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Date: 1858-11-19
By: James Douglas
Citation: Governor James Douglas, Proclamation, 19 November 1858.
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V. R.

PROCLAMATION

By His Excellency JAMES DOUGLAS, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty’s Colony of British Columbia and its Dependencies.

PROCLAMATION, having the Force of Law to declare that English Law is in force in British Columbia.

WHEREAS, by an Act of Parliament passed in the Session held in the 21st and 22nd years of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, it was enacted that the territories therein described should be comprised within the Colony thereby created of British Columbia; and it was further enacted that on the proclamation of the said Act in British Columbia, certain Acts which were passed in the 43rd year of his late Majesty King George the Third, and in the 2nd year of his late Majesty King George the Fourth, and by which the law of Upper Canada was extended to certain parts of America therein mentioned, should cease to have force in the said Colony of British Columbia, or to be applicable thereto:

And whereas such proclamation of the said first mentioned Act has been duly made on this 19th day of November instant:

And whereas by a Commission under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Her Majesty was pleased to appoint James Douglas to be Governor of British Columbia, and to authorize the said James Douglas by proclamation issued under the Public Seal of the said Colony, to make Laws, Institutions and Ordinances for the peace, order, and good government thereof:

It is therefore hereby enacted and proclaimed by the Governor of British Columbia that the Civil and Criminal Laws of England, as the same existed at the date of the said Proclamation of the said Act, and so far as they are not, from local circumstances, inapplicable to the Colony of British Columbia, are and will remain in full force within the said Colony, till such times as they shall be altered by Her said Majesty in Her Privy Council, or by me, the said Governor, or by such other Legislative Authority as may hereafter be legally constituted in the said Colony; and that such Laws shall be administered and enforced by all proper Authorities against all persons infringing and in favor of all persons claiming protection of the same Laws.

Issued under the Public Seal of the said Colony, at Fort Langly, this ninteenth day of November, 1858, in the Twenty-second year of Her Majesty’s Reign, by me,

JAMES DOUGLAS,
Governor. L.S.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.