d at
the place of posting in the United States, and the registry made
there will accompany the letter to the place of delivery in Canada.

A certificate of registration will be given by the postmaster if
required.

The registration system can be applied to the letter portion of the
mail only.

The registration system at that time made no provision for compensation
in case of the loss of letters, the small extra fee charged simply
indicating that extra care would be taken to secure proper delivery.
Evidently at that time the fee was paid in money, and the letters then
marked with a handstamp of some sort, for in the Postmaster-General's
Report for 1858 we read, "It is also considered that it would be an
improvement on the system if the charge for registration were made
pre-payable by a stamp, instead of by money as at present." It is
probable that shortly after this the prepayment of the registry fee was
indicated by the affixing of stamps of the required value. The report
for 1860 refers to the system as follows:--

A rate of charge for Registration so low as, in no probable degree,
to operate as a motive, with persons posting letters of value, to
deny themselves the advantage of securing from the Post Office an
acknowledgment of the receipt of the specific letter, has always
been considered to be a cardinal point in the Canadian
Registration System.

The Registration fee, or charge, has, therefore, under the
influence of this consideration, been maintained at 2 cents, though
it is doubtful whether such a rate of charge covers the actual cost
of the process; the address of the Registered Letter having, in the
course of transmission, to be entered on an average not less than
six times, and forms of certificate or receipt, and Books in which
to preserve permanent records at each Post Office, to be supplied.

The postal officials were evidently strong believers in the Registration
system and lost no opportunity of dwelling on its merits. In his Report
for 1864 the Postmaster-General tells of its manifold advantages as
follows:--

When a letter is registered, that is to say, marked and recorded in
the Post Office so as to individualise it from the bulk of ordinary
letter correspondence, its presence in the Post Office can be
identified and its course of transmission traced, and a registered
letter