The Sun. — London, England, 1852-04-23 00:00:00

culation—but he would not put that 1001. into his own pocket; competition would force him to lay it out in the improverneet of those publications, and he would expend it in a higher order of authorship and better li terary talent than he was able to employ at present. It Was a monstrous thing that, to issue penny publications in this country—such a publication as the Popular Edu cator, or the Working Man's Friend—a man should be called upon to hand over week by week to the Gisvere bent 401. or 501., the fund out of which authorship would be paid. A man who did not care what he pub lished, and who only looked to cheapness and issuing translations from French novels, and a variety of toit tFrs that appealed to the passions, for the purposege: • large circulation, might copy what he wanted from Works, and the paper duty which he pa id did h" not d is other stand in the way of his penny publications, because Want any fund out of which to p a y authorship; but if they wished to meet that qeestion in themark-thaats, asto circulating those publtea""' which ai w.,r find out of which ~ they were cheap. they must crease higher order of lite e a _authorship should be p'i't, and rary talent should be empleyed. H. had received a let ter from a gentleman -who he was surf' the House would admit - was a high authori t y on this subject—Mr. C. Knight. It wee da ed Fleet-street, the 19th of April, 1852 He had published ' n one or tw o excellent pam , phlets on the question o f the piper du t y, known by the - name of " The Struggles of a Bonk against Taxation," and also the case of authors iu reference to the paper duty, and he said: — "It is diffieult to add anything new to the arguments which have been urged in the House of Cemmous and by other modes for the abolition of the paper duty. A few points have struck me in addition to what I have written on the subject. Amid much which is injurious or frivolous in cheap publications, I think there is a manifest tendency towards the moral and intellectual improve ment of the general character of our popular lit- rature. The conductors of periodical works almost exclusively addressed to the working classes, as they are termed, appear to me to have conatnenced ceasing to think that it is necessary to write down to their readers. As a neut ral consequence of this tendency, writers of information and ability are more needed, perhaps more employed. But this tendency is counteracted by the paper-duty. I will explain myself as briefly as I can. It 2501. be given for the authorship of a large octavo volume, it operates as a charge of 51. per copy if 1,000 copies be printed, and the book must be high priced; but if 10,000 be printed, the authorship only enters into price at the rate of 6d. per copy, and the book may be low-priced. But the psper-duty upon such a volume amounts to 6d. per copy, whether 1,000 or 10,000 be printed; and it 10,000 be printed, amounts to as much as the author ship. Reduce the payment of authorship, and the value of the book is injured; take away the paper. duty, and you neither lower the quality nor limit the sate of the book. There is, tnen, a fund for the better remuneration of that labour which is to raise the quality and extend the sale, and thus ad Vance the great end of all popular literature—the diffu - aion of knowledge and the elevation of the moral and religious character of a people. But it is said that the repeal of the paper-tex would only operate as a b ems to Publishers, without lowering the price or books to the Public. I believe that the ordinary effects of competition would determine this doubt very satisitietorily. It is possible that there might be no direct lowering of price is many assets of low-priced books, but I am sure that there would be an improvement of quality. The number Of printed pages sold tor Is. might be the same as now. but there would be better paper, better type, and, what IS more important, improved authorship. Publishers of Very cheap books would look for something to publish having a copyright value, instead of bad translations and hackneyed reprints. Beyond this, large undertakings, of which we have very few now, world have a greater encouragement were the paper-duty repealed, for the price of voluminous works could be directly lowered and their sale consequently increased. I will give an ex ample. g have determined to bring out a new Cyclopedia 'the Imperial—founded upon the Penny Cyclopedia. It Will form 20 volumes. If I print 5 000 copies, the taxed Paper would cost 12 0001., of which the actual duty Would amount to 2.2501., and the direct and indi rect additions to cost, (meat quent upon the duty, would, its I believe. double the tax. Los king at ihe operation Of the coat of paper alone, I could reduce the price of the book 5 per cent. to the subscritn-rs it the tax were removed; but, taking into consideraiion the feet that I Could then print 1,000 copies at the price at which I c ould t. stereotype the 20 volumes (which process is c ,. 11 ' 0 9 employed to save the ou tl ay of cspital in taxed rPer), I could reduce the price 10 per cent. The effects „ it , e llen a tax upon prices are not to be measured by its lireot amount. Fur extimple it may be said that the ura whack of duty upon exported bodes allows the fo . reit, uers to be charged as low a pric e a s if t h e paper „ .. e untaxed. This ie re ally not the case. The draw back am t , ll PY. represents the positive tax, and not the in tax. Assume that I ere -- ,V i ce - consequent upon the publisherell ° 4 copies es of my Cyclopeedia to an American per copy, the taxed paper costing me p l, i ool , I obtain drawback of 2251., which le duces the price of the 500 copies to 2175/, at which rate they were 2271 .i ed, adds The American tariff of 10 per cent. 9 • ' O4 to the importer's ouilay, making a total of et s o2/ sid e . ',IN. But if I ceuld buy my paper untaxed, I con ' test I should save, in various ways, 4501., so that I truiy_ht reduce th e p r i ce t o 41. 2s. per copy, to which the a i'u Would add 2051. The importer woule therefore save 2471,105. That advantage to the importer of 10 per cent. wouldsAl probably double my sale in The United States. e portion of the advantage would be the deninishs d amount of tax which he would pay to his own Govern• ! ne at- The direct tax and its collateral effects, in one e lintry produce si m il a r effects in another country, rais ing the price to the consumer, and thus narrowing the market of the producer. The chief argument which I have Constantly urged for the repeal of the paper-duty la, that the tax bears most unequally upon the lower , - Priced publications, as compared with the higher-priced, and therefore interferes injuriously with the education of t he people. Upon the wholesale price of a modern revel it is 14 per cent. Upon Mr. Dickens's Ronsehold Words it is 12 per cent.; it is 2t per cent. no on th: ,, Quarterly R ev i ew; it is 17 per cent. upon Chambers 's Papers f or the People. Look at the inequality as re g a i ds " two latter examples of periodical works, addressed to different classes of the community. 1 000 copies of One number of the Review, sold for 65., pay a duty of 4/ 149.; 1,000 copies of one unbound volume of the fryers, sold for Bd., pay a duty of 31 6s. It there were • an ad valorem duty of 5 par cent, upon all printed bucks, 1,00 0 copies of the Review would pay 15 1 , and 1 . 000 copies of the Papers would pray 11. 13.1. 41. It is estimated that the annual sales '0 eli books and Periodical works, not newspapers, amount, at ' • the retail price, to 2,000,0001. An ad valorem 'tamp of 5 per cent. would raise as much as the • I)pser duty upon printed books, and would operate less .injuriously. Capital would not be locked up in tax, for the stamp would be demanded as the demand for copies went on; and the manufacturer's and stationer's profit upon the tax would be got rid of. The public would then really understand that a tax upon paper is a tax upon , knowledge, and would not be deceived into a belief that because it enters into the price of a 12s. volume to the extent only of 6d, its removal would not benefit the great and increasing body of book purchasers. Such a T " ole of l evy i ng a tax upon literature would b e more ob ua than th e p a p er d uty t h oug h l ess h arm f u l ; b u t there would be justice in the principle instead of gross - inneeslthealatutgallotfre existing law." in their de tarestt a made it clear that if they were sincere that sincerity by Spread education, they ought to evince or traeeng a consumer. off this paper duty. It was not portant national quest c t l a ueetion, it was a moral and im- the people to read tf tee m d . lt was monstrous to teach all they could to improve .10:1 not at the 'mole time do d the • were likely to peruse, eitd t t e ,e ,, stuality of the books they 81:10p•pmeatinted fur knowledge publi cations was so great, e e same . kind or other sea , et the extensive transaction s strongly evinced by the that branch of bu si ness, that ~_te men engaged in there would not be an ezteeeiva y & toast not suppose kind of cheap literature or other. Irculation of some c i e a rtainty, and, quality of that a matter of doubt —it was a matter of That was no longer therefore. every wellwisher of the real e-est of the • country must desire that the literature which was circulated should be ee goo d a He had dealt w* B it could be rendered.—(islear•) • glad to rt the n tt ,,, s- eer duty at the same time with the adverttsemsnt an d hewapanur stamp duties, because they had originated at - • -- should thearne he e d that be time,had been put on together,adamndit take them off together. lie th e duty on paper, amounting to about 800,090 t. a year, th ough a against the moral improvement of small sum to he set for him to ask the Hou se the people, was too large a sum re g rd to the advertise .. to repeal. The resolutions ind 1 eot: him to apply for an • hint and stamp duties (retie u r immediate repeel; oiniou that it but the resolution as to the paper duty only called upon them to giv e their p - sent tax. Ile had Was not fit to be continued as a petneeh a . great suspicion that the paper duty, under . the ape m ous disguiao of raising money for carrying , on the really was part of a system for the purpose of restrain ing literature and keeping down the press. Those duties being enacted in the same year, he could not help thinking that perhaps the same Motive• that had actuated Parliament as to the paper •• duty had actuated them is enacting the advertisement and stamp duties. Now. the advertisement duty amounted to 150,0001, or, if they pleased, 160 000/., a year. Was that a large sum to be trightened at when t hey talked of repealing duties, considering how large a surplus revenue they had, and censidering that this tax °pen advertisements struck, as he believed, more than an ything that existed, at the very revenue they proposed to increase by it ?