Chapter XVI: The "tercentenary" Issue of 1908

It may be remembered, perhaps, that in our introductory chapter we noted the fact that the first permanent settlement in Canada was made by Champlain at Quebec in 1608. As the year 1908 approached, the idea of celebrating in proper manner the three hundredth anniversary of this event was strongly agitated, particularly by the French population of the Province of Quebec. Plans were formed and materialized in the shape of fetes, historical pageants, etc., which took place at Quebec in July, 1908, and to be present at which the Prince and Princess of Wales made a special trip across the Atlantic in one of Britain's most powerful warships.

In view of former precedents it was to be expected that the Canadian Post Office Department would also celebrate in a fitting way, and although a new Postmaster General had taken the place of Sir William Mulock, he nevertheless arose to the occasion as the following newspaper despatch shows:--

QUEBEC, March 31.--Hon. Rudolphe Lemieux, Postmaster Gen. of Canada,
announces that a series of postage stamps commemorative of the
Champlain tercentenary will be issued at Ottawa on the third of
July, which marks the exact anniversary of the foundation of Quebec
by Champlain.

No sooner was this fact made known than the Postmaster General was showered with suggestions of all kinds as to the designs of stamps appropriate to the occasion. But after the first announcement the Post Office Department was very reticent in regard to the matter, and letters of enquiry concerning the proposed issue were answered as evasively as possible.

At last the veil was lifted and the following despatch to the _Toronto Globe_[186] gave definite information concerning the proposed issue:--

OTTAWA, July 3, (Special).--Postmaster-General Lemieux has given
instructions to issue a series of postage stamps commemorating the
tercentenary.

They are eight in number. Four of them bear portraits of persons
dear to Canada, or whose names recall great events. The first
represents the Prince and Princess of Wales; the second the King and
Queen. Next come Cartier and Champlain, and then, in connection with
the battlefields park scheme, Wolfe and Montcalm.

The second part of the issue represents Cartier's arrival before
Quebec. On the calm waters of the mighty St. Lawrence stand in bold
relief three ships of the discoverer of Canada, flying the
fleur-de-lys.

As a sequel to the above is a very picturesque tableau. In
Champlain's narrative of his third voyage to Canada is found the
following passage:

"With our canoes laden with provisions, our arms and some
merchandise to be given as presents to the Indians, I started on
Monday, May 27, from the Isle of Saincte H['e]laine, accompanied by
four Frenchmen and one Indian. A salute was given in my honor from
some small pieces of artillery."

The artist, under the inspiration of these few lines, has depicted
Champlain's departure for the west. There stand two canoes. In one
Champlain's companions have already taken their places, paddle in
hand, whilst the great explorer is still on shore, bidding good-bye
to a few friends. The picture is full of life. The legend underneath
reads as follows: "Partement de Champlain pour L'ouest." The word
"partement", now obsolete, is the one used by Champlain for the
modern one "d['e]part."

The same note of old France is used in connection with a view of the
first house in Quebec, indeed in Canada, Champlain's habitation,
which is called in his narrative "l'abitation de Qu['e]becq." This
stamp is a clear reproduction of a cut from Champlain's work.

Quebec as it was in 1700 is the next view, copied from Bacqueville
de la Potherie's "Histoire de la Nouvelle France." It is a quaint
picture of the old city, showing steeples here and there, the fort
on the river front and in faint lines the Laurentide Mountains in
the background.

All stamps bear with the words "Canada Postage" the line "IIIe
centenaire de Qu['e]bec."

The postmaster-general has given special attention to the selection
of portraits and historical scenes to be represented. His choice has
been an excellent one.

The carrying out of the engraving part of the plan has been
entrusted to Mr. Machado, of the American Bank Note Co., who, with
keen artistic sense, has performed his part of the work with great
success.

[186] =Ewen's Weekly Stamp News=, No. 462.

Excellent reproductions of this attractive series will be found as Nos. 46-53 on Plate III.

The stamps were placed on sale at Ottawa on the 16th July. They are of the same shape as the Jubilee issue, though the dimensions are 1 mm. higher and nearly 3 mm. longer. The designs are as already described, except that the legend "Partement pour l'ouest" does not have Champlain's name in it, and the dates 1608 and 1908 are placed in the upper corners. The colors do not wholly correspond with the regular set; the 1, 2 and 5 cent naturally conform, but the 1/2 cent is in a black-brown and the 7 cent in the fine olive green of the regular 20 cent. The 10 cent is also changed to a handsome violet, while the 15 cent is in orange and the 20 cent in a dark brown.

