( , £ç6T “fflMV - AIVnNYf A1}flLL}1Vnt 1VDINOJSIH VIfflAJfllOD HSIII}JH • H1 1 .3 -•- :.. BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY Published by the Archives of British Columbia in co-operation with the British Columbia Historical Association. EDITOR WILLARD E. IRELAND, Provincial Archives, Victoria. ASSOCIATE EDITOR MA.IxIE WOLFENDEN, Provincial Archives, Victoria. ADVISORY BOARD J. C. G000FEu..ow, Princeton. T. A. Ric.u.o, Victoria. W. N. SAGE, Vancouver. Editorial communications should be addressed to the Editor. Subscriptions should be sent to the Provincial Archives, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C. Price, 5O the copy, or $2 the year. Members of the British Columbia Historical Association in good standing receive the Quarterly without further charge. Neither the Provincial Archives nor the British Columbia Historical Association assumes any responsibility for statements made by contributors to the magazine. The Quarterly is indexed in Faxon’s Annual Magazine Subject-index and the Canadian Index. -_-• r BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY “Any country worthy of a future should be interested in its past.” VOL. XVII VICTORIA, B.C., JANUARY-APRIL, 1953 Nos. I AND 2 CONTENTS PAGE Walter N. Sage and History in British Columbia. ByF. H. Soward 1 The Trials and Tribulations of Edward Edwards Langford. BySydneyG.Pettit 5 Some Notes on the Douglas Family. ByW.KayeLamb 41 The United Farmers of British Columbia: An Abortive Third-party Movement. ByMargaretA. Ormsby — 53 The Choosing of the Capital of Canada. ByJamesA. Gibson 75 Captain Walter Colquhoun Grant: Vancouver Island’s First Inde pendent Settler. By Willard E. Ireland 87 A Bibliography of the Printed Writings of Walter Noble Sage. CompiledbyHelenR. Boutilier 127 NOTES AND COMMENTS: British Columbia Historical Association 139 Kamloops Museum Association 144 Okanagan Historical Society — 145 Cariboo Historical Society 146 Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association 146 New Westminster Historic Centre.. 147 Plaque to Commemorate Captain Edward Stamp 148 Harold A. Innis, 1894—1952: a Tribute by Walter N. Sage 149 Contributors to This Issue 151 Tna NORTHWEST BOOKSHELF: Woodcock: Ravens and Prophets. By Vera Drury 153 Reibin: Toil and Peaceful Life. By Alexander W. Wainman — 155 Hill: Tales of the Alberni Valley. ByMadgeWolfenden 156 McEwen: He Wrote for Us. ByA.F.Flucke 158 Dr. Walter Noble Sage. WALTER N. SAGE AND HISTORY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA Almost thirty-five years have passed since Professor Sage joined the staff of the University of British Columbia. His years of enthusiastic and devoted service to the generations of students who have sat in his classes are now drawing to a close as he joins the ranks of those who have been “Carnegified” because they have reached the age designated for retirement. It will be hard for the many who have heard his jovial laugh and re-echoed the chuckle which almost invariably preceded the jokes with which he loves to sprinkle his lectures to realize that one so keen on his subject and so interested in the welfare of those who shared his enthusiasm will soon be no longer found in the classroom. Upon the writing-table of his own teacher and mentor, the late Professor Wrong, was carved the famous line from Chaucer: “Gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche.” That line is equally appropriate for one who has done more than any other British Columbian to keep evergreen the history of a Province he has loved so well. It has been the good fortune of British Columbia from its earliest days to win readily the devotion of those whom fortune brought from far-away places. Whether they wrote of early days on Vancouver Island, about the explorers of this coast, the fur-traders, or of the other legendary figures that set this Province firmly in the path it should pursue, all of them were eager to let the world know how and why British Columbia developed. In that goodly company of chroniclers and historians, Professor Sage occupies a unique place. His predeces sors produced one or more books, many of enduring importance, but they trained no disciples to carry on the work which they had inaugurated. They trusted to providence that others should continue to labour in the British Columbia historical vineyard. He alone had the wisdom and foresight to plan consciously that others should be both eager and qualified to deal with the life of this Province in the proper historical fashion. Of the truth of this statement, the essays included in this issue are an ifiustration. All of them come from men and women who have taken his lectures, sat in his seminars, pursued researches under his supervision, or found subjects for future investigation as a result of his suggestions. Best of all, they were either influenced by his British Columbia Historical Quarterly, Vol. XVII, Nos. 1 and 2. 