—(Hear, hear.) A tax noon adver . "sernentsl—that no man might way what he wished and what he wanted to be known in th e wa y o f b us ii ess tr ansactions in print and in a newspaper, but he mu s t be Utd is. 6d. each time he did so. It he said,• sibl was, eto conceive a more stupid tax. If he wanted a mode for lessening the public revenue he would augge,t mode which lessened traussctione between mess and the means of making their mutual wants known to e a c h Ot her, Which l essene d in fact, trade, consu m pti on , em l3ieement, and revenue; and he would undertake to say that if they repealed this advertisement duty, they (Hear.) n ever know it i n t h e i r nex t y ear ' s revenue,— ‘ e ar.) But, if that were true, could there be conceived "anything more unjust than to say to a poor servant _girl who wante d a place, You want a place—if you stakeex_ it kn own to the world by the only means that case you must be fi ne d I s . 63. each time?" Take the of ilhip2 merchants' time connected with • sal es of every kind. transac • Could ay n anything be more obvious t han that Preventing the knowledge of what was going on was the of commercial surest mode of preventing the improvement There transactions and of the public revenue? luau was nothing one man wanted to sell but another , could be found Jild wanting to buy it; and, it they were l elhne, they se, t .old not stand in the way of' those mu tual wants beingunavoidabl Made known ; the difficulties that were States of wete great enough. Look at the United rtt _America. - They had 10 000,000 of advertise- Vats ist their newbpapoes in a year. In England there THE SUN, were on. l y 2, 000 000. 8 ; 000.000 wore knocked off by the I advertisement duty; and wile were the advertisers who i had to pay each time ls. 61.? The poorest of the Th o e n r iy ich pai a d d ho T t b ro e ok p ip re,.,s poorest o l s u e m r v n an o t f people. g th ir e l ,Twiinhoes'only took a line of the paper, paid just as much. There was no justice in the tax it:telt when, considered in principle; but the inequality was most glaring—it was not founded on equality in the distri.. bution of its burden or upon sound principle, because, whether a person advertised in a paper Of large or smetll publication, he was fined Is. 61 every time he made known his wishes. H could no: believe that t b ; i c n o g m s m sb ,r o d u i l a d l p p e u r r s p is o t se i a n 4 m n a ct in so ta u i ti o d ing the raising of 150.0001. co u ld b e a reason w hy r ational a tax so opposed principles of legisla tion. They might +advertise on -a well, in ,an omnibus, or by the advertising veer., anti no d u ty w as imposed; htv lit them go to a newspaper, and they were fined Is. 61. Now, the advertisement fund was a legitimate fluid for supporting newspapeie, and, if they drove men from newsp Teta by saying they should pay Is. 6d, fine, they took the most; direct and effectual mode for minting the newspaper press. It was impossible to have au independent press unless they allowed , the legi timate food to flew for its is etrishment. Bet, after all, what was an advertisement? The House did not know, nor did the Beard of Inland Revenue. It was the most strange tax he had ever had to consider. There was the Daily News newspaper. They undertook to give a list of soles that took place--not ein the form .of advertise ments—receiving nothing for it, but giving it with a view to make the piper attractive and to supply the public with useful information. The Board of Inland Revenue cause down upon them and said, " You must not put in that list, although you charge nothing for it, unless you pay ls. 6d. for each announce ment." That put an end to the plan of making the newspaper attractive and useful. Then as to ships. They might put into a newspaper an account of ships that had arrived, but they could not give a list of ships about to sail, although the intelligence was quite as im portant, without payin Is. 61. for each announcement. He would call their attention to this feet. There was Belts Life in London; in that paper there was every week a quantity of announcements which appeared to him just as much matters for the advertisement duty as those to which he had alluded. Fer example, there were lists of the matches, fighting, pedestrian, " canine fancy"—(A laugh)—and what not, that were to come off, next week or next month—aanouncements by which numbers of people were brought together at public houses and places of that kind, for the purpose of betting and spending money in various ways, to the infinite ad• advantage of publicans and other persons concerned as caterers of the entertainments provided; yet no attempt was made to apply the duty to these canine and other fancy lists, though certainly quite as much advertise mauls as any other annouutiements.—(Hear, bear.) The public information that the fight between Se-and-So for 151. aside is to come off at such a place on such a day paid no duty; bet the public information, as it appeared to hem quite as useful, that such a ship wee to sail for such a place en such a day, or such a sa l e to ta k e wss deed Is 6,1. A pataaraph in the number tit Bali's Life eefore him announced, fur t xample, that at Mr. So-and So's, in a such a street, 100 rats would be killed by such a dog in so many nit flutes: this announcement would in all probability attrsct a great number of people to the house on the occasion, and the landlord and other people concerned would reap large profits' from the en tertainment so announced; yet the announcement paid no advertisement duty; but inform the public that on such a day a sermon ivould ee preached for the relief of the sufferers by the destruction of-the Amazon, or other such calamity, or even that in certain places subscriptions would be received for such a purpose, that was an adver tisement, and the Board of Inlaad Revenue came down upon you for b. 61,—(Hear, hear.) He trusted that he might appeal to the Heuse to repeal such an advertise ment duty as this, which crippled the press, which pre vented the diffusion of a vast deal of useful information, which stood between the employer and the employed, and which, he conscientiously believed, would, if per sisted in, have a most pernicious effect in impeding the 6uccEsstul competition of this cuun ry in trade and com merce with the United Stet , sor America. He holed he might have on this occasion the support of the Noble Member for London. The Noble Lord could have no utsjeetion on fieencial grounds; ha had always professed nimaif friendly to a free press—to au independent press, and as such, he must support the present prope r sition. He also looked, as a matter of course, for the support of Hot'. Gentlemen opposite, who had promoted a vote of censure upon a Noble 51 , ,nab,r of the late Go vernment tor some transactions with a paper in Ireland, since the reason why such transactions could exist at all, why the press was venal, and took money from this person or that for writing up or down this or that prin ciple, was that by these taxes it was prevented from realising those legitimate profits -which would enable it to pursue an honourable and independent career.—( Hear, hear.) Though tnere might be among the newspapers of this country some misgivings as to the newspaper stamp question, he had not met with any newspaper that was not favourable to a repeal of the advertisement duty. It was obvious to them all, were the tax re pealed, a multitude of new advertisements would come to them. The Times, indeed, could not have more advertisements than it really had without be coming a huge book of advertisements; but there would be ample room for all its overflowings in other newspapers, and the labourers and poor servant girls, and other humble persons having their services or other commodities to dispose of, would be able at length to make their proposals public. He would now pass to the question of the newspaper stamp duty. He had said he would show that this news paper stamp duty was not a revenue question at all, and never had been imposed by the Legislature, or con tinued, nor was it so spoken of in the preamble of any of the various Acts passed, for the purpose of revenue. How then did it originate? The Parliamentary History informed us that on the 17th January, 1711, a message from the Crown was brought to that House, and at the end of the message, complaint was made of the preva lence of seditious and blasphemous publications. He found in the journals of the House the following state ment:— " Mr. Samuel St, John informed the House he bad a message— '•' Her Majesty finds it necessary to observe how great licence is taken in pubiishing false and scandalous libQls, such as are a reproach to any Goverament. This evil seems to be grown too stron , f.,r the Laws nos in force; i►. is therefore recommended to you to find a remedy equal to the mischief.'" " Common: Answer, Jan. 18, 1711. " We are very sensible how much the liberty of the press is abused by turning it into such licentiousness as is a reproach to the nation, since not only false and scan dalous libele are printed and published against your Ma jesty's Government, but the most horrid blasphemies against God and religion; and we beg leave humbly to assure your Majesty that we will do our utmost to find out a remedy equal to the mischief, and that may effec- tually cure It.' - " Some Members were so exasperated at the Dutch memorial being published in a newspaper, that on the 12th, the House being resolved into a grand Committee to consider of that part of the Queen's message to the House, the 17th of January last, which relates to the great licence t+ken in publishing false and scandalous libels, Sir Gilbert Dolbeti being the chairman, they came to these two resolutions:—' 1, That the liberty taken in printing and publishing scandalous and impious libels creates divisions among her Majesty's subjects, tend, to the disturbance of the public peace, is highly pre judic,al to her MAes'y's Govtrement, and is occa• 74011 ,- d nor want of due regulating the press; 2. That _. ~. all printing presses be regietered with the names of the owners, and plecee of abode; and thee the author, printer, and publisher of every book set his name and place of abode thereto.' These residua )ns were ordered to be reported the Tuesday following; but the said re p el was then put off till that dap be'enight, and after wards further adjourned from time to time. Sense Members having, in the grand Committee