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Date: 1865-08-04
By: Edward Cardwell
Citation: Despatch from Right Hon. Edward Cardwell to Lieutenant Governor Arthur Gordon (4 August 1865) in UK, Parliament, Correspondence respecting the Proposed Union of the British North American Provinces (London: George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1867).
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No. 12.

Copy of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M. P., to Lieut.-Governor the Hon. Arthur Gordon.

(No. 91.)

Downing Street, August 4, 1865.

SIr,

I HAVE received your Despatch No. 58, * of the 15th of July, in answer to mine of the 24th of June.

It might perhaps have been well that the portion of the Executive Council who are in New Brunswick should have allowed the communication made to the Colony by Her Majesty’s Government to be generally known and considered in the Colony before the returned so decided a reply.

The first paragraph of the Minute seems to be me to require no other notice than the observation that my Despatch enclosed for the information of the Legislature of New Brunswick the record of what had passed between Her Majesty’s Government and the Ministers of Canada on the subject of Confederation ; and it was therefore impossible for any one to misunderstand the reference, or to suppose that it applied to another and a different scheme.

Notwithstanding, therefore, your Despatch and its enclosure, I still confidently anticipate that the serious consideration of the Province of New Brunswick will be given to the earnest and friendly suggestions which on the part of Her Majesty’s Government it has been my duty to convey to them through you.

I have, &c.
(Signed) Edward Cardwell.

Lieut.-Governor the Hon. A. Gordon
&c. &c. &c.