Colonial Despatches

I have laid before the Earl of Malmesbury your letter of the 11th Instant, inclosing a despatch from Governor Douglas respecting the intrusion of Citizens of the United States into the Island of San Juan in the Gulf of Georgia; and I am to state to you in reply thatthat His Lordship will transmit to Lord Lyons by the next mail a copy of your letter and of its inclosure and will direct him to call the immediate attention of the Government of the United States to the circumstance therein set forth, and to point out the serious difficulties in which the two Governments may be involved if while the question of boundary in that quarterquarter remains unsettled, American Citizens should intrude themselves into any Territory which has hitherto been considered and treated as part of Her Majesty's Dominions.

In the meanwhile it appears to Lord Malmesbury that the best course to be pursued by Governor Douglas is to continue to warn off all persons who may attempt to assert any rights of occupancyoccupancy as against the British Dominions in the Island of San Juan, and to maintain, as he has hitherto done, the rights of the British Crown to the Island, avoiding giving occasion to acts of violence and merely upholding British Possessions by the ordinary exercise of the Civil Power.