Part 4

The Act of 1765 provided reduced rates of postage for North America. "The vast accession of territory gained by the late Treaty of Peace," and the establishment of new posts in America, for which rates of postage could not be ascertained under the existing law,[104] made a new Act necessary, and the rates prescribed in that Act were fixed under the enlightened principle that moderate rates might yield increased revenue.[105] The rate which would apply to Canada, for the greatest distances, was fixed at 8d. for a single letter for not more than 200 miles, and 2d. for each 100 miles beyond 200 miles--double letters double rates, treble letters treble rates, ounce letter four times the single rate, in the usual way.

In January 1774 Finlay was appointed joint "Deputy-General for the Northern District of America" in the room of Dr. Franklin. He was allowed to retain, for the time being, the benefits of the Post Office at Quebec, which, in the words of the letter of appointment, he had been "so instrumental in bringing to a degree of perfection."[106] The disturbances of 1775 in the coast colonies soon affected the post to Canada. In September of that year, the prospect of getting mails through from Canada to New York was so slight that Finlay was anticipating the suspension of all communication with the rest of the world during the whole of the winter, unless letters could be conveyed to Halifax. The couriers were frequently held up by armed men and robbed, and by November matters had become so serious that all postal arrangements in the province were stayed. Quebec was besieged throughout the winter and spring. After its relief Finlay tried to set up the posts again, but unsuccessfully, as the Governor refused to re-establish the monopoly of the _ma[^i]tres de poste_, on the ground that travellers in Canada were very well accommodated in horses and conveyances and did not desire its re-establishment. Without it Finlay was unable to maintain a service, and no posts existed during the remaining period of the war.

After peace had been restored, Finlay represented the matter so strongly that the monopoly was re-established. The posts were again set up, and Finlay was appointed Deputy Postmaster-General of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The mails for Canada were still sent by way of New York, as before the war, but for military reasons it was important that a mail route should be established from Halifax, the military headquarters, to run altogether within British territory. In 1787 a fortnightly post (monthly in winter) was accordingly established between Quebec and Halifax.[107] The mail went by River du Loup, near the Grand Portage, where the courier from Quebec handed over his mail to the courier from Fredericton; by the Madawaska to the Grand Falls; thence by boat to Fredericton. A fresh courier went by boat from Fredericton to the mouth of the St. John's River. Here the mail was transferred to a sloop of about 34 tons burthen for conveyance across the Bay of Fundy to Digby, whence the route lay by Annapolis. The total distance from Quebec to Halifax was 633 miles, and the time required for the trip varied from twenty-one to thirty-one days.

A mail route from Montreal into Upper Canada was also established, but this was rather a military post, intended to serve the military stations and frontier settlements. The mail was despatched only once a year and was, in consequence, known as the "yearly express." The route followed was by the St. Lawrence from Montreal to Matilda, Augusta, and Kingston; across Lake Ontario to Niagara; thence to Detroit Fort, at the base of Lake St. Clair, and across Lake Huron to Michilimackinac, at the head of Lakes Huron and Michigan. After continuing some six years this post was curtailed and went no farther than Niagara.[108]

In 1800 Finlay was succeeded in the deputy ship by John Heriot. The population had now increased to 450,000, but there were only twenty post offices in the whole of the five provinces. Heriot's patent gave him authority to establish new routes and offices, but, in accordance with the general policy, only when in his opinion their establishment would be likely to benefit revenue. The rates at this time were, of course, nominally based on the Act of the 5th George III, but as the routes had never been properly measured, the distances on which the rates were actually based were largely a matter of conjecture. The posts were said, however, to have paid their way and even to have yielded a surplus revenue, which was transmitted to England.[109]

