38 Hours to Montreal

William Weller and the Governor General's Race of 1840

Governor General Charles Poulett Thomson is in a hurry. In response to the Rebellion of 1837-38, he has been urgently tasked by his masters in England to modernize and improve the governments in the Canadian colonies. In just three months in Toronto, the governor general has managed to pass all the legislation he wants, but with politics heating up in Quebec and his bosses in England dangling a peerage over his head, now he must get to Montreal as fast as he can to do the same thing there. Enter “The Stagecoach King,” William Weller, who is famous for operating the Royal Mail Line of stages between Toronto and Montreal. Weller utilizes a complex system of stage stops staffed with experienced workers and is confident he can take the governor general to Montreal in under thirty-eight hours. Driving a very unique sleigh, specially modified for this trip, Weller pilots the governor general and his aid-de-camp Captain Thomas Le Marchant over 370 miles of snowy and muddy roads, avoiding dangerous obstacles and constantly moving forward. In a meticulously researched account of this epic trek, author Dan Buchanan brings the reader along on a breathlessly exciting journey that intricately explores Canadian history through the people, places, and buildings that existed along those treacherous roads in 1840.