of ways and means, suggested a more effeetuel way for suppressing libels, vis e the laying a great duty on all newspapers and pamphlets?' " Among the matters of importance during this ses sion, we may justly number the proceedings of the House of Commons with relation to the press; since her Majesty's message to the House of January 17 concludes with a paragraph representing the great licenses taken in publishing false and scandalous libels, such as are a repr oac h to any Government, and recommen di ng t h em to find a remedy equal to the mischief. The meaning of But the these words in the message seems to be confined to those weekly answers this message , of upon the and daily papers and pamphlets reflecting persons and the management of the Ministry. tain that nett:Z-I'st Commons, in their address which Legislature the! blasph em i es a i wake an addition of the G. - id and religion, aid it is cer woted be more for the honour of the to this universal m a j o e r I.ffectual law for putting a stop he redressin g of but, as the person who ad ' th viande partiinhheigstitheonhgohntsthiltahltiaef; of her eneasage had only r ti u o t g i s h t t o have taken b y factious libels, I think p r Od uce his great credit in the e b , e to have proposed some removed. The law for ways by which that evil might tixing single papers having effect, as was then foreseen by man a quite contrary ,Ie intrinsiccohntry eince been found true by experic men 3 :',lr a tso ns , and hint . draw their pens on the able of their ; pr,nele°, and country would, are discouraged by this tax, which exceeds th te e x value both of the materials end , the work; a pamphlets and printed papers containing not mistaken', without example, ' public events and occurrences, tending Government, and Constitution of th,se realms ,. as' 11? hire established, °tob:3C:reViahttitl°llenla:tsruepdinaud contempt of the b and also villifyieg our hely le ;gue lat e ly . been ; small prices, published in great num. the setae slieu.d be re and it its expedient the.. ase your Majesty that it -eri, unl dt vi-r -slrained, may it therefore pis . may be enacted, y a dvie4 and cons'rt aje,ty, by and with the temp oral, ani he it matted h the King's most excellent M of the Lords spiritual and and Commons. in this present Parliament assemble d, end . b autho rity of the same, that from and after ten days passing of this Act, all pamphlets an d pap y after the the e rs containing any public news, intellegence, or occurrence, or any ~rem arks or observations thereon, or upon any ma tters Church or State, printsd in any part of the United Kingdom for sale, and published periodically, or in parts or numbers, at intervals net exceeding 26 days between the publication of tiny ,two such pamphlets, or papers, parts, or numbers," &,. Atter these proceedings a Bill passed imposing, by the same enactment, a peer duty, a newspaper stamp duty, and an advertisement duty; it was found, in short, that the most effectual way of doing the work of the censor was ny t axat i on . R hive to the subject, Dan Swift ha , l some curious retearks which desi,rvcd attention. — (Hear, hear.) He contended that it had been proved by experieece that up to the present time that the impost thin of taxes on publications and papers was not the way LONDON,' to prevent either individual libels or libels on the Mi nistry, because those who were disposed to libel framed their libels in such a way that you could not touch them, wniist men of character end respectats , eisy, by whom such libellers would otherwise be met and over come in fair competition, were driven from the field by a stupid tax and thus prevented from making known the truth. The same principle had an uated the legisla ture in its proceedings up to a very recent period; when they extended the stamp duty in the reign of George 111., how did they begin to act? Was it by any decla- Lion about granting a supply to his Msjesty? Nothing of the kind, but complaint was made of the prevalence of pamphlets and printed papers tending to excite hatred of his Majesty, and contempt of the Government and Constitution, and also blaspheming the truths of our holy religion, which had been lately published at a very small price; and it was declared to be expedient to re strain the circulac ion of these. There was an idea that, although this tax was imposed for the purpose of restrain ing- the press, yet the possession of certain postal advan tages now enjoyed by it constituted a fair equivalent. But the truth was that this question of the free trans— mission of newspapers really had nothing to do with the stamp duty. They might make whatever regulations they pleased for the transmission of printed matter by post; but the question, with which he was now dealing was whether a man might be allowed to print a certain description of matter called news without a stamp. It , did not follow that, if you repealed the stamp duty, the postal regulations might not be as favourable to the press and to all printed matter, aye much more favour able, than they now were. At present some fifty. three or fifty-four papers were allowed the privilege of free transmission by post merely by paying a penny stamp on the particular portion of their im pression sent by post, and those were obliged to pay the penny duty who did not want a paper sent by post, in order that some other man might have the ad vantage of having his newspaper transmitted by post. Half the papers thus sent, or the great majority of them, were transmitted twice; there were 80.000,000 on which stamp duty was paid, and 66,000,000 transmitted by post, which, allowing for double transmissions, reduced the number posted to 33,000,000. Could there be any thing more easy than to provide that all printed matter should stand on the same footing, and that there should be a stamped wrapper for the purpose of franking it through the post? Make the charge a penny, if you pleased; he was not there to suggest postal regulations, but he was quite sure, from the evidence of Mr. Rowland Hill, before the committee of last year, that in the Post office they were very anxious to retain the carriage of printed matter, and, rather than lose it, they would be willing to carry it for the smallest possible charge, for less than a penny indeed, because, if they did not, they must compete with private agencies, and, thus com peting. they would not retain the carriage. They still stated that even if no printed matters were sent, they' would not be able to reduce to any great extent the charges of the establishment, so that all they earned under this bead was into pocket and direct gain. It was clear, therefore, that there could be no difficulty in making the arrangements consequent on ea change fiscel regulations. A man who now paid a penny for his paper being carried by a post, would buy his - paper when the stamp duty was removed for a penny less, -and . thus stand in the same Pecuniary position. Then, as regarded the man who bought a paper at second hand transmitted a second time free by post, if the tax were repealed, that man, instead ot having to wait for stale news, and buy his paper several days old, would be able to go into the market, and buy a fresh paper. He was not one of those who thought that if newspapers were to be carried by post the country ought to defray the charge. Ano ther set of postal regulations might be made to suit the altered circumstances; but, in fact, the postal question was beeide the motion he had submitted to the House, and would be easily dealt with without in the slightest way altering or iejuring the position of any parties. Did the newspaper stemp secure you against those im proper liberties spoken of by Swift, and attacks on the constitution and laws of the realm ? It did not, and even if you could enforce the law, which you were totally unable to do, the act was so framed that it did not touch -the very fish for which the net was set. The wording of the Stamp Act included publications con• taining public intelligence or occurrences, or any matters in Church or State, essays and articles giving political theories or speculations, being held not to come within its sco pe,. The Hon. Member then proceeded to read pas see„ s from several penny publiestions,such astheEnglish Republican, Notes to the People, &c., in proof ot the objectionable cuaracter of the matter printed and die-. seminated under the present state of the law. He wished to show the ex retne tally of legislative provisions which confined the people to publications of this class, instead of ree ord o spewingfth e t .. h c e u rn r r e t o n e t v a e v n e t se c o t ; e t a tre 9 t P li tlPt e egiving a proceedings in the courts of jusiice and Parliament, and the occur rences of daily life, •in which every man took a lively and domestic in.erests It was a monstrous injustice to li eco t u a ike p un e o, n we d ei i n o t g u e wgrheaacsto his was sowf goinge ofacrc on in the trade of theeu r w r e a ne e t r e y pufacilityb deprive the working man of the privilege of having a f c a e ff s e i c n t ed hisb country, with respect to emigration and the state of em ployment in various branches of industry. He con tended that there was no other mode of combating the dangerous theories circulated by a certain class of exist ing papers than by allowing them to be competed with by thetrmost interesang of publications, the newspaper. Look also at the established newspaper press. What a pernicious effect had the stamp had upon the established newspapers. There were but two newspapers in London that were increasing in circulation; all the rest were declining—year by year they got small by degrees and beautifully less, till it appeared as if in a short time, un less they ellowed a reduction to take place in the price of newspapers, so that a new and more extended field might be open to them, w e were likely to have but two newspapers, the Times and Morning Advertiser, The Times had risen teem a comparatively small circu lation to one of 12,000.000 yearly, and it would be found from the tables laid before the House at the close of the inquiry of last session, where a return was'given of all the newspaper stamps, that the Morning Chronicle, for in• stance, had a circulation under 1,000,000, the Morning Herald had a circulation of something . more than 1,000,000, whilst the Daily News had a circulation of someteing less than 2,000,000. It was remarkable that soon after the first establishment of the Daily News its price was reduced to 2id., and its circulation rose to between 3,000,000 atql 4,000,000 per annum, but on the price being ratted it tell back to the old amount. With the two exovptioris be bad mentioned none of the papers were