The stamps are beautifully engraved, as usual, and printed in sheets of 100, ten rows of ten. Above the 5th and 6th stamps of the top row is the regular marginal imprint: "OTTAWA--No.--" and the figure representing the plate number. A peculiar variety has been recorded, however, in the sheets of the 2 cent value, some of those with plate numbers 3 and 4 having the imprint _inverted_ in the _bottom_ margin of the sheet.[187] As it occurs both ways, the only explanation seems to be that the plates may have printed _two panes_, which were afterwards separated into post office sheets of 100 stamps each, and that by error, perhaps, the imprint was inverted on one of these panes.

[187] =Ewen's Weekly Stamp News=, Nos. 478, 480.

The plate numbers of the several values are as follows:--

Plate No. 1. 1/2c., 7c., 10c., 15c., 20c.
" Nos. 1, 2. 5c.
" Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1c., 2c.

The stamps are on stout white wove paper and perforated 12.

It may not be out of place to further describe some of the designs of these stamps because of their historical interest. Of course the portraits of the British Royal Family are familiar, that of the Princess of Wales being the one used on the handsome 4 cent stamp of Newfoundland, and that of the Prince of Wales being from a photograph taken by W. and D. Downey of London, just before the Prince's journey to India in 1906. The portrait of Cartier will also be recognized as the one that appeared on the early 10d. stamp of the Province of Canada.

Concerning the picture on the 20 cent stamp, "Arriv['e]e de Cartier, Qu['e]bec 1535," we find some interesting details given by M. Th. Lemaire:[188]--

In 1533 Jacques Cartier obtained from Philippe de Chabot, Admiral of
France, authority to arm ships "to voyage, discover and conquer in
New France, as well as to find, by the North-west, the passage to
Cathay." On his first voyage he touched Newfoundland, but the
advanced season obliged him to return to France. King Francis I
thereupon ordered him, as a "royal pilot", to arm three vessels for
a second voyage. On the 19th of May, 1535, the flotilla set out from
St. Malo. It was composed of two ships, the _Grande-Hermine_ of 120
tons and the _Petit-Hermine_ of 80 tons, and a galley, the
_H['e]merillon_, of 40 tons. These are the ones shown on the stamp.
The ships were built with the high bows and sterns of those days,
and were armed with "falconets" (small cannon) along the sides and
"culverins" (long cannon) in a battery on the bridge. The galley was
long and narrow, low in the water, and was propelled both by sails
and oars; it was armed with two small cannon forward and a dozen
large arquebuses. The complement of the three ships comprised in
all--officers, gentlemen, volunteers, chaplains, sailors, workmen,
servants--a hundred and ten men.

On the 14th September, Cartier arrived at an Indian village,
Stadacon['e], called also by the natives Canada (or _the town_), the
residence of the chief Donnacona. This village was built on the bay
which the river St. Charles forms where it flows into the St.
Lawrence, against the steep flank of a mountain, on the spot where
now is built the south-eastern section of Quebec. The 20-cent stamp
represents this arrival of Cartier at Stadacon['e], the future
Quebec.

Samuel de Champlain, whose effigy figures on the 1 cent stamp beside
that of Cartier, was sent by Henri IV in 1603 to found a settlement
in Canada. On his first voyage he sailed up the St. Lawrence river
and established friendly relations with the native chiefs. On the
second expedition, in 1608, he disembarked on the 3d July at the
foot of the promontory of Stadacon['e], accompanied by only thirty
men.

His first care was to find a favorable place to built a "habitation"
with a view to wintering there. "I could find nothing more
convenient or better situated, said he, than the point of
Qu['e]becq, so called by the savages, which was filled with walnut
trees." It was on the same spot where, seventy-three years before,
Cartier had constructed a fort of tree trunks.

Thanks to the activity displayed by all, the "habitation" was
quickly finished. It was composed of three main houses of two
stories, each measuring fifteen by eighteen feet. The magazine was
thirty-six by eighteen feet, with a six foot cellar. Champlain
lodged in the same building with part of the workmen, but on the
first story. The other buildings served for the workmen and for
storing the arms and munitions. In an ell back of Champlain's
quarters, several artisans slept beside their forge. All around the
buildings a gallery six feet wide served as a promenade. A ditch
fifteen feet wide and six feet deep served to protect the colonists
from the aggressions of the savages. Champlain had several
breastworks thrown up outside the ditch where he placed his cannon.
There remained, between the habitation and the river, only a strip
of land about twenty-five feet wide, and behind, on the side of the
cape, a plot of cultivated ground about 100 to 120 paces by 60
paces. There Champlain had wheat and rye planted and also set out
vines.

