Reversal of attitude of British government on post office
control--Instructions to Lord Elgin--Provincial postal
conference--Control of post office relinquished to colonies.
The ministry formed by Lord John Russell, which took office on July 6,
1846, gave its immediate attention to the condition of the post office
in the North American colonies, and a few weeks after taking office,
Lord Clanricarde, the postmaster general, laid a proposition before the
treasury[284] which had for its object the severance of the relations
between the colonial system and the general post office and the
withdrawal of the latter from all responsibility respecting the service
in the provinces.
The reversal of policy in this case was as remarkable for suddenness as
that which, in the same year, had brought about the abolition of the
Corn Laws. As late as June 9, the secretary of the post office submitted
a proposition from Stayner for a substantial reduction in the rates,
with many doubts as to the propriety of accepting it. He pointed out
that it would involve, at least temporarily, so great a shrinkage in the
revenues, that the treasury would be faced with alternatives almost
equally distasteful, but one of which it would be obliged to adopt. The
treasury must be prepared either to take on itself the deficits certain
to arise, or must call upon the colonial legislatures to meet them.
While the treasury was deliberating, a new postmaster general
supervened, who was quite prepared to face the idea of colonial postal
systems over which he ceased to have control. With the insistent
petitions from Canada and New Brunswick before him, he came to the
conclusion that the time had arrived when it was no longer expedient for
the general post office to continue responsibility for postal systems,
which had to subserve interests understood only by those whom they
concerned. With certain safeguards, he had no fear for the impairment of
imperial interests.
The course of reasoning by which Clanricarde reached the conclusions he
communicated to the treasury were as follows: The unanimity of the
demands of the colonial legislatures left no doubt that the postage
rates must undergo a very considerable reduction; and there was equally
little doubt that the consequences of this reduction would be a
diminution of revenue so considerable that a large deficit would be
inevitable. New Brunswick, the new postmaster general recalled, had
undertaken to make good its portion of the deficiency, and there was
every probability that the other provinces would assume the same
obligation.
In these deficiencies, however, in spite of the utmost good will on the
part of the provinces, lay the seeds of certain trouble. The principle
governing the establishment of a postal system, and its expansion to
meet local requirements, was fundamentally different in a new country
from the principle by which they were guided at home. In a new country a
postal system was expected to afford the means of extending
civilization, and to advance with equal step with settlement, whereas in
a long settled country, the postal system followed in the train of
civilization.
The consequence of this difference is naturally a frequent clashing of
opinion between the authorities at home and the public in the colonies.
Disputes were constantly arising as to the extent of the accommodation
to be given to new settlements, the amount of the salaries to be paid to
officials, and above all as to the principle upon which new and
expensive posts should be established.
As to this last point, the general post office had just disposed of an
application, which threw a strong light on the different elements, which
had sometimes to be taken into consideration in dealing with questions
of extensions of the system in a country like Canada.[285]
Sir George Simpson, the deputy governor of the Hudson Bay Company,
represented that the company had a post at Sault Ste. Marie, for which
postal accommodation was desirable. The post office having but one test
to apply was disposed to reject the application on account of the
insufficiency of the prospective revenue to cover the cost of the
service.
Gladstone, at that time colonial secretary, sought information from Lord
Cathcart, administrator of the government, as to the merits of the
application and learned that, besides the Hudson Bay interest, there
were prospects of large mining developments in the district, and that a
body of troops was about to be sent to fort Garry, which would
certainly require regular communication with headquarters.
These were considerations which post office officials in Great Britain
would seldom have to take into account, and while the accommodation was
authorized in this case, owing to the standing of its advocates, there
would be many cases, where the necessity would appear equally great to
local authorities, which would not impress the authorities at home
sufficiently to cause them to disregard their customary regulations.
Parenthetically it may be stated, as instances, that when the North-West
territories were taken over by Canada in 1869, it became necessary to
establish a mail service over a stretch of nine hundred miles between
Winnipeg and Edmonton, at a cost of $10,000 a year, while the revenue
from the route would scarcely exceed as many hundreds; and for many
years after the Canadian Pacific railway was carried to Vancouver in
1886, the expenditure of the post office for the conveyance of mails
into that country exceeded the revenue by some hundreds of thousands of
dollars.
On this point the postmaster general says: "there is no more fertile
source of contention in the North American colonies than the
establishment of new posts; and if the means of extending such posts
throughout the colonies were provided by funds not of the post office,
but granted from the general colonial revenue, however well administered
a department might be, I fear it would constantly be subjected to
accusations of favouritism and of undue influences."
Clanricarde conceded that it would only be reasonable to expect that the
legislative assemblies would endeavour to ascertain whether by
rearrangements, or other alterations in the administration, the
deficiency would not be diminished, and whether economy could not be
introduced with respect to salaries. The struggle of members for local
advantages would heighten the feeling with which the department
administered from England would be regarded.
