The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-17 00:00:00

RECREATION GROUND BILL.

This bill was read a third time and passed.
ST. JAMES BADDESLEY BILL.
Mr. S. ESTCOURT said that the only object of this bill
was to render valid marriages which had been performed in
a place of which it was discovered was not duly licensed,

BRITISH COLUMBIA.

(From a Correspondent of the Daily News.)
VICTORIA, DEC. 26, 1858.
Colonel Moody, family, and staff, together with
Captain Gossett, arrived here by the mail yester-
day; but although they had been expected for
weeks, and the hotels here are notoriously unfit for
ladies or families, not the slightest preparation of
any kind had been made for their reception. They
landed in sleet and rain, making
their way in a
pitiable plight up from Esquimault in expectation
of finding shelter in Victoria ; but shelter there was
none, and, after ransacking the town and rumaging
every little cheerless weather-boarded hut in the
suburbs, the colonel and family were obliged to re-
treat to Esquimault, and take up their temporary
quarterso n board the Satellite, until a great barn-
like wooden building, next the Post•office, was
cleared out for their reception. This lodging con-
sists of three apartments, the main room constitut-
ing the parlour, drawing-room, reception-room,
kitchen, scullery, and public office of the new lieu-
tenant-governor; and there Mrs. Moody, like a
true soldier's wife, with her interesting children,
in
sits a spirit of serene resignation, in an un car-
peted insular space within a sort of counter-table,
looking apparently as cheerful, happy, and ab-
stracted as if installed in the most recherche bou-
doir. Were I Governor Douglas, methinks I would
have issued stealthy orders beforehand to have the
great waste house scrubbed out with soap and
water, to put rush mattings on the floors, plain
blinds upon the windows, a few cheap chairs and
tables in the sitting-room, a few rough stretchers,
with coarse bed-clothing in the dormitories. I
would, furthermore, have had a slab-shed slyly run
up in the rear to do duty as a kitchen, and then,
laying aside the stilts, I would have made a call of
kindly welcome on the new arrivals; and I fancy
I could have derived infinite gratification in catch-
ing the colonel's look of obligation, in seeing his
lady's smile of gratitude, and in hearing the de.
lighted little ones exclaim, in :tones of ecstacy,
" Oh, dear mamma, what kind, good man prepared
this nice warm house for us, when you said you
would have to live in a cold tent?"
A troop of sold-out young soldiers and bowled-
out young gentlemen of the fast school, arrived by
the same boat, who made it a point, no doubt, to
travel in company with the Colonel, and give him
to understand, in the course of the voyage, that if
any difficulties should beset him in the new colony,
they would be ready at his beck to enrol themselves
as official volunteers, and take any form of service
he might employ them on for his personal advan-
tage or the public welfare. I fear the "ha w•able"
aspect of the metropolis was infinitely depressing to
those self-expatriated young swells ; but they were
somewhat compensated, I dare say, for their disap-
pointment in that respect bythe curious admiration
of the Indian population, who gazed in a state of
awe-struck wonder at their shiny boots, their loud
patterned trowsers, their chains and pins, and rings
and studs, and their many other exquisite external
ornaments,
quite new, and attractive to the primi-
tive gaze of the island aboriginals. The follies of
foppery, however, will soon be eradicated by a little
goldfield discipline, and I am quite prepared to see
those young men settle dewn into useful citizens.
Their presence, moreover, is to be welcomed, because
it
deprives
the government of any excuse for per-
sisting in a most objectionable practice, and one
which has given rise to exceeding dissatisfaction
thein public mind—l mean the habit of employing
foreigners in all offices of trust and emolument.
The apology heretofore was that none others were
to be found, but now that British subjects of cha-
racter and education are coming amongst us in num-
bers, the citizens expect not only that this uncon-
stitutional system will be discontinued for the
present, but that all past appointments of the kind
shall be cancelled. They cannot be sanctioned by
British law, which will cease to be respected, or
even obeyed, if administered through such channels.
DEC. 30.