Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery Part 1

Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery.

by Clifton Armstrong Howes.

FOREWORD

Twenty years ago the Philatelic Society, London, brought out their work on "The Postage Stamps, Envelopes, Wrappers and Post Cards of the North American Colonies of Great Britain." This, of course, included Canada, but since that time no special work, treating exhaustively of the postal emissions of this important Colony, has been placed before the philatelic public. It seems opportune, therefore, particularly in view of the general popularity of the stamps of the Dominion, to present this volume for the favor of the stamp collecting fraternity and especially of that considerable portion which is interested to the extent of specializing in the beautiful issues that Canada has given us.

This work had its inception in the now popular handbook idea, but in looking over the ground it was soon realized by the author that there was need of and material enough for a much more extended treatment of the subject than could be encompa.s.sed in the limits of the usual brochure. Plans were therefore laid for a thorough study of all available material, and in furtherance of this it was found necessary to make a special trip to Ottawa, where, in the library of the House of Commons, is to be found the only complete set available of the Reports of the Postmasters General of Canada. These naturally proved a mine of first hand information which was availed of to its full extent; and in this connection must be expressed the deep appreciation of the a.s.sistance rendered the author by his friend M. Henri R. Landry, through whose influence and untiring interest the way was made easy for convenient and rapid examination of these invaluable files. Thanks are also due Mr. Edward Y. Parker of Toronto, for notes and specimens furnished, as well as Mr. A. McKechnie of Ottawa.

But doc.u.ments and descriptions are not enough for the thorough study of any subject which concerns tangible objects, and three famous collections were inspected for first hand information upon the stamps themselves. To Mr. Charles Lathrop Pack of Lakewood, N. J., Mr. George H. Worthington of Cleveland, Ohio, and the lamented Mr. John F. Seybold, late of Syracuse, N. Y., are due not only the author's fullest thanks for opportunities freely given to examine their magnificent collections of Canada, but the debt extends to philatelists in general for thus being enabled to share, through study, description, listing and pictorial reproduction, in the results of their specializing. Mr. Pack's wonderful array of rarities, beautiful copies and remarkable series of shades has been largely used in the compilation of the stamp lists. This collection though since much enlarged and improved, obtained the gold medal at the International Philatelic Exhibition in London, 1906. Mr.

Worthington's fine collection has also been used in the same way and has furnished much information concerning plate numbers and marginal imprints. Mr. Seybold's covers were particularly interesting in showing the actual use of the stamps, the cancellations employed, and various other features to be gleaned from the study of original covers, particularly of early date. Selections for ill.u.s.trative purposes were made from all three collections, as will be noted.

Mr. John N. Morse and Mr. Edwin F. Sawyer, both of Boston, have very kindly placed their collections of post cards and envelopes, respectively, at our disposal for purposes of study.

Again, the philatelic press has been diligently searched for articles, stray notes, etc., which would illumine the pathway, particularly by throwing side lights on various phases of the subject. Prominent among these were the articles on Canada by Messrs. C. B. Corwin, D. A. King and J. R. Hooper in the _Metropolitan Philatelist_ for 1890-91, and by Mr. Donald A. King in Stanley Gibbons' _Monthly Journal_ for 1896-97.

It can readily be seen from the foregoing that the limits of a handbook were soon pa.s.sed, and the question really became one of a pretentious volume which should be all that thorough research could offer and ample means produce. A glance at the present work shows that this was no small proposition, and to any one with experience in philatelic publis.h.i.+ng it was apparent that the desired production would mean a heavy balance on the wrong side of the ledger. The author does not pose as a philanthropist, but he feels he has discovered such in the publishers of this volume. With the broad-minded policy that whatever helps Philately benefits all, even indirectly, the New England Stamp Company of Boston, having become greatly interested in the monograph, accepted the burden and became responsible for the publication of the work. The advantages of the co-operation of such a well-known firm are manifest, and the author takes great pleasure in acknowledging his indebtedness to this Company, through whose munificence it has been possible to produce this volume in its present form.

C. A. HOWES, B. Sc., F. R. P. S. L.

Boston, U. S. A.

December, 1910.

INTRODUCTION

The Dominion of Canada, as we know it to-day, is a confederation of the former British Colonies and unorganized territories of North America which lie to the northward of the United States. The single exception is the Colony of Newfoundland, which so far has resisted all overtures looking to its absorption. The Dominion was formed in 1867 by the union of the then Colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, to which the others were added subsequently. At that time the Colony of Canada consisted of two provinces, Ontario and Quebec, known also as Upper and Lower Canada respectively. It is with these two provinces that our philatelic story of Canada begins.