The administration of the posts rested ultimately with the Postmasters-General in London. The service could be extended only by their authority, and the colonists found that the Deputy in the colonies, being bound by his instructions from the Postmasters-General, was unable to extend and improve the service in the manner which they themselves thought desirable. A large number of immigrants entered the provinces, especially Upper Canada, during this period, and settlements were springing up in remote districts far away from the post routes. Heriot was admonished from London that in considering the provision of new services he must look to the revenue to be anticipated as well as to the convenience of the public, and to adopt no scheme involving sacrifice of revenue. His instructions forbade the opening of any post office or post route unless the anticipated revenue was sufficient at least to pay the postmaster and courier. He found that these restrictions prevented him from providing a service in any degree adequate to the demands of the settlers, or indeed adequate to their real needs. It was essential that the settlers in the remote districts should be kept in touch with civilization. They could not be allowed to pass beyond the reach of the Government. They must be kept in contact with the means provided for the administration of the law. For these reasons it was essential to provide post accommodation, although in the nature of the case it could not be expected that a revenue sufficient to cover the cost would be obtained. All these considerations were pressed on the Deputy, and he was so far persuaded as sometimes, in response to urgent local representations, to depart from his specific instructions. But such cases usually led to a reprimand. The natural result was that the province was driven itself to undertake by grants from the public funds the provision of many local services which it deemed essential.

Thus grew up the anomalous system under which the colonies made large grants in aid of the service, but were unable to exercise any substantial control over its administration. The more important routes were self-supporting and were controlled entirely from England. In order to obtain extensions of the service the colonists, through the Governor, requested the establishment of certain services, undertaking that, if the revenue derived from these services should prove insufficient to meet the expenditure, the balance should be made up by the colony. A regular post was established in 1801 between Quebec and York (Toronto) under a guarantee of this kind. The colonists naturally wished to have some controlling voice in the administration; but the Deputy, holding office under the Imperial authorities, was not bound to concede to them any rights over the administration of the service, however great sums they might pay towards its maintenance--a situation which was sure to lead to difficulties. Whether or not serious trouble occurred depended in large degree on the character of the Deputy.[110] In later years there was considerable friction and much irritation on the part of the colonists.

In Nova Scotia the system of grants in aid was developed to an even greater extent than in Upper Canada. When Sir George Provost became Governor in 1808, there were only five post offices in Nova Scotia--Halifax, Windsor, Horton, Annapolis, and Digby--and they were all on the line of the Quebec post. Sir George was anxious for an extension of the posts on military rather than general grounds, and he asked the postmaster of Halifax, John Howe, to establish several new routes. Howe was inclined to favour the projected posts, but Heriot realized that they could not be expected to yield a revenue equal to their cost, and he informed the Governor that his instructions from England prevented compliance with the request. Sir George Provost thereupon induced the Legislature to appropriate a sufficient sum for the establishment of the posts. The Governors of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island followed this example, with the result that a large part of the Post Office establishment in these provinces was outside the jurisdiction of the Imperial authorities.

This development is noteworthy. It has always been found in Canada that for a large part of the country the circumstances are such that a postal service adequate to the necessities of the inhabitants cannot be self-supporting, but the Legislature has never hesitated to make grants from general taxation in order to provide means of communication. In the early days the question of post office communication was intimately bound up with the question of general means of communication, and was usually treated in connection with the making or maintenance of roads. For a long period the posts in Canada were maintained not solely for the transmission of letters, but to a great extent on account of collateral advantages. They were largely military in character, and were identified with the military routes.[111]

In 1816 Daniel Sutherland was appointed Deputy Postmaster-General for Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Under his administration the development of the service was pushed forward, and so far as was found consistent with the interests of revenue, new offices and routes were established. But in 1820 there were still no more than forty-nine post offices in the whole of British North America, distributed thus: in Lower Canada twenty offices, in Upper Canada nineteen, in Nova Scotia six, in New Brunswick three, and in Prince Edward Island one. The progress was from this time somewhat more rapid. By 1824 the number of offices in the Canadas alone had risen to sixty-nine, and during the next ten or fifteen years the growth, both of Post Office accommodation and of Post Office revenue, was more rapid than the growth of population.

The settlers were not, however, completely satisfied. Their complaints were to some extent laid against the administration of the office--they claimed, for example, that gross overcharges of postage were being made, through incorrect computation of the distances on the post roads--but they became more and more dissatisfied that the control of the whole of the service and its officers should rest with the Postmaster-General in England. The question was, of course, to a large extent political, and one only among the several general grievances of the colonists at this period, which caused so much anxiety to the Home authorities.