improving. ' Wis this a satisfactory state of things? For the last sixty years no new daily paper, except the Advertiser and the Daily News, had been established; showing that the tendency of the stamp duty was to crew() a kind of monopoly in newspap. rs, and to limit the diffusi , n of news to very few hands. Ho did not charge any existing newspaper with advo vocating the maintensince of the stamp on Recount of their own vested interests. It was stated on behalf of the Times, in evidence before the Committee of which he was chairman last session, that the removal of the stamp duty would be attended with!great commercial ad vantage to the limes. They stated also that the main tenance of the present stamp law had the effect of ma terially limiting the circulation of the Times, from its operation on the supplement; and the manager of that paper, Mr. Mowbray Maurice, when examined before the Committee,. stated that if they had nothing to do but to supply the public with as many of the newspaper as they would buy, they could double th eir circulation in two years. The effect, then, of the present law was to limit the mass of circulation to two newspapers, to causo every other to decline, and to prevent the working classes from having any newspaper at all. He, there fore, asked them to repeal the newspaper stamp duty on principle. But could they-enforce this law after all? Could their law officers define its requirements! They had engaged in a .lawesuit on the question with one of the most popular writers of the day. el.r. Dickens.. The Board of Inland Revenue found out that a certain publi cation, called the Household Narrative of Current Events, published once a month, but giving a summary of news up to the most recent date, was obnoxious to its de mands. After very considerable expense had been io purred, and the parties put to great inconvenience in getting up their case and appearing in court to defend their rights, the judges decided that the Household Nar rative was not a newspaper, and that the publisher had a right to print it upoa paper free of the stamp if it did not appear oftener than once a month. The proprietors of the Household Narrative obtained a verdict, but the Attorney-General said, that not being satisfied with the decision of the judges, he should take steps to disturb it, and to ascertain whether or not the paper was liable to a stamp duty. Now, he contended this was a great grievance, for although in this case they had fallen upon a man of sufficient property and spirit to contest the question in a court of law, how many peo ple were there in the country who had either the means or the moral courage to encounter the Board of Inland Revenue in a court of law? If they insisted on im posing a tax upon such vague and undefinable things as news, and observations upon news, the law would con tinue to the end of time to be a mass of uncertainty and injustice. They were now exactly in the same position in which the Government were placed before the reduc tion of the stamp - duties in 1836, when, after 500 persons had been imprisoned for selling the Poor Man's Guardian, a court of law decided that the publication was not liable to the stamp duty, and that, therefore, the whole of the proceedings against these parties had been founded upon illegality and injustice. The same results would follow it they attempted to enforce the law as they had done in the case of Mr. Dickens.- And, after all, it was necessary to maintain the respectability of the ) aft r t et taxis g , andts should to ui (it s: e p b e p support institutionscoprueereleodn upon pon newspapers, a prosecutingn d religion, owr that n oi tt it was t t o he t , le c ir o n na ly w e i u „mhzo,uisiedrobz,le.ft to the Board ' of Inland Revenue? Were cations should be - proceeded parties to whom the guardianship of re ligion and of our ii.istitutions should be encrusted ? If allowed to violate pan them, as it was clearly proved . tt.e that it did, to decide what publi before pi t r h oceeded against and what should be • with parties, not accordingpress, and were of G the inw ' they it might b© in had times, species of censors were thus sot up as a to the letter of the law, but in accordance with the wishes left to deal of the Ministry of the da'y, try who might desire that'poarrtiocf particular party in the coun tlettaerr thing for the te suppressed. It was a most dangerouslpublications should Government not to enforce the but that if they exceeded them ept in wi a thin ceer otfhtehe law in every press, telling case, bat to hold it in terrorum over them that they might break it if they k conceivemdatnonber cer tain limits,ch t Board of Inlan d proceeded Revenueagainst. dangerous to religion and the institutions of the coun try,Bat could any -one believe that Government would, in 1852, ven ture to owam9neo the same crusade against unstamoed pubicitions which w earned on i they would thebe in 1832 ? He believed that they would shrink from, but it was he contended that a they. thir duty to ke it. If, then, the wore fraid to e enforce t 4 lay! inunderta all case' , y irR'IDAY EVENING, APRIL 28, 1852. . _ ought to repeal it—(H ear , hsar)—becanse by maintain ing it they would be guilty of the grlssest injustice. Now, in order to show the absurdity of saying that a daty was levied upon news an d observations upon news, he would refer to some ' uns t ampe d pu bli ca tions, and then leave the House to say w h et h er t h ey did not contain matter of this descripti on. The Rac i ng Ti me s and the Racing Telegraph both contained accounts of the betting and of the races in different parts of the country, with other turf news; the Legal Observer gave the proceed ings in the courts of law; and the Builder also con tained news of another description. Now, he believed all these publications were i n str i ctness liable to be brought under the stamp duties; but the Board of In land Revenue had drawn a fine distinction between class news and general news —that is if y ou divide a news paper, which must be stamped, into half a dozen, each may be published without a stamp. He believed this distinction was a pure invention of the Board of Inked Revenue, and was not to be f oun d i n the Act of Parlia ment, which spoke of "news i n t e llig e nce, and occur rences;" and certai n l y t h e:papers to• which he had re curred did detail " o ccurrences ." But the L e gislature by this duty= did not al one affect the pu bli cat i o n of facts, but also of - observ at i ons upon those facts ,- a ttacks on the Ministry, and so - forth. He would, however, ask the House - whether the extracts from unstamped papers, to which he would now refer, did not contain ceinents On public events? r The` Right Honohrable Gentlemen then read . fromthe Rothe, conducted: by Richard Oastler, some conaments upon a l a te speech _of 1 - 4; , Mr. Rright's in the ' rn of Commons; from the Leg al - . Observer part of an art i c l e :in support of the re p e al of the attorneys' certificate duty, and from the Lamp (a penny publication), portions of articles up elections." 3 o n the late change of Ministry and upon "the coming These were certainly ob servat i ons on public occur rences, and were liable to the st amp duty; but the G over nment durst riot enforce the l aw against those publications,for if they did they would ha ve to deal with a l eg ion of them, and would be invol ve d i n the same trou bl e that they were in 1836 . This w as , h e thoug h t , o ne of the strongest possible reasons that could be adduced why the House should give its assent to his resolutions, and why such a law should be repealed. The news p a per pro prietory were not entitled to b e considere d , s a - body having a vested interest in the maintenance of this tax, uor did he believe that many of that body would urg e such a plea against the repeal of thi s d uty . If, however, they did, he contended that Parli ament were . neverthe less justified in dealing with thes e taxes u pon broad public grounds. The Right Etdn. Gentleman concluded by moving the first resolution of w hi c h h e h a d gilt= notice. _ _ ___ M __ r. EWART, in seconding the motion, said that he did so because this was a quest : " ion connected with the practical education of the people. taxes, in the first piece , hensuse h e deemed the stamp dutyrie objected to these to be a tax upon the raw mat er i a l o f thought; while the advertisemout - duty w as a inter course of mankind. He believed ax upon the that the great advan tage of modern times was, that deliberating termed their judgments upon public affairs by materials furnished them by th e and not by the was the House asked y an w c p ie e nt institutions of d the security of property, they should every 'alite a; it means °onsecuresof P'forrealer the i h iPs assemblies; 4 1 e l ; w andand g ' ) d lc)l e nd li v , o a rr e h ' a : e9 t r ' give ehoofuf formation rnhmet society uponartpeople ant'stio and t e h r e e modern their judgment. On what d g a r t o e u d n f d riemo to continue those taxes? Some con sider that they were a part of the seemed to K a i g ht had declaredthatthiatt the country; but the tact was the inno vations. The peper duty wars of Marl borough; the stamp duty was one of re origin; and theadv o e f r t t i h s eemceonutn- country. Mr. w m a r s . firstc Chambers a m i c m b e e p r el o s sed m h e e.d ilt stated before The paper-duty had proved most by Mr. Pitt. adverse to the in terestsa Committee of the Reuse of Commons one of his publication, and Mr. rendered necessary the Oiscontinuance had long as it continued it would be impossible Pen ever again to publish such a work as the It had also the effect of preventing the ny Cyclopcedia. of the highest class of talent upon employment The advertisement duty, as h e had alread y newspapers. said, be considered to he a tax upon the highway of human in tercourse—it was this tax w hich prevented newspapers arising. The circulation of daily any new newspapers more in New York (which did not contain C ore than one fourth the population of London) 130 , 0 00 o in London it was only 60, 000 . He believed thates'while the h stamp duty was most adverse to the circulation of sound knowledge. In America every poor man a daily newspaper upon his breakfast table, and he should like But we to see the sam e th e ca se is England. were told that if the st am p d u ty was taken off we should cease to have respectable newspapers. The reduction of the duty from 4d. to ld., i n 1834, had, however, been followed brnewspapers; great inc reas e i n the respectability of and why, therefore, should t he re p eal of the duty have pan injurious effect? It was then s aid that if the u stamp duty were tak e n o ff the newspapers would