But first let us delve a bit into earlier times and trace the development of the territory we are going to consider, as it may prove interesting for its historical value. Pa.s.sing by the claims of the Nors.e.m.e.n in the tenth century to a somewhat vague exploration of the eastern American coast, we come to the discovery of Newfoundland by John Cabot in 1497, and it is upon this fact, in part, that England subsequently based her claim to the whole of North America. But for the most part the territory included within the well populated portion of the present Dominion was explored and settled by the French. In 1534 Jacques Cartier entered the St. Lawrence River and took possession of the country in the name of France, and in 1608 the first permanent settlement was made at Quebec by Samuel de Champlain. The name of the colony was apparently furnished by the Indians, for in the ma.n.u.script narrative of Cartier's second voyage,[1] under "Vocabulary of the natives," is found: "They call a town--Canada." Baxter says: "There can be no doubt that the word Canada is derived from _Kannata_, which in Iroquois signifies a collection of dwellings, in other words a settlement."[2] French control continued until the middle of the eighteenth century when, in the war with England, the decisive victory of Wolfe over Montcalm at Quebec, in 1759, practically brought it to a close, and by the treaty of Paris in 1763 Canada was permanently ceded to Great Britain.

[1] In the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

[2] =A Memoir of Jacques Cartier=, by J. P. Baxter, p. 135.

Tracing the development of the Colony under English rule, we find that by the so-called "Quebec Act" of 1774 it was placed under the administration of a Governor and Legislative Council appointed by the Crown. Following the American Revolution, however, there was a large immigration of former colonists into Ontario, and because of their English stock, while Quebec was French, a separation was deemed advisable. By the "Const.i.tutional Act" of 1791 this was effected and two Colonies, Upper Canada (or Canada West) and Lower Canada (or Canada East) were const.i.tuted, each with its own separate government. Just fifty years later, in 1841, they were reunited under the single name of Canada. This brings us near the opening of our philatelic history. The united provinces had an area of about 350,000 square miles and a population, in 1850, of some 1,800,000 people. The Governor was appointed by the Crown and chose his own Executive Council; a Legislative Council of life members was also appointed by the Crown; and a Legislative a.s.sembly was elected consisting of an equal number of representatives for each province. The Governor was made Governor-General of British North America.

The advantages of the union of Upper and Lower Canada gradually became so manifest, that a convention was held at Quebec in 1864 for the purpose of considering the advisability of uniting all the provinces.

The result bore fruit in the pa.s.sage of an Act of Union by the British Parliament on March 29, 1867, under which Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were formally united as the Dominion of Canada, the actual event being consummated on July 1, 1867. Subsequently, on July 20, 1871, the Colony of British Columbia, and on July 1, 1873, the Colony of Prince Edward Island, were added to the Dominion. In 1869 the vast territories of the Hudson's Bay Company were acquired by purchase, and out of them the province of Manitoba was formed and admitted to full privileges in the Dominion on July 15, 1870.

The absorption of the Company's Territories is interesting for, as we all know, this was a trading concern whose sole commodity was fur. The Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of the continent were the mecca of hunters and trappers, and their chief prey from the time the first French explorers began to search the Canadian lakes, and later when the Hudson's Bay Company succeeded to the French domain, was the beaver. In fact the early history of Canada was largely bound up with beaver catching and the sale of the skins, and for nearly a century the northern territories, both under French and English rule, were organized with a view to this traffic. In the early days of the Company the "standard of trade" of the Northwest was a beaver skin. Thus the beaver naturally became emblematic, which resulted later in its use as the "crest" of the Canadian coat-of-arms, a place that it retains to the present day over those of the Dominion. In this connection it would be unjust to omit a mention of that other symbol dear to the Canadian heart--the maple leaf. Like the rose, the thistle and the shamrock of the Mother land, the beautiful tree of the Colony, so widespread, so useful, and so gorgeous in its autumn coloring of red and gold--the blazon of the English arms--became a favorite emblem of the people. The particular variety that is so used is of course the rock or sugar maple (_acer saccharinum_).

Turning now to early postal history, it is necessary to go back to the reign of Queen Anne, although Canada was not then under British dominion. In the year 1710 an Act was pa.s.sed by the British Parliament "For establis.h.i.+ng a General Post-Office in all Her Majesty's Dominions,"

which not only repealed all previous enactments but placed the postoffice establishment on a new basis. A "General Post and Letter-Office" was established in London "from whence all letters and packets whatsoever may be with speed and expedition sent into any part of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to North America and the West Indies, or any other of Her Majesty's dominions, or any country or kingdom beyond the seas," and "at which office all returns and answers may be likewise received." For the better "managing, ordering, collecting, and improving the revenue," and also for the better "computing and settling the rates of letters according to distance, a chief office is established in Edinburgh, one in Dublin, one at New York, and other chief offices in convenient places in Her Majesty's colonies of America, and one in the islands of the West Indies, called the Leeward Islands." "The whole of these chief offices shall be under the control of an officer who shall be appointed by the Queen's Majesty, her heirs and successors, to be made and const.i.tuted by letters patent under the Great Seal, by the name and stile of Her Majesty's _Postmaster-General_." "The Postmaster-General shall appoint deputies for the chief offices in the places named above." The rates to New York under this Act were fixed at 1 s.h.i.+lling per single letter. Other rates were charged to other parts of the American continent according to the distance from New York.

