Archives Canada often tosses up fascinating tidbits when I troll through their holdings. A while back, while researching an aviation article, I came across wanted posters for mail robberies. That grabbed my attention. Hours later, I re-emerged with a couple of new article ideas.

The first tale of mail robbery I examined became into last month’s The (not so great) Canadian train robbery . This month? We’re looking at a felonious act against Her Majesty’s mail. No, not Elizabeth, Victoria plus a possible connection to a great Canadian scandal.

Felonious Theft

While looking through about 100 years of notifications, mail theft doesn’t appear to be common, and when it occurred large rewards were offered. This is my favourite: 

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas a BAG or SACK, containing a portion of HER MAJESTY’S MAIL, on its way from Montreal to Berthier, was feloniously carried off from the shore of Repentigny, near Deschamp’s Hotel, on MONDAY EVENING, the Third December instant; the said Bag being found the next Morning, opposite Vercheres, on a floating piece of ice, cut open and the contents rifled. Now Know Ye, that REWARD of ONE HUNDRED POUNDS, of lawful money of OUR said Province, will be paid to any person or persons, not being the actual offender or Offenders, who will give such information as will lead to the discovery, apprehension, and conviction the perpetrator or perpetrator of the said Robbery.
The Canada Gazette, Saturday, December 29, 1849

Yes, mail was “feloniously carried off” and left on an ice flow after the robbery. Given the hefty reward, I’d be shocked if someone didn’t turn the thieves in. But I could find no reference to the reward being paid out.

Why rob mail bags? Cash, gold, and other valuables were often transported via mail and presented rich pickings. Later thefts, for example, which occurred in 1924, scored the thieves a nice $38,600 from a post office in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and $4,000 from Biggar, Saskatchewan. So, yes, very tempting targets.

Do I smell a whiff of scandal?

The second mail theft has an intriguing political smell to it. It involves a mail theft and Sir John A MacDonald. For those not familiar with Canadian politics, or the political scandals and intrigues from the era, let me lay out the basics for you.

Cast of characters:

• Sir John A MacDonald (Sir John A) – Canada’s first Prime Minister. Member of Conservative Party.
• Sir Joseph Pope (Hon. J. Pope), member of  Conservative Party. Would go on to become Sir John A’s private secretary in 1882.
• Hon. Hope, MP, member of Liberal Party. Opponent of Sir John A.
• The year – 1873 during the height of the Pacific Scandal that would take down the entire ruling MacDonald government.

How best to describe the Pacific Scandal? The story gets a bit messy in details, so if you are interested, Pacific Railway Scandal (cbc.ca) has a good, brief synopsis of the event. A briefer description would be “graft, corruption & American money bring down the Canadian government”.

At the time of the Pacific Scandal, the financial activities of political parties were mostly unregulated. (See Political Party Financing in Canada.) From Confederation until about 1897, the Liberal and Conservative parties both tended to rely on corporate donations. This led to periodic scandals. (See also Political Corruption.) Pacific Scandal | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Now back to the letter in question.

The original letter, from Sir John A to Pope was redirected to Hope (yes, my head keeps spinning with all the Hopes, Popes and Sir Johns but hang in there)  with a brief note that read “Forwarded by a friend for the information of all”.

Inside the envelope was a letter from Sir John that had originally been mailed from Ottawa and meant for Pope, who expected it on Wed. September 3^rd.  It never arrived. Instead, someone from within the post office slipped it into a new envelope and re-directed it to Liberal opponent Hope.

What’s the big deal, you ask? Mail goes missing all the time. Well, aside from the fact the Prime Minister’s mail was redirected, after it was placed into postal hands, in September 1873, MacDonald and his party were up to their eyeballs in scandal. During the summer, private correspondence was leaked to the public, detailing the corruption that would soon be known as the Pacific Scandal. The post office must have been having kittens trying to trace who intercepted this piece of mail. The post office takes a dim view of people tampering with the mail, and the $500 reward supports this. In 1873, this was nothing short of  princely sum of money.

I traced the event through years of Gazettes and found no mention of whether the reward was paid out. Whoever stole the letter and sent it to Hope stayed in the shadows. Was this attached to the Pacific Scandal? I can’t say for sure, but given the timing, I’d bet a pound of Small Queens it was. 

What was in the letter? The contents are not mentioned in any of the material I found. Mind you, as far as the post office was concerned, that was irrelevant. They were solely interested in who dunnit.

Bit of trivia

Now for a bit of fun trivia. See that stamp on the envelope? This one:

That stamp happens to be one of my passion collecting areas – Small Queens. AH HA! I just heard you say, now you know why I was so taken with this story.  Here’s one from my collection:

I have about 100 of this particular 1c, 1870 Small Queen. There are endless variations and cancels to collect so they make a fascinating area to study. It’s worth … on a good day? Well. Hard to say. I buy them in lots so not much. If you are interested in Small Queens, check out Canadian Small Queens – ink variations and Queen Victoria – Small Queen Cancels, two articles I wrote in 2015. 

BUT ….

You knew there was a but coming.

A Small Queen, on the Hope/Pope/MacDonald letter, with a possible connection to one of the biggest Canadian scandals in our early history  and involving well known political figures begs the question “how much would it go for at auction”.

Also, where is it? Is the original letter in the Archives or was it returned and destroyed? My geeky heart cries when I think of what may have happened to it and would love to see if it still exists. One day, I’m going to take a vacation to Ottawa and spend a week or two in the archives researching this, and other intriguing bits of Canadian postal history.

In the meantime, we have to satisfy ourselves with poor facsimiles of the originals and our imaginations. Drop a comment below and speculate about how much this beauty would go for at auction. I’d love to hear what you think.

I’m already working on more articles dealing with early postal thefts and frauds. I’m currently researching a mail train robbery that took place in  Australia. If you know of an event in your country, let me know. If I can find enough information, I may be able to write about it.

Cheers for now.
Catpaw

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