HC Deb 20 February 1846 vol 83 cc1262-3
MR. ROEBUCK

said, that he wished to put a question to the right hon. Baronet the First Lord of the Treasury; and in order to explain the question, it would be necessary that he should trouble the House with half a dozen words. The House was aware that the authority of the Post Office of England extended to the Colonies, but that by Act of Parliament the power of the Post Office authorities was defined and restricted within certain limits. Many of the inhabitants of Canada were desirous that the system of penny postage which had been established in England should be extended to Canada; and the question which he had to put was, whether there was any possibility of an arrangement by which the benefit of the penny postage could be extended to that Colony?

SIR R. PEEL

said, that the question put by the hon. and learned Gentleman would better form the subject of an official communication than of a question in that House. The considerations which affected the postal arrangements with the Colonies were of a very complicated character. Thus, for instance, with regard to Canada: first, there was to be considered the communication between the mother country and Canada; then came the internal communication within the Colony itself; and lastly, the postal communications with other portions of our North American Colonies. Now, though there was some objection upon the part of Canada, it certainly, as a general rule, seemed advantageous—even to the Colony itself—that all these arrangements should be upon one footing, and placed under one superintendence. The hon. and learned Gentleman would, therefore, see the difficulties which beset the arrangements which, on behalf of the people of Canada, he had suggested. It was quite impossible that the Government could at once undertake to give a precise answer to the question; and the most advisable course for the inhabitants of Canada would be to communicate their wishes through the Governor General of Canada; and their communications should receive the most considerate attention on the part of the Government at home.