The postmaster general summed the situation up by declaring his
conviction that any measure producing a large deficiency in the post
office revenue would be tantamount to a surrender of the administration
by the postmaster general; and as he was of opinion that the general
colonial interests called for a large reduction in the postage rates, he
considered that it would be better that the postmaster general should
resign his control over the post offices at once.
The imperial interests, which had determined the department in the past
to retain its control over the arrangements remained in undiminished
strength; and in order to safeguard these, it would be necessary to
stipulate for certain conditions to which the colonies would be required
to agree, before the colonial post offices were relinquished to the
colonial legislatures.
The first was that correspondence passing between two colonies through
the territory of a third, should not be subject to a charge on the part
of the latter for transportation. This stipulation ensured that an
intermediate colony should not have the power to compel the colonies on
either side of it to raise their charges to meet exorbitant rates for
transportation.
The second condition was that, in the case of correspondence passing
between Great Britain and the colonies, the postage on which was one
shilling and twopence, the part of this amount, which was for the inland
conveyance, viz. twopence, should remain in operation, unless the
ordinary inland rate should be less than twopence. In this case the
correspondence to and from Great Britain should have the benefit of the
lower rate.
The third condition was that prepayment or payment on delivery should be
optional with respect to correspondence passing from one province to
another, and, in order to avoid complicated accounts between the
provinces, the practice should be for each province to treat as its own
all the postage it collected whether it were on letters paid at the time
of posting, or on letters from other provinces, the postage of which,
being unpaid at the office of posting was collected at the office of
delivery. The postmaster general also suggested, as highly desirable,
that a uniform system and rate of postage should be maintained
throughout the provinces.
As the proposition of the postmaster general provided for the
reservation to the treasury of the full amount of the packet postage,
part of which had until that time been used in the colonies to defray
the expenses of their services, there could be no objection in point of
finances to leaving to the colonies the control of their post offices.
Lord Elgin, who came out as governor general in the beginning of 1847,
brought with him instructions to convey this information to the several
legislatures. In these instructions Lord Grey, the colonial secretary,
after alluding to the great change in the economic policy of the United
Kingdom towards the colonies as a consequence of the adoption of the
principle of free trade--the abolition of the preferential tariff which
the colonies had hitherto enjoyed, and the concomitant removals of the
restrictions, which had existed on their trade with foreign
countries--pointed out that in order that they might reap the largest
measure of benefit from the greater freedom of trade, it was necessary
that they should be united for customs purposes, on lines perhaps
similar to those of the German Zollverein.
Grey further intimated that it was also desired, in order to complete
the commercial association of the colonies, that some arrangement should
be come to for settling the affairs of the post office. He suggested
that a conference of the representatives of the colonies should be held
in Montreal, to discuss these important subjects, and to endeavour to
arrive at some agreement as to the principles to be adopted in giving
effect to united colonial action.
Elgin delivered his message to the Canadian legislature in opening the
session of 1847, on the 4th of June. He stated that he was enabled to
inform the legislature that His Majesty's ministers were prepared to
surrender to the provincial authorities, the control of the department
in the colonies as soon as, by consent between the several legislatures,
arrangements should be matured for securing to British North America the
advantage of an efficient and uniform postal system.
But before this official intimation reached the colonies, action had
been taken in one of them, on lines so closely parallel to those defined
in the letter of the postmaster general to the treasury, as to suggest
that Elgin, on his arrival in Boston on the 25th of January, had at once
despatched a message to Halifax, since, on the 27th of January, the
question of the post office was brought up for discussion in the
legislature of Nova Scotia.
A committee was appointed to inquire generally into the conditions of
the post office, and, particularly, into the advantage of one general
system being adopted for the colonies, and the best means of
accomplishing such an object.[286] Their task was to submit such a
scheme as should be likely to command the approval of the other colonies
and of the imperial authorities. This scheme should be founded upon some
principle of central supervision and management of the various colonial
post offices that would ensure uniformity in their operations, security
against conflict with the general post office of the empire, and a
proper degree of responsibility of the local heads to their
legislatures.
Addressing themselves first to the question of postage rates, the
committee at Halifax decided, though with some misgivings, to recommend
for adoption the rates proposed by the commission approved by Sydenham
to investigate the affairs of the post office. These rates were based
on the principle of charging according to the distance letters were
carried.
The preference of the committee was for a single uniform rate. But they
were prepared to waive it, and adopt the rates proposed by the
commission, "because those suggestions had already received the sanction
of able men well acquainted with the subject, because they believed
their adoption would involve very great benefits to the people of this
colony, and because they believed those suggestions were more likely to
be concurred in by the authorities in England, and by the other
colonies, than would be any that proceeded directly from themselves."
