The History of the Post Office in British North America

by William Smith

As the result of the discussion, it was resolved to present an address to the king, asking that an annual statement of the revenue and expenditure of the department be laid before the legislature; that newspapers should be distributed throughout the province free of postage; that the correspondence of the members of the legislature should pass free during sessions; and finally, that in the event of a surplus being obtained, the postage rates should be reduced, or that the surplus should be devoted to the improvement of the roads.

Stayner, in sending to the postmaster general, copies of the addresses from Upper and Lower Canada, expressed his gratification that the assemblies in both provinces appeared to have dropped the idea of independent provincial establishments, and gave it as his opinion that the legislatures would look for nothing further than such reasonable modifications of existing laws and regulations as the imperial government might determine.

That some changes were necessary Stayner was quite convinced. The postage on newspapers, for instance, could not long remain in its present position, as regards either the amount of the charges or the mode in which the revenue therefrom was disposed of. As for the request of the legislatures that newspapers should be distributed by the post office free of charge, there seemed no sound reason why this should be done. A moderate rate should be fixed, and some arrangement made for the disposal of the revenue from this source. The present plan aroused dissatisfaction, and indeed the amount collected was fast becoming too large to be appropriated in the existing manner.

The postmaster general expressed his satisfaction with Stayner's report, and indeed it appeared at that moment to be of more than usual consequence to him that the colonies should be well affected towards the post office.

It will be remembered that when the Baldwin report reached England in 1821, the postmaster general was sufficiently impressed with the cogency of the argument against the legal standing of the British post office in the colonies, to call for the opinion of the law officers upon it. When the case was prepared by the solicitor for the post office, it was still more impressive, and the postmaster general thought better of his desire to have a definite opinion upon it, as it appeared more than probable that the opinion might be against the post office. He accordingly directed that the papers should be put away, and they lay undisturbed for eleven years.

But the repeated remonstrances of the colonial assemblies, joined to the rising dissatisfaction with the general political conditions in Upper and Lower Canada, made it desirable to remove any real grievances which might be found to exist in the control and management of the postal system.

The first step taken in this direction was to ascertain whether there was any foundation for the contention of the assemblies that the whole system rested on an illegal basis, and that the revenues collected by the post office in the colonies were taken in violation of the fundamental principle governing the relations between the mother country and the colonies.

The case was accordingly submitted to the attorney general and the solicitor general in 1832; and on the 5th of November of that year a decision was given, upholding the colonial contentions on all points.[220]

The questions upon which the opinions of the law officers were required were (first) whether the power to establish posts, and the exclusive right to the conveyance of letters given by the acts of 1711 and 1765, had the force of law in the Canadas, and (second) whether the postage received for the inland conveyance of letters within those provinces ought to be paid into the exchequer and applied as part of the revenue of the United Kingdom, or whether it ought to be devoted to the use of the province in which it is raised.

The law officers gave the case the attention its importance called for. It appeared, they stated, to involve practical considerations of the highest political importance, bringing directly into question the principle of the declaratory act of 1778, respecting internal taxation of the colonies by the mother country.