Beginnings of exclusively Canadian postal service--
Administration of Hugh Finlay--Opening of communication
with England by way of Halifax--Postal convention with
United States.
A point has now been reached, beyond which the sequence of events in the
American post office no longer forms an integral part of the narrative.
There had, indeed, been no actual postal connection between Canada and
the revolted colonies since the beginning of war. Communication between
Quebec, Montreal and New York had been interrupted in May 1775 by the
capture of Ticonderoga.
The abandonment of the colonial post office by the home authorities at
the end of the same year, left the four post offices on the banks of the
St. Lawrence the sole remnants of the system which had extended from
Quebec to Georgia. Though Finlay was nominally the associate deputy
postmaster general for the district between Canada and the southern
boundary of Virginia, his real authority was confined to the service of
Quebec, Three Rivers, Berthier and Montreal.
Finlay occupied important positions in the government of the country,
from his arrival in the year when Canada fell into the hands of the
British, until his death in 1801. His knowledge of the French language
procured for him a nomination as justice of the peace, the duties of
which office were, owing to the circumstances of the time, delicate and
responsible.
Two years after a regular government was established, Finlay was
nominated to the legislative council, and a glance over the proceedings
of that body will show that he always took an important, and often a
leading part in its transactions. He was clerk of the crown in chancery
and provincial auditor, and, for a number of years, chairman of the land
committee, the duties of which were to superintend the distribution of
the crown lands to the settlers, who came into the country in large
numbers.
Finlay was much attached to the French Canadians. He became their
advocate in council, and incurred some displeasure on the part of the
governor for his pertinacity on their behalf. The _maitres de poste_
were the objects of his special attention. He endeavoured, though
unsuccessfully, to assimilate their position to that of the masters of
the post houses in England. As their standing and rights were but
roughly defined, they had to endure much hardship and oppression from
the ill-nature and rapacity of travellers, and Finlay's championship was
of substantial service to them.[119]
When Canada was invaded by the Americans in 1775, Finlay drew up a form
of pledge for the _maitres de poste_ to sign, in which they bound
themselves to defend the country from the king's enemies, to give to the
government all useful information they might become possessed of, and to
render faithful service in the conveyance of the mail couriers. All the
_maitres de poste_ except three signed the engagement.[120]
To Finlay, in truth, the maintenance of the organization of _maitres de
poste_ was indispensable. Without them the mails could not be carried,
except at an outlay which the revenues were not able to bear. It has
always been the practice of the post office in this country to take
advantage of any carrying agencies which might be operating on a route,
to secure the transportation of the mails on approximately the same
terms as those at which ordinary freight of the same bulk would be
conveyed. Thus, by utilizing a stage coach, the cost of conveyance
between two towns was a mere fraction of what it would be, if the same
conditions of speed and security were required in a conveyance used
exclusively for the mails.
In the _maitres de poste_ Finlay had a transportation agency, which was
unexcelled at that period, and by protecting them and confirming to them
the exclusive right to provide for passenger travel along the road from
Montreal to Quebec, he obtained not only all the ordinary advantages
accruing to the public from the operation of this agency, but secured
the conveyance of his couriers from stage to stage at half the charge
paid by travellers.
Finlay's efforts on behalf of the _maitres de poste_ were first exerted
in the legislative council.[121] He desired to obtain an ordinance
defining their duties, and declaring their right to the exclusive
privilege of providing horses and vehicles to travellers. Having
succeeded in this, he endeavoured to have himself appointed
superintendent of the _maitres de poste_.
In this he had to encounter the opposition of the governor who, though
personally friendly to Finlay, was unwilling to allow himself to be
occupied with the matter, while he was engaged with the more important
duty of providing for the defence of the country. Finlay was a man of
much persistence, and when he found the governor indisposed to give him
the appointment, he sought the aid of the postmaster general, to whom he
represented that on his control over the _maitres de poste_ depended his
ability to secure the conveyance of the mails at a reasonable
charge.[122]
Governor Haldimand resented the pressure thus brought on him, declaring
that the postal service of Canada was quite equal, if not superior, to
the service in England. Not long afterwards, however, the governor
relented so far as to give Finlay a temporary holding of the position he
coveted, and when conditions became settled, his appointment was made
permanent.[123]
The stoppage of the service to New York made it necessary to provide
otherwise for the maintenance of the connection with Great Britain.
While navigation was open on the St. Lawrence occasional visits were
made to Quebec by war vessels and merchantmen, and all such
opportunities to send mails to England were taken advantage of.
With Halifax, also, communication was opened by means of a vessel which
ran from Quebec to Tatamagouche, on the straits of Northumberland, from
which point the journey to Halifax was an easy overland trip.[124]
During the summer, therefore, communication with Great Britain was
maintained without special difficulty. When navigation on the St.
Lawrence closed, however, and vessels could no longer reach Quebec, the
situation was entirely changed.
Haldimand, in a letter to a friend, written in November 1778, bemoans
his isolation. He will receive no news whatever, unless the rebels
should manage to get into the province, an eventuality he has done his
best to prevent by destroying their supplies on lake Champlain. The only
possible means of establishing a winter communication with Great Britain
was to send couriers by the inland route to Halifax.