become local. ii e believ e d t h at wou ld be an advantage. The in Americe was d ec id e ly local, and yet oneof pre" thewit nesses before the Committee of the House of Commons said that they were there found to be worth all the schools put together. He believed, indeed, that we should never improve the education of the people until we attacked them on their practical interests, and ap pealed to them through the newspaper press. So far was he from thinking that an unstaue ed press would promote the spread of republican doctrines, P that he be lieved that if we gave people under a monarchy every possible advantage which they could obtain under a re public, they would be more and more attached to our constitutiocal monarchy. He thought it was especially the duty of a wise Chancellor of the Exchequer to re moire the advertisement duty, for, while it only yielded 150,0001. to the revenue, it pressed upon every interest It was in the country. a tax of the same nature as that on almanseks, the repeal of which by Lord Altborp was followed by so great an improvement in the quality and so great a reduction in the price of those publica tions. For all these reasons he cordially supported tho motion of his Right Friend; believing that if, -undertow' limited mo n en. those to which he had referred, we removed abuses such as referred, we should not give rise to discontent, but .should increase the contentment as .well as the security of the people. In the words of Milton, " That it not the liberty which we should hope—that no grievancee n should ever arise in the com monwealth; that let man in this world expect; but when complaints are foely r heard, deeply considered , t and speedily reformed, e h en is the utmost point of civil liberty attained whi c h Tne CHANCELLOR of m a n eau look for." of the EXCHEQUER said — In the few oheerva'.' ions that I have to make upon this motion, I can assure the Itight Hon. Gentleman that neither I nor my colleagueshe are at all influenced by those has ascribed to some of the men who have been the originate's or controllers of these duties. I can s leagues that we have Liotly f frankly for myself and my col ear or apprehension respecting the influence of the pre a country long sst and in a country like establishedthis— in in the eujoymant of prac tical liberty, in a country eminently religious—l cannot admit for a moment that experience drawn from the instances of other land but the s, where I will not say the enjoy ment,experience of resulted in circumstances an unrestricted press, has which be brought forward as ch we all deplore—should own. But I must any warning to a country like our much less interesting, consider this case, I fear, in a view adapted to charm the much less philosophical , much less pursued by the Right House ße than that which has been ' n. Gentleman the Member for Manchester. It is only n a financial point of view that at present. present. Now we have before us three propositi eus I each of which, if carried, affects the finances of this car ried all together materially affect our finances. The not immediately, t o top, first calls upon this House, if paper should be eBB an opinion that the duty on such an opinion as must - abolished or repealed, yet to express responsible fur theiofluenee the course of the Mi nisterdo not wish to contest the finances of the country. I the Right Hon. Gentlemanaccuracy of the view which the effect of the excise d uty has taken. with respect to manu facture of that article. ; a hon paper upon the ready to vindicate the ave- never been particularly ; but when the Ri g o t beneficial_ influence of excise du tiesat- tention to the injurious , ff, rl i e en• Gentleman calls our manufacture of this particularts of an Excise duty on the say that I am not aware that the article, I am bound to excise duties is limited to injurious effect of the even that if we compare the effect particular, article, or upon paper - with their eft ect of these regulations it would not be possible for ct upon other articles, which their influence is me to adduce instances in more injurious. I do not now wish to enter in cusi'ion upon th is question, but if I had risen, to an y line of dis and dilated f upon tho in . Excise upon any other article e lrious effect of the example—l dare say I s h ould have made out a case that r aahnfacture—soap for w o u ld have carried a w ay the House a lthough the plea mig ht n ot have been with equal success, t h a t which has been put f orth by the Bight as ably urged as Gen tleman with regar d to the manufacture ight Hon. then we must cons ider wheth er inof paper. But this country these taxes are not necessary evils, an d v , ability which we have to relieve we must consider the industry of the country, which is the wisest direction e which we can move, so as to redress any wrong or t in I am not wishing to giie an opiate, .: effect any good. re lief of soap from the excise. I only a favour of the stance in preference to that on Pa ___l:uetttion it as an in stancy I think the Right Hon. Gentleman will admit trhatA excise duty are not less injurious upon thisthe effects of an manufacture than upon that w hich is mm iediately before the atten tion of the Housea Well, Sir, I sin th erefore obliged to consider the qu estion as regards the purely in a financia l p oint of view., I sh all duty on paper be extremely glad, in this instance or in any other instance, to relieve industry or to adva nce the progress of the human race and the education o f the p eople, but it s my first duty to consider whether with regard to the main tenance of the revenu e of this country consent to any p ro p ositions of thisl can cannot say that I shout I feel justified ea assenting kind. to the proposition of the Right Hon. Gentleman. It is scarcely fair upon me to press me at this moment upon oa this point. I hope that to morr ow week I shall before e the th House what I believ e to be the real state of Gentleman finances of the country; an d when the Right Hon ' and his friends are in full possession of the nave facts which I shall place before t hem—when the y a ilthen be listened to the views of her Maj est y 's Ministers —it w perfectly open to them , if they think themselves justi fied in disputing the policy which we recommend,:to advance their own vie ws as counter propositions, and fairly to challenge the a ttention of the House to them. At present I can only s a y that I do not ieel justified iu assenting to a vote which would be equivalent o t to a de claration on the part of this House teet th t ax on paper should be totally repenled. With gard o the other two points which the Right Honourable the Gentlemanduties has placed before the House, namely, havees on adver tisements and on newspaper stamps, Ino hesita tion in saying that I think they are subjects that de serve the very grave consideration' of a Chancellor of 34 Exchequer. But, again, I mast ,Consider them pri- marily with reference to the effect of the policy which he recommends upon the revenue of tee country. That is the only consideration which can influsece me at the present moment - , and it is only with re ference to the effect of his resolutions, if carried, upon the revenue that I shall venture to make any awnca tions. The united amount of the two items to which I have last referred is not contemptible; ttking the three together the aggregate is important. I think that the question of, the effect of the duty upon advertisements is ore which should be gravely considered. Ido not want at this moment to seer more than that it is a question which her Majesty's Government have taken into their consideration. lam not convinced by the ingenious ob. servations of the Right Hon. Gentleman that practically speaking, were we to deal with the stamps on news papers, we should bring about a good and satisfactory state of things. But again this subject, I freely admit, should enter into the consideration of any pelson re sponsible, not only for the finances, but also for the good government the country. I distinguish both these motions—the second and third—very much from the first motion on which we are. now called to give a deci sion—the duty on paper. The duty on paper is so large in amount that every one must hesitate before voting for the surrender of that source of revenue; and I must warn Honourable Gentlemen not to be carried away by the lively description given by the Right Honourable Gentleman as to the- injurious effect of the excise law upon that. particular article, and , they are. not to consider: hat it is the sole instance .in which its -injurious effects . are discovered,—(Hear, hear.) If we are to relieve the: industry of the country by the repeal of the excise duty, it becomes a sub ject requiring the most impartial and - deepest investiga tion before we decide which duty is the one most re quiring to be repealed.—(Elear, hear.) The possibility of obtaining relief in this as well as in other instances depends entirely upon the state of the public finances; and when in the course of a week I shall feel it my duty to place before the House the exact state of the finances, lam sure the House will agree—however in teresting discussion or debate may be—that there would be great inconvenience in eomiug now to a premature decision on any subject of this kind.—(Bear, hear.) I would remind the House of the conduct of the House of late years with regard to the public finances. Every one knows that for a considerable period there has been a determination upon the part of the House of Com mons not to add to the revenue of the country by im posing new trieee.—(Hear, hear.) If there had been any opinion more freely expressed, or more energetically maintained than another, it certainly has been that ex pressed by the majority of this House, who oppose, directly or indirectly, any increase of revenue by in creased taxation.—(Hear, hear.) They have made war upon the Customs duties, which materially assisted our finances; and now there is a very great objection to the Excise.—(Hear, hear.) Very well; you are taking away every source of your indirect taxation, and I think any gentleman who considers the question should agree with me that when you were so precipitately cutting off the sources of your indirect taxation, you ought to have considered whether more relief to the in dustry of the count r y would not be given if you had either modified or repealed the Excise duties—the source of your internal taxation—than to have reduced the Customs duties, the source of your external taxa tion.—(Hear, hear.) Remember this, that Honourable Gentlemen opposite, and particularly the Right Hon. Gentleman who has brought forward this motion, never sanctioned this principle, but, on the contrary. sup ported the policy that reduc ed the Customsae a,ai _duties.