In 1753 Benjamin Franklin received the royal commission as Deputy Postmaster-General for the American Colonies. No man in America had been so identified with the interests of the Colonial postoffice as he, and from 1737 he had been postmaster of Philadelphia. All his energies were devoted to his new work and when Canada pa.s.sed by treaty to Great Britain in 1763, as already mentioned, his jurisdiction was extended to cover the new territory. It is thus curious to record that the (afterwards) first Postmaster-General of the United States was also the first Postmaster-General of Canada.

In the evidence given by Franklin before the House of Commons in the year 1766, in regard to the extent of the post-office accommodation in North America, he made the following statement:--

The posts generally travel along the sea coasts, and only in a few cases do they go back into the country. Between Quebec and Montreal there is only one post per month. The inhabitants live so scattered and remote from each other in that vast country, that the posts cannot be supported amongst them. The English Colonies, too, along the frontier, are very thinly settled.

By 1774, however, Franklin, then in England as the Representative of the Colonies, had become obnoxious to the British Government, and on January 31st of that year was removed from his office. After the Declaration of Independence, Mr. Hugh Finlay, who had previously been postmaster at Quebec, received the appointment of "Deputy Postmaster-General of His Majesty's Province of Canada." He had in 1791 eleven post-offices under his management, one as far west as Mackinaw and one as far east as the Baie des Chaleurs. There was a weekly mail between Quebec and Montreal and a monthly mail for the Western country. From a Quebec almanac of 1796 it appears that there were seven post-offices in Upper Canada and five in Lower Canada. At that time mails were despatched monthly to England, and semi-weekly between Quebec and Montreal, or Halifax. At the Baie des Chaleurs the visits of the postman must have been few and far between, as they were only favored with a mail "as occasion offered."

In 1800 Mr. George Heriot succeeded Mr. Finlay. At this time New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were all under the authority of the Canadian administration. The number of post-offices was increased to twenty-six.

The following is taken from the advertising column of the _Upper Canada Gazette_ in 1807:--

The mail for Upper Canada will be despatched from the post-office at Montreal, on the following days, to wit:

Monday, 14th January.

Monday, 12th February.

Monday, 10th March.

Monday, 7th April--the last trip.

A courier from Kingston may be looked for here in 14 or 15 days from the above periods, where he will remain 2 or 3 days, and then return to Kingston.

Another courier will proceed from this with the Niagara mail, via Messrs. Hatts', where the Sandwich [So. Ess.e.x] letters will be left, both from Niagara and this, 'till the courier comes from there to return with them.

Letters put into the post-office will be forwarded any time by

W. ALLAN, Acting Deputy-Postmaster.

Mr. Heriot resigned in 1816 and was succeeded by Mr. Daniel Sutherland who, on his accession to office found Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island withdrawn from Canadian charge. New Brunswick, however, continued to be included, but appears to have been withdrawn in 1824, so that from that year until the federation of the Provinces in 1867 the Postmaster-General was concerned only with Canada proper. Mr. Sutherland established a daily mail between Quebec and Montreal and a weekly mail between Montreal and Toronto. In 1827 there were 101 post-offices and 2,368 miles of established post-route, the number of miles of mail-travel being 455,000 per annum. The letters that year were estimated at 340,000 and the newspapers at 400,000.

The following extract from the _Quebec Mercury_, published on July 18, 1829, conveys some idea of the postal communication with England at that period:--

No later advices have been received from Europe since our last. Some further extracts from the London papers, to 31st May, inclusive, brought to New York by the _Corinthian_, will be found in another part of this number.

In the _Montreal Courant_, dated September 2nd, 1829, was the following paragraph, showing the improvement which had been effected in the communication between Prescott and that city:--

EXPEDITIOUS TRAVELLING:--On Sat.u.r.day last, the Upper Canada line of stages performed the journey from Prescott to this city in about 17 hours, leaving the former place at a little before 3 a. m., and arriving here a few minutes before 8 in the evening. Not many years ago this journey occupied two, and sometimes three days, but owing to the great improvements made by Mr. d.i.c.kinson, the enterprising proprietor, by putting steam-boats on the lakes St. Francis and St.

Louis, and keeping his horses in excellent condition, it is now performed in little more than one-third of the time.

Even so late as 1833, newspaper proprietors found it (particularly in the Upper Province) better to employ their own couriers. As a proof of this we transcribe from the _Queenstown_ (Niagara) _Colonial Advocate_ of that year, the following advertis.e.m.e.nt:--

POST-RIDER WANTED IMMEDIATELY.

The proprietor of this newspaper wishes to contract with a steady man (who can find and uphold his own horse) to deliver it to the subscribers once a week during the winter, on the route between York and Niagara, via Ancaster.