[HOWAY] CxOVERNOR MUSGRAVE AND CONFEDERATION 23 



object aimed at, as the Governor expressed it, was to formulate 

 such terms, as if offered by Canada, would be gladly accepted by 

 British Columbia. The constant harping of the press upon the 

 necessity of the people's having a voice in the arrangement of the 

 terms evidently bore fruit; for Musgrave fixed upon the following 

 line of action: first, to obtain the vote of the Legislative Council 

 in favour of Confederation ; secondly, to obtain the approval by that 

 body of the terms prepared by himself and his Executive; thirdly, 

 to secure the consent of the Dominion Government to these approved 

 terms; fourthly, to reconstitute the Legislative Council so as to 

 give predominance to the elective portion and at that election to 

 afford the people an opportunity of passing final judgment upon the 

 scheme as arranged by the two governments; thereafter there would 

 remain only the mere formality of passing the necessary address to 

 Her Majesty and Confederation would, as far as British Columbia 

 was concerned, become an accomplished fact. 



In accordance with this plan of campaign the Legislative Council 

 met on L5th February, 1870. Its twenty-three members were, with 

 one exception ,28 the same as those of the preceding year. On that 

 occasion the House could, under Governor Seymour, muster but five 

 supporters of Confederation.^» It now fell to the lot of two of the 

 official members. H. P. P. Crease and J. W. Trutch, to move that the 

 Council proceed to consider the terms of union. It is not my purpose 

 to enter into the details of this debate. The ofiicial members, who, 

 under the pressure and promise of the Governor, were all prepared 

 to support it, endeavoured to explain away their votes of 1868 and 

 1869, saying that they were always in favour of Confederation, but 

 that the time was not then ripe. In reply Mr. DeCosmos touched 

 the real spring of their conduct: "But, sir, what did I hear at that 

 time (1868)? 'You pension the ofîficials and we will all vote for 

 Confederation;' and I think I could mention another Executive 

 Councillor who said: 'Do you think we are such fools as to vote for 

 Confederation without being provided for?' That was the kind of 

 wisdom in vogue in 1868." '^ After three days of wordy warfare the 

 motion to go into Committee to consider the terms was carried 

 unanimously. 



I do not intend to set out seriatim the draft terms submitted by 

 Governor Musgrave. I shall touch only those that excited the chief 

 interest in the Colony and were in the nature of special treatment. 

 He fixed the population at 120,000; in reality, even including the 

 Indians it scarcely amounted to one quarter of that number. He 

 reached this figure by dividing the customs and excise duties paid 