— nt s (Hear, hear.) We have no w a g reat war the Excise; you have attacke d successfully m d one great source of our indirect taxation, and you are now attack ing another source of our in direct taxation.—(Hear, hear.) But what is our position in regard to direct taxation?—(Hear, hear.) We have a Committee sitting upstairs which is actually making war upon the hear.)pal source of your direct taxation.—(Elear, w Whatever may be the opinions of the gentlemen h form that Committee, it is notorious , bo th from the o ex pressed opinions of the Honourable Gentleman who • m oved and carried the appointment of t hat Committee, and of the most important members upon it, that what ever may be their views respecting direct taxation, they disapprove of the principles on which direct taxation at p re sent is levied iu this country.—(Hear.) They may tell you that they are favourable to direct taxation, but it insist be direst taxation• with exemptions, and free from every objection which they allege against it. This is cur present state—we have-.reduced one great source of in direct taxation by the repeal of many of the Customs duties—you are now attacking another source of indi rect taxation by motions like the present, affecting our Excise duties, while the principles upon which direct taxation can be atisfactorily established are still sub, jects of controversy, and are even at this moment under the discussion and investigation of a Parliamentary Committee,—(Hear, hear.) Now, I ask the House calmly to consider, is that a satisfactory state of the finances of the country?—(Hear, hear.) Is it not wise to pause before you diminish the revenue which you derive from your indirect taxation, until the House and the country have arrived at a knowledge of the proper principles upon which our direct taxation is to be estab lished?—(Hear, hear.) Can anything be more injurious, can anything be more unwise, can anything be more rash, than to diminish the sources of your indirect tax ation, when at the same time you are challenging the principle upon which many sources of your direct tax ation is now established?—(Hear.) I put that view with great confidence for the consideration of the House. —(Hear.) The Right Hon. Gentleman has referred to my having two years ago supported a motion like the present.—(Hear, hear.) If the House will do me the honour to refer to the few observations which I made on that occasion, I am sure it will do me the justice to say that those observations vindicated the vote I gave on that occasion. —(Hear, hear.) Ido not like to refer to personal consideration; or to introduce them into this debate, but as my vote on that occasion has been re ferred to, I beg the House will do me the favour to re fer to the circumstances under which I gave that vote.— (Hear, hear.) The House was informed from the Throne that a great productive interest in the country was suf fering—an. interest which I and others represented in this House.—(Hear, hear.) We thought there should be such a remission of taxation as would relieve the suffering of that particular interest; but the Minister of that day, in the possession of a surplus, said he would neither apply any portion of that surplus to the relief of that interest—or, on the other hand, to the diminution of the public debt, which, by a consequent diminution of general taxation, would be a source of general relief.— (Hear, hear.) Bat, on the contrary, would apply the surplus to purposes I did not approve of, and in a manner which I thought was unjust and impolitic— (Rear, hear) —and all I meant in the vote which I gave on the motion of the Right Honourable Gentleman and in the discussion that took place was this—that if there was to be a remission of taxation which would neither relieve the particular interest announced from the Throne to be suffering norlrelieve the general interest by diminishing the general taxation of the country by re ducing the debt, then I preferred the motion of the Right Honourable Gentleman to the policy of the Go vernment.—(Hear, hear.) I have infinitely preferred to promote the general interests of the country by the re mission of the duty on paper, or by the repeal of the duty on advertisements, or by the abolition of the news paper stamps, than to endeavour to do so by the means which were then recommended by her Majesty's Go vernment.—(Hear, hoar.) Ido not see that a position more fair could be taken by any Member of this House —(Hear, hear)—and from the recollection of which I confess I experience no regret.—(Hear, hear.) I can not enter into the interesting details with which the Right Honourable Gentleman has again favoured us as he did two years ago. I am not here to dispute his facts, or to challenge his conclusions; but I cannot permit myself, in the present state of affairs, to view the matter, in connexion with the social condition of the country, which the Right Honourable Gentleman has dwelt upon, or the political consequences that he foresees; I take a more, interested view of the subject, and a more limited and narrow-minded one—one confined merely to the effect of the motion of the Right Hon. Gentleman upon the present state of our revenue. —(Hear, hear.) The Right Hon. Gentleman has brought forward a motion which would reduce the revenue by a sum now approaching .to nearly 1,500,000/.—(Rear, hear) —because all the items to which he ha* referred are on the increase.—(hear, hear.) Ido not of course pretend to give the accurate figures, bat I wish to ob serve that the Minister of Finance may look to an in crease of the revenue received under the three heads to which the Right Hon. Gentleman's motion has reference. —(Hear, hear.) The Right Hon. Gentleman has asked the House to assent to a motion of very great import ance; in a week it will be my duty to place before the . House the exact state of th e finances of the country; d I think lam not asking too much when I call uponthe House to permit me to place before them the first finan cial statement which I shall have the honour to submit for their consideration, and which I shall submibtrtzatchoeom in a few days, without tho burden and incum w .0. the House assenting to a vote such es tbat . 2t ri n e ;:3 Right Hon. Gentleman has brought forward ( I do not think that it is an unreasonable prgoopgosiiiiliosani; (Hear, hear.) I cannot think that the I b li ti o f t h e Right tion, under the circumstances, the . motet) fon in the present Hon. Gentleman—(Hear) —and it is with this feeling — limiting my consideration of m L a i n eial effect upon instance merely and strictly to it . on this occasion the revenue of the country—offersingo which, under the no opinion on those wider questieonnoi doubt he was jus circumstances in which he spl tified in calling the attention 00..ctohme m il on ti s s , onb House — but next Fri ing to place before the Hou t day, without any of the.keemsebarrassment which I must the present, a clear and un experience from a vote It our financial position, I fe e l it disguised statement f my duty, Sir, to oppose the motion of the Right Hon. Gentleman.—(Hear, hear.) after he Mr. WAICLEY hoped that the subject would be tsken into consideration by the R e i ni gh e t nt li , o a n nd Ge s n c t a l r e e m i an Ivad made his financial stet that under the eircunasttaoncaensy tohn%......de(hisiteearc,oeuhlydeatrhhe)oupgHrhoet longed with advantage hoped the Right Honeuratble Gentlemee the Member for le eree o the proposal of the Right assent to the adjournment Manchester won.- ne Honourable Gentlemen, and. of the debate until that d_ ay fortnight, or some other period after they had heard the financial statement.— H a beggedto metre that the debate (Hear, hear.) should be a dtoarned. rose to second th e mot i on o f th e H on . Mr. COBDEN Member for Finsbury, and must eay that he had lietoned with great a ttention and with much eatisf , ction to the Right Hon. Gentleman.—(Hear, hear.) s p e ech of the This was not merely to be consid ere d as a fieancial but as a n educat ional question,--(g ear , hear.) He had sat on a Committee to inquire int o th e sta t e of education i n t h e c ountry, a nd he found th at a l mos t insuperable diffi culties were presented to the education of the people by themselves.—( Hear, hear.) Is was his his wish to contribute to the removal of those difficulties by the repeal of the taxes with which they proposed to deal, becaus e they were tam that affected the education of the people.—(Hear, hear.) He was struck with a fact t which had been mentioned on the subject by a gentlemen who took great pains on this subject—Mr. John Cassell —who bad published a great number of valuable troths for the labouring classes. He had placed ie his hand a statement of those publications with the amount of text tion imposed upon them by the legislation of ;hat House, and he told them that it weighed' upon his efforts to educate the working classes to the extent of 4,0001. a year.—(Hear.) When the House pretended that it wished to educate the people, and alleged that it had appointed a Select Committee to consider how they could best administer the public funds for the education of the people, if they retained a law that would impose restrict , tions upon their self-education they would place them selves in the position of hypocrites before the world.-- (Hear, hear.) He could not convince himself that to re move the newspaper stamp would impair the revenue. The newspeper stamp yielded 350,0001., and if they took off the statue, end dealt with newspapers like everything else g o ing through post, they might receive, if not the claire, et least Enlarge portion of tnat sum as postage.— (te3 rt inthlh) Every stamp put upon a newspaper was a stamp upon modern history, in which they were all interested.—(Hear, hear.) The 9 stamp on the newspaper was the greatest obstacle to the progress of intelligence in this country, because entirely from tho greatitm a kept sa ef the t h the newspaper hear.) It would be - of the greatest rural population'to be enabled to inform questions of labour, of w themselves s o p p a lo p .— people.—(Haar, t i a o s r n,, t , advantage to the!: laud d h in respect the o colonies, ntihees,snabLeLeitn foreign of te contries, and thy cost of passage to Australia am i l g g nd s s u ni ch an i h n a fo m r l m et a s t , io it n should weuld hear.) Every person must admit that, • be of the r ar g t w r e e a Canada.—(Hear, villages sinafind I the newanaperb tflyttei to advantage by awakening curiosity on the population, and stimulating them to go where ) they e would get a better reward for their labour.