at that
time, though I think two hundred would be the outside; the population
on the whole island being about six hundred. You could, I think,
count the houses on each of the four principal streets--Government,
Fort, Yates, Johnson--on the fingers on one hand. I only remember
three on James Bay side, to reach which, there being no bridge to
connect with Government Street, you had to go round by where the
Church of Our Lord now stands.

For reasons which will presently appear, I regard the Christmas
season of 1855 as the ending of a first chapter of the very
remarkable history of this province of British Columbia, to be
followed by another in the ensuing year destined to include events
which the most far-seeing at the time could not possibly have
imagined. I write simply as an observer, included, indeed, in the
great movement, but not, strictly speaking, a working part of it. A
time was coming, as we now know, when a flood of people was suddenly
to overflow our city, sweeping onward to and over the mainland like a
tidal wave from the great ocean of life; but whether it was by some
fortunate chance decree of an overruling Providence, it did not come
till the city was better than of old and prepared to deal with it.

The time had now come when the dual government--the _imperium in
imperio_--was to cease, and the people to stand in direct relation
to the sovereign. Influenced, as we have reason to believe, by
complaints of the settlers, it was decided by the Home authorities to
grant them a free constitution after the English model, so far as
popular representation was concerned. And so it came to pass that
within eight months after Christmas, 1855, the newly-elected
representatives of the people were, in the name of Her Majesty the
Queen, called together by the Governor in a room within the Fort,
and by him, with counsel and prayer, commended to the long-coveted
duties of legislation. Thus was a small shoot of an Empire
unsurpassed for the freedom of its subjects well and truly planted in
the western shore of the vast possessions of Great Britain, this side
of the provinces in the East, and now did the people, rejoicing in
their freedom, begin to look for expansion and progress. But with
what hope? What was the prospect of their reaching the conditions
which we see to-day?

[Portrait: Bishop Cridge.]

Looking at the more than twenty years it had taken to reach their
present population of six hundred souls; looking at