 respectably signed, protesting against the whole affair." He has 

 nothing to say of the opinion of the rest of the colony, which approved 

 the stand taken by that convention. He then proceeds: "I may 

 add that the more prominent advocates of Confederation were de- 

 feated at the last elections in Victoria for members to serve in the 

 Legislative Council."^ He, however, fails to state that the members 



1 British Columbian, Sept. 9, 1868. 



2 Confederation Papers, p. 18. 

 'Confederation Papers, pp. 6-17. 