At this period and for a long time afterwards, this route presented many
difficulties. It was very long, and at certain seasons the natural
obstacles in the way of travel were nearly insuperable. The connecting
links between the Maritime provinces and Quebec were the portages
between the waters running into the St. Lawrence and those running into
the St. John river. Of those there were several, but the one which was
adopted ran from Notre Dame du Portage, a few miles west of River du
Loup, in south-easterly direction until it reached lake Temiscouata.
During the French regime, despatches were not infrequently carried
between the governor of Quebec and the governor of Louisburg. The
courier, who had despatches from the governor of Quebec for Halifax,
would travel on foot over a fair road on the south shore of the St.
Lawrence, to the portage between Kamouraska and River du Loup. From this
point his course ran over the portage between the St. Lawrence and the
St. John river systems.
After a toilsome journey of thirty-seven miles over a country
alternating between mountains and swamps, the courier reached lake
Temiscouata. Having crossed this lake, he came to the entrance of the
Madawaska river, which runs due south until it empties into the St. John
river. From this point to fort Howe, the site of the present city of St.
John, there was a long river journey of two hundred and twenty-eight
miles.
The trip from St. John to Halifax took the courier across the bay of
Fundy to Annapolis, thence along the Annapolis valley to Windsor, and so
on to Halifax. The distance from Quebec to Halifax by this route was six
hundred and twenty-seven miles. This route was followed frequently by
couriers during the winters of the years of the war of the Revolution.
In 1775, Finlay proposed to introduce some system into the arrangements
by having couriers from Quebec and Halifax meet at fort Howe for the
exchange of despatches. While the war lasted, the arrangement was to be
kept secret. In 1781, the merchants in London who traded to Quebec urged
the adoption of this route for a regular winter service, but the danger
of having the couriers intercepted by prowling parties of Americans on
the long unprotected stretches made it impossible to have more than an
occasional trip. The trips, also, cost at least L100 each, a not
unimportant consideration in those days.
Finlay's activity as deputy postmaster general was confined to the
inland service in Canada, and he gave his attention to improving the
conditions under which the service was performed. The state of the roads
was a matter which occupied him considerably. They were probably, as
Finlay reported, as bad as they could be.
For many years before Canada passed into the possession of the British,
the habitants were fully occupied with the war, and when peace was
restored, the roads remained as the war had left them. Work on the roads
was never willingly undertaken by the habitants. When Lanoullier
constructed the great highway between Montreal and Quebec, it was only
by his personal superintendence that he was able to keep the habitant to
his task. As soon as his eye was withdrawn the work lagged.
Lanoullier lived until 1751, and during the last few years of his
service he failed to maintain the energy that had been an earlier
characteristic; and after his death, the country was in a constant state
of war, so that even if there had been an efficient grand voyer to
succeed him, the general neglect into which the domestic affairs fell
must have affected the condition of the roads.
The procedure employed in calling upon the habitants to work upon the
roads was that the grand voyer issued an order to the local captains of
militia, who published the order to the habitants by notice at the
church doors. The grand voyer complained to Finlay that it was
impossible to induce the habitants to work upon the roads. When the
order was read at the church, the habitants would dismiss the matter
with a shrug, and the remark "c'est un ordre anglais."
The consequence of this neglect was seen in the details of Finlay's
reports[125] as he travelled from Quebec to Montreal. As he passes from
post house to post house, his journals are a monotonous, though
indignant, recital of ruts, bogs and rocks.
The roads were unditched, and the bridges dangerous trap holes. The
bridges were no more than rows of poles lying crosswise, and scarcely
longer than the width of a _caleche_. When the water rose, the poles
were set afloat. The post houses should have been three leagues apart,
but the difficulty of inducing the habitants to undertake the irksome
and thankless duties of _maitre de poste_, often compelled Finlay to
choose persons whose houses were at a considerable distance from where
they should have been, and consequently post houses were found quite
close together.
There were places where the post houses were no more than one league
apart. As a _maitre de poste_ could not carry passengers beyond the next
adjoining post house, the inconvenience of the frequent changes of
horses was very great.
The mail couriers were bound to travel by night as well as by day; and
it is not difficult to believe Finlay when he says that the courier
travels by night at the risk of his neck. When other means of obtaining
help with the road work failed, Finlay offered to put the road in good
condition and keep it so if given the services of twelve soldiers of the
German legion, and a grant of L100.
An application was made to Finlay in 1781 for a postal service to the
settlements and forts along the Richelieu river. This was one of the
most prosperous sections of the country. When Catalogne made his report
on the state of Canada in 1712, he was particularly struck with the
evidences of comfort in some of the parishes bordering on the Richelieu.
It was not on this account, however, that it was thought necessary to
extend to this district the benefits of the postal service. The valley
of the Richelieu was the pathway along which travel from lake Champlain
pursued its course into the heart of Canada. Settlements were
established along the river at different times by French and English to
oppose a barrier to incursions from the south.
British forces were stationed in 1761 at St. Johns, Chambly and Sorel;
and it was to keep up a communication with these forces that a postal
service was desired. The detachments at St. Johns and Chambly received
their letters and despatches from Montreal, but as the most important
communications were with the governor, whose headquarters were at
Quebec, the commandant of the forces in this district, Colonel St.
Leger, wished to have a regular exchange with Sorel at the mouth of the
river.
Although Sorel was on the south side of the St. Lawrence, it had
maintained connection with the couriers on the grand route between
Quebec and Montreal, by means of a courier who crossed the river to
Berthier, where a post office had been established since 1772. The
postmaster general was disinclined to open a route between Sorel and St.
