It is difficult to see how Franklin, who of all men of his generation knew best the requirements of a highly developed industrial community, could believe that the necessities for the interchange of correspondence on the part of a people like the American colonists could be satisfied by private messengers, or travelling friends, or indeed by any agency less comprehensive than a national postal system. FOOTNOTES: [66] _Can. Arch._. C. 11, LXIV. 110 (Report of progress by grand voyer). [67] _Memoires de la Societe Historique de Montreal_, 1870, pt. 5. I. 150. [68] _Ordonnances des Intendants_, I. 54, and IX. 109. [69] _Public Archives of Can._, C. 11, X. 338. [70] Order of lieutenant governor Burton, to the _maitres de poste_ (_Memoires de la Societe Historique de Montreal_, 1870, pt. 5. I. 268). [71] G.P.O., _Treasury_, 1760-1771, p. 99. [72] _Imperial Statutes_, 5, Geo. III. c. 25. [73] Journal kept by Hugh Finlay, surveyor of the post roads on the continent of North America, 1773-1774 (published by Frank H. Norton, Brooklyn, 1867). [74] G.P.O., _General Account Book_, Account April 5, 1765. [75] _Ibid._, Account April 5, 1769. The net revenue for the four years ending 1768 was L1684. [76] _Quebec Gazette_, February 16, 1767. [77] Finlay's _Journal_. [78] _Lettres, Instructions et Memoires de Colbert_, tome iii. pp. 514 and 520. [79] _Census of Canada_, 1870-1871, p. xvi. [80] _C. O._ 5, XIV. 300 (_Can. Arch._). [81] _Can. Arch._, B. 26, p. 54. [82] _Can. Arch._, B. 26, p. 75. [83] Finlay's _Journal_, Brooklyn, 1867. [84] _Life of Sir Rowland Hill and Hist. of Penny Postage_, by G. Birkbeck Hill, 1880, I. 301. [85] Cf. Porritt, _The Unreformed House of Commons_, I. 16-17. CHAPTER IV The post office during the Revolution--Its suppression. But the time was well past when the question as to what was or what was not an allowable tax possessed any but an academic interest. Though the stamp act was repealed a few months after it went into operation, the trouble it aroused was not allayed. The gratitude of the colonists which followed upon the repeal gave way to renewed irritation when it was found that the ministry in London had only postponed, not definitely abandoned, its schemes of taxation, and the late triumph gave vigour to the determination of the colonists to continue their resistance. Step followed step. All went to widen the breach, and diminish the chances of a peaceful settlement. The post office soon became involved. As we have seen, the ministry endeavoured to convict the colonists of, at least, inconsistency when they objected to the stamp act, while tolerating the post office. Franklin explained what seemed to him the points of difference between the two things, without convincing the ministry.