The History of the Post Office in British North America

by William Smith

Trips were made during the winter of 1853, and throughout the summer of 1854, but there was so general a disregard of the terms of the contract, that it was terminated, and a contract was made with Hugh Allan in September 1855.[301] The new contractor entered upon his engagement with laudable energy; and at the end of the first season the postmaster general of Canada was able to make a comparison between the Canadian service and that to the port of New York.[302]

On the westbound voyages the Canadian steamers were practically a day slower than the Cunard steamers—the Allan steamers taking twelve days, twenty and a half hours, to eleven days and twenty-two hours occupied by vessels of the Cunard line. The Canadian steamers were also slower than the Collins line on these trips by four hours. But on the voyage to Great Britain, the Canadian line made the speediest trips of the three. These steamers took but eleven days two hours, while the Cunard steamers were eleven hours and the Collins thirty hours longer in reaching Liverpool.

It was with the successful inauguration of the Canadian service that the friction with the British government began. There developed immediately a clash of interests.

The first note of dissatisfaction came from Great Britain. The postmaster general communicated to the colonial secretary[303] the information that the earnings of the packet service were much reduced by the fact that the Canadian post office was sending its correspondence by the first steamer that sailed whether it was British or American, and not confining its despatches to the steamers of the Cunard line.

To the British post office, the Canadian line was an American line, and in spite of all protests and remonstrances, it insisted on treating the Allan line steamers as foreign. Ordinarily there would be no practical consequence of this wilful misunderstanding, but as letters conveyed by the Cunard line were charged eightpence the half ounce, while those carried by the American lines were made to pay fourteen pence, the hostility to the Canadian enterprise was marked.

The postmaster general did not stop at this point, and leave the public on both sides of the Atlantic to consult their own interests as to whether they would send their letters by the Canadian or British subsidized lines. Taking up the case of interests adversely affected by the discriminatory rates, he pointed out that, as many unpaid letters were sent by the American lines, recipients of these letters had to pay sixpence more than if the letters were sent by the Cunard line.

That the remedy lay in the hands of the postmaster general, of reducing the rates on letters carried by the Canadian (or American line as he persisted in calling the Allan line) was not to the point. He called upon the colonial secretary, if the secretary concurred in his views, to remonstrate with the Canadian government as to the course it has chosen without reference to the home government. These views do not seem to have been communicated to Canada. But shortly afterwards the British government submitted for the consideration of the Canadian government, the Australian scheme for a postal service to practically all the self-governing colonies of this period.

The postmaster general of Canada had doubts as to the applicability of the Australian arrangement to the Canadian service.[304] He presumed the proposition was limited to the Cunard line, and would not be extended to the equally British line running directly from Canadian ports to Liverpool. Special interests, similar to those which had induced the British government to subsidize the Cunard line, had led the Canadian government to extend assistance to the Allan line, and it seemed scarcely expedient for the Canadian government to lend aid to the British government in the maintenance of the Cunard line in the absence of any evidence of intention on the part of the British government to reciprocate with regard to the Canadian line.

It was further observed by the postmaster general of Canada that even if the Canadian government should concede the equity of the British proposition it would be impossible to determine satisfactorily the proportion of the cost which should be borne by the North American provinces, since much the larger part of the mails carried by the Cunard line was exchanged between Great Britain and the United States.

The position taken by the Canadian government gave rise to great irritation in Great Britain. Fortunately the expression of this feeling was not communicated to the Canadian government until some years later, when the question, though by no means settled, had passed out of the irritation and friction phase.