Canadian Postal Guide Part 1

Canadian Postal Guide.

by Various.

PREFACE.

The princ.i.p.al object of this little work is the dissemination of information in regard to the Canadian Postal Service. It is published with the kind permission of the Postmaster General, and it is hoped will be useful to the public as well as conducive to the interests of the Post Office.

The short and imperfect sketch of the progress of the post office in Canada, which has been compiled from authentic sources, will be found interesting. It extends over a period of one hundred years, and serves to mark a rapidity of improvement which, in a country purely agricultural, has seldom been surpa.s.sed.

As the regulations of the post office are subject to constant change, it is proposed to issue new editions of the Canadian Postal Guide, revised and corrected to the latest date, half-yearly, or yearly, as circ.u.mstances may appear to require.

Toronto, January, 1863.

A FEW FACTS ABOUT THE POST OFFICE IN CANADA.

COMPILED FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES.

The earliest records of the administration of the post office in Canada bear date 1750, at which period the celebrated Benjamin Franklin was Deputy Postmaster General of North America. At the time of his appointment the revenue of the department was insufficient to defray his salary of 300 per annum; but under his judicious management not only was the postal accommodation in the Provinces considerably extended, but the revenue so greatly increased, that ere long the profit for one year, which he remitted to the British treasury, amounted to 3000.

In the evidence given by Franklin before the British House of Commons in the year 1766, in regard to the extent of the post office accommodation in North America, he made the following statement:--

"The posts generally travel along the sea coasts, and only in a few cases do they go back into the country. Between Quebec and Montreal there is only one post per month. The inhabitants live so scattered and remote from each other in that vast country that the posts cannot be supported amongst them. The English colonies, too, along the frontier are very thinly settled."

Franklin was removed in 1774. War broke out a few months afterwards between the North American Provinces and the Mother Country; and the charge of the post office in Canada was a.s.sumed by Mr. Hugh Finlay, who, it appears, had under Franklin performed the duties of postmaster at Quebec.

Mr. Finlay is designated in his commission as Deputy Postmaster General of His Majesty's "Province of Canada," from which it would seem that the Lower Provinces were not included in his charge.

An Almanac published in Quebec in the year 1791 thus describes the condition of the Department:--

Hugh Finlay, Esq., Deputy Postmaster General Quebec, L. C.

Wm. E. Edwards, Postmaster Montreal, "

Samuel Sills, " Three Rivers, "

Louis Aime, " Berthier, "

Hugh Munroe, " Bai edes Chaleurs, "

Samuel Anderson, " Cornwall, U. C.

John Munroe, " Matilda, "

John Jones, " Augusta, "

Peter Clarke, " Kingston, "

Joseph Edwards, " Niagara, "

George Leitch, " Detroit, "

---- Mitch.e.l.l " Mickelmackinac, "

There were thus five post offices in Lower Canada, and seven post offices in Upper Canada.

Between Quebec and England mails were despatched once per month; between Quebec and Halifax, twice per week in summer, and once per week in winter; between Quebec and Montreal, twice per week; and between Montreal and the offices above Montreal, once per month; between Quebec and Baie des Chaleurs mails were despatched "as occasion offered."

In the year 1792, 1793, and 1794, the mail was carried once per month between Montreal and Kingston by a French Canadian named Morisette; between Kingston and York it was carried by Alex. Anderson; and between York and Niagara by a Mohawk Indian. The rate of travel was probably about 20 miles per day; the route being either by a path through the woods or along the sh.o.r.es of the River St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario: no regular road having been at that time in existence.

In the summer season the mail was carried between Kingston and Niagara by the Government vessels,--

Caldwell, Mohawk, Oneida, and Speedy.

Between Canandaigua, in the State of New York, and Niagara, the mail was carried once per week at a cost of $200 per annum.

In the year 1796 there were precisely the same number of offices, and generally the same amount of mail accommodation, as in in 1791.

Mr. Finlay was succeeded in the year 1800 by Mr. George Heriot. In 1803 Upper Canada had 8 post offices, but the mails were not more frequent than in 1791. In 1804 there were in Lower Canada 5 post offices; in Upper Canada, 9; in Nova Scotia, 6; in Cape Breton, 1; in Prince Edward's Island, 1; in New Brunswick, 4.

The late Mr. Wood, who filled the office of postmaster of Cornwall for many years, thus describes the condition of the department in the Upper Canada Province about the year 1807:--

"When I first took charge of the post office in this place the mail was carried from Quebec to Amherstburg on the back of an old Canadian pedestrian; he performed his trip once in three months, and his arrival was hailed with joy by the then contented and loyal inhabitants throughout the country."

The following is a copy of a somewhat curious advertis.e.m.e.nt which appears in the Upper Canada Gazette, published in the year 1807:--

"The mail for Upper Canada will be despatched from the post office at Montreal, on the following days, to wit:

"Monday, 14th January.

"Monday, 12th February.

"Monday, 10th March.

"Monday, 7th April--the last trip.

"A courier from Kingston may be looked for here in 14 or 15 days from the above periods, where he will remain 2 or 3 days, and then return to Kingston.

"Another courier will proceed from this with the Niagara mail, via Messrs. Hatts, where the Sandwich letters will be left, both from Niagara and this 'till the courier comes from there to return with them.

"Letters put into the post office will be forwarded at any time by

"W. ALLAN, "Acting Deputy Postmaster."

There are in existence several commissions issued by Mr. Heriot to postmasters in Nova Scotia, in which he signs himself Deputy Postmaster General for the Province of Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and their dependencies. It would appear therefore, at all events, that during a portion of his term of office he had supervision of all the posts in those colonies.

Mr. Heriot was succeeded in the year 1816 by Mr. Daniel Sutherland, who, on his accession to office, found Nova Scotia and Prince Edward's Island wholly withdrawn from the Canada charge. New Brunswick, however, continued to be included in it. The postmasters in that Province being commissioned at Quebec and accounting to the Deputy Postmaster General there.

In the year 1817 Lower Canada had 13 post offices; Upper Canada, 12; Nova Scotia, 6; New Brunswick, 3; Prince Edward's Island, 1. In this year the mails were running between Quebec and Halifax once a fortnight, all the year round; between Quebec and Kingston, once a week; between Kingston and Toronto, once a week; and between Toronto and Amherstburg, once a fortnight.

In the year 1820 there were in Lower Canada 20 post offices; in Upper Canada, 19; in Nova Scotia, 6; in New Brunswick, 3; in Prince Edward's Island, 1.

In 1824 there were in Upper and Lower Canada 69 post offices, and 1992 miles of established mail routes. The annual travel of the mail was 370,000 miles. The gross revenue was $68,000; and the revenue transmitted to England, after deducting $1200, the supposed surplus for New Brunswick, $21,000. At this time the population of Lower Canada was about 440,000, and of Upper Canada 150,000.

In this year Mr. Sutherland was succeeded, as Deputy Postmaster General, by Mr. Thos. A. Stayner, and shortly after was effected the separation of nearly the whole of New Brunswick from the Canada charge.

Under the long and able administration of Mr. Stayner, extending from the year 1824 to 1851, postal accommodation was greatly extended throughout Upper and Lower Canada.