ce and the sanction of Sir Francis
Freeling; and that the proceeds, instead of being accounted for as part
of the general Post Office revenue, were appropriated by the Deputy
Postmaster-General. They were also objected to as arbitrary and
inequitable, since papers were charged the same rate whether they were
conveyed 20 miles or 200 miles. As letters were at that time charged on
a scale of rates graduated according to distance, the application of the
principle of uniformity to the newspapers was naturally not appreciated;
and in view of the heavy charges incurred for transportation it could
not have been justified on economic grounds.

The resentment against the charge first took definite form in the Lower
Provinces. In 1830 a Mr. Ward, a publisher, petitioned the Nova Scotian
House of Assembly to be relieved from the charges on his newspapers. A
Committee of the House, which considered the matter, found that under
the Imperial Acts it was no part of the duty of the Deputy
Postmaster-General to receive or transmit newspapers, other than those
received from Great Britain, and that the Deputy was therefore justified
in making the charge complained of. They found also that sixty years
earlier the Deputy made a yearly charge of 2s. 6d. on each newspaper
sent by post, and that at that time all editors acquiesced in the
charge. At the same time the Committee regarded the charge as so
undesirable that they recommended the House should grant a sum to
remunerate the Deputy for his services in transmitting newspapers, in
order that the charges might be abolished.

The Deputy Postmaster-General in the Lower Provinces was himself a
publisher, and it was alleged that he was interested directly or
indirectly in every newspaper published in Nova Scotia, with the
exception of two, with the result that, while all the newspapers in
which he was interested passed free of postage, the two outsiders were
made to pay. The Deputy Postmaster-General himself seemed to think the
arrangement was best kept in the background. When questioned by the
House of Assembly, he adopted a reticent attitude and made equivocating
statements. He gave particulars purporting to show the amounts paid as
postage in respect of certain newspapers controlled by him, and on
further interrogation by the House of Assembly admitted that the
journals paid no postage.

Meanwhile, publishers in both Lower and Upper Canada also were working
for the abolition of the Deputy