Queen Victoria to Mr Labouchere

14th May 1856.

The Queen would quite approve of the selection of Sir H. Bulwer, Lord Lyttelton, or Sir H. Barkly for Victoria. She is decidedly of opinion that the Governor should be an Englishman and not a Colonist. Now that self-Government has been established in the Colonies, the person of the Governor is the only connection remaining with the Mother Country; and if the Government were once filled from among the public men in the Colonies, this would become a precedent most difficult to break through again, and possibly paving the way for total separation.

Footnote 28: Sir Henry Bulwer declined. Sir Henry Barkly was appointed.