Another courier will proceed from this with the Niagara mail, via Messrs. Hatts', where the Sandwich [So. Essex] 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 any time by
W. ALLAN,
Acting Deputy-Postmaster.
Mr. Heriot resigned in 1816 and was succeeded by Mr. Daniel Sutherland who, on his accession to office found Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island withdrawn from Canadian charge. New Brunswick, however, continued to be included, but appears to have been withdrawn in 1824, so that from that year until the federation of the Provinces in 1867 the Postmaster-General was concerned only with Canada proper. Mr. Sutherland established a daily mail between Quebec and Montreal and a weekly mail between Montreal and Toronto. In 1827 there were 101 post-offices and 2,368 miles of established post-route, the number of miles of mail-travel being 455,000 per annum. The letters that year were estimated at 340,000 and the newspapers at 400,000.
The following extract from the Quebec Mercury, published on July 18, 1829, conveys some idea of the postal communication with England at that period:—
No later advices have been received from Europe since our last. Some further extracts from the London papers, to 31st May, inclusive, brought to New York by the Corinthian, will be found in another part of this number.
In the Montreal Courant, dated September 2nd, 1829, was the following paragraph, showing the improvement which had been effected in the communication between Prescott and that city:—
Expeditious Travelling:—On Saturday last, the Upper Canada line of stages performed the journey from Prescott to this city in about 17 hours, leaving the former place at a little before 3 a. m., and arriving here a few minutes before 8 in the evening. Not many years ago this journey occupied two, and sometimes three days, but owing to the great improvements made by Mr. Dickinson, the enterprising proprietor, by putting steam-boats on the lakes St. Francis and St. Louis, and keeping his horses in excellent condition, it is now performed in little more than one-third of the time.
Even so late as 1833, newspaper proprietors found it (particularly in the Upper Province) better to employ their own couriers. As a proof of this we transcribe from the Queenstown (Niagara) Colonial Advocate of that year, the following advertisement:—