[188] =Journal des Philat['e]listes=, 5th Series, page 298.

As with the Jubilee stamps, some special sets were made up for presentation purposes. The following press clipping gives the details:[189]--

As the Prince of Wales is an enthusiastic collector of stamps, His
Royal Highness will no doubt be very pleased to receive the set of
the special tercentenary stamps which will be presented to him at
Quebec. The stamps will be held in small gold boxes, enclosed in a
handsome large box of Morocco leather. A second set accompanies the
gift in a special gold box. On the cover of the large box is the
Prince's crest and a gold plate inscribed as follows: "Set of
Canadian postage stamps issued upon the occasion of the Quebec
tercentenary, 1908. Presented to His Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales by Hon Rodolphe Lemieux, Postmaster-General of Canada." Sets
of these stamps, in boxes with appropriate crests and monograms,
will be presented to Earl Grey, Sir Wilfred Laurier and Hon.
Rodolphe Lemieux.

[189] =Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News=, XXII: 265.

Unlike the Jubilee issue, no advance information concerning quantities printed was given out. Many attempts were made to get this interesting detail, but without result. Even an interpellation of the Postmaster-General in the House of Commons was unproductive, as witness the following excerpt:[190]--

Mr. McKechnie sends us information regarding the issue, indicating
that there is to be no such vexatious limits set upon the number to
be printed as was the case with the Jubilee 1/2c. Postmaster-General
Lemieux is reported, in the _Canadian Hansard_, to have said in
answer to a query as to the number printed of each denomination:
"Since the arrangements as to the respective quantities comprising
the series are thus far of a necessarily tentative character, being
largely dependent upon the demand therefor that may arise, no final
estimate has been made of the number to be issued in each
denomination."

[190] =Canadian Hansard=, 31st March, 1909, page 3754.

All of which was simply a parliamentary way of saying "mind your own business", as the full quota of stamps was doubtless printed and delivered at that time. At any rate, a _Memorandum for the Postmaster_, issued from headquarters under date of 12th September, 1908, states that "With the exception of the 10c, 15c and 20c stamps, all of the Tercentenary postage stamps are now exhausted." However, the question of the quantity issued was again brought up in the House of Commons, after some time, and the following two questions propounded by a member:[191]--

1. What was the total amount received by the Post Office Department
from the sale of the special Tercentenary stamps? 2. What part of
this sum would probably have been received as ordinary revenue if
there had been no special issue of stamps?

To these questions the Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux, Postmaster-General,
responded: The following was the issue to Postmasters of the
Tercentenary postage stamps:

Denominations. Quantities. Value.
1/2 cent 2,000,000 $10,000
1 " 22,530,000 225,300
2 " 35,100,000 702,000
5 " 1,200,000 60,000
7 " 700,000 49,000
10 " 500,000 50,000
15 " 300,000 45,000
20 " 304,200 60,840
---------- ---------
Totals, 62,634,200 $1,202,140

The department has no knowledge whether the stamps in question have
all been sold, as during their issue the ordinary postage stamps
were also on sale, both issues being in use as preferred by the
public. The proceeds derived from the sale of stamps of the two
issues were not kept separately, but treated as arising from a
common source. It is, therefore, impossible to state to what extent
the issue of the Tercentenary postage stamps may have affected the
ordinary revenue.

[191] =Ibid.=, XXII: 256.

The Report of 1909, in referring to this issue, had the following remarks:--

To meet what appeared to be a general wish a special series of
postage stamps, which has come to be known as the Tercentenary
Series, was introduced as a feature of the celebration in July,
1908, of the three hundredth anniversary of the founding of Quebec
by Champlain. The first supply of these stamps was sent out to
Postmasters about the middle of that month, and was on sale to the
public by the time His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales reached
Quebec for the celebration. The demand for the new stamps was
extraordinary, and for the better part of a month was steadily kept
up. The interest taken in them was, in no small measure, due to the
historic associations with which in design they were so happily
linked, the subjects depicted in the several denominations of the
series being in variety and appropriateness admirably adapted to the
end in view,--popular recognition of an epoch-making event.

The Report of 1910 notes that the last issue of the Tercentenary stamps was on Oct. 14, 1908,--apparently the 15 cent denomination. The whole issue was thus exhausted in three months' time.