was instructed particularly to inquire as to the possibility of landing all the colonial mails at St John, or preferably Boston, from which point the mails could be carried overland to Canada, and by a smaller steamer to St John and Halifax. In 1845 so much of this proposal was carried into effect that the letter mails for Canada were landed at Boston.

A DEMAND FOR REDUCED RATES

The question of reducing the colonial postage rates engaged the attention of the public in the several provinces. The lead in this important movement was taken throughout by Nova Scotia. The Canadian legislature was singularly conservative, and even rather apathetic towards the question. In 1845 a number of public bodies presented petitions to the legislature for reduced postage, but the committee to which the petitions were remitted, after hearing the deputy postmaster-general, and noting the fact that the Post Office surplus in the province was only £8000, decided that any radical reductions were premature. The Boards of Trade of Montreal, Quebec and Toronto petitioned the postmastergeneral in England on the subject, those of Toronto and Montreal suggesting a threepenny rate regardless of distance, while that of Quebec, though favouring the threepenny rate, thought that the element of distance should not be put aside altogether, and was prepared for a higher rate for distances over three hundred miles. The postmaster-general gave little encouragement to the petitioners. While favourable to a uniform rate, he thought that threepence would be too low to meet the expenses of the service, particularly as the governor-general was proposing to reduce the charge on government documents to a merely nominal figure.

In New Brunswick, though the affairs of the Post Office occupied the attention of the legislature, other features of the subject came into temporary prominence, and the question of reduced rates on letters sank into the second place. In July 1843 the supervision of the postal service in New Brunswick was withdrawn from the deputy postmaster-general at Halifax and placed in the hands of John Howe, postmaster

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2 B

of St John. The immediate consequence of this change was a large increase in the expense, owing to the maintenance of a deputy postmaster-general and staff at St John. Coupled with this disappointing fact was a reduction in the mail service throughout the province, made in pursuance of the postmaster-general's policy of keeping the expenditure within the revenue.

The legislature was greatly dissatisfied with the position of matters. It could not allow the district which had been deprived of post office accommodation to remain unserved, and it re-established at its own expense the routes which had been abolished. It was convinced that the high postage rates impeded correspondence, and urged a reduction. In 1843 the legislature recommended a uniform rate of threepence throughout the province, but in 1845 it gave up the principle of uniformity, and asked for a series of rates ranging from twopence to sixpence according to distance. On one point New Brunswick was steadfast. It insisted that newspapers should be carried free, and to achieve this the legislature was prepared to take on itself the charge of conveying newspapers. The postmaster-general could not accede, as it would cause confusion among the other provinces, which were not in a position to do likewise.

The Nova Scotia legislature kept steadily in view a general system for the reform of its Post Office. Nova Scotia was the first of the provinces to appreciate the importance of a single uniform rate, and it at no time deviated from its faith in the merits of the idea. In March 1842 the House of Assembly requested the lieutenant-governor to inquire as to the practicability of the single rate of fourpence the half ounce. Howe, who was consulted, advised against the proposal, on the ground that it would not produce sufficient revenue to cover the expenses.

In 1844 the legislature came again to the attack with a resolution affirming that the experience of the parent country had shown that the penny postage had had a number of beneficial effects on the social and commercial life of the United Kingdom, and that it was persuaded that, if a uniform charge of fourpence for a single letter were introduced under

the same regulations as prevailed in England as to the use of postage stamps, it would promote the public interests, not add materially to the labour of management, and ultimately increase the public revenue.

