THE HISTORY OF THE POST OFFICE IN
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
C. F. CLAY, Manager
LONDON : FETTER LANE, E.C. 4
| NEW YORK : | THE MACMILLAN CO. | |
| BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS | } | MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. |
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
THE HISTORY
OF THE POST OFFICE IN
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA
1639-1870
BY
WILLIAM SMITH
SOMETIME SECRETARY OF THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT OF CANADA
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1920
Printed in Great Britain by
Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
brunswick st., stamford st., s.e. 1,
and bungay, suffolk.
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PREFACE
My purpose, in the searches for material which led to thepresent volume, has been to give as complete an account as itlay in my power to do, of the beginnings and growth of theCanadian post office, with which I was associated for thirty-sixyears. As my studies progressed, however, I found it wouldbe necessary to widen my field.
The Canadian post office did not come into being as an independentorganization. It was but the extension into newly-acquiredterritories, of a system which had been in operationfor nearly three-quarters of a century, with well-establishedmodes of administration. Obviously, either reference shouldbe made to well-known works on the older colonial postal system,or an account of it must be attempted in this volume.
Although careful studies of some aspects of this history havebeen made, this part of colonial history has, on the whole, receivedless of the attention of students than has been devotedto throwing light upon other phases of that history; and, whatwas important for my purpose, little has been done in the wayof describing the relations between the colonial postal systemand the general post office in London, to which it was subordinate.
The materials for this portion of the history are to be foundin the records of the general post office, London, the BritishMuseum, and in the journals of the colonial legislatures. A veryinteresting document is Franklin's Account Book, which is in theBoston Public Library.
The materials for the history of the post office in the provincesnow composing the Dominion of Canada, are in the records of thegeneral post office, the larger portion of which have been transcribedfor the Public Archives of Canada; in the correspondencebetween the colonial governors and the colonial office, which canbe found either in the original or in transcripts in the PublicArchives, and in the Journals of the Provincial Legislatures.
In the preparation of the chapter on the postal service ofNewfoundland, I had the advantage of a rather close acquaintance[Pg vi