[211] Freeling to Stayner, August 7, 1830.
[212] Freeling to Stayner, September 25, 1828.
[213] _Can. Arch._, Br. P.O. Transcripts, II.
[214] _Can. Arch._, Br. P.O. Transcripts, III.
[215] _Can. Arch._, Br. P.O. Transcripts, III.
[216] _Journals of Assembly_, L.C., 1831, App. F.F.
[217] _Journals of Assembly_, L.C., 1831-1832, p. 415.
[218] _Ibid._, 1832-1833, p. 561.
[219] _Report, Journals of Assembly_, 1831-1832, App. 201. Address to king, _Journals_, 1832-1833, p. 137.
[220] _Can. Arch._, Br. P.O. Transcripts, IV.
[221] _Can. Arch._, Q. 380, p. 417.
[222] November 27, 1833, _Can. Arch._, Br. P.O. Transcripts, IV.
[223] _Imperial Statutes_, 4, William IV. c. 7.
[224] The bill for Upper Canada is printed in App. 8 to the _Journals of the Assembly_ for 1835. Those submitted to the other provinces were identical except as to the maximum to be contributed by the province in the event of a financial deficit.
CHAPTER X
The beginnings of the postal service in the Maritime provinces--Complaints of newspaper publishers--Reception given to imperial act to remedy colonial grievances.
Up to this point the narrative since the American Revolution has been confined to Upper and Lower Canada. The Maritime provinces have been mentioned only in so far as it was necessary to describe the means by which the Canadas maintained communication with Great Britain. It is now time to relate the events connected with the beginnings of the inland posts in the Maritime provinces.
The post office in Halifax was the first opened in the provinces now of the dominion of Canada. It was established as part of the general scheme for closer and more regular communications between the colonies and the mother country which was set on foot as a consequence of the general alarm which seized the British colonies after the annihilation of Braddock's army by the French and Indians at fort Duquesne.
With the placing of a direct line of packets on the route between Falmouth and New York for the conveyance of mails and despatches a post office was demanded at Halifax, in order that Nova Scotia might participate with the other colonies in the benefits of the new service.
When in 1755 the post office was opened at Halifax, the English settlements in the Maritime provinces were very recent and very few. The city was founded but six years before, for the purpose of providing a military and naval station; and in the year following, the capital of the province was transferred thither from Annapolis.
In 1751 the only other settlement attached to the British interest at this time was commenced. A number of Germans, attracted by the advertising of the British government, arrived at Halifax. After a short stay most of them re-embarked, and sailing along the southern shore reached Malagash harbour, where they laid the foundation of the town of Lunenburg. The settlement was augmented by further arrivals in the two following years, and in 1753 its population numbered slightly over 1600. In 1755 the total population in the two settlements of Halifax and Lunenburg was about 5000, and these comprehended all that could be regarded as British subjects.
Few additions were made to the population within the next few years, though the government made a strong effort to re-people the districts from which the Acadians had just been expelled. The only other new settlement founded in the Maritime provinces until the French power in America was broken by the capture of Louisburg and of Quebec, was at Windsor, where a group from New England entered upon the lands from which their former possessors had been removed.
With the passing of the danger of molestation by the French, there was an active movement into the provinces for a few years. The beginnings of settlements were laid all along the Annapolis valley from Windsor to Annapolis; also at several points on the south shore between Halifax and Liverpool, and at the western extremity of the province in the present county of Yarmouth. Little groups established themselves at Truro and Amherst, and on the adjacent lands of New Brunswick, at Sackville and Hopewell.
On the St. John river, a trading village was laid out in 1762 at Portland, now part of the city of St. John; and in 1763 an important agricultural community was formed farther up the river, at Maugerville, a few miles below Fredericton. In 1767 a census was taken of the province, and the total population was found to be over 13,000. Of these 1200 were in the territory afterwards forming part of the province of New Brunswick, and there were 500 in Prince Edward Island. The remaining number were in Nova Scotia proper. The first movement of immigration had now spent itself, and it was not until after the revolting colonies had gained their independence that any great accession was made to the population.
The incoming of the Loyalists was an event of the first magnitude for the Maritime provinces. During the years 1783 and 1784, the population increased to threefold what it was when the migration from the revolted American colonies began. They took up lands in all parts of the provinces. Eighteen hundred householders made homes for themselves in and about Annapolis, while Digby, which until that time was quite unsettled, leaped into the position of a village with a population of 1300.
Nearly all the settlements formed at this period had within them the elements of permanence, and they became the foundations of the towns, villages and farming communities which cover the Maritime provinces.
Until the arrival of the Loyalists, there were practically no inhabitants east of Halifax and Colchester counties. Pictou was not entirely unoccupied, as a small group from Pennsylvania and Maryland had come into the district in 1765, who were joined by a few Highland Scotch families in 1773. But the total number was insignificant, and the two counties to the eastward, Antigonishe and Guysboro, were still practically in a state of nature. They were settled later by Scotchmen who came to Pictou and Prince Edward Island.
New Brunswick benefited to a relatively greater extent than Nova Scotia by the Loyalist movement. At the close of the war, the number of English colonists in this province did not exceed 2500. These were scattered in small groups on Passamaquoddy bay, on the St. John river, and on the Chignecto bay and Petitcodiac river at the eastern end of the province.
By 1787, when the Loyalists had settled themselves, there was a continuous line of settlements along the bay of Fundy from the United States boundary at the St. Croix river to St. John harbour, and with longer intervals onward to the eastern limits of the province. On the St. John river and tributaries over 9000 people were settled. The cities of St. John and Fredericton, and the towns of St. Stephen and St.
Andrews sprang into existence during this period.