2 2 F. H. SowD Jan.-Apr. passion for the subject or had their own budding enthusiasm for history intensified by his own infectious zeal. When Professor Sage gave his first lectures at the University of British Columbia in September, 1918, he found a struggling institution. The war had blocked its ambitious plans for splendid buildings, drained away the best of its male students, and imposed upon its first president a strain which was soon to cost him his life. It was typical of Walter, as his friends all know him best, that he was never depressed by the set-backs which had dogged and continued to dog the progress of the University for two decades. On the contrary, he proceeded to turn his attention to the history of the Province to which he owed his allegiance. He soon won from that splendid pair of local historians, Howay and Reid, a friendship and encouragement which never wavered. By as early as 1921, Dr. Sage had published an article in the Canadian His torical Review on “The Gold Colony of British Columbia.” It was not long until he was deep in his study of James Douglas, the subject of his doctoral thesis and of his first book. Since then a stream of books, articles, and pamphlets dealing with various phases of British Columbia’s history have flowed from his pen, as the bibliography in this issue attests. They have brought him recognition as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Royal Historical Association, as president of the Canadian Historical Association, and as the only Canadian to be presi dent of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association. They have made him one of the best-known figures in any gathering of historians of the Pacific Northwest and caused the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada to enrol him in. its service a decade ago. But Dr. Sage has not been content with that. He saw to it that the history of Western Canada became a subject of study at the University as an undergraduate course, and that graduates should be initiated into the intricacies of British Columbia history in the M.A. seminar. He directed or suggested a score of theses in this field, which were eagerly drawn upon by such scholars as the late Harold Innis for their usefulness in a larger study of Canadian development. He was and is one of the main figures in the British Columbia Historical Association, which has long been envied for its vitality by sister associations. He steadily built up the collection of British Columbia history in the University library. Graduating classes were induced to vote money for its support as their parting gift to the University. Local historians were encouraged to make provision for willing their collections to the University after their work 1953 WALTER N. SAGE 3 was done. Money was collected to endow scholarships for research in British Columbia history. Like Sir Christopher Wren, Walter Sage can see his monument around him. That he may long live to enjoy the prospect and to contribute still more to its adornment will be the heart-felt wish of all who have worked with him. F. H. SOWARD. UNIVERSITY op BRITISH COLUMBIA, VANCOUVER, B.C. TIlE TRIALS AM) TRIBULATIONS OF EDWARD EDWARDS LANGFORD* The foundation of a colony on Vancouver Island in 1849 was the outcome of political rather than economic considerations. After the Treaty of Washington, 1846, the British Government was gravely con cerned for the safety of its territories north of the 49th parallel. These vast areas, like Oregon, were without government and population, and the boundary recently drawn would be but a flimsy barrier against future American migrations. Thoroughly alarmed at the prospect of additional territorial Tosses, the British authorities decided to colonize some part of the Pacific Coast as a means of averting the consequences of further incursions into Her Majesty’s possessions.1 After prolonged debate in both Houses, the Government ceded Vancouver Island on January 13, 1849, to the Hudson’s Bay Company for purposes of colonization.2 The grant met with vigorous opposition in and out of Parliament. Opponents of the scheme contended, and subsequent events were to prove them right, that the company was an unsuitable agency.3 The British Government, however, had been unwilling to find the money for the project, and was therefore obliged to entrust the undertaking to some other authority. As the Hudson’s Bay Com pany enjoyed the exclusive licence to trade in the area concerned and possessed great financial resources, it was the only possible choice. The colony was duly established. When wave after wave of Califor nian miners arrived in 1858, Governor Douglas was able to extend the authority of the Crown to the Mainland and to erect there a system of * The writer is indebted to Miss Madge Wolfenden, Assistant Provincial Archivist, and to his wife, Constance Pettit, for valuable assistance in the prepara tion of this article.