[howay] governor MUSGRAVE AND CONFEDERATION 21 



at any rate would scarcely have been heard. The Colonist, which 

 championed this cause, admitted that "a large and influential class 

 thought the country not yet prepared for this constitutional change." 

 "But," continued the editor, "who are they? The governing classes 

 ■ — those who appear to have got the idea into their heads that they 

 were born to rule. Who made them a ruler over us? The Colonial 

 Office." ^^ Governor Musgrave, on this question as on all others, 

 spoke out plainly; he had none of the enigmatic language of his 

 predecessor. In his view a Legislative Council in which the elected 

 members were in the majority was the proper form of the law-making 

 body. How great that majority should be he did not, at the outset, 

 indicate. The resolution of 1868 had requested Governor Seymour to 

 reconstitute the Council on the basis of two-thirds popular and one- 

 third official ;i^ but on that question, as on all others of importance, 

 Seymour, even with his five years' experience in the Colony, had 

 not been able "to see his way clear." "I must at once state," said 

 Musgrave, "that it (Responsible Government) w^ould be entirely 

 inapplicable to a community so small and so constituted as this — 

 a sparse population scattered over a vast area of country. There is 

 scarcely the material even for the imperfect Legislative Chamber now 

 existing, and any effective responsibility would be out of the question 

 except of officials to the Lieutenant-Governor and of him to his 

 official superiors." ^*' The Governor's position towards the railroad 

 is more uncertain. His earliest despatches show him carefully 

 feeling his way upon this almost staggering proposal. He acknow- 

 ledges the absolute necessity of "a line of communication at least 

 by wagon road, if not by railroad." "^ Six months later he writes 

 that this material bond of union "is the crux of the scheme." "If 

 a railway could be promised, scarcely any other question would be 

 allowed to be a difficulty. Without the certainty of overland com- 

 munication through British territory within some reasonable time, I 

 am not confident that even if all other stipulations were conceded, 

 the community will decide upon union." After declaring that the 

 advocates of Confederation had raised in the people the belief "that 

 the construction of the railM^ay is a certain matter of course," he 

 expresses his conviction that unless connection "at least by coach 

 road" be granted the union should not be consummated. -- 



In November, 1869, the Colonist indicated the principal terms to 

 be striven for, as seen by the residents of Vancouver Island : 



Responsible Government. 



Early construction of an o\'erlan(l railway. 



Liberal subsidy for an ocean mail service. 