Johns, and the military authorities took the matter into their own
hands.
The conclusion of peace in 1783 and the recognition of the independence
of the United States was immediately followed by the dissolution of the
old establishment which administered the postal system of the northern
district of North America. The services of Finlay, as deputy postmaster
general of that system, ceased forthwith; and in July 1784, he was
appointed to the much humbler position of deputy postmaster general of
Canada.
Foxcroft, Finlay's associate in the deputyship was made British agent at
New York for the packet boat service, which was resumed between Great
Britain and the United States. Dashwood, the departmental secretary of
the old establishment, was appointed postmaster general of Jamaica in
1781.[126]
The first question of importance to occupy Finlay under the new order of
things was the means by which communication between Great Britain and
Canada was thereafter to be carried on. The merchants of Quebec and
Montreal hearing that a line of sailing packets was to be re-established
between Falmouth and New York,[127] at once demanded that the service
between Canada and New York should be restored.
Conditions were not favourable to its resumption. The rancours of the
war were not yet abated, and one or two messengers, who were sent down
to New York by Finlay, were insulted and maltreated by the Americans.
The postmaster general of the United States, Hazzard, also set up
difficulties.[128]
Finlay's plan was to have the Canadian mails taken down as far as Albany
by his courier, and to pay the American postage on them from Albany to
New York. But at this time there were no regular couriers between Albany
and New York; and consequently the Canadian mails, having to depend on
chance conveyance, would often miss the packet boats for which they were
intended. Finlay thought to overcome this difficulty by having his
courier take the mails past Albany and on to New York.
Hazzard, however, objected to this plan, and informed Finlay that he
would have the courier prosecuted if he attempted to go farther south
than Albany. Finlay met this objection, but at a ruinous cost. He
arranged with the postmaster at Albany that the Canadian courier should
go on to New York, and that at the same time Finlay would pay for this
privilege at the rate of three shillings sterling per ounce for the
mail, the bag being included in the weight. Thus, if the mail bag
weighed twenty pounds--no very great weight--Finlay had to pay L48, the
cost of wayleave for his courier to travel from Albany to New York. He
had, of course, to pay his courier's expenses as well.
Nor did the situation show a prospect of improvement. The United States
perceived that the toll which the Canadian post office would have to pay
for leave to pass over their territory might be greatly increased by the
simple expedient of establishing a post office near the Canadian
boundary, and compelling the Canadian post office to pay a wayleave
equal to the ordinary postage for the distance between that post office
and New York, as well as the courier's wages and necessary expenses, for
the Americans did not propose to be at any expense in the matter. This
scheme would net the Americans four shillings an ounce.
But as has happened so often since in the relations of Canada with her
neighbour to the south, the Canadian post office was driven by these
oppressive charges to the development of the alternative, though
naturally much less favourable, opening to the sea. The distance from
Quebec to Halifax by the Temiscouata route was six hundred and
twenty-seven miles as against rather less than four hundred miles, which
is the distance from Montreal to New York.
The route to New York was the natural highway, which for a century and
more had been pursued by Indians, soldiers and travellers on their way
from the British American colonies to Canada. On the journey southward
from Montreal to New York, there was a good road from Laprairie,
opposite Montreal to fort St. John, which was connected by the river
Richelieu with lake Champlain.
The trip down the lake from fort St. John to Crown Point (or fort
Frederic) was easily and pleasantly made by canoe or _bateau_. From
Crown Point, the traveller had a choice of routes to the Hudson river,
which bore him to New York. Kalm, the Swedish naturalist who visited
Canada in 1749, entered the country by the route described, and his
account of the trip suggests no unusual difficulties.[129]
Before the war the mail couriers from Montreal to New York made the
journey in from nine to ten days. The journey to Halifax was of a very
different character. At the best it could not be made in less than a
month, and during a considerable period at the beginning and the end of
each winter season the trip was very arduous and dangerous.
There has been preserved the journal of a courier, Durand, who carried a
mail from Quebec to Halifax and back in the early winter months of
1784.[130] His trip downwards, starting on the 11th of January, offered
no features unusual in a winter journey, most of which must be made on
foot through a country a large part of which was unsettled. He reached
Halifax on the 29th of February, seven weeks from starting.
The journey homeward was exceedingly toilsome and dangerous, and as
conditions remained unchanged for many years, at this season when winter
was relaxing its hold, it may be worth while to note some of the
incidents on the route.
At the Bay du Portage, on the lower St. John, Durand and his three
companions broke through the ice, and they with their mails were rescued
with difficulty. They managed to get as far as Presqu' Isle, partly on
the honeycombed ice, and partly in the woods, when they found themselves
face to face with an ice jam. As it was impossible for Durand to land
his dogs on the shore, he clambered up the hill of ice, and he and the
dogs had to make their way as best they could over the broken heaped-up
pieces for twenty miles, when they came upon a stretch of water as clear
as in summer.
Durand's guide had abandoned him and taken to the woods, but finding the
snow too soft for his snow-shoes, after a league's trudging, he rejoined
Durand on the ice. The swift and swollen waters, which they now reached,
compelled them to wait till they could build a canoe. Embarking they
poled their way for a couple of miles, as the speed of the current
prevented rowing, when the ice began again to come down upon them in
great masses.
Harnessing their dogs to an Indian cart, they hauled their canoe another
stretch, and on the 14th of April they reached Grand Falls. Above the
falls the ice, though bad, was firm enough; and having constructed a
sled, they carried their canoe and baggage on it for fifteen leagues.
