In the spring of 1839, a robbery of the mails took place on the grand route, at a point between Kingston and Gananoque, under circumstances of peculiar aggravation.[256] The robbers, who lived on an island in the St. Lawrence, within the territory of the state of New York, made no attempt at concealment. They openly declared that this was only the first of a series of similar interferences with the courier passing between Upper and Lower Canada.
The New York state authorities, who were appealed to, were powerless to act, but the secretary of state at Albany intimated that it would not be regarded as a breach of amity if the Canadian officials arrested the robbers on the island. In view, however, of the excitement which prevailed at that period on both sides of the border, it was thought prudent to refrain from so provocative a proceeding.
While Durham was occupied with his preparations for his mission to Canada, events occurred which were not only of unsurpassed importance to communication between Europe and America, but which seemed to promise a strengthening of the relations between the mother country and her colonies.
In April 1838, two steamships sailed from the United Kingdom for New York--the "Great Western" from Bristol, and the "Sirius" from Cork--and reached their destination safely, the former in fifteen days, and the latter in seventeen days.[257]
As the voyages were made in the face of stiff, westerly winds, the speed of the "Great Western" and the "Sirius" gave much satisfaction, and it was accepted as settled that thereafter steam would be the motive power in the faster vessels employed in the transatlantic trade.
The rapidity with which this conviction established itself was remarkable. There is nothing surprising in the immediate recognition of this new achievement of steam by speculative publicists, who saw in the events only the realization of their visions, but the British treasury, the arcanum of conservative caution, yielded with almost equal readiness to the argument provided by the two vessels.
The British consul at New York was the first to bring to official attention the importance of this advance in the art of navigation. By the return of one of the vessels, he suggested to the colonial office that all official despatches and commercial letters for the Canadas should be directed to the consulate at New York. He undertook to assort the correspondence, and forward it to Montreal and Toronto by queen's messengers.
By avoiding the delays to which the regular couriers were subject, and taking advantage, wherever possible, of the steamboats running on the inland waters and of the railroads, which were beginning to be constructed throughout the eastern states, the messengers would be able to provide a greatly accelerated service. The answers to letters sent from London or Liverpool to Canada should be back in those cities in from thirty to thirty-five days--approximately the time taken by the Halifax packets on a single trip.
The British post office saw reasons for declining the proposal, so far as it regarded commercial correspondence. It was, however, prepared to transmit official despatches by this means, and to arrange for their conveyance from New York in the manner indicated by the consul.
The people of Halifax--who had always regarded with a jealous eye the disposition of the inland British colonies, to use the port of New York in preference to their own--managed, at this juncture in the history of ocean transport, by an appeal to imperial considerations to make a strong case for their port. By a happy chance, the "Sirius" on its first homeward voyage, overtook the mail packet from Halifax, and the captain of the packet, impressed by the higher speed of the steam vessel, induced the captain of the "Sirius" to take the mails, with the result that their arrival was advanced by several days.
Joseph Howe and some other gentlemen from the Maritime provinces who happened to be passengers on the sailing packet when this incident occurred, were struck with this demonstration of the superiority of steam, and discussed among themselves whether this fact might not indicate the means of overcoming, in favour of Halifax, the advantage enjoyed by the port of New York.
On the arrival of Howe in London, a meeting was called of men interested in the subject, and it was resolved to press their views on the attention of the government. Several of the gentlemen wrote to the colonial secretary, and a memorial of a more formal character was submitted, bearing the signatures of Howe, as representative of Nova Scotia, and of William Crane, a member of the legislature of New Brunswick, as representative of that province.[258]
The views and arguments were of a character similar to those employed by imperial federation leagues since that period--the shorter sea voyage, the fostering of common interests among the provinces, and the desirability of an interchange within the empire of news and correspondence, uncontaminated by passage through a foreign channel.
At that period, the last of these points had a peculiar timeliness. The rebellion in Upper Canada had just been subdued, but the embers were ready to blaze up afresh with the first favouring breeze; while in Lower Canada the outbreak was still unchecked. The fast sailing packets on the New York-Liverpool route so far outsailed the post office packets which ran to Halifax, that the news carried by way of New York was sometimes weeks in advance of that which arrived by the Halifax packets.
As American popular sympathies, as distinct from official sympathy at Washington and Albany, lay mainly with the rebels, and as newspaper publishers were in general less scrupulous as to the veracity of their news than they are to-day, it often happened that the British public, and even the government in Downing Street, were grossly misled as to the movement of events in the Canadas. The truth reached England eventually, but it had the proverbial difficulty in catching up with the nimble fiction, which had earlier circulation.
In September the treasury made its decision.[259] In the early part of that month, the Great Western Steamship Company, which was organized in 1836 for the purpose of providing a steam service between Great Britain and America, and which had been for some months past demonstrating the entire feasibility of this class of service, applied to the government for a contract for the conveyance of the mails to New York.
But the plea of Howe and Crane for a direct service prevailed. On September 24 the treasury announced the substitution of steam vessels for the sailing packets on the Halifax route, and directed that tenders should be invited for such a service as the admiralty and post office considered most suitable.