The concurrence of the legislatures of the other provinces should be
obtained in the recognition of common principles, and of the necessity
for an independent authority placed in one of the colonies, whose
function it should be to organize and centralize the department within
certain limits to be prescribed and defined.
The report of the committee was submitted to the assembly of Nova Scotia
on the 29th of March, and was adopted on all points, except the
important one of the rates of postage. The house was not disposed to
concur in the continuation of a system of postal charges, which had been
definitely abandoned in Great Britain and the United States, and which
had been condemned by every public body in the colonies, which had
considered the subject. The assembly substituted for the rates proposed
by the committee the uniform rate of threepence, and were prepared to
face such deficits as should result. The lieutenant governor was
requested to send the resolutions to the other colonies, with the
earnest desire that they would be pleased to give them consideration.
On the 30th of June, the Nova Scotia resolutions were laid before the
Canadian legislature, and no time was lost in carrying into effect the
suggestion of a conference between representatives of the colonies on
the mainland. Wm. Cayley, the inspector general of Canada (in practice
the minister of finance), J. W. Johnston, the solicitor general of Nova
Scotia and R. L. Hazen, of the executive council of New Brunswick, were
appointed representatives of their respective provinces.
These representatives of three of the four provinces met in Montreal, on
the invitation of Elgin; and in October, the result of their
deliberations was presented to the governor general.[287]
In considering the question of the establishment of an independent
management within the provinces, thus taking over the functions of the
general post office so far as they related to the colonies, the
delegates discussed the relative advantages of a scheme of a central
department for the four provinces with united revenue and management
such as then existed, or of one that would place the management of the
postal arrangements in the hands of the local governments of each
province, with no greater central control than should be necessary for
securing imperial and inter-colonial interests.
The former of the two alternatives was rejected, as open to practically
all the objections that had arisen from the control being continued in
England. There was the further consideration that the most practical
security against an imprudent excess in postal accommodation would be
found in the consideration that undue encroachments on the general
revenue for the benefit of the postal service would diminish the means
required for other and not less valuable purposes. This motive, powerful
when confined within the limits of a single province, might lose much of
its force, were the postal revenues of the four provinces gathered into
one fund.
The other alternative appeared free from the objections mentioned. The
delegates, therefore, recommended that the post office departments in
the several provinces should be separate and distinct from one another,
and under the control, each, of its own provincial government, which
should appoint all officers, make arrangements for mail service, pay all
expenses, and retain all collections, except the balances due to Great
Britain on packet postage.
For expenditures common to all the provinces, there should be an office
of central audit in Canada of which the postmaster general of Canada
should be the head. The duties of the office were to audit the accounts
of the several provinces, returns of which should be presented annually
to the different legislatures; to collect and transmit to England the
balances due from the four provinces on the packet service; and, in
concert with the postmaster general in each province, to make all
necessary arrangements for the transmission of the mails along the chief
or central route from Canada to Halifax and between Nova Scotia and
Prince Edward Island.
This office was anomalous in character, implying the inability of the
several independent provincial departments to make all necessary
business arrangements among themselves, and when the provinces assumed
control of their post offices, it was not established.
In dealing with the question of the rates of postage, the delegates had
before them the various representations from the several provinces as to
the desirability of establishing, if possible, a low uniform rate of
postage; and the success of penny postage in Great Britain and of the
rates adopted in the United States in 1846 encouraged the belief that a
low uniform postage would not only confer immeasurable commercial and
social benefits, but would within a reasonable time be productive of a
revenue ample for all the needs of the service.
It was, therefore, agreed to recommend to their respective governments
the adoption of the threepenny or five-cent rate for each half-ounce
letter. Lest, however, any of the provinces should fear for the
financial results of conveying letters over the greater distances for
this sum, they confined their recommendation to letters carried less
than three hundred miles, leaving it optional to charge a double rate
for letters carried beyond that distance. For the purpose of fixing the
charge the provinces were to be regarded as one territory.
No change was recommended in the charges on newspapers, parliamentary
documents, or other printed papers, but the several legislatures were
left free to exempt these from postage, if they thought fit to do so.
Prepayment or payment on delivery of letters should be optional, and
franking abolished.
The treasury to whom this report was submitted, approved of the
arrangements proposed, except that relating to the payment for the
British mails to and from the port of destination in America. But they
contented themselves with observing that this remained a matter of
negotiation between the home and the colonial departments; and stated
that as soon as the arrangements had been sufficiently matured, the
requisite steps would be taken for the transfer of the postal
communications to the provincial authorities.