From this point onward, although their difficulties were by no means at
an end, they struggled on to the St. Lawrence, and reached Quebec on the
24th of April.
The trip was a great disappointment to Finlay. He had no intention of
having it made at this time; but Sir John Johnston, superintendent
general of Indian affairs, had informed him that he was about to make a
trip to Halifax, and would be prepared to take a mail with him. Finlay
lost no time in advertising the fact throughout the colony, and had
gathered a large number of letters when Johnston changed his plans and
did not go to Halifax.
There was nothing for Finlay to do but to send a special courier. Durand
whom he engaged could not tell him what the cost would be, but from the
figures furnished by another courier who had frequently carried
despatches, he thought that L120 would be about the expense. Imagine his
dismay when the account was shown to be L191, and he had collected less
than L75 as postage on the letters contained in the mail.
There was no choice open to the colony. At whatever cost, an easy road
must be made between Quebec and Halifax. Dependence on a foreign, and,
at the time, hostile nation, for communication with the mother country
was not to be thought of, still less endured.
Indeed, in January 1783, before the peace was signed, Haldimand had
taken steps to establish a road between Canada and Nova Scotia. He sent
a surveyor with two hundred men down to work on the Temiscouata portage,
and at the same time urged governor Parr of Nova Scotia to do what was
necessary to facilitate travel in his province.
Haldimand had observed that a considerable part of the expense of a mail
service by this route arose from the extortionate charges for guides and
forwarding, which were made by the Acadians settled at Aupaque, a few
miles above Fredericton.[131] His plan, therefore, was to gather into
his own hands all the agencies for transportation on the route; and with
that end in view, he proposed to establish some experienced men at the
head of lake Temiscouata, with canoes and other facilities for travel,
whose business it should be to convey passengers and mail couriers
across the lake, down the Madawaska river, and on down the St. John
river as far as Grand Falls, where he intended to settle another post.
From an Acadian courier, named Mercure, whom Haldimand frequently
employed to convey despatches to Halifax, he learned that a number of
Acadians desired to take up land on the upper St. John, in order that
they might be nearer ministers of religion, in the parishes on the St.
Lawrence. The plan was to place these Acadians on the lands along the
river from Grand Falls up to lake Temiscouata, and it was hoped that the
settlement thus formed would extend eventually to the St. Lawrence.
The governor of Nova Scotia responded heartily to Haldimand's proposals,
and the settlement, once begun under their united efforts, made rapid
progress. When Finlay travelled by this route to Halifax in July 1787,
he found no settlers at all on the Madawaska, and only some twenty
Acadians huddled together on the south bank of the St. John, opposite
the mouth of the Madawaska.[132]
From this point downwards to the Grand Falls, a distance of forty miles,
the country was entirely unoccupied. In 1791, a gentleman from Scotland,
who was making a tour through Canada remarked with satisfaction on the
regularity of the settlement over an extent of fifty miles of very rich
country, and on the evidences of material well-being observable on every
side.[133] The people carried the modes of life of a self-dependent
community with them, as the traveller says that the settlement was
entirely isolated and self-contained, electing its own magistrates, and
that a high degree of comfort prevailed.
Governor Carleton, of New Brunswick, who had assisted materially in the
formation of the settlement, obtained a troop of soldiers from Lord
Dorchester, and by manning the posts at Presqu' Isle, Fredericton and
St. John, he provided the means for keeping the road in good order.
The section of the long route between Quebec and Halifax, which
commenced at the northern end of the Temiscouata portage, and ended at
the mouth of the St. John river, was the one presenting most
difficulties. But the other parts of the route, that is, the section
between Quebec and the Temiscouata portage, which was entirely within
the jurisdiction of the governor of Quebec, and the section from St.
John to Halifax, which was partly in New Brunswick, and partly in Nova
Scotia, remain to be mentioned.
The courier had a comparatively easy journey from Quebec down the south
shore of the St. Lawrence to the entrance of the portage. There had been
a fair road for some years through that part of the country, and in 1786
Finlay, by the governor's orders, settled post houses on the route in
order to facilitate the travel of mail couriers and others. The
gentleman whose travels through Canada have been mentioned, observed
that it was a comfortable trip through these parts, and that the country
was thickly settled, there being from twelve to sixteen families to the
mile.
The eastern end of the long route, that is, the part from St. John to
Halifax, consisted of a trip across the bay of Fundy from St. John to
Annapolis, and a journey by land through the Annapolis valley from
Annapolis to Windsor, thence to Halifax. The road from Annapolis to
Halifax is described by Finlay as very rough, but it was covered in
three days in a one-horse carriage, and in two days on horseback.
The maintenance of a continuous communication between Quebec and Halifax
was effected in the following manner.[134] Canada controlled the section
from Quebec to Fredericton, and provided couriers who made fortnightly
trips over this part of the route. The section down the St. John river
from Fredericton to St. John, and thence by the bay to Annapolis, was
under the supervision of the government of New Brunswick; while the
eastern part, which lay entirely in Nova Scotia, was naturally managed
by that government. In the summer of 1787, the governor, Lord
Dorchester, sent Finlay over the route to Halifax, to see what
improvements would be required in order to enable this service to
compete with the service over the shorter route from Montreal to New
York. Dorchester at the same time submitted the whole scheme to the
colonial office, intimating that if the home government saw fit to
establish a packet service between England and Halifax, the arrangements
for the inland conveyance through the provinces would be found
satisfactory.