—(Hear,) That would tend to diminish the rates which now press upon the rural districts, by stimulating the agricultural population to go to other quarters where they would better their circumstance; but at present the agricul tural mind, so far as the peasantry was concerned, was as much a blank on those questions as in the times of their Saxon forefathers.—(Hear.) A great number of the persons who were lost in the Amazon had relatives living in England; and he had been informed that one of the great difficulties of the philanthropists who had formed themselves into an association for the relief of the relatives of those who were lost, was to find out th e friends of the partLe, sua in Homo epees th e y won t parties who had not previously heard of the calamity to by which their friends had suffered.—(Hear, hear.) The reason of that was, because the greater part of the people were shut out from hearing the current events of the day.—(Hear, hear.) He thought this was a question that affected the education of the people, tud he hoped from what the Right Honourable Gentleman had said, that the Government with which he is connected would deal with it in a satisfactory manner.—(Hear, hear.) If they carried out the suggestion of his Right Honourable Friend they could do nothing that would be more calcu lated to give them popularity; it would make them more popular than anything else they could do in their situa tion.—(Hear, hear.) He was inclined to hope for some thing on this question from the Government.—(Hear.) lie must bear his testimony to the fact, that in the Com mittee last year he was pleased with the conduct of the Member for the University of Dublin, who is now a member of the Government.—(Hear, hear.) For his conduct on this question they felt they were deeply in debted to him, and if his spirit animated the Cabinet with which he is connected, they might hope to see the question fairly dealt with by the present Government. — (Hear, hear.) I f i r t e h m ey the d i i r d ha vi n h d a s t withw as a necessary, cordial a they would receive itre cognition of its value as from any other Gsovernment. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL wished to make a re mark in reply to an observation that had been made in reference to him, as he conceived it was calculated to lead to a misunderstanding of his conduct respecting House hold Words. Mr. M. GIBSON—The Household Narrative. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL—He thanked the Right lion. Gentleman for setting him right, and he begged to inform him that the information against the Household Narrative had been filed by his predecessor in office. It was insisted that it was a newspaper and liable to stomp duty, and the matter was discussed in the Court of Exehequer. The judges differed upon the question, there being three to one In favour of the exemption of the publication in question.—(Hear, hear.) The late Attorney-General and Solicitor- General had the subject submitted to them for consi deration, and it was also submitted to the loading counsel of the department of the Stamps and Taxes, and they were all of opinion that the judgment of Baron Parke was a more correct judgment than the judgment of' the majority of the Court.—(Hear.) When he (the Attorney-General) came into office the case was laid before him and the Solicitor-General, with the opinions of their predecessors, and they considered the course that was to be pursued. Without entertaining a very strong opinion one way or the other, they felt it was essential that the law should not be left in the uncertain or unsatisfactory state in whieh it was, and that it was desirable to obtain the judgment of a superior tribunal.—(Hear, hear.) Under those circumstances they recommended that a writ of error should be issued, and the opinion of the Court of Error taken on the question.—(Hear, hear.) On reflection, he could not feel that ho had acted other wise than withl a due regard to the interests of the public, and with an earnest desire that this important question should he settled.—(Hear, bear.) In answer to the re mark of the Right Hon. Gentleman, that no prosecutions ' had been instituted with respect to certain other publi cations, he begged to say that he never before had heard of most of them, and that he had never seen any of them.—(Hear, hear.) Mr. COWAN hoped that they should not be placed in a worse position on that day fortnight than they were at that moment, and thought it would be satisfactory if they received some further assurance from the Right Hon. Gentleman. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—If the Hon. Gentleman wishes me to tell him what I intend to say on Friday week, it is really not in my power todo so. Mr. M. GIBSON.—I was not in the House, but I un derstand that the Right Hon. Gentleman said the ad vertisement and stamp questions arc under the considera tion of the Government, and under the circumstances, and with that understanding, I cordially agree to the adjournment —(flear.) The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—I em sorry there should be any misunderstanding on the part of the Right Hon. Gentleman with respect to anything I said. So long as I have the conduct of the House I should be very much annoyed if any deception had taken place.—(Hear, hear.) I should not wish the Right Hon. Gentleman, or any of his friends, to think that the question is under the consideration of the Government at all with reference to his motion, or more specifically than it is the duty of the Government to consider the taxation of the country on all its branches; in that way the consideration of those taxes is not omitted,—(Hear.) No statement has been made by me to lead him to sup pose that it is under more particular consideration — (Hear)—the proposition for adjournment did not come from this side.—(Hear.) I proposed no terms. I merely stated that on to-morrow week I shall make the financial statement.—(Hear.) Mr. HUME hoped the Government would well con eider the question, and begged to inform the Righ t t a llon. ware Gentleman of a fact which, perhaps, of. A deputation, consisting of about fifty having r ing in dividuals connected with the paper trade, h he head of the on Lord John Russell, when he was at te t he was not d to them that Government, his Lordship distinctly one :would view t. — financial grounds, and as Hume) newspaper ou ld suggest that the he rested his objections to their propstaition entirely on (Hear, hear.) He (Mr. in as letters and parcels passing put in the same category did not want to deprive the Post-office, for they newspaper stamp be removed , a and let newspapers be through postage h --(Hear, hear.) 91 000,000 copies of newspapers It appeared that while d in this country in the e ear, altogether circulated the Government of a penny of were the number circ ulated in the United Staten amounted to 422,700,000.—(Hear). He begged to cull attention to a paper that had been established in Norwich for the instruction of the neighbouring population. H e (slr. Hums) thought Norfolk was as much benighted as any county in the kingdom. A weaver published the paper to which he had adverted with a fair desire to benefit his fellow men; bat in stepped the tax-office and said ho extremely view, y p p should not pu blish it. He (Mr. Hume) considered that in an ini ned a u v i cs e a u t educational, l t , he moral, public,an fiscaldand ho was point because by that c ourse t i me would be that hi s Hoe. Friend had move d t h e adjournment of the debate,Government given to the vernment to consid er th e su bj ect. For his part, s carcely knew a ny means that could be taken by he which the agricultural community would he more beee fitted than by taking off the paper -tax.—(Hoar, le an) Mr. MOW A.TT regretted that the Hon, Member for Manchesterthe debate. : hadue a t d h o e p e t: h d t t i h t e w s e u u se ld ges h f a te v n e for adjourning bettor t adjotirning e have gone to a division, as the result would probably have had the effect of strengthening the hands of the Government in any wish they might have put an end was, this inj ur i ous t ax. B ut as itas, he hoped the mo tion was for a bond fide adjournment of the debate to .a specified day. Mr. FREWEN (amid cries of " Question") said, in deference to a re s ol u ti on passed of a com at a meeting mittee in Sussex, embodied with the view of procuring the abolition of the hop duty, to the effect, that as the new Government had just then come into office it would only be fair towards them that he should postpone his motion in reference to that question, he had accordingly postponed that motion, not wishing unnecessarily to em barrass the Government at the very moment they came into power. The debate was then adjourned to Wednesday the 12th May. The Exchequer-bills (17,742,8000 Bill, as amended, was considered. The Linen, &c,, Manufaatures (Ireland) Bill was read a third time. The Loan Societies Bill and the Stock-in-Trade Bill severally passed through Committee. The House adjourned at a Quarter past Eight o'clock. [ADVERTis the Heroes of W E a \ tTr i\ lo T o . , ] c — ure A d o L f i ß fe heu G m u at a i r sm ds b al y a H n' oll oonwea y ?ef Ointment and l'ills.—Mr. Thomas Brunton , landlord of the A d V r a ea t d er fu lo ll o y T p a ai v n e f r u n l: Coatham, Yorkshire, was afflicted for many months with rheumatism and rheumatic gout. His leg s were frightful to behold. and disfigured For ten weekswith h e colours wa s walk, the treatment he received from several medical men not ho e l f l y e u ve n r a y b l h e u t e o , only failing to do him any good, but leaving him in fact in a considerably worse condition. At this juncture Holloway's Pills and Ointment were resorted to, and by their sole means he has been restored to health wad' s trength. —Sold by all Druggists and at Professor Holloway Establishment, .244, Strand, London. ELECTION ,EXPENSEs.—Pire find it stated in the life of Lord Jaffrey that his election expenses in two years Amounted to the round sum of ten thousand pounds. NAVAL INTELLIGENCE. PORTSMOUTH, A PAIL 22.—Admiral Sir T. Briggs, G.C. CJineaander-in-Chief, with Captain Chads, of the Excellent, Captain Martin, of the Victory, and llag- Lieutenant Palley, proceeded to Spitheed this :morning in the Sprightly steam-tender, to muster and itisp; ct the ship's company of the Orestes, and returned again at one, P.M.; after inspection, the Orestes removed her • ponder and shell, and came into harbour to be paid off. The Encounter, 14, steam-frigate, Captain Gordon, will come into harbcur to-morrow. The Neptune, 120, Captain Scott, flag of Rear-Ad miral Prescott, is getting doWn ter jury yards and top most, which are to he replaced by her seagoing ones. The William Jardine convict-ship sailed from Spit head this afternoon. _ _ SHEERNESS, THURSDAY MORNING.'