On the north and east coasts of New Brunswick permanent settlement had begun, the people being mostly Acadians. There were small Scotch fishing settlements on the Miramichi and the Restigouche rivers.
Communication among these settlements was carried on mostly by water.
Fishing vessels ran constantly between Halifax and the harbours and coves on the seaboard. The settlements on the bay of Fundy and the St.
John river were brought into connection with Halifax by way of Windsor, which lies near the mouth of the Avon, one of the tributaries of the bay of Fundy.
Between Windsor and Halifax a road had been built by the Acadians shortly after Halifax was founded, to enable them to carry their cattle and produce to the new and promising market. The inland settlements along the Annapolis valley had the advantage of an ancient road, made by the Acadians running from Pisiquid, as Windsor was first called, to the Annapolis basin.
The Loyalists and disbanded soldiers settled in the provinces found themselves not ill-supplied with facilities for communicating with one another, but the means of corresponding with the mother country left much to be desired. On the establishment of the packet service between Falmouth and New York in 1755, the mails for Halifax brought out by the packets were sent from New York to Boston, the postmaster of which town was instructed to send them to Halifax by the first suitable war or merchant vessel that offered.
Until the war broke out, there were numerous opportunities for sending the mails to Halifax. The trade returns for 1759 show that during six months of that year one hundred and forty-eight vessels entered Halifax harbour, much the greater proportion of which were from New York or Boston. But with the outbreak of the war, communication with the revolted colonies was carried on at great risks, and the naval and military authorities at Halifax made bitter complaint of the delays to their correspondence with the home government.
With the restoration of peace, an immediate demand was made for a direct packet line to Halifax, and there seemed every likelihood at the time that the line would be established. Lord North wrote to the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia in August 1783[225] that Halifax would doubtless increase in importance in becoming the rendezvous of the fleet, and that he was asking the postmaster general to put on a monthly packet to Halifax.
But other views prevailed. In November, the postmaster general re-established the packet service to New York, and as there were not sufficient vessels available for a separate line to Halifax, the settlements in the Maritime provinces had to depend on the New York service for their correspondence with the mother country. The British post office maintained a packet agent at New York, whose duty it was to take over the despatches and mails brought by the packets for the British colonies, and send them forward by the first opportunity.
The difficulties Finlay found in maintaining correspondence between Canada and Great Britain by way of the New York packets have been related. The Nova Scotia post office had no less difficulty. There were few British vessels running between Halifax and the ports of the United States, and consequently the delays to the correspondence were often intolerable. The complaints of the officials and of the merchants in Halifax were incessant.
A memorial was presented to the government in 1785 by the merchants of Halifax, pointing out the great injury to their trade from the faulty arrangements. Lieutenant governor Parr, in forwarding the memorial, expressed his entire concurrence in its terms, and added that the mails which left England by the November packet did not reach Halifax until the 11th of April following.
But fortunately Canada was now adding an insistent voice in support of the demand of the Maritime provinces. Before peace was declared, the governors of Canada and Nova Scotia were canvassing the possibilities of facilitating communication between their provinces. Despatch couriers passed between Quebec, fort Howe and Halifax, and efforts were made to overcome the obstacles to travel, particularly on the portage between the St. Lawrence and lake Temiscouata.
The results had not been specially encouraging, but the determination of the Americans to exact the last farthing that could be got out of the exchanges between Canada and Great Britain, which passed over their territory, and their unwillingness to assist in expediting the exchanges in any way, compelled the Canadian government to keep before it the question of the connections by way of Halifax.
In 1785 the legislative council of Quebec discussed the question.
Finlay, who besides being deputy postmaster general, was a member of the legislative council, impressed on his colleagues the necessity of liberating Canada from its dependence on the United States in its correspondence with the mother country. The refusal of the postmaster general of the United States to allow Canadian couriers to travel to New York, although there was no regular exchange between New York and any United States post office on the road to Canada, led to delays and exorbitant charges, which were unendurable.
Finlay urged as a first step that Canada should make a passable road as far as the New Brunswick border, believing that the home government would see that the governments of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia would provide the facilities for travel within those provinces. Dorchester, the governor general, who had taken much interest in the question, sent Finlay in 1787 to make a survey of a route from Quebec to Halifax, and to arrange for couriers to pass monthly between the two places. The British government gave its approval to his efforts to establish a connection between the British provinces, and on its part, arranged that, commencing in March 1788, the packets which ran between Falmouth and New York should call at Halifax during the eight months from March to November of each year.[226]
The call of the packets at Halifax, and the exchange of the mails between Great Britain and Canada at that port marked the commencement of the inland services in the Maritime provinces. Post offices were opened at the important points on the route between Halifax and Quebec.
The couriers passed through Fredericton and St. John in New Brunswick, and Digby, Annapolis, Horton (now Wolfville) and Windsor in Nova Scotia.[227] St. John post office was opened in 1784, the office of postmaster and king's printer being combined. The courier between St.
John and Fredericton travelled over his route fortnightly, and a service of the same frequency was maintained on the route in Nova Scotia.
In order that the post office should have the advantage of conveying the military despatches between the posts on the route, the expresses which had been employed in this duty were suppressed, much to the distaste of the military authorities, who would henceforward have to pay the very high postal charges on their letters.
These charges were prohibitive for all but very urgent letters. A letter consisting of a single sheet cost twelve cents to carry it from St. John to Fredericton if it weighed less than an ounce. If it weighed over an ounce the charge was quadrupled. The following are the rates charged by the postmaster at Halifax to the several post offices in Nova Scotia: to Windsor fourpence; to Horton sevenpence, and to Annapolis and Digby ninepence.