Lord Sydney, the colonial secretary, expressed the king's approval of
the measures taken,[135] and stated that the postmasters general had
directed Finlay to carry the plans into execution in a manner
correspondent to Lord Dorchester's wishes. The lack of sufficient packet
boats would prevent the establishment of a regular service from England
for the moment, but it was hoped that vessels enough might be spared for
the route, to make the service though not exactly regular yet of
substantial benefit to the colonies.
Finlay in the course of his visit to St. John and Halifax found much to
encourage the hope that, with the improvement of the route, a
satisfactory outlet from Canada to the sea would be obtained at Halifax.
The chief trouble, he foresaw, lay in the divided responsibility for the
maintenance of an efficient service, owing to the fact that post office
authorities in the several provinces were entirely independent of one
another. Indeed, at that very time, the deputy postmasters general of
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were at strife with one another, and were
carrying on an active newspaper war as to which of the two was
accountable for certain defects in the service.[136] The distribution of
the expense of the part of the service they had undertaken to maintain
was another cause of complaint.
Finlay came back to Canada after his trip to Halifax bringing with him
two strong convictions. One was that the service to be successful must
be in the hands of one person. The other was that the correspondence
between the provinces themselves was not of sufficient volume to cover
the outlay, and that unless there were frequent English mails exchanged
at Halifax, the service would have to be dropped for lack of revenue to
meet the large expense. He considered that if six mails a year could be
exchanged between England and Halifax, the postage arising would more
than pay the expenses of the service.
Dorchester lost no time in transmitting to England the substance of
Finlay's recommendations, adding his own opinion that as soon as a
continuous road to St. John had been constructed, and a sufficient
number of people had been settled upon it to keep it open in winter, the
foot couriers would be replaced by horsemen, and then the mails would be
carried more speedily and securely than by way of New York.
The governor, also, suggested that the postal service in all the
provinces be put under the direction of Finlay, who was a man of much
experience, zeal, and practical ability, and who was entitled to this
consideration from having lost a similar appointment by the late
war.[137]
The home government approved of Dorchester's recommendation as to
Finlay, whose commission as deputy postmaster general was extended to
comprise the whole of the colonies in British North America. At the same
time Dorchester received the gratifying news that the post office had
managed so to arrange matters that commencing with March 1788 the packet
boats which ran between Falmouth and New York would pass by way of
Halifax, stopping there two days on both the inward and the outward
voyages.
The service to Halifax was to be limited, however, to eight monthly
trips between March and October, as the admiralty had been informed that
the prevailing winds off the Nova Scotia coast during the winter months
were so contrary as to make it impracticable for the packets to call
there during those months.[138]
In winter, therefore, it was still necessary to send the mails from
Canada for England by way of New York. The mails between Nova Scotia and
England during the winter months were exchanged by means of a schooner,
which the governor of Nova Scotia put on the course between Halifax and
New York.
In the winter of 1790, the conditions were made somewhat easier for the
Nova Scotians, by the British post office directing that the packet
agent at New York should send the Nova Scotia mails from New York to
Boston, so that the governor's schooner was not required to go further
south than Boston.
To Canada, the calling of the packet at Halifax, was a great boon. It
settled the seaport problem, which had many perplexing aspects. Canada
could never dispense with the New York route, unless the charges for
transmission through the United States were made quite extortionate, and
the success which had attended the efforts of Canada to make an outlet
through British territory would not be lost upon the Americans when it
became necessary to re-arrange the terms for transit through the United
States.
To merchants and others in Quebec who depended exclusively on the
Halifax post office for their correspondence with England, the service
of the packet boats, curiously enough, developed a grievance, which had
a real foundation, as will be seen from the following case.
The postmaster of Halifax reported to the postmaster general that the
admiral of the "Leander," which was on the point of sailing for England,
expressed much dissatisfaction because a mail was not sent by his
ship.[139] In explanation of his refusal to do this the postmaster
stated that before the packet boats began to call at Halifax, he made up
and despatched a mail by every ship of war and merchantman that sailed
from Halifax for England, but since the commencement of the packet
service, he despatched no mails by any other vessels than the packets.
The understanding of the arrangement by the postmaster was that the
packet boats would not have been sent to Halifax if they were not to be
employed exclusively, and he would no more think of sending a mail by
any other steamer than he would send the letters to Annapolis by the
first traveller who happened to be going in that direction. The
explanation was acceptable to both the post office and the admiralty,
but there can be no question that the employment of the packet boats
curtailed the opportunities which the Nova Scotians had enjoyed of
corresponding with England.
Before leaving the Quebec-Halifax service, it seems proper to mention a
remarkable scheme which was submitted to the postmaster general by
William Knox, late under secretary of state, for a packet service
between England and North America, and between the several parts of the
latter.[140] Knox was under secretary of state during the war, and had
in a large measure directed the operations of the packet service on
behalf of the army in America.
The proposition, which was the result of a request by Lord Walsingham,
the postmaster general, for an expression of Knox's views, was based on
the sound principle that, until the post office provided facilities
adequate to the requirements of the correspondence which passed between
England and North America, it could never compete successfully with the
number of private ships continually crossing the Atlantic.
Knox pointed out that there was only a monthly service between England,
Halifax and New York, and that, at the very best, five months must
elapse before an answer could be returned to a letter written in England
and addressed to any of the interior parts of British North America.