—IJer Majesty s paddle-wheel steam-sloop 6, Commander G. H. Gardner, and screw steam-vessel Desperate, 8, Lieute nant Stovene, left port on Tuesday, at five, P.M., an d anchored at the Nore, waiting the arrival of the vessels f)rming the Arctic Expedition. Her Majesty's paddie-wheel steam vessel Lizard, W. Breektnnn, Second darter, commanding, left port st.ll A 35• on Tuesday, for Chatham, having on board Vice • Admiral the Hon. Josceline Percy, Commander-in-Chief at the Nore; Captain the Hon. Montague Stopfora„ Flsg Captain of her Majesty's ship Waterloo, 120; and Capt. G. It. Mundy, of tier Majesty's ship London, 90. The Lizard returned to her moorings in the harbour in the evening. The lag of Vice-Admiral the Hon. Josceline Percy was struck on board the Waterloo at sunset on Tuesday, the Gallant Officer having gone on leave to attend her Majesty's levee. Captain C. Hope, Superintendent ofthe dockyard, hoisted his broad pendant on board the Mo narch, 84, as Acting Commander-in-Chief during the Port Admiral's absence. Her Majesty's ships Assistance, 2, Captain Sir E. Belcher, C. 8.; R2solute, 2, Captain IL Kellett, C. 8.; North Star, Commander Willeim J. S. Pullen; In trepid, 2, screw steam-ship, tender to the Resolute; and Pioneer, 2, screw eteam-vessel, tender to the Assistance, arrived at the Great Nore, from Grcenhithe, at 7.30 A.M. yesterday, the first three in tow of the Light ning, the Monkey, and th e African steamers respec tively. At 9 a.m her Majesty's steam-vessel Myrtle, Mr.. W. S. B ourch i er Master command i ng, conveye d C..q)tain C. H o p e , S uper i ntendent of the D oc k yar d, an d senior port navel effiaer (pro. tern.), on a visit to Sir E. Belcher, returning, at noon with the captains of the several ships, who were entertained at luncheon by Cap rein nnr.. A a^"ltyard cutter was kindly placed at the disposal of the officers netee ts te s Le tlie ;ship le port, for the purpose of affording them an opportunity of visiting- the Arctic exploring squadron of which many availed themselve s . At 1 P.ll. the Myrtle, with the broad pendant flying of Captain C. d ope, returned to the Nore with the officere, who came into port. Between 1 and 2 P.M. signal was made to the Basilisk, Desperate, and the other steamers to get up their steam, and at 3 o'clock the squadrons weighed anc h or and started on their voyage, the sailing-vessels being eseb in tow of a tug-vessel, and carrying with them the hearty wishes of every one for success in the enterprise in which they are engaged. The Basilisk and Desperate will accompany them to the edge of the ice, in order to render any assis tance they may require. It is rumoured that her Majesty's ship Royal George, 120, sent to Chatham on Monday, for the purpose of being docked and got ready for commission, will, when fitted, h tt t ed i , s supply the place of the Waterloo, 120, as flagship a port i in which case the latter ship will be em ployed on foreign service. lier Majesty's ship London, 90, Captain G. R. Mundy, was removed yesterday from her moorings abreast the town-pier. to others laid down for her in the centre of the harbour. _ Her Majesty's ship Herald, 8, Captain ff. M. Den ham (1846), will be towed here from Chatham to-day, on her way to the South Seas. Her Majesty's screw steam frigate Horatio, 22, Cap tain the Hon. S. J. Carnegie, will proceed on her trial cruise on Saturday, according to present arrangements. APPOINTMENTS. WOOLWICH, APRIL 22.—Masters—John G. Mugford (1841), to the Amphion, 34, screw-frigate, of 300-horse never ' advanced war steamer, at Sheerness; Stephen Spain (1846), to the Cyclops, paddla-wheel steam-frigate of 320-horse power, advanced war steamer, at Sheerness. Second Master Henry W. Inglis (1849), recently serving in the Vulcan, screw steam troop-ship, to the Victory, flag-ship at Portsmouth. Master.'s Assistants—W. L. Dcdds and W. E. M`Grath to the Fisgard flagship at Woolwich. Commander George L. G. Bowyear (1851), having completed a course of study of steam at the tactory at Woolwich Dockyard, was examined on Monday and Tuesday last by Mr. Charles Atherton, chief engineer, and having been found to have acquired a knowledge of the properties and the uses of the various parts of marine steam-engines, received his certificate ac cordingly. The Vivid, Dover mail steam-packet, Captain Smithett, will be ready to return to Dover on the 24th inst., to re sume her duties on that station. She has been fitted with now boilers. The Herald surveying -vessel, Captain Henry Mangles Denham, is expected to arrive at Woolwich this evening from Chatham, to receive her heats and other articles previous to her departure vith her tender, the Torch, Lieutenant Commander Chimmo, for the purpose of sur veying the South Seas, where she will be employed in that arducui duty among the numerous islands inhabited by savages for a period of from Ave to seven years. The Agamemnon, 90, building at Woolwich Dock yard, will bo ready for launching after Saturday next; but, according to present arrangements, the launch will not take place until the 21st of Mcy, between two and three o'clock in the afternoon. The ways have been completed and carried out to the river, and seats are in progress of being put up to accommodate a number of spectators on the occasion of the launch taking place. It is expected this fine vessel will be commissioned shortly after she is launched, as it is desirable to have her tiled at the earliest possible period. Captain the Hon. Henry Keppel (1837), formerly of the Meander, 44, is named as likely to have the command of her. autthemarquis of COURT CIACU.LAR. The Queen held an Investiture of the most Honour able Order of the Bath, at three o'clock yesterday afternoon, at Buckingham Palace. Her IVlajesty the Queen, overeign of the Order, and Field-Marshal his Royal Highness the Prince Albert, Great Master of the Order, were conducted to the Throne-room by the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Steward. G o e f neral Strafford, s ir h L a o r r l d es S j e a a m to o n s , There were present—Field - Marshal the Duke of Wellington, Lord Viscount Straugford, General Lord Viscount Combermere, Field-Marshal the Marquis of the EAnglesey,arl of Lord Clarendon, H eyt e sb Lieutenant-General General i s E i r a r C Cotton, General t-General '4 rd Fitzroy James S L Gi i er e o u r t gli e e n o a wp n a t Lieutenant-General Pollock, r u tl eaus S tte i r nßan,rtt:h Willoughby elanieertalte n, Henry Somerset, and Lieutenant-General s N o ti r p m ie a r n , hy th , e eneral Sir James Lre a u r t l ena o n f Lilly man Caldwell. Lord Broughton having been introduced b etwe en Lord Fitzroy Somerset d and conducted n Cald well, the two Junior Knights Gran d n Sir James Cald- Lord Broughton knelt before th e Cross present, Queen, and her Ma jesty, with the Sword of Stet to confer the honour of knighthood e, was grac i ous l y p l ease d who had the honou r to kiss up on hi s L or d s hip, Queen then, with the assistance invested Lord Broughton of the Grand Master, on with the riband a n d badge of a Knight Gra n d C ress having deliver e d to h" (civil divi s i on ) o f t h e B at h, a nd kissed his t the star, hi s L or d s hip again The following Sovereign'sK ' in hand, and retired. introduced, e n d w nights Grand Cross wore severally assisted by ere respectiv e ly invest e d by her Ma jesty,with the insign ia h of is Royal Highness the Great Master, a Knight Grand Cross (military division) of the Order of the Bath, viz.:—General Sir Peregrine Malt' -and, Admir a l the Hon.. Sir Thomas Bidden Capel, Lieutenant-General Sir Alexander Wood ford,Fax Lieut enan t-G enera l S ir Henr y Frederick Bouverie , Lieutenant -Gener a l Si r J o h n F o ‘.. Burgee - ne. Thu officer:, were not knighted, that honour having been already conferred upon them. L' teutenant• General Sir Thomas Downman, Vice- Admiral the Honourable Sir Anthony Maitland, and Lieut-General Sir Archibald Maclaine were invested by the Sovereign as Knights-Commanders (military division). Maier-General John Owen, Lieut. General George Charles D'Aguilar, Lieutenant-General Henry Gold finch, Lieutenant-General John Bell,Lieutenant-General George Brown, Rear-Admiral Phipps Hornby, and Rear. Admiral William Fairbrother Carroll, were intro duced, and bad the honour of Knighthood conferred upon them by the Queen, and were invested by her Ma jesfy with the insignia of Knights C omman d ers (mili tary division), The Queen had a dinner-party lest evening at Buckingham Palace. The company included the Duchess of Atholl, the Marquis of Salisbury, En.' Delawsrr, the Earl and Countess of Wilton, Earl Jermyn, Lord ' El phinstone, Lord and Lady Cremerne, end ColonelWyld. His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge visite d Prince Leopold of Saxe Cobourg, on Wednesday, at Buckingham Palace. t . Prince Leopold of Saxe Cuburg went to Claremon yesterday morning, and visited the Countess de Neuilly and the French Royal Family. His Serene Hig hness hness took leave Of her Majesty and his Royal . Higham Prince Albert last evening, and quitted Bucking Palace at a quarter before eight o'clock, f o r the terminus of the South-Eastern Railway , travelli n g to Dover, en route route to Ostend and Brussels. oyal Commissio n The Finance Committee of the B. f or 1851 had a meeting yesterday, a t the the Exhibition of Palace of Westminster. Does Associati on • A deputation from the Light of London had an interview yesterday with the Right H on . J. W. Henley and Lord Celehester at the Board of Trade. ,hail an ' • Lord G ra y, of , interview with . Walpole yesterCav, at the R S2crotary . , ,- . Rome -office The Earl of Chichester had e..4.i an interviewwith . • the Right lion. Grnticmat. Mr. Macqueen and a Deputation had an interview yesterday with the Right Hoo. J. W Colchester, nt the Board of I'rad W. Henley and Lord Mr. W. Parish R)l:ertsun, ''''. Consul-General of the Equedur, had an ilit;:rvi' ew viih the Earl of Malmesbury yesterday, et the I Fort' The o xfola univ 'ATl liaice. k•is;ty CUM17.:1.50.011 bad a meeting yesterday et t ~' . ffi,:ia.i. residence of the First Lord of the Treesu re i e le owciug-strcet. The on vielle, C ambridge University Commission had a meeting ' " 10 .3 7 at the official residence of the First Lord of tbc T c .‘ ' - :usury 1 y in ,towniev-street` EMIGRATION.—LiNcoLN.—A banking agent in Lincolnshi re writing to his pr incipal says:—" Cash seem s to be dra wn o ut of this neighb o urhood rapidly. I supp ose it must be by the emigrants, who are going in large numbers from some parishes. As many as 40 or 50 neighbours sail ha A ship." r 0 " e I P r if t l i e cog