For this service the Canadian post office agreed to pay the United States department the sum which the latter would have been entitled to collect on the same number of United States letters passing between Burlington and New York. As the mails were contained in a sealed bag, the United States post office had no means of arriving at the amount due to them for this service, and they agreed to accept the sworn statement of the British and Canadian officials on this point.
The convention, also, provided for the interchange of correspondence between Canada and the United States. According to the practice of the period, a letter from Montreal for New York, for instance, was chargeable with the postage due for conveyance from Montreal to the United States boundary. This was collected by the Canadian post office. In addition to this, the United States post office charged the postage due to it for the conveyance from the boundary to New York.
The arrangements for the collection of the postage due to each administration were somewhat peculiar. On a letter from Canada to the United States, the Canadian postage as far as Burlington had to be paid at the time the letter was posted. The United States postage was collected from the person to whom the letter was delivered. On letters passing the other way, that is, from the United States to Canada, another arrangement was possible. The sender could, of course, if he chose, pay the United States postage to Burlington, and the Canadian post office would collect its own postage from the addressed.
But besides this arrangement, which was common to letters passing in either direction, a person in the United States could post a letter for Canada entirely unpaid, and the total amount due would be collected on the delivery of the letter to the person addressed in Canada. In this case, the postage due to the United States was collected by the postmaster at Montreal, who assumed the duties of agent, in this respect, for the United States post office. The United States did not allow any of their postmasters to act as agents for the collection of Canadian postage in the United States, alleging that there were too many post offices in that country for Burlington to look after them properly. The convention of 1792 contained a feature which was at that time novel in post office arrangements. It provided for the conveyance of periodical magazines between Canada and Great Britain, charging for its services the unusually low figure of eight cents a magazine. The convention was signed by the deputy postmaster general of Canada and the postmaster general of the United States.
Under this convention the arrangements for the exchange of correspondence between Canada and Great Britain were very satisfactory. During the eight months when the packet boats called at Halifax, the mails passed by the route through the Maritime provinces. In the winter, while the packet boats did not visit Halifax, the mails were sent by way of New York.
The improvements in the roads on the route through the United States, reduced greatly the time of conveyance between Montreal and New York. Travellers from Montreal to New York in 1800 noted that there was a rough road as far as Burlington, and a rather better one to Skenesborough (Whitehall), while from this place to New York, the journey was made by coach.[145]
In Upper Canada, postal affairs were brought into some prominence when that part of the country was erected into a separate province by the constitutional act of 1791. As will be recalled, the service beyond Kingston was conducted in rather haphazard fashion. It was maintained largely in the interest of the little garrisons at Niagara, Detroit and Michillimackinac.
The first governor of the new province, General Simcoe, was a man of great energy, and zealous in the discharge of any duty laid upon him. The total population in Upper Canada at the time did not exceed ten thousand. But though these were not neglected, it was in preparation for the thousands whom Simcoe foresaw thronging into the province, that his attention was chiefly occupied.
Before he left London for Canada, Simcoe had written to the government several letters, some of them of great length, discussing every conceivable topic of colonial policy. In submitting the list of officials which he considered necessary for the government of the province, the newly appointed governor stated that he had in mind a proper person who would go to Canada as printer, if he had a salary, and the governor thought that by making this person provincial postmaster[146] as well as government printer, a salary might be raised from the two offices, sufficient to induce him to go.
When Simcoe reached Quebec in November 1791, he consulted with Finlay on the subject, and was confirmed in his opinion as to the desirability of a post office establishment in Upper Canada. There was, however, a preliminary question of great importance which it appeared to him necessary to have settled.