Picturesque Quebec : a sequel to Quebec past and present

by Sir J. M. Le Moine

Have you the sash worn by Surgeon Tudor at the time the General was killed?—The sash was three yards long, Crimson silk. It was Gen. Wolfe's sash given to my grandfather.

What is said of stains of blood upon it from the wound that caused Wolfe's death?—It was rent with the shot, and stained with his blood.

MRS. SARAH TUDOR STRONG.

_THE POST OFFICE.

"In a recent issue of the Journal des Trois Rivières appeared a somewhat interesting paper on the Canadian postal system. From this paper we learn that on the cession of this country to Great Britain a regular mail courier was established between the cities of Montreal and Quebec. The celebrated Benjamin Franklin was the Deputy Postmaster General for the English colonies from 1750 to 1774. In 1776 this functionary, while giving evidence before a committee of the British Parliament, stated that, as a rule, the mail courier kept the route by the water highways, seldom penetrating into the interior. From his evidence, also, we learn that the mail communication between Quebec and Montreal was not more frequent than once a month. For not having established intermediate post-offices between the two towns, Franklin alleged the great distance between the settlers on the banks of the St. Lawrence, the isolation of the Canadian villages, and the excessive difficulty of intercommunication in his day. The fact is, however, that Benjamin Franklin was a great enemy to Canadian prosperity, and always looked with aversion upon the people of the newly-acquired colony. In 1774, war having broken out between the mother-country and the English colonies, Franklin was deprived of his office, and Mr. Hugh Finlay, a subordinate of the great republican philosopher, was appointed Deputy Postmaster General for Canada. Mr. Finlay had been given great proofs of capacity under the previous régime, and being a man of very high character and probity, he was armed with large discretionary powers to put the mail system of Canada on a better footing, and to make its operations more extended and regular. Until 1790, there were added but two intermediate post-offices between Quebec and Montreal; in the year following, offices were opened at Three Rivers and Berthier. Every month, however, a mail messenger was sent by way of Halifax to England. At this date the local mail betwixt Quebec and Halifax was bi-weekly in summer, and once a week in winter; the local mail between Quebec and Montreal had increased to twice a week. In 1800, Mr. Hugh Finlay was succeeded in office by Mr. George Heriot. This gentleman, being also commissioned as Deputy Postmaster General for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, as well as for the two Canadas, had to oversee the service throughout all these provinces and to visit them from time to time. In the four first years of his administration he opened but one new post-office in Lower Canada, and five in the Upper Province. Matters progressed slowly enough until 1816, when Mr. David Sutherland succeeded Mr. Heriot. In 1817 be opened six additional offices of delivery in Lower Canada which made the total number of offices in operation thirteen. Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were placed under the management of independent offices, and in that year the mails were still expedited but weekly to New Brunswick. In 1824, Mr. Sutherland was succeeded by Mr. Thomas Allen Stayner, and it was in this year that New Brunswick was endowed with an independent postal department. Mr. Stayner administered his important office for the space of twenty- seven years, with great zeal and giving entire satisfaction to the public. He greatly increased the number of local offices, and inaugurated many of the reforms which have since developed into that vast and safe system of communication with which our people are so familiar. On the 6th of April, 1851, the Canadian Mail Department was transferred from the Imperial to Provincial control, the first Postmaster General being the Hon. John Morris. Some idea of the progress made from 1760 to 1851, a period of ninety years, may be obtained by contrasting the department under Benjamin Franklin and that over which Mr. Morris was called to preside. The courier, who made monthly journeys on horseback between the military posts of Quebec and Montreal, and whose safe arrival at either of those then distant cities would no doubt cause the utmost satisfaction to the King's lieges, male and female, had been replaced by the steamboat and soon would be by the railway; and the two primitive post offices of Canada had expanded into a network of 601 local offices, transmitting among them letters to the number of 2,132,000 annually. In 1861 these figures had attained to 1775 offices, and the number of letters transmitted to 9,400,000; in addition to a weekly line of ocean mail steamers to Europe, over 1200 miles of railway doing mail service from one end of Canada to the other, and a magnificent network of telegraphic wire supplementing the postal system. What the number of offices and of letters carried may have been for the last year ending July 1867, when the postal systems of the Dominion were again placed under one head, we have not at hand, but we may state that during the official term of Hon. Mr. Langevin, now Secretary of State, the revenue from this source attained almost $900,000.

In the year 1851, the system of cheap postage was tried in Canada, the rate being reduced from an average one of fifteen cents to a uniform rate of five cents for prepaid and seven cents for unpaid letters. In the following year this reform resulted in doubling the number of letters carried, with the reduction of only one-third of the previous revenue; and in a short time the receipts not only increased to the former figure but greatly exceeded it. Under the new system we expect this reform in the charge for postage will be greatly extended."—(Quebec Mercury.)

[See page 263.]

MONUMENT OF THE VICTIMS OF 1837-'38

"L'Ordre newspaper announces the completion of the monument in the Côte des Neiges Cemetery to the memory of the victims of 1837-38. It required many efforts and great energy to bring to a completion a work which had unhappily encountered many difficulties. For some months, furnished with sums collected either by a special or general subscription, or the proceeds of concerts and pleasure excursions, the Committee applied themselves to the work, and on Sunday they went to take possession from Mr. T. Fahrland, architect, and Mr. L. Hughes, the constructor of the monument. The inauguration will take place next summer.

Situated on the highest elevation of the Cemetery, this monument commands the vast resting place of the dead. It is of octagonal shape, 55 feet in height, the pyramid reposing on a base of 80 by 90 feet. The architecture, stern and grand, strikes the beholder at a distance, and his admiration will not cease as he approaches. On the four sides of the base white marble tablets are set, having neatly engraved on them these inscriptions (in French):