The treasury deprecated the haste with which the plans were being pushed forward, suggesting that a winter's experience would be valuable in dealing with so important a matter. But there were strong reasons for avoiding unnecessary delay. Relations with the United States were causing some anxiety, and as regards transatlantic correspondence, that country stood in a position of advantage, which it seemed the business of Great Britain to equalize as far as possible.
Tenders were invited for a steam packet service between Liverpool and Halifax in November. But none of those submitted satisfied the conditions prescribed by the government. Samuel Cunard, of Halifax, who had had a large experience as a contractor for packet services, visited England, and as the result of negotiations, entered into a contract with the admiralty.
The contract called for two trips monthly each way between Liverpool and Halifax, and for trips of the same frequency between Halifax and Boston, and between Pictou on the gulf of St. Lawrence and Quebec: the vessels to be employed to be of three hundred horse power for the transatlantic service, and of one hundred and fifty horse power for the other two routes. The contract was signed on May 4, 1839, the rate of payment being 55,000 a year.
This rate underwent a rapid series of augmentations. Two months after the contract was made 5000 a year was added to the rate on consideration that the vessels should leave the American ports, as well as Liverpool, on fixed dates. On September 1, 1841, the decision was reached that vessels of a larger size than in the service should be employed, and to secure these the rate was raised to 80,000.
Two years later, in consequence of representations by the contractors that the amount of payment was insufficient to enable them to carry on the service, 10,000 was added to the subsidy; and further additions were made as the result of changes in the arrangements, which will be detailed in their proper place.
In addition to the provision for the exchange of mails by the Cunard steamers, between Great Britain and Canada and the United States, arrangements were made for subsidiary services to Newfoundland and Bermuda. Halifax, indeed, was being made the pivotal point of the most extensive scheme ever attempted for the distribution of mails. All the communications between Great Britain and the North American continent were comprised in the plans.
The first trip by steamer between Liverpool and Halifax was made by the "Britannia," which left Liverpool on July 1, 1840. The vessel reached Halifax after a passage of twelve and a half days. The mails for Canada were carried overland from Halifax to Pictou, from which point they were delivered at Quebec five and a half days after their landing at Halifax.
As the vessel conveying the mails up the St. Lawrence from Pictou to Quebec was delayed a day in the gulf by fog, there was reason for hope that the passage from Liverpool to Quebec would not materially exceed fifteen days.
The post office authorities at Halifax bent every effort to make the enterprise a success. As an instance of their zealous energy, the "Britannia," on its September sailing, reached Halifax on a morning at seven o'clock. At a quarter to nine the mails for Canada were on their way to Pictou; at ten the "Britannia" set out for Boston; and by noon the vessels for Newfoundland and Bermuda had left for their destinations.
Prince Edward Island did not at once enjoy the full benefits of these efficient operations, but by a slight improvement in the arrangements, the island was put on an equal footing with the other colonies.
The scheme, however, admirable as it was in conception, and successful as it appeared to be in operation, had weaknesses, which were revealed by time--weaknesses which before many years led to its abandonment.
The test of the success of such a scheme lay in its capability to provide adequately for the exchanges with Canada. The mails to and from Upper and Lower Canada were not only much greater in volume than those exchanged with the other provinces, but owing to the existing political conditions in the Canadas, were at the time of greater importance; and, if, owing to any lack of co-operation on the part of the provinces participating in the transmission of the mails between Halifax and Quebec, or through other causes, these mails required a notably greater length of time in their passage by the Halifax route than they would have taken if landed at a port in the United States, the Halifax route must be considered a failure.
This is exactly what happened. When the British government decided to give the scheme a trial, it reminded the provinces concerned that there were several months in every year when the mails must be carried between Halifax and Quebec overland, and that this could be done successfully only if the roads in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec, over which the mails must pass, were put in a condition to permit of fast travel by carriage, night as well as day.
At the time--1840--the steamships began to run to Halifax, the situation as regards the land routes was as follows: the distance from Halifax to Quebec--seven hundred miles--was rarely covered by the mail couriers in less than ten days. In the depth of winter, when the sleighing was good, and advantage could be taken of the ice road on the St. John river between Fredericton and the mouth of the Madawaska river, the journey was made in some hours less than six days.
But it was seldom that conditions combined to make so fast a journey possible, and it was not considered prudent to reckon on an average of less than ten days. In the spring and autumn this length of time was often greatly exceeded. Stayner, who went over the route in the autumn of 1838, after calculating the effect of all practicable ameliorations, did not believe that the time could be reduced to less than seven days.
As against this possible time, there was the fact that the journey from New York to Quebec occupied only six and a half days in winter.
The farther west the point of comparison was carried, moreover, the greater the disadvantage at which Halifax stood. The shortest time to be anticipated in conveying the mails from Halifax to Montreal, after all improvements had been made, was nine days. The courier from New York, who had but half the distance to travel, delivered his mails in Montreal in five days. Toronto, the capital of Upper Canada, and the entrepot for the thriving and rapidly-spreading settlements in the west, was still more easily reached from New York than from Halifax. The journey from Halifax to Toronto covered a distance of one thousand two hundred and twelve miles, and occupied more than two weeks. New York was only five hundred and forty miles from Toronto, and the mails were carried between the two places in seven days in winter.