The plan Knox unfolded to Walsingham was to have a fleet of fast sailing
vessels ply between England and Caplin bay, Newfoundland. At Caplin bay
there would be other vessels awaiting the British packets, and, on their
arrival, one of these would set off with the mails for Halifax and Rhode
Island, and another for Bermuda and Virginia, each vessel returning by
its own route, to Caplin bay. These services were to be looped together
by auxiliary services, and connected with other lines further south,
until Great Britain, Newfoundland, Canada, the United States and the
West Indies were all bound together by an elaborate system of
intercommunication, which would give an exchange of mails, between all
the parts three times a month. This scheme, it is needless to say, was
never carried into execution.
The results of the war had other important consequences for Canada,
besides that of forcing upon Quebec and the Maritime provinces the first
of the series of steps in the direction of common action, which led
eventually to confederation. When peace was concluded in 1783, the
disbanded soldiers and other adherents of the British cause came and
settled in Canada, and there was an early demand for postal
accommodation in the newly peopled districts.
The first settlement in Upper Canada was at Niagara, where four or five
families took up land in 1780. These were reinforced in 1784, by a
number of the men of Butler's Rangers, and at the end of that year, the
settlement was increased to over six hundred. Americans came over in
large numbers, and between them and the steady stream inwards of
loyalists, the district from Niagara to the head of the lake at
Hamilton was rapidly settled. A gentleman travelling through that part
of the province in 1800 remarked that it was all under settlement.[141]
At the other end of the province, settlement was going forward with much
rapidity. From the eastern boundary westward as far as the township of
Elizabethtown, near the present site of Brockville, there was a
continuous line of settlers. The extreme east was taken up by Highland
Scotch as far as Dundas county, and the western part of this county was
occupied by Germans. Both Highlanders and Germans came from the same
district on the Mohawk river in New York state.
Westward from Dundas county the settlers were more largely of
British-American origin. At Elizabethtown there was a break in the
settlement until Frontenac county was reached, as the land in that
intermediate district did not appear so favourable. At Kingston,
settlement was recommended, and from that point to the western end of
the bay of Quinte, farms were taken up with an alacrity that was
unsurpassed in any part of the province.
The incomers were all from the states to the south, and in their old
homes had enjoyed many of the conveniences of civilized life. In 1787,
as soon as they had become fairly established, they petitioned the
government for the extension of the post office into the new districts,
and two years later post offices were opened at Lachine, Cedars, Coteau
du Lac, Charlottenburg, Cornwall, New Johnston, Lancaster, Osnabruck,
Augusta, Elizabethtown and Kingston.[142]
This was as far as the regular mail couriers ran. Trips were made once a
year during the winter, and in summer, every opportunity afforded by
vessels going up to lake Ontario, was taken advantage of for the
despatch of mails.
In the first advertisement of the service of the new districts, it was
stated that the mails would be despatched every four weeks, but this
regularity could not be attained without a considerable outlay, and it
was found better to utilize such means of conveyance as happened to be
offering, for the carriage of the mails. Though the line of post offices
along the St. Lawrence terminated at Kingston, reasonable provision was
made for communication with the remote settlements of Niagara, Detroit
and Michillimackinac.
Detroit and Michillimackinac are in the territory of the United States,
but the forts at these places were detained in the hands of the British
until 1796 as security, until the obligations imposed on the Americans
by the treaty of Paris were fulfilled. Offices were established in each
of the three settlements mentioned, and the post office undertook to
send the mails forward from Kingston as opportunities occurred of doing
so with safety.[143]
In 1792 the first postal convention to which Canada was a party, was
concluded with the United States. Under its terms[144] the United States
post office engaged to act as intermediary for the conveyance of mails
passing between Canada and Great Britain. When a mail for Canada reached
New York by the British packet, it was taken in hand by the British
packet boat agent, who after assorting it, placed it in a sealed bag,
which he delivered to the New York post office.
The postmaster of New York sent this bag forward by messenger as far as
Burlington, Vermont, from whence it was taken to Montreal by a Canadian
courier, who travelled between Montreal and Burlington every two weeks.
In 1797 these trips were made weekly.
For this service the Canadian post office agreed to pay the United
States department the sum which the latter would have been entitled to
collect on the same number of United States letters passing between
Burlington and New York. As the mails were contained in a sealed bag,
the United States post office had no means of arriving at the amount due
to them for this service, and they agreed to accept the sworn statement
of the British and Canadian officials on this point.
The convention, also, provided for the interchange of correspondence
between Canada and the United States. According to the practice of the
period, a letter from Montreal for New York, for instance, was
chargeable with the postage due for conveyance from Montreal to the
United States boundary. This was collected by the Canadian post office.
In addition to this, the United States post office charged the postage
due to it for the conveyance from the boundary to New York.
The arrangements for the collection of the postage due to each
administration were somewhat peculiar. On a letter from Canada to the
United States, the Canadian postage as far as Burlington had to be paid
at the time the letter was posted. The United States postage was
collected from the person to whom the letter was delivered. On letters
passing the other way, that is, from the United States to Canada,
another arrangement was possible. The sender could, of course, if he
chose, pay the United States postage to Burlington, and the Canadian
post office would collect its own postage from the addressed.