As early as 1819 a movement began in Upper Canada to obtain the transference of the administration to the provincial authorities. A Committee of the House of Assembly considered the abuses of the existing Post Office system, and on presentation of their report, in March 1820, the House passed a resolution condemning the administration of the service. The question continued to receive a good deal of attention. The chief complaint of the colonists was that a net revenue was year by year transmitted to London. There is no doubt that a balance was paid over to the Imperial administration year by year, but it is questionable whether any of this balance was a net revenue on the local service.[112] The colonists chose so to regard it. They advanced the contention that the legal right of the Imperial Government to levy postage rates in the colonies at all was doubtful, because postage was a tax; and the raising of money by authorities outside the colonies was a direct infringement of their own constitution, which provides that "no tax shall be levied on the people of this country except such as shall be appropriated for the public use and accounted for by the Legislature,"[113] and of the Declaratory Act, in which Great Britain disclaimed the right to impose upon a colony any duty, tax, or assessment, except where necessary for the regulation of commerce.[114] The Government were advised by the Law Officers that it would not be wise to contest the point, and proceeded to consider a measure for placing the establishment on a more satisfactory basis.

If the Home Government could have agreed to hand over the entire administration of the office in British North America to the local Legislatures, there would have been an end of the matter. But such a course would have left the interior provinces at the mercy of those on the seaboard as to the conveyance across those colonies of the mails to and from England. Although there was no desire to continue the appropriation to the Imperial revenue of any surplus which might arise on the service in North America, it was felt to be highly desirable that the Imperial Government should retain control over the administration of the office, particularly in the matter of fixing the rates of postage, since by that means excessive charges for transit across other provinces would be prevented. But in controlling the administration from London there was the difficulty that any alteration of the rates of postage by Act of the British Parliament might be an infringement of the rights of the colonists under the Declaratory Act of 1778. Accordingly, all intention of direct legislation by the British Parliament was abandoned, and in 1834 an Act was passed,[115] repealing the Act of the 5th George III, on which the whole Post Office establishment of North America rested, conditionally on the passing by the Legislatures of all the provinces of a Bill for the regulation of the colonial Post Office service, which had been prepared in London. This Bill provided that the ultimate control of the whole service in British North America should remain in the hands of the Postmaster-General in London, but that the rates of postage should be fixed by the local Legislatures, and any surplus of revenue over expenditure should be divided between the provinces.

Nova Scotia was prepared to accept the Bill, but only with modifications which would have prevented its adoption as the basis of a general service throughout the five provinces. New Brunswick and both Upper and Lower Canada rejected the Bill. The Assembly of Lower Canada substituted a Bill of its own.[116] The Legislative Council were indisposed to accept the substituted Bill,[117] and in March 1836 adopted an Address to his Majesty, explaining that in their view it would be exceedingly difficult, if not impracticable, to secure the co-operation between the separate Post Office establishments of the several provinces essential for the attainment of the purpose of the original measure, and they pointed for illustration to the United States, a country where, notwithstanding a keen regard for State rights, the whole control and management of the Post Office department had been delegated to the Federal Government. Since the Post Office establishment was a most effective means for strengthening the ties connecting the several provinces, as well as an essential aid and convenience of commerce, they deemed the best course to be the retention by the Imperial Parliament of the exclusive power of legislating for the control and management of the Post Office in all parts of the Empire. In March of the following year, there being still no prospect of the adoption of the Bill by the provinces, the House of Assembly and Legislative Council of Upper Canada adopted a joint Address to his Majesty, substantially identical with that adopted a year earlier by the Legislative Council of Lower Canada. It was clear that little progress was to be anticipated.[118]

