Keeping New Caledonia: History of Early British Columbia
Prime Minister Palmerston vigorously defended Proto British Columbia, but the new government of Prime Minister Robert Peel and Foreign Secretary Lord Aberdeen had little interest.
It was only because of the strategy and efforts of the Honorable Hudson Bay Company government that British Columbia did not become part of the US.
The Company State morphed into the British Columbia government. James Douglas moved his capital from the original Vancouver (now in Washington State) to Victoria.
Langley and New Westminster became associated with government on the mainland.