The History of the Post Office in British North America

tration of Hugh Finlay-Opening of communication with Engl

of the narrative. There had, indeed, been no actual postal connection between Canada and the revolted colonies since the beginn

e the sole remnants of the system which had extended from Quebec to Georgia. Though Finlay was nominally the associate deputy postmaster general for the di

the hands of the British, until his death in 1801. His knowledge of the French language procured for him a nomination a

e 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, ch

e 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

hemselves to defend the country from the king's enemies, to give to the government all useful information they might become possessed of,

he 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 wo

exclusive right to provide for passenger travel along the road from Montreal to Quebec, he obtained not only all the ordinary advantages accruing t

n an ordinance defining their duties, and declaring their right to the exclusive privilege of providing horses and vehicle

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 t

if not superior, to the service in England. Not long afterwards, however, the governor relented so far as to give Finlay

nection with Great Britain. While navigation was open on the St. Lawrence occasional visits were made to Queb

point the journey to Halifax was an easy overland trip.[124] During the summer, therefore, communication with Great Britain was maintained without s

s should manage to get into the province, an eventuality he has done his best to prevent by destroying their supplies on lake Champlain

superable. 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. O

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 por

. 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. F

lley to Windsor, and so on to Halifax. The distance from Quebec to Halifax by this route was six hundred and twenty-se

t 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 prowli

is attention to improving the conditions under which the service was performed. The state of the roads was

emained as the war had left them. Work on the roads was never willingly undertaken by the habitants. When Lanoullier constructed the great highway between Montr

er characteristic; and after his death, the country was in a constant state of war, so that even if there had been an efficient g

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 t

s he travelled from Quebec to Montreal. As he passes from post house to post house

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 ma?tre d

As a ma?tre de poste could not carry passengers beyond the next adjoining po

courier travels by night at the risk of his neck. When other means of obtaining help with the road work failed, Finlay offered to

. This was one of the most prosperous sections of the country. When Catalogne made his report on the state of Canada

he valley of the Richelieu was the pathway along which travel from lake Champlain pursued its course into the heart of Canada. Sett

e detachments at St. Johns and Chambly received their letters and despatches from Montreal, but as the most important communications were with the governor, whose h

c and Montreal, by means of a courier who crossed the river to Berthier, where a post office had been established since 1772. The postmas

old establishment which administered the postal system of the northern district of North America. The services of Finlay, as deputy postmaster g

oat service, which was resumed between Great Britain and the United States. Dashwood, the departme

itain and Canada was thereafter to be carried on. The merchants of Quebec and Montreal hearing that a line of sailing packets was to

one or two messengers, who were sent down to New York by Finlay, were insulted and maltreated by

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 m

stmaster 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 th

sed 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 pos

charges to the development of the alternative, though naturally much less favourable, opening to the sea. The distance from Quebec to Halifax by the Te

ers on their way from the British American colonies to Canada. On the journey southward from Montreal to New York, there was

Crown Point, the traveller had a choice of routes to the Hudson river, which bore him to New York. Kalm, the Swedish naturalist who

to Halifax was of a very different character. At the best it could not be made in less than a month, and during

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

ns remained unchanged for many years, at this season when winter was relaxin

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 clambere

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 po

s 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 po

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 i

rom the figures furnished by another courier who had frequently carried despatches, he thought that ￡120 would be about the expense. Imag

tween Quebec and Halifax. Dependence on a foreign, and, at the time, hostile nation, f

nada and Nova Scotia. He sent a surveyor with two hundred men down to work on the Temiscouata portage, and at

cton.[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 an

p 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

rts, made rapid progress. When Finlay travelled by this route to Halifax in July 1787, he found no settlers at all on the Madaw

action 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 l

tlement, obtained a troop of soldiers from Lord Dorchester, and by manning the posts at Pres

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 t

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 thro

to Annapolis, and a journey by land through the Annapolis valley from Annapolis to Windsor, thence to Halifax. The road from Annapolis

polis, 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 compet

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

lity 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 stri

spondence 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

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,

irection of Finlay, who was a man of much experience, zeal, and practical ability, and who wa

onies 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

the admiralty had been informed that the prevailing winds off the Nova Scotia coast during the winter mo

ew York. The mails between Nova Scotia and England during the winter months were exchanged by mean

sh post office directing that the packet agent at New York should send the Nova Scotia mails from N

he 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

their correspondence with England, the service of the packet boats, curiously enough, de

ail 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

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 po

nox, late under secretary of state, for a packet service between England and North America, and between the several parts of the latter.[140] Knox w

ed on the sound principle that, until the post office provided facilities adequate to the requirements of the correspondence which passed

and that, at the very best, five months must elapse before an answer could be returned to a

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

ries of steps in the direction of common action, which led eventually to confederation. When peace was concluded in 1783, the disbanded soldiers and o

t 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 distri

wn, 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,

Frontenac county was reached, as the land in that intermediate district did not appear so favourable. At Kingston, settlement was recommended, a

y had become fairly established, they petitioned the government for the extension of the post office into the new districts, and two years later post offi

ar during the winter, and in summer, every opportunity afforded by vessels

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

1796 as security, until the obligations imposed on the Americans by the treaty of Paris were fulfilled. Offices were established in each of the thre

aged 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 pack

Vermont, from whence it was taken to Montreal by a Canadian courier, who travelled b

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 m

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

id 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 Canad

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

tisfactory. During the eight months when the packet boats called at Halifax, the mails passed by the route through the

real and New York. Travellers from Montreal to New York in 1800 noted that there was a rough road as far as Burlington, a

e province by the constitutional act of 1791. As will be recalled, the service beyond Kingston was conducted in rather hap

d upon him. The total population in Upper Canada at the time did not exceed ten thousand. But though these were not neglected,

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

ed in his opinion as to the desirability of a post office establishment in Upper Canada. There was, h

onies, as to whether sums collected from the public as postage were to be regarded as a tax, and as such would requir

ounded 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 con

f 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

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

on upon it, but suggested that bills of that nature ought not to be passed upon by the govern

the attention both of the local government and of the general post office in England, but thoug

as the founding of the city of Toronto. Until 1794, when the lines of the present city were laid out under the direction of

nte. An official sent from York, as Toronto was named in 1792, to Kingston, to meet and accompan

ntry 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 o

not disclosed by the records, which are far from complete. There is a probability, however, which amounts to practical

al to Niagara, there was no service beyond Kingston, the mails for the posts west of that point bei

surveyor general to give Wilcox, the postmaster, such information as would enable Finlay to answer certain quest

place served to accommodate for many years the German settlement in Markham townshi

ed, and it is unpleasant to add that he was dismissed as a defaulter. He

er of years past, of certain items of credit, which had been accepted and passed at the general post office. The death in ban

relations he had established with the ma?tres de poste, he had saved to the postmaster general not less than ￡12,000. He pleaded, therefore, that as large

ior 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

cial recognition of his services, was attached by the orders of the postmaster general. Either the claim was not pressed rigorously, or the land did no

TNO

Quebec Gazette,

Arch., B. s

Papers," Can.

O. 5, v

Arch., B.

bid., L

Arch., B.,

Commission B

Gazette, Nove

rt to Legislative C

els into North America

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Papers, Can.

ravels in North Amer

"Report," Can

Arch., Q.

"Report," Can

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Admiralty-Secretary I

Admiralty-Secretary I

tate Papers (Knox), Lo

eer Pape

c Gazette,

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Arch., Q. 2

, Geo. I

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