The legislature also at this time advanced a proposition which had dropped out of sight in the other provinces. It was of opinion that the control of the local post office could be far more efficiently managed if placed under the supervision of the legislature, subject to the Post Office authorities to the extent necessary to guarantee that the transmission of the English mails from, to, and through the province should not be impeded. The postmaster-general set his face as firmly as ever against this view. He feared it would work badly in practice. It would break the existing organization into various conflicting systems framed according to the views and feelings of each province, to the great detriment of the general interests of the Empire. The desire for reduced postage rates found no more favour in his sight than the proposal for the transfer of the Post Office to local supervision. It would, in his view, be extremely hazardous to make such an experiment at a time when there was already a large deficit in the Post Office revenues of both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.1

TH

III

POST OFFICE REFORM

CLANRICARDE'S POLICY

'HE defeat of Sir Robert Peel and the advent to power of the government of Lord John Russell in June 1846 brought about a sharp change in the fortune of the colonial Post Offices. Lord Clanricarde, the new postmastergeneral, had been less than two months in office when he came to the conclusion that the affairs of the Post Offices in the North American colonies could no longer be adminis

1 It is curious to note that the postmaster-general objected to extending the use of postage stamps to the colonies on account of danger of forgery.

tered with advantage by the postmaster-general of Great Britain. He was convinced that the time had arrived when there should be a material reduction in the postage rates in the colonies; this reduction would inevitably entail postal deficits in all the provinces, which the imperial Post Office would look to the provincial legislatures to make up; the situation thus created could not fail to lead to disagreements and ill-feeling between the imperial Post Office and the legislatures, which would have to be avoided at all hazards. There was, therefore, but one course open to the imperial Post Office, to relinquish its control over the provincial Post Offices, and leave to the legislatures the management of their Post Offices. He regarded it as essential, however, that, in taking over the local post offices, the legislatures should agree to observe certain conditions, and that no bills from the colonial legislatures respecting the transfer, in which these conditions were not fully safeguarded, should receive the royal assent. The conditions were, first, that no charge should be made by any of the provincial Post Offices on letters coming into and passing through its territory to any of the other provinces; second, that, while it should be optional for the sender of a letter to prepay the postage or leave it to be paid when the letter was delivered, each province should retain the postage it happened to collect. In this way complicated accounts between the provinces would be avoided. The third condition was, that on all letters passing between any part of the colonies and Great Britain, there should be a small fixed charge, which should be the same whether letters passed over ten or over a thousand miles in the territory of the British colonies. It was considered highly desirable, though scarcely to be expected, that the several colonies should agree upon a uniform system of rates throughout the colonies, such as was then in force in England.

The first news of a change of attitude on the part of the postmaster-general towards the colonial Post Offices reached the colonies with the arrival of Lord Elgin, as governorgeneral, at the end of January 1847. Before his departure from England, Lord Elgin received particular instructions from the colonial secretary, Lord Grey, as to the course he

was to pursue in view of the great change which was taking place in the economic policy of the United Kingdom, in consequence of the adoption of free trade. The removal of the preferential tariff in favour of the colonies, and the abolition of the restrictions which then existed on trade with foreign countries, would be for the eventual advantage of colonies like those of British North America. In order that the colonies might reap the largest measure of benefit from the greater freedom of trade, it was desirable that they should be united for customs purposes; and to the same end, it was necessary that some arrangement should be come to for settling the affairs of the Post Office in the several provinces. Lord Grey suggested that representatives of the colonies should meet 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.

THE NOVA SCOTIA POSTAL COMMITTEE

But before Lord Elgin's arrival, a step in the same direction had been taken in the colonies. On January 27 the legislature of Nova Scotia appointed a committee on the general subject of the Post Office. Its attention was directed particularly to a consideration of the practicability of a reduced and uniform rate of postage, to the advantage of one general system being adopted for the colonies, and to a consideration of the best means of accomplishing such an object. The committee entered upon its labours with a full sense of its responsibility. It was aware that its conclusions must be of a nature to commend themselves not only to the people of Nova Scotia, but to the governments of the sister colonies, and must not be repugnant to any principles held to be important by the British Post Office. The strong preference of its members was for a single uniform rate of postage, but as they conceived that such a view might not meet with favour in the Canadian legislature, they put it aside and proposed for adoption the scheme of rates recommended by the Canadian commissioners in 1841 as more likely to be