time of his
appointment the revenue of the department was insufficient to defray his
salary of L300 per annum; but under his judicious management not only
was the postal accommodation in the Provinces considerably extended, but
the revenue so greatly increased, that ere long the profit for one year,
which he remitted to the British treasury, amounted to L3000.

In the evidence given by Franklin before the British 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."

Franklin was removed in 1774. War broke out a few months afterwards
between the North American Provinces and the Mother Country; and the
charge of the post office in Canada was assumed by Mr. Hugh Finlay, who,
it appears, had under Franklin performed the duties of postmaster at
Quebec.

Mr. Finlay is designated in his commission as Deputy Postmaster General
of His Majesty's "Province of Canada," from which it would seem that the
Lower Provinces were not included in his charge.

An Almanac published in Quebec in the year 1791 thus describes the
condition of the Department:--

Hugh Finlay, Esq., Deputy Postmaster General Quebec, L. C.
Wm. E. Edwards, Postmaster Montreal, "
Samuel Sills, " Three Rivers, "
Louis Aime, " Berthier, "
Hugh Munroe, " Bai edes Chaleurs, "
Samuel Anderson, " Cornwall, U. C.
John Munroe, " Matilda, "
John Jones, " Augusta, "
Peter Clarke, " Kingston, "
Joseph Edwards, " Niagara, "
George Leitch, " Detroit, "
---- Mitchell " Mickelmackinac, "

There were thus five post offices in Lower Canada, and seven post
offices in