But besides this arrangement, which was common to letters passing in
either direction, a person in the United States could post a letter for
Canada entirely unpaid, and the total amount due would be collected on
the delivery of the letter to the person addressed in Canada. In this
case, the postage due to the United States was collected by the
postmaster at Montreal, who assumed the duties of agent, in this
respect, for the United States post office. The United States did not
allow any of their postmasters to act as agents for the collection of
Canadian postage in the United States, alleging that there were too many
post offices in that country for Burlington to look after them properly.
The convention of 1792 contained a feature which was at that time novel
in post office arrangements. It provided for the conveyance of
periodical magazines between Canada and Great Britain, charging for its
services the unusually low figure of eight cents a magazine. The
convention was signed by the deputy postmaster general of Canada and the
postmaster general of the United States.
Under this convention the arrangements for the exchange of
correspondence between Canada and Great Britain were very satisfactory.
During the eight months when the packet boats called at Halifax, the
mails passed by the route through the Maritime provinces. In the winter,
while the packet boats did not visit Halifax, the mails were sent by way
of New York.
The improvements in the roads on the route through the United States,
reduced greatly the time of conveyance between Montreal and New York.
Travellers from Montreal to New York in 1800 noted that there was a
rough road as far as Burlington, and a rather better one to
Skenesborough (Whitehall), while from this place to New York, the
journey was made by coach.[145]
In Upper Canada, postal affairs were brought into some prominence when
that part of the country was erected into a separate province by the
constitutional act of 1791. As will be recalled, the service beyond
Kingston was conducted in rather haphazard fashion. It was maintained
largely in the interest of the little garrisons at Niagara, Detroit and
Michillimackinac.
The first governor of the new province, General Simcoe, was a man of
great energy, and zealous in the discharge of any duty laid upon him.
The total population in Upper Canada at the time did not exceed ten
thousand. But though these were not neglected, it was in preparation for
the thousands whom Simcoe foresaw thronging into the province, that his
attention was chiefly occupied.
Before he left London for Canada, Simcoe had written to the government
several letters, some of them of great length, discussing every
conceivable topic of colonial policy. In submitting the list of
officials which he considered necessary for the government of the
province, the newly appointed governor stated that he had in mind a
proper person who would go to Canada as printer, if he had a salary, and
the governor thought that by making this person provincial
postmaster[146] as well as government printer, a salary might be raised
from the two offices, sufficient to induce him to go.
When Simcoe reached Quebec in November 1791, he consulted with Finlay on
the subject, and was confirmed in his opinion as to the desirability of
a post office establishment in Upper Canada. There was, however, a
preliminary question of great importance which it appeared to him
necessary to have settled.
The question was akin to that which formed the subject of a later
controversy between the home government and the colonies, as to whether
sums collected from the public as postage were to be regarded as a tax,
and as such would require the consent of the colonies before they could
be appropriated to the use of the postmaster general in Great Britain.
Franklin, it will be remembered, contended that these sums were not a
tax, but simply compensation for services rendered by the post office.
The government, which founded an argument for the legality of its course
in laying taxes in America, on the fact that the colonies had hitherto
contentedly paid postage on the letters conveyed by the post office, and
made no objection that the profits of the American post office should be
sent to England, insisted that the postage collected was a tax.
Simcoe had no doubt on the subject himself. He fully shared the earlier
view of the British government, and proceeded to a further discussion of
the subject. In 1778, in a belated attempt to stay the progress of the
rebellion in the colonies by a course of conciliation, the government,
by an act of parliament,[147] renounced the right it had hitherto
claimed of taxing the colonies except so far as might be necessary for
the regulation of commerce; and in the case of such regulative duties,
the proceeds from them were to ensure to the benefit, not of the home
government, but of the colony from which the duties were collected.
Whether a post office tax was to be classed among duties for the
regulation of commerce was a point on which Simcoe could not quite make
up his mind. But if it were to be so regarded, then by the act of 1778,
which was embodied in the constitutional act of 1791, the net produce
from the Upper Canadian post office should be appropriated to the use of
the province, and the question Simcoe asked was whether it did not lie
with the general assembly of the province, rather than with the
parliament of Great Britain, to superintend the public accounts of
duties so levied and collected.[148] In order that the whole matter
might be placed beyond doubt, Simcoe suggested that when a post office
bill for the new province came to be drawn up, it should contain a
preamble describing its connection with duties for the regulation of
commerce, and vesting the collection of the tax in the deputy postmaster
general of Lower Canada, who should be made accountable for the revenue
so raised, to the legislature of Upper Canada.
Dundas,[149] the home secretary, to whom the matter was submitted,
expressed no decided opinion upon it, but suggested that bills of that
nature ought not to be passed upon by the governor, but should be
reserved in order that the king's pleasure might be signified regarding
them.
The question of a separate establishment for Upper Canada, as will be
seen hereafter, occupied the attention both of the local government and
of the general post office in England, but though several propositions
were submitted by both sides, the objections to it were found
insuperable.
The only other event of importance occurring in Upper Canada at this
period which affected the history of the post office was the founding of
the city of Toronto. Until 1794, when the lines of the present city were
laid out under the direction of governor Simcoe, and for some years
later, the future capital of Ontario[150] was in a state of the most
complete isolation.
On the way up lake Ontario, settlement reached no further than the
western end of the bay of Quinte. An official sent from York, as Toronto
was named in 1792, to Kingston, to meet and accompany immigrants to
York, found very few desirous of going so great a distance from all
settlements.
