British Columbia Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866)=== {{Main|Colony of British Columbia (1858–66)|Richard Clement Moody|James Douglas (governor)}} With the [[Fraser Canyon Gold Rush]] in 1858, an influx of Americans into New Caledonia prompted the [[Secretary of State for the Colonies|colonial office]] to designate the mainland as the Colony of British Columbia. When news of the [[Fraser Canyon Gold Rush]] reached London, Richard Clement Moody was hand-picked by the [[Colonial Office]], under [[Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton]], to establish British order and to transform the newly established Colony of British Columbia into the British Empire's "bulwark in the farthest west"<ref name="Donald J. Hauka 2003, p.146">{{Cite book |last=Hauka |first=Donald J. |title=McGowan's War |publisher=[[New Star Books]] |year=2003 |location=Vancouver |page=146}}</ref> and "found a second England on the shores of the Pacific".{{Sfn|Barman|2007|p=71}} Lytton desired to send to the colony "representatives of the best of British culture, not just a police force": he sought men who possessed "courtesy, high breeding and urbane knowledge of the world"<ref name="scott1983">{{Cite thesis |last=Scott |first=Laura Elaine |title=The Imposition of British Culture as Portrayed in the New Westminster Capital Plan of 1859 to 1862 |publisher=Simon Fraser University |date=1983 |url=https://summit.sfu.ca/item/5945 |degree=M.A.}}</ref>{{Citation page|page=13}} and he decided to send Moody, whom the government considered to be the "English gentleman and British Officer"<ref name="scott1983" />{{Citation page|page=19}} to lead the [[Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment]]. Moody and his family arrived in British Columbia in December 1858, commanding the [[Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment]].<ref name="Richard Clement Moody Obituary, ICE"/> He was sworn in as the first [[lieutenant governor of British Columbia]] and appointed Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works for British Columbia. On the advice of Lytton, Moody hired [[Robert Burnaby]] as his personal secretary. [[File:Cuyp, Aelbert - Cattle near the Maas, with Dordrecht in the distance - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Cattle near the Maas'' by Dutch painter [[Aelbert Cuyp]]. Moody likened his vision of the nascent Colony of British Columbia to the pastoral scenes painted by Cuyp.]] In British Columbia, Moody "wanted to build a city of beauty in the wilderness" and planned his city as an iconic visual metaphor for British dominance, "styled and located with the objective of reinforcing the authority of the crown and of the robe".<ref name="scott1983" />{{Citation page|page=26}} Subsequent to the enactment of the ''Pre-emption Act'' of 1860, Moody settled the [[Lower Mainland]]. He selected the site and founded the new capital, [[New Westminster]]. He selected the site due to the strategic excellence of its position and the quality of its port.<ref name="scott1983" />{{Citation page|page=26}} He was also struck by the majestic beauty of the site, writing in his letter to Blackwood, {{blockquote|The entrance to the Frazer is very striking—Extending miles to the right & left are low marsh lands (apparently of very rich qualities) & yet [[Sic|fr]] the Background of Superb Mountains-- Swiss in outline, dark in woods, grandly towering into the clouds there is a sublimity that deeply impresses you. Everything is large and magnificent, worthy of the entrance to the Queen of England's dominions on the Pacific mainland.{{nbsp}}... My imagination converted the silent marshes into [[Cuyp]]-like pictures of horses and cattle lazily fattening in rich meadows in a glowing sunset.{{nbsp}}... The water of the deep clear Frazer was of a glassy stillness, not a ripple before us, except when a fish rose to the surface or broods of wild ducks fluttered away.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moody |first=Richard Clement |title=Letter of Colonel Richard Clement Moody, R.E., to Arthur Blackwood, February 1, 1859, preserved in the British Columbia Historical Quarterly (January – April 1951), ed. Willard E. Ireland, Archives of British Columbia |publisher=British Columbia Historical Association |pages=85–107}}</ref>{{Sfn|Barman|2007|p=7}}}} [[File:Victoria, British Columbia, 1864.jpg|thumb|Victoria, 1864]] Lord Lytton "forgot the practicalities of paying for clearing and developing the site and the town" and the efforts of Moody's engineers were continuously hampered by insufficient funds, which, together with the continuous opposition of [[James Douglas (governor)|Governor James Douglas]], whom Sir [[Thomas Frederick Elliot]] (1808 - 1880) described as 'like any other fraud',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bcgenesis.uvic.ca/elliot_tf.html|title='Elliot, Thomas Frederick', University of Victoria British Columbia, Colonial Despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia|access-date=30 April 2023}}</ref> 'made it impossible for [Moody's] design to be fulfilled'.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite dictionary |title=Richard Clement Moody |encyclopedia=[[Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online]] |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/moody_richard_clement_11E.html |last=Ormsby |first=Margaret A. |author-link=Margaret Ormsby}}</ref><ref name="heraldicscienceheraldique.com">{{cite web|title=Heraldic Science Héraldique, Arms and Devices of Provinces and Territories, British Columbia|url=http://heraldicscienceheraldique.com/arms-and-devices-of-provinces-and-territories.html|access-date=November 3, 2016|archive-date=January 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200118031645/https://www.heraldicscienceheraldique.com/arms-and-devices-of-provinces-and-territories.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="scott1983" />{{Citation page|page=27}} Moody and the Royal Engineers also built an extensive road network, including what would become [[Kingsway (Vancouver)|Kingsway]], connecting New Westminster to [[False Creek]], the North Road between [[Port Moody]] and New Westminster, and the [[Cariboo Road]] and [[Stanley Park]].<ref name="royalengineers.ca">{{cite web |url=http://www.royalengineers.ca/MoodyPostScript.html |title=Col. Richard Clement Moody – Postscript |access-date=July 4, 2016 |archive-date=September 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190908121738/http://www.royalengineers.ca/MoodyPostScript.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He named [[Burnaby Lake]] after his private secretary [[Robert Burnaby]] and named Port Coquitlam's 400-foot "Mary Hill" after his wife. As part of the surveying effort, several tracts were designated "government reserves", which included [[Stanley Park]] as a military reserve (a strategic location in case of an American invasion). The ''Pre-emption Act'' did not specify conditions for distributing the land, so large parcels were snapped up by speculators, including {{Convert|3750|acre|ha|sigfig=4|order=flip}} by Moody himself. For this he was criticized by local newspapermen for [[land grabbing]]. Moody designed the first [[coat of arms of British Columbia]]. [[Port Moody]] is named after him. It was established at the end of a trail that connected New Westminster with Burrard Inlet to defend New Westminster from potential attack from the US. By 1862, the [[Cariboo Gold Rush]], attracting an additional 5000 miners, was underway, and Douglas hastened construction of the Great North Road (commonly known now as the [[Cariboo Wagon Road]]) up the [[Fraser Canyon]] to the prospecting region around [[Barkerville]]. By the time of this gold rush, the character of the colony was changing, as a more stable population of British colonists settled in the region, establishing businesses, opening [[sawmill]]s, and engaging in [[fishery|fishing]] and agriculture. With this increased stability, objections to the colony's absentee governor and the lack of [[responsible government]] began to be vocalized, led by the influential editor of the [[New Westminster]] ''British Columbian'' and future [[Premier of British Columbia|premier]], [[John Robson (politician)|John Robson]]. A series of petitions requesting an assembly were ignored by Douglas and the colonial office until Douglas was eased out of office in 1864. Finally, the colony would have both an assembly and a resident governor. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page