_Q._ How long are those taxes to continue?
_A._ Those for discharging the debt are to continue till 1772, and longer, if the debt should not be then all discharged. The others must always continue.
_Q._ Was it not expected that the debt would have been sooner discharged?
_A._ It was, when the peace was made with France and Spain. But a fresh war breaking out with the Indians, a fresh load of debt was incurred; and the taxes, of course, continued longer by a new law.
_Q._ Are not all the people very able to pay those taxes?
_A._ No. The frontier counties, all along the continent, having been frequently ravaged by the enemy and greatly impoverished, are able to pay very little tax. And therefore, in consideration of their distresses, our late tax laws do expressly favour those counties, excusing the sufferers; and I suppose the same is done in other governments.
_Q._ Are not you concerned in the management of the _post-office_ in America?
_A._ Yes. I am deputy post-master general of North America.
_Q._ Don't you think the distribution of stamps _by post_ to all the inhabitants very practicable, if there was no opposition?
_A._ The posts only go along the sea-coasts; they do not, except in a few instances, go back into the country; and if they did, sending for stamps by post would occasion an expence of postage, amounting, in many cases, to much more than that of the stamps themselves.
_Q._ Are you acquainted with Newfoundland?
_Q._ Do you know whether there are any post-roads on that island?
_A._ I have heard that there are no roads at all, but that the communication between one settlement and another is by sea only.
_Q._ Can you disperse the stamps by post in Canada?
_A._ There is only a post between Montreal and Quebec. The inhabitants live so scattered and remote from each other in that vast country, that posts cannot be supported among them, and therefore they cannot get stamps per post. The _English colonies_ too along the frontiers are very thinly settled.
_Q._ From the thinness of the back settlements, would not the stamp act be extremely inconvenient to the inhabitants, if executed?
_A._ To be sure it would; as many of the inhabitants could not get stamps when they had occasion for them, without taking long journeys, and spending perhaps three or four pounds, that the crown might get six-pence.