The country to the west of Toronto was equally unsettled. The line of
farm holdings from Niagara westward, came to an end at the head of the
lake about the site of the present city of Hamilton. From that point to
York, the country was occupied by the Mississauga Indians. When it was
determined to remove the seat of government to York in 1797, the chief
justice complained that the lack of accommodation of any kind was so
great that the larger part of those whom business or duty called to York
must remain during their stay there, either in the open air, or crowded
together in huts or tents, in a manner equally offensive to their
feelings and injurious to their health.[151]
The exact date on which the post office was established at York, and the
name of the first postmaster are unfortunately not disclosed by the
records, which are far from complete. There is a probability, however,
which amounts to practical certainty, that the post office was opened in
either 1799 or 1800, and that the first postmaster was William
Willcocks.
Lieutenant governor Hunter states that in 1799, excepting the single
trip made annually from Montreal to Niagara, there was no service beyond
Kingston, the mails for the posts west of that point being taken by the
king's vessels, and their distribution effected by the commandants at
the posts.[152]
In 1800, there was certainly a regular postmaster at York, as the
legislative council in that year directed the surveyor general to give
Wilcox, the postmaster, such information as would enable Finlay to
answer certain questions asked by the governor general respecting the
establishment of regular couriers between Quebec and York.[153]
Besides the inhabitants of the rapidly growing town of York, the post
office at that place served to accommodate for many years the German
settlement in Markham township, which was begun in 1797 under the
leadership of Berczy, an enterprising promoter.
In October 1799, Finlay's connection with the post office in Canada
ceased, and it is unpleasant to add that he was dismissed as a
defaulter. He admitted an indebtedness to the postmaster general,
amounting to L1408.
To the lieutenant governor Finlay explained[154] that a large part of
the debt arose in 1794 from the disallowance for a number of years past,
of certain items of credit, which had been accepted and passed at the
general post office. The death in bankruptcy of the postmaster at Three
Rivers increased considerably the amount of Finlay's obligations to the
postmaster general.
Finlay pointed out, with truth, that he had not only successfully
maintained the post office in Canada under very trying circumstances,
but that through the relations he had established with the _maitres de
poste_, he had saved to the postmaster general not less than L12,000. He
pleaded, therefore, that as large an allowance as possible be made, on
account of these considerations, and that he might be given time to pay
any balance which might thereafter be found due.
Finlay's plea was strongly supported by the leading merchants in the
colony, and by the lieutenant governor, who represented that he was the
oldest servant of the crown in Canada, being senior executive and
legislative councillor. When the land committee was formed he was made
chairman, and on him fell practically all the onerous duties devolving
on the committee during that period. He was seventy years of age, forty
of which had been spent in the service of the colony, and was suffering
from an incurable disease, from which he died not long after his
dismissal.
Notwithstanding these pleas, judgment was obtained for the amount of the
debt, and some land which had been granted to him in Stanstead county as
a special recognition of his services, was attached by the orders of the
postmaster general. Either the claim was not pressed rigorously, or the
land did not suffice to cover the debt, for after standing on the
departmental books as uncollectable for many years, Finlay's debt was
finally wiped off in 1830.
FOOTNOTES:
[119] Notice in _Quebec Gazette_, February 16, 1767.
[120] _Can. Arch._, B. series, CC. 2.
[121] Finlay "Papers," _Can. Arch._, M. 412.
[122] _C. O._ 5, vol. 136.
[123] _Can. Arch._, B., CC. 114.
[124] _Ibid._, LXII. 164.
[125] _Can. Arch._, B., CC. _passim_.
[126] G.P.O., _Commission Book_, 1759-1854.
[127] _Quebec Gazette_, November 18, 1783.
[128] Finlay's _Report to Legislative Council_, July 9, 1785.
[129] Peter Kalm, _Travels into North America_, 1771, vols. 2 and 3.
[130] _Can. Arch._, B., LXXI 72.
[131] _Can. Arch._, B., CL. 187 and 204.
[132] Finlay Papers, _Can. Arch._, M. 411.
[133] P. Campbell, _Travels in North America_ (Edinburgh, 1793).
[134] Finlay's "Report," _Can. Arch._, M. 412.
[135] _Can. Arch._, Q. 28, p. 28.
[136] Finlay's "Report," _Can. Arch._, M. 412.
[137] _Can. Arch._, Q. 28, p. 152.
[138] Record Office, _Admiralty-Secretary In Letters_, Bundle 4072.
[139] Record Office, _Admiralty-Secretary In Letters_, Bundle 4073.
[140] _Extra Official State Papers_ (Knox), London and Dublin, 1789.
[141] _Freer Papers_, I. 47.
[142] _Quebec Gazette_, May 28, 1789.
[143] _Quebec Gazette_, May 28, 1789.
[144] _Can. Arch._, Br. P.O. Transcripts, I.
[145] _Freer Papers_, I. 54.
[146] _Can. Arch._, Q. 278, p. 283.
[147] 18, Geo. III. c. 22.
[148] _Can. Arch._, Q. 278, p. 44.
[149] The affairs of the colonies were at this period managed by the
home secretary.
[150] The province of Upper Canada became known in political geography
as Ontario in 1867.
[151] _Can. Arch._, Q. 283, p. 117.
[152] _Ibid._, C. 284, p. 21.
[153] _Ibid._, Q. 290, p. 200.
[154] _Ibid._, 87, pp. 251-268.