Halifax is five hundred and fifty miles nearer Liverpool than is New York, and consequently gained two days on the ocean voyage. But, in point of time, the odds were hopelessly against Halifax, as the landing port for the Canadian mails. The obvious political reasons, however, for maintaining Halifax as the port of exchange between the North American provinces, as a whole, and the mother country, provoked a determined effort to remove, as far as possible, the natural obstacles which seemed to prevent the achievement of that end.
Inquiry was directed first to the question of the best route. From Halifax to Fredericton, the first important point at which the courier arrived on his western journey, there were alternative routes, both of which had been used in the conveyance of the mails to Canada. Since the war of 1812, the courier had travelled along the northern shore of the bay of Fundy, passing Truro, Dorchester and the bend of the Petitcodiac, now Moncton.
This route was adopted first to avoid the necessity of the mails crossing the bay of Fundy from Annapolis to St. John, with the risks of falling in with American privateers, but after the termination of the war, it was continued from choice.
The earlier route, from Halifax to Windsor and along the Annapolis valley to Annapolis, still had its advocates, however; and inquiry was made as to the advisability of returning to it. Under certain ideal conditions, a better journey could be made by this route, but as these involved heavy additional expense, and a nicety of connection between the couriers and the packet boat at Annapolis, which was frequently unattainable, the proposition was rejected.
The real difficulties for the courier began when he left Fredericton on his journey to Quebec. The route lay along the shore of the St. John river to the point where the Madawaska empties into it; thence in a generally northern direction until the St. Lawrence is reached at the head of the portage.
At this period--1840--there was no road whatever over any part of this section of the route, though in 1839, a road called the Royal Road was in course of construction between Fredericton and Grand Falls. The schemes for the building of a road were embarrassed by the fact that for nearly one hundred miles, the proposed road lay in the territory claimed by the state of Maine, with the resulting risk that the expenditure upon it might be lost.
The only mode of travel from Fredericton northward to the mouth of the Madawaska was by canoe in summer. In the winter, when the ice was well set, travel was very easy. But during the early spring and late autumn, the floating ice made the journey in this part of the country one of great hardship. On a trip made in April 1842, it required three men and twelve horses to carry over this section a mail weighing not more than seven or eight hundred pounds.
The Special Council of Quebec, which was in existence in 1838-1840, owing to the suppression of the legislature due to suspension of the constitution of 1791 in Lower Canada, at the urgent instance of Sydenham, appropriated 5000 for a road over the portage between the St.
Lawrence and the St. John rivers. The legislature of New Brunswick also made a liberal grant for the section lying in that province.
It is evident, therefore, that Halifax stood at an insurmountable disadvantage as compared with the New York route during the winter season. But, at least so far as concerned eastern Canada, the provincial route was not greatly inferior to that through the United States, during the period of open navigation on the St. Lawrence. The passage from Liverpool to Quebec did not usually exceed sixteen days, and to Montreal eighteen days.
An essential link in this conveyance was the overland route from Halifax to Pictou. As this service furnished the connection between the steamers on the Atlantic and those on the St. Lawrence, it was of the first importance that the route should be traversed at a high rate of speed.
The route had been in use for many years for the exchange of local mails, but the means of conveyance, which were sufficient for that purpose, were entirely inadequate to the requirements of the ocean mail service.
Cunard--who had every motive for expediting not only the mails, but the passengers and freight passing to and from the Canadas--drew attention to the necessity for ample provision for the new conditions. Unless he were able to afford a fast and comfortable conveyance at a moderate charge to his Canadian passengers, he could not hope to hold the business. As it was desirable that he should be able to exercise control over this part of the passage, he offered to provide the service between Halifax and Pictou on terms, which were accepted by the deputy postmaster general of Nova Scotia.
The service afforded left little to be desired in point of efficiency.
Four horse stages ran over the route three times each way weekly in summer, and twice weekly in winter; the trip was to be made within seventeen hours, and the charge to passengers was not to exceed 2 10_s_. The charge for each person had been, until the contract was made, 6.
But accommodation such as this necessarily entailed considerable expense, and the compensation to Cunard under the contract was so great as seriously to embarrass the financial position of the post office in Nova Scotia. This amount--1550 per annum--was 1265 in excess of what had been paid for this route before the British mails were carried over it.
The revenues of the provincial post office were quite unequal to this demand upon, them, and relief was sought from the legislature. That body agreed to contribute 550, and Canada was asked to add 750 to that sum.
When Howe reported the facts to the postmaster general, the latter was disposed to tax him with having acted without consideration, and Sydenham was asked to give his opinion of the bargain.
The governor general laid the subject before the post office commission, which was then sitting, and they denounced the whole arrangement. The rate was extravagant, and the service provided for was entirely beyond the necessities of the ocean mails. As the steamers were to sail only twice a month, an express conveyance of that frequency was all that was required.