In 1840 a Commission was appointed. Its attention was directed more especially to the faulty administration of the office and the excessive rates of postage. To remedy the former, and to make the administration more amenable to local control, they suggested placing the Deputy Postmaster-General under the control of the Governor-General in all matters which did not conflict with the authority of the Postmaster-General in England. As to postage, they were satisfied that the rates at that time in operation were too high. They considered that the rates should be such as would yield a revenue sufficient to meet the expenses of the department, and no more; and in their view, if the revenue improved after the establishment of such rates, which there should be no difficulty in calculating, the proper course would be either to grant further facilities or further to reduce the rates. There should not in any case be a net revenue of any magnitude. The Commissioners themselves made an estimate of the rate which should fulfil the requirements they had detailed. In so doing they proceeded on much the same lines as Sir Rowland Hill in his pamphlet _Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability_. They had no difficulty in answering the demand for penny postage in British North America, a demand based on its successful inauguration in England. The circumstances in the two countries were not comparable. England, small and densely populated, the first industrial and commercial nation of the world, could not in such a matter be compared with a country of vast extent, sparsely peopled and almost entirely agricultural. While Sir Rowland Hill had been able to show that in the case of letters conveyed for comparatively long distances in England the actual cost of carriage was only one thirty-sixth part of a penny, the Commissioners found that in British North America the actual average cost of conveyance was no less than 3d., and the actual average total cost of dealing with letters no less than 5-1/2d. Uniformity of rate at a penny, which had been justified in England on existing facts of the service, could therefore find no similar justification in North America.

There could, however, be no doubt that with a reduction of the rate, which then averaged 8-1/2d. a letter, the number of letters would be very greatly increased and the cost per letter consequently reduced. The public were in the habit of making use of every available means other than the post for forwarding their letters. Steamboats which carried a mail would carry outside the mail many times the number of letters that were enclosed in the mail. Teamsters, stage drivers, and ordinary travellers all carried large numbers of letters, and in cases where no such opportunity offered, persons had been known to enclose the letter in a small package, which could be sent as freight at less charge than the rate of postage on the single letter. If, therefore, all these letters, and the many additional letters which would be written if transmission were cheap and easy, were sent in the mails, the cost of the service would not be by any means proportionately increased, and the average cost per letter would be very greatly reduced. It would still, however, have been considerably more than a penny. Their conclusions were less satisfactory in regard to the rates actually recommended. They proposed a graduation according to distance of no less than five stages, starting with as short a distance as 30 miles. For this the rate was 2d., and the scale rose to 1s. for distances over 300 miles. The only virtues of the rates were that they were lower than those in operation in the United States and were to be charged by weight.[119]

The chief recommendations of this report were carried out under the authority of the Colonial Office. The weight basis for determining rates of postage was adopted, and the Deputy Postmaster-General's authority was restricted. His privilege of sending newspapers free of postage was also taken away, and in compensation he was given a salary of [L]2,500 a year--personal to himself, and high on account of his long enjoyment of the lucrative newspaper privilege. That for his successor was fixed at [L]1,500 a year. The agitation in the provinces in regard to the Post Office continued during the succeeding years, but it was less vehement and concerned itself more with the question of rates than with questions of administration.

In 1842 a member of the headquarters staff of the British office (Mr. W. J. Page) was commissioned to examine and reorganize the service in the Maritime Provinces, with the object more especially of introducing such measures of reform as should bring the expenditures of the department in those provinces within the revenue. His reports throw a flood of light on the state and methods of the service.[120] He found extraordinary anomalies in the methods of charging postage, in the methods of remunerating the Deputy-Postmasters, the couriers, and the Way Office keepers, and in the relations subsisting between the Post Office and the local Legislatures. The financial arrangements of the office were in a condition which can only be described as chaotic. Postage was, of course, chargeable on the total journey of the letter. But in Nova Scotia letters were charged with a new rate at each office through which they passed, and postage became an excessive charge on all letters which passed through two or three offices. Deputy-Postmasters were paid a percentage, usually 20 per cent., on the amount of postage collected by them, but their chief remuneration in many cases arose from the right which they exercised of franking all their private and business correspondence, a consideration which they had principally, if not exclusively, in view in taking up their appointments. Many of the deputies were lawyers or other professional men. The privilege was nominally subject to the limitation of four single letters, or two double letters, or one packet of an ounce by each mail; but this limitation was very generally disregarded. To such an extent was this the case that one-half of many mails consisted of free letters.