Nova Scotia, which had taken the leading part in the negotiations which
had brought matters to the point they had reached, again took up the
leadership. On the 21st of March, 1848, the legislature adopted the
report of the commissioners, and directed the attorney general to
prepare a bill based on the view of Grey and Clanricarde, pledging
themselves to make good any deficiency which might take place in the
post office revenue of that province.
The bill to effect this arrangement was adopted by the legislature on
April 4.[288] Thus all necessary action on the part of that province was
complete, and the measure was ready to be put into operation, as soon
as the British government and the other colonies had taken the necessary
action on their part.
Following up the enactment of this measure, the Nova Scotia legislature
appointed James B. Uniacke, the chairman of the post office committee,
to visit Canada, and lay before the governor general the views of Nova
Scotia on the subject of the provincial post office and to endeavour to
settle with Canada the questions necessary to be disposed of before the
post office could be established.
Uniacke arrived in Montreal on the 8th of June, and had interviews with
Elgin and the executive council. Two days later the council adopted a
report drawn up in terms differing but slightly from those of the
commission of 1847, and recommending the adoption of a uniform rate of
threepence (five cents) throughout British North America.
The other recommendations were the same as those submitted by the
committee, with the addition that postage stamps should be issued for
the use of the public. The council were of opinion that the provisions
recommended should be introduced in a bill, to be laid before
parliament, and expressed the hope that the postmaster general might be
given full discretionary powers in matters referring to the colonial
post office, and that Her Majesty's government might be persuaded to
adopt the above rates and regulations without further delay, the council
pledging the administration to make good any excess of expenditure over
revenue which may possibly arise in carrying out such arrangement.[289]
The government of Nova Scotia then approached that of New Brunswick, the
lieutenant governor at Fredericton being informed of the result of
Uniacke's visit to Canada and that all that was now required was the
assent of the government of New Brunswick and the approval of the
imperial authorities. The governor general added a word to the
intimation of the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, and it was settled
that legislation would be introduced into the New Brunswick legislature
in accordance with the terms agreed upon.[290]
All requisite measures for establishing the colonial post offices on an
independent footing were matured, so far as could be done, by the
legislatures themselves, and nothing now remained but the imperial
sanction. This the law officers were of opinion would require an act of
the imperial parliament, and on the 28th of July, 1849,[291] an act was
passed empowering the legislative authorities in any of the colonies to
establish and maintain a system of posts, to charge rates of postage for
the conveyance of correspondence, and to appropriate to their own uses
the revenue to be derived therefrom. With this action taken, the control
of the imperial government over the colonial posts should cease and
determine.
The government of Prince Edward Island, though invited by Elgin to
participate in the conference at Montreal in October 1846, took no part
in it. In November 1847, Johnston, one of the representatives from Nova
Scotia, sent to the lieutenant governor a copy of the report of the
Montreal commission, requesting an expression of his sentiments, and
inquiring as to the prospect of the legislature concurring in the
opinions contained in the report.
The deputy postmaster general in the course of an examination of the
report pointed out that the only valid objection the government of
Prince Edward Island could have to the adoption of its conclusions, was
that the uniform charge of threepence on inter-colonial correspondence
would make a serious inroad in the receipts of the Prince Edward Island
post office.
The island post office had been in the practice of adding to the postage
charged on inter-colonial letters, the inland rate of twopence a letter.
If the terms of the report were adopted in their entirety, and a uniform
rate were charged throughout the provinces of threepence a letter, the
island would have to relinquish its inland charge.
The deputy postmaster general took a serious view of the effect of the
proposed relinquishment of the inland postage. The revenue for 1850 was
L1440. Applying his estimates of the proportions by which the receipts
from the several classes of correspondence would be reduced, he
concluded that, under the scheme submitted, the revenue would probably
not exceed L660.[292]
Notwithstanding this unfavourable anticipation, the government gave its
assent to the scheme agreed upon by the other colonies, and the rate of
postage on letters exchanged with other colonies became threepence per
half ounce, while the charge on letters exchanged within the island
remained twopence per half ounce.
FOOTNOTES:
[284] _Can. Arch._, G. series v. 126 (August 18, 1846).
[285] Cardwell to postmaster general, June 10, 1846, and accompanying
papers (Br. P.O. Transcripts).
[286] _Journals of Assembly_, N.S., 1847.
[287] _Journals of Assembly_, Canada, 1849, App. B.B.B.
[288] _Journals of Assembly_, N.S., 1848.
[289] _Journals of Assembly_, Canada, 1849, App. B.B.B.
[290] _Ibid._, N.S., 1849
[291] _Imperial Statutes_, 12 and 13 Vict., c. 66.
[292] _Journals of Assembly_, P.E.I., 1850, App. H.
[Illustration: WILLIAM HENRY GRIFFIN, C.M.G.
(_Deputy